Our Rammstein Road Trip (July 3 & 4, 2001)!

PICTURES!!!!

Jennifer & my friend, Tara, got to my house around... 8pm? & we sat around & Tara was shocked to hear we were going to Hollywood, I'm pretty sure I'd explained this, lack of communication, I guess... ok, we're packing up at midnight (I'd been up since 9:30, when I got up for work) & Tara decides to tells us she thinks she's getting the flu & can't go, gives me her ticket & drives home... this on top of 4 other tickets I have for a show that's not even sold out... What, am I collecting them or something??? ;)

So, ok, fine we leave, drive, drive, hit a giant bat (but Jenn is sleeping & misses it!) Find a sign that says "Watch for animals" guess that means, "watch for, hit & run over multiple times" cuz I have NEVER seen so many mangled & smashed unidentifiable body parts & splattered blood, GAH! But, ok, I digress (Jenn missed that, too...)

We got to Vegas around 7:30. Oh, right before this Jenn got the idea to see if Rick could go to Vegas because we had so many extra tickets. So she called him, left a message, then called Joe to see if he'd go by Rick's & see if he could go... Rick calls Jenn a few minutes later saying he can go... Joe went to the wrong house or something, he said Rick was still asleep, meaning, I guess that no one answered the door, so no Rick...) :( Anyway, we thought we'd find our hotel then go find Tina & Jessica... But then as we approached the Strip we saw this big ass building to our left that said "Mandalay Bay" Yes, this is where the House of Blues is & yes, that's where we went... We decided to find Tina & Jessica's room... not a *simple* task but we managed to wake Tina up admirably enough but since she wasn't gonna let us come over, (she called me "evil" btw...) she told us to call Dave, who happened to be at the same hotel (who's evil?)... No sense in that! Since she gave us the room #, our first meet began w/ us knocking on a door & when it opened taking a flash picture! hehe! Tina came over a bit later, we met Jessi, Joe made it to Vegas early (w/out Rick) so we bake in the parking lot till he shows, went to lunch & back to our respective hotels.

Later a taxi to the Mandalay has us talking to some guys from Phoenix, one who was wearing a Megaherz shirt (all of whom were also staying at the evil Hilton a billion miles from the show). Got in line downstairs & after awhile this lady behind Joe asks him about his Muttertag shirt/fanarea, turns out it was Joanie!!!! Ok, most of you probably don't know her but when I heard that name, I got up off the ground & said, "What's your name???" it was TOOOOOOO cool!

So we're all in this nice little line against a wall, behaving ourselves & some guy walks down the line giving bands to people w/ ID... tells me to get rid of my spikes :( so I go around the corner & shove them down my pants, hiding w/ various other things I chose to not have security take from me (I had no place to put the spikes, we left the car at the hotel which is, yes, a billion miles away...) so then we go in & I'm told my belt is out of spec! NO BELT! And my small wallet chain... NO WALLET CHAIN! Bastards! so I begged them to hold them for me so I could get them later... I couldn't leave the line!

Ok, so we go inside, Joe is front & center, (How does he do it???) I can't get up front to save my life! I'm behind Jenn... (insert Jenn's review) OK, show's over... I go to buy a beer, they won't let me, in VEGAS, because it's a show... whatever... wander around & around & around... say hi to the Megaherz t-shirt, AZ guy & went outside to find Jenn & Joe doing the Megaherz pass-outs... Dave wanders out w/ a story of some drunken woman wanting his "flaming man" shirt so bad she was trying to take it off him so he ended up just giving it to her & getting a new shirt... maybe she worked for marketing? He also tells us Tina & Jessica have gone backstage, well, ok... guess there's no point in waiting for them, who knows when they'll be back so after everyone is pretty much gone we go back into the Mandalay & head for fluids... Heading straight for the bar, my shoulders are being turned by Joe & I'm like, "Stop that!" lol but as my eyes follow, there's a red haired Flake sitting right in front of me & what do I do? :( My shame, I got accusatory! "Why didn't you sing, we screamed & screamed & you didn't sing &..." Jennifer led me off, lol.. He smiled, though, so maybe in my half croaking squeak (from screaming so much) he didn't understand me... new plan, Joe writes a message, auf Deutsch, asking for Flake to sing Pet Semetary in Hollywood... Joe gives it to him & Flake promises... btw, as I was trying to ignore band members after my faux pas w/ Flake, Jenn & Joe were off harassing Paul, begging for autographs & photo ops ;) (He showed up a bit later at the same place...)

OK! Finally got to bed at like 3am, got up around 9... (Tina & Jessica had a flight around 9:30 or something & Dave had to work. *Sigh* never got to hang out alot w/ any of them...) We wanted to leave by 10 for California... we have some TCBY's, mmm, key lime, what a great breakfast! & those Phoenix guys walked by as they were leaving & yelled "hey!" OK, we drive & drive & drive to Joe's house. We change, say hi to his dad who is really cute (in a dad sort of way, duh!) & jet to Rick's & actually pick him up this time! YAY! Things are already looking good... ok nevermind what happened then...

We drive to Hollywood, find an incredibly overpriced parking place ($12/car!!!!!) & we go sit somewhere... Joe, ever friendly, is talking to everyone there, which is cool! Jenn & I had had a dream that didn't come to pass... we were going to blast Pet Semetary on my generic CD player, make sure Flake remembered, you know... But, well, it doesn't act like that at home! maybe it was... the batteries! yeah! Every CD (Megaherz, In Extremo, Knorkator) was skipping really badly! Though Wahre Lügen worked, guess they're *special* ;) The worst was at like 5:30(?) they start herding people into line... while I'm trying to rewind Wizo so everyone can hear them, dammit!

So we're barricaded in... the show is supposed to start at 8. We didn't even start in through the doors till almost 8:30!!!!!!! Gah! What's up w/ that?! Then they wanted to take Jenn's Megaherz cards (but didn't)... we lost precious moments! (almost lost my wallet chain again but the belt was thumbs up) I ran after Jenn & almost plummeted to the ground over one widely placed step after another! ok, Joe is, yes, right there, front & center... guess they met some cool girls during the 2.5 hrs barricade so Jenn was behind holding place for one of them. I was next to Jenn & didn't bring a cam in cuz the night before they probably would've ripped it from my hands, I'm so lame! I got some though using Jenn's camera but ran out of film :( (insert Jenn's review)

Ok, show is over, more Megaherz cards, hehe, we put one up on the windshield of the Steiner bus ;) Apparently there was some meet & greet going on, not to mention cameras before & after... CBS local news & apparently Deutsch Welle... *shrug* Joe says he spoke to the DW... that'd be cool if they use it :)

Anyway... at some point Olli came out to walk to the bus... we'll see if the pics come out... then Christoph, guess some guy called him Till! :-O Later Flake, Joe & Jennifer made sure to thank him, he said it was nothing... wonder if they'll play it again... (side-note: they've been playing Pet Semetary ever since!) God, Paul came out of bus at like 3:15 (we'd almost already left), probably not expecting fans but getting them none-the-less, he was VERY nice & recognised Jennifer from the night before... he said Till was *busy* uh huh... anyway... after THAT excitement & after saying bye to Joe & Rick, we had to check out the bus station, just to see prices for Frisco & then back to Tucson. We asked like 3 or 4 different people where the Greyhound was & only the cops gave us the right directions & man... I can tell you why! I suspect no one else actually knows where it is cuz they're too scared to find out! Anyway, bus tickets were way too expensive, which I'm actually kind of glad of cuz I'd either have had to leave her there or stay & this would result in a problem I didn't want to have to work through...

So we started back to AZ, after an accidental visit to South Pasadena... & some evil place charged me almost $15 for gas & I later noticed my tank was still dry!!!!! EVIL!

So, I took Jennifer home & made my own way back... trying to go like 80MPH! Hard to get off freeway mode ;) Ok... I don't know if any of this makes sense but it's not important anyway... read Jenn's review, this is just trash. True, but useless, lol :) Good luck & have fun everyone!!!!! :)

Mikki (time to pass out, it's day 4, lol)

PICTURES!!!!