Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
Wild At Heart
Going into my third week of trips to the hospital visiting my mom in the ICU at the hospital. Not the place you want to spend Mother's Day but you do what you have to do. I was looking through my photos and came across a picture I took of my mom in Dublin, GA just a few weeks ago. Hard to believe it was between two different bouts in hospitals but she looks so good this day that it is hard to fathom she almost died twice in the three weeks after that picture was taken. I am so proud to have her as my mother and I pray for her recovery. Thanks for all the support.
Despite my many trips to the hospital, I am trying to get out for some shows and just saw the Silversun Pickups at a local venue and despite enjoying the show there were a few things that pissed me off. Now my readers should remember that I was involved in numerous facets of the concert scene in Detroit from my work as a DJ on WXOU, my internship with Live Nation, my security job with Gallagher, among other things including my friendships with numerous venue owners so I was just going crazy at this show. As someone who attends a lot of shows or helps out at shows, it just amazes me how some places just have no clue. I ended up arriving late and asking about the opener to see what I missed. The headliner was coming up and I wonder how the person taking the tickets for the show for the past 2 hours doesn't even know the name of the headliner. Ok, I can understand not knowing the openers but how can someone at the venue not know who is playing. When I would do shows, I always try to make sure everyone at the venue had a basic understanding who the bands were as well as approx set times. OK, Maybe the girl at the door was someone's girlfriend and just showed up to help but it was something later that really pissed me off.
The concert venue itself is an old armory where my dad trained back when he was in the army and it is a unique venue. The sound system needs a little adjustment because if you are at the sides of the stage the sound isn’t that great but that is minor. What really got me going was an incident later on. A was sitting at a booth near the back (I just cannot stand for an entire show anymore) and a girl wasn’t feeling well and sat down across from me. The heat of the crowd got to her and she ended up throwing up at the end of the table and the floor. Never something you want to see at a show esp near where you are sitting. Two security guards helped her outside for some fresh air which was cool but what happened next really upset me.
Despite a number of security guards walking past, nobody was coming to clean up the mess. After a half hour it was still there with a sign. A drunk couple ended up sitting at that table not really even noticing the puke on the table and floor. All of a sudden the guy gets up and knocks the girl onto the floor into the puke and storms off. She is lying there for a bit and I was trying to get the attention of a couple of security agents who were looking in our direction but they never came over. I don’t know how these guys didn’t see what happened. She took off and I then tracked down the head of security to report his guys. When I worked for Gallagher, I cannot imagine missing something like that esp with about 20 guys on duty. And I cannot imagine any of the venues I worked with leaving a mess like that on the floor for over a ½ hour. The guy who eventually cleaned up the place didn’t even care and did a half-assed job at that. When told what happened he starting laughing. I was tempted to throw him into the puke and see how funny he thought it would be.
Things like this really piss me off. As a concert venue, you need to be working towards the fan experience and not put your customers into a situation where they can come to harm and the staff that night really dropped the ball and seemed unconcerned. It is one thing to put up with the overly drunk and stupid but when the venue staff and independent security team also acts that way it just takes the fun of an event. The Silversun Pickups and there cool fans deserved better that night. And can you venue owners please make sure your staff can answer at least general questions about the show. It doesn’t take that much time at the start of their shifts and your customers appreciate it.
Here are some good concerts at some good venues to choose from
Tuesday (5/14) - Sammy Hagar @ the Fillmore
Wednesday (5/15) - Airborne Toxic Event @ Majestic Theatre, Shout Out Louds @ Magic Bag
Thursday (5/16) - Vietnam @ Blind Pig, Cheap Trick @ MotorCity Sound Board, Buckcherry @ Hard Rock Cafe
Friday (5/17) - Whigs @ Magic Stick, Molly Hatchet @ Token Lounge
Saturday (5/18) - Rodriguez @ Masonic Temple, Sauce Boss @ Callahans, Verve Pipe @ the Ark, Sponge @ St Andrews Hall, Mitch Ryder w/Rare Earth @ Macomb Music Theatre, Laith Al Saadi @ Magic Bag
Sunday (5/19) - Of Montreal @ Crofoot, Shooter Jennings @ St Andrews Hall, Chicago @ Ceasar's Windsor
Monday (5/20) - Tyvek @ PJs Lager House