Dredg @ The Riot Room

I was excited for back-to-back good concert days -- Dredg on Monday, Silversun Pickups on Tuesday! Plus, I took the whole week off for vacation, so I didn't have to worry about being sluggish for work the next day. Beautiful.

Attendees: Me, Ryno, Bart

Money spent: Approx $40

Adrometer Rating (on a 5-point-scale): 0 (She knows how much I love Dredg, plus, I was on VACATION. Bart's presence helped too.)

Overall Rating (on a 5-point-scale): 4. Great band, small venue. Too bad they didn't headline, though!

So, I find out Dredg is coming to The Riot Room (where?) in Kansas City. I call out the hounds. My friends need to see this show.

I even went so far as to burn Ryno some Dredg, so he could check them out in anticipation of the show.

Turns out the Riot Room is the old Hurricane. Me and Ryno road trip it up there while Bart will meet us at the venue. I started drinking early, so I arrived at the Riot Room needing to wiz, with a slow buzz going. I talked Ryno's ear off the whole drive up -- he's a good listener, that Ryno.

Here's where I may have become uncool. It's an hour till the doors open when we drive by, and already, a LINE is forming. We don't have advance tix because... well, it's Dredg. And I hate Ticketmaster. So, let the record show, this blog is called "Seth's Got Tix," yet I DON'T HAVE TIX to one of my favorite bands...

Ryno lets me out, I get in line while he goes and parks the car. The dude in front of me is panicky. "Ticketmaster said it's sold out," the guy tells me. "And usually the venue will unload 10, maybe 20 tickets day of, but..." We both look up at the line, and we're roughly #s 30 and 31 in line. "Shit," I think to myself.

Ryno gets there, I alert him to the predicament. By the time Ryno gets there, the line is a lot longer, going down towards the corner now. I call Bart and let him know the score. The original plan was to meet up at Kelly's (or was it Harpo's) for a few pre-concert beers and FOOD, but now, I don't think we can get there.

BUT -- Bart is already there, having a beer.

I tell him to sit tight, we'll try to buy tickets at the door and then come join him. We just need them to open the doors...

It's 40 minutes to show time and now the line is wrapping around the building. These people all can't have tix already, can they? But I'm panicking, I won't lie. I've been excited to see Dredg for a few weeks now. Ryno is working his phone, calling his contacts, seeing if he can make something happen for us. The first guy he talks to says, "Dude, chill, that show isn't close to sold out... you'll get in. And if you don't, I know a guy..." So now we're feeling better. But then Ryno calls the next guy. "Dude, that show is sold out. And they changed ownership recently, so I don't have any pull there any more."

Now Ryno is stressing, too, because he tells me he trusts his second source more.

Ten minutes to doors. I REALLY gotta wiz.

Finally, doors open. We're cruisng fast. We're almost there. We're... IN! Score!

I try to buy three tickets. Turns out there aren't any -- he's just taking cover at the door. "My friend isn't here yet, but can I buy for him anyway?" I ask. The doorman freaks out. "He's gonna have to get here quick, man!" I think he implies something about this show being to capacity soon, but I may be making that up.

I call Bart, "You need to get here quick!" "I just got a beer!" "Pound it!" Then Ryan adds, "Tell him to bring us some food!" "And bring us some food!!!"

I pace, back and forth, waiting for Bart's arrival. I call again. "Jones, I'm still finishing my beer!" "Well, you gotta get here dude!" "OK!!!"

I pace some more. I've pissed now, so I do feel better, in general.

Still no Bart. Then, my phone rings. "Dude, I'm here -- where are you?" Bart asks. "I'm standing inside the door -- where are you?" "I don't see you, man..." "Bart, you're not at THE BEAUMONT CLUB, are you?" "Uh, yeah... I am." "Bart, we're at the fucking Riot Room! The old Hurricane! Do you know where that is?!?" "Jones, listen... I'm a little hammered right now from pounding those beers. But, yeah, I know the Riot Room. I'll be there in a second."

I tell the doorman to CHILL OUT!!! Bart is ALMOST HERE!!! He grunts.

Then, there's Bart. The security guy doesn't like it that Bart is trying to storm the door. Bart points at me. I look at the security guy and give him the, "Dude, it's cool, let him through." The security guard takes my word for it and lets Bart pass. Bart then walks RIGHT PAST the doorman, who doesn't even notice. How does that happen?!?

And the real shocker -- BART STILL HAD FOOD! So me and Ryno got to split some chicken fingers and a quesadilla. Well played, Mr. Littlejohn.

So now we all have our PBR tallboys. We sit back and relax.

Dredg isn't the headliner, Pelican is. Whatever. It's supposed to be a co-headliner, so they'll both play the same amount. Everyone I'd talked to at that point was there to see the awesomeness that is Dredg, but, who knows.

Dredg comes on after taking WAY TOO LONG getting set up, and they begin to rock the house.

Having written all I did about getting INTO the show, you would think I'd write a lot ABOUT the show, right? Wrong.

But the show was SOLID. Good set by the Dredgers. Old stuff, new stuff, the "hits" if you will. Me and the guys were standing about five feet off the stage, towards the right, near the bassist, I think. I was pretty damn happy to be there.

Dredg ends. Me and the crew step back. Thumb's up from Bart. Thumb's down from Ryno. "I can't stand that lead singer," he said. Ahh, it's not for everyone, that's cool.

At this point we moved to the back of the bar and sat down, people watched. A few more beers. Pelican came on, and as far as I could tell, they were entirely instrumental -- I never heard a lead singer. We weren't too excited for them.

I started snapping some pics of the guys for this here blog -- I was a little drunk. I told them to "give me angry" or something, and this entertained us for about ten minutes, culminating in the last shot, which Bart directed as, "Give me -- you've just seen some midget porn!"

I was the guitarist and bassist for D-redg at the bar, and I had Ryno snap a photo of me with them. Yes, I'm an idiot, but I have fun.

All in all, a good time. Glad those two hung out with me, that's a good crew right there.