Part Deux - 7 Hours in San Francisco

here is part 2.......I have my notes and realize this is getting long.....but its a look back on a journey that was very cool to me......I hope I can finish this in one more posting......

~Lucas~

So...where were we.....ahh yes.....the Neanderthal doorman......so I oblige him. Albeit in a bit of reluctance, but I did not want to risk getting bounced before even getting in the door. I see two guys sitting on the ledge of the post office. Smoking cigarettes and just looking like they have had no sign of shower in about a solid 2 weeks....the smell? PUNGENT! "You guys in line?" I ask. "Yep, this is it...we are the first ones here" ....and so the waiting begins. By now, the weather is REALLY not wanting to cooperate, and I am so very thankful for my purchase of the umbrella. Scott, the 'dirtier' of the two, is talkative. He has a story and a 'been there, done that' for every scenario we speak of....with the exception of this is his first concert.....EVER. Yes, you read that correctly....E V E R. Now I have been to my fair share of concerts, but to make this one your first, I do give him a little credit for that.
As we are sitting there, he makes little comments about the passing women. "Dude, look at that dog" etc etc.......and I was about one blond away from saying "Yo DUDE....you look like a retarded Skreech with a crack problem" (would that be redundant?...LOL) He's bagging on women and saying the most disparaging of things and yet he looks like a half a nit wit himself...I will never understand people.....
After a bit of time, 2 young gals come up and ask if this is the line. I say "Yep...Welcome aboard!" The 5 of us get to talking and I come to find out that these two gals are DIE HARD fans. I mean, I really think of myself as a true fan, but when these 2 came up, I was truly bested. Why you ask? Apparently, this is the 6th show they had seen on this tour.....yes...6 shows....

11/05/06	Mount Clemens, MI	Emerald Theatre
11/06/06	Chicago, IL	House Of Blues
11/07/06	Minneapolis, MN	Myth
11/10/06	Seattle, WA	Showbox
11/11/06	Portland, OR	Aladdin Theater
11/13/06	San Francisco, CA	The Fillmore

They had gone to ALL of these shows.....one of them being from Michigan. I can't recall where the other one flew in from to meet her. But they packed up their things and had gotten flights and hotels and had been following him. I asked once how they bankrolled this and they were kind of aloof and standoffish so I just let it go. After some more talking (which we had a LOT of time to do) they let us know that they run a Paul Stanley Fanzine called Paul Stanley's Paradise
They knew of people that subscribed to the fanzine who were planning on coming to this show too.....a few all the way from friggin JAPAN! They both were great to meet and made the time there more bearable....considering I could only handle Scott's machismo for so long.

Many onlookers stopped and asked what show we were waiting for. And for everyone of them, we had people saying how nuts we were to be waiting in the rain. We even had some wisdom from some panhandlers. One, insisted that he was going to die tomorrow and needed to find out about his SSI check....and another, clad in a leather jacket, no shirt, his glasses were on upside down and just soaked. He stood and laughed out loud to himself or his voices in his head or something.....Scott....offers his a cigarette.....*head swivel on a stick moment for me* I am like...What the F*&# are you doing?....Leather jacket guy hangs around for about 30 minutes just talking nonsense.

"But what did you do for a bathroom" you may be asking yourself by now. Well...by the good graces of god and indoor plumbing....a Starbucks around the block from us, was happy to oblige with our plight. We, in turn, gave them a little business by getting coffee and hot chocolate to keep warm.

The time rolls and there is a very good full line starting to form behind us. The main PSParadise gal leans over to me at one point and says, "you realize this will be pandemonium when they start to let us in?" I smile and reply "Oh ya...don't ya love it!" In actuality, I knew it was going to suck balls, but the adrenaline charge you get by just being there will surpass anything.