To Detroit and back

[illusionofjoy]

I could swear that I heard my upstairs neighbour screaming just a moment ago. I could also swear that it sounded like something to the effect of, "turn down that racket!" It would seem that, in order to drown out the noise, it is necessary for me to turn up my music and sing along louder. I must also redouble my efforts to flush the toilet while they are in the shower, as they have done to me on a consistent basis for over the past year. Indeed, I am back in Pittsburgh.

I feel tired right now. I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked to last night and per usual concerning our long trips, joi_division had me drive. The car ride back was fueled by an iced cafe mocha and many obscene jokes shared between myself and Joi. I'm sure that, unlike me, my girlfriend is at home sleeping at the moment, still trying to get over her sore throat.

Despite her ailment, Joi was punctually outside of my workplace at noon on Friday, ready for me to hop in the car so we could head off to Detroit together. While the drive to Detroit is only about five hours, enabling us to get to the city before the doors to the club opened, I had still wanted the whole day off from work, rather than the half I was allowed. The additional sleep I would have allowed myself would have been a great asset to the mood and mental processing capabilities once the clock ticked past midnight.

The drive to Detroit was fairly uneventful. Ohio, with it's acres of farms and flatlands was unremarkable as always. The most interesting section of the state was Toledo, where we drove through a large construction zone. None of the city itself was not visible, making it look like Toledo consisted solely of a highway on the ground slowly being replaced by a highway on pilings. The visual desolation of what could be seen was unsettling at best.

Even more unsettling was when we drove across the border into Michigan, and saw Ohio's farms replaced by a vast industrial wasteland. I grew up in Northern New York, where the air is so clean that one can see the stars even within the villages on a clear night. The air quality of Pittsburgh - and Pennsylvania in general - leave much to be desired in this regard. Still, the outskirts of Detroit made Pittsburgh look like a model for environmental cleanliness. I thought that a fog was rolling in when I first entered the area, only to realise that it was far too hot and muggy for fog and the haze I was seeing was none other than a thick cloud of air pollution.

Pittsburgh, the "Steel City" is not known for it's highways. In fact, it would be fair to say that the highway system serving Pittsburgh is a bit of a disgrace, though PennDOT does their best when they aren't busy accepting kickbacks and engaging in other forms of corruption. The "Motor City" of Detroit certainly lives up to it's name in regards to the grand scale of which they built their highway system (though not in how they've maintained it). Once in Michigan, Joi and I did not encounter one main road which numbered less than three lanes to a side.

We rolled into our hotel, an Extended Stay in the suburb of Sterling Heights, around 6:00PM. Allow me to voice my great approval for this particular hotel chain and explain why these will be the only hotels Joi and I stay at henceforth: one pays little and gets a lot. Joi and I stayed in a two-man room with a queen-size bed. This alone cost a little less than $70 for one night. The room was arranged much like and efficiency apartment: there was the sleeping area, with a closet nook and a kitchenette next to the entryway. The kitchenette had a full-sized fridge, two-burner range, sink, microwave oven and a coffee pot. They even had dishes and silverware in the cabinets! Joi was no less than delighted.

After we christened the room, Joi called seventh_dream, her friend native to Detroit. We got ready to go out for the night and SD picked us up to go to the show around 9:00PM.

We arrived outside The Majestic Theater not long after. A line had already formed in front of the venue, and stretched its way back a couple of blocks. Immediately, thoughts of the horrors of having to wait outside the venue flashed through my mind. No sooner had that occurred, however, then they opened the doors and began letting people in. Once inside, I realised that it would have been better to have been waiting outside, where there was at least a breeze and enough open space to allow the bodies of hundreds of black-clad freaks to dissipate harmlessly. It is my learned opinion that The Majestic, while a nice building structually, is completely lacking in a ventilation system. In fact, one could quite possibly launch this venue into space without worrying about the air escaping into the vacuum outside, those inside suffocating only from the human body's natural replacement of oxygen with carbon dioxide (this is assuming that they didn't all die of heatstroke first).

Thankfully I had decided not to get drunk Friday night, as the temperature rose to levels more fitting to that of a blast furnace than a music venue. We had entered the club at 9:30, roundabouts. The show didn't start until over an hour later.

While I have been saying that I was going to see Siouxsie & the Banshees, the billing was really advertised as "An Evening With Siouxsie." Technically, the show I went to was The Creatures with additional musicians or Siouxise, one Banshee and four additional musicians (two of whom were twin sister backing vocalists). By whatever name you wish to refer to this group, the personnel were as follows: Siouxise Sioux on lead vocals (of course), Budgie and Leonard Eto trading and sharing percussive duties, the Night Shift singers on backing vocals and some bloke on guitar whose name I failed to catch and who doesn't seem to have a high enough profile online to allow me to research who he is.

The show was magnificent, though heavily geared towards output by The Creatures, rather than Banshees tracks. The setlist did however, feature two Banshees classics from Kaleidoscope - "Christine" and "Happy House," a four-on-the-floor remix of "Kiss Them For Me" and the B-side to "This Wheel's On Fire" - a 12" single released in 1987 - "Shooting Sun" (Joi pointed out to me many times how amazed she was that this was played).

Obviously Siouxise was in no mood for hits that night (it's shocking that any version of "Kiss Them For Me Was Played"), as evidenced by the two song encore ("But Not Them" and "So Unreal," both from The Creatures' 1981 EP Wild Things). Her mood, however, did seem to be that of a teasing playfulness. Before performing "Godzilla," from the new Creatures album Hai, Siouxsie intoned in prim and proper English, "Friday night...watching movies...scarey movies...culty movies..." Later during the set, she decided to pick on the security guard stationed stage left. "There's some bloke in a red shirt who's been standing on stage all night and it's fucking pissing me off!" She then turned to the guard himself, "they didn't come to see you dearie. Do you think you could squat perchance, or would that make you feel too ladylike?"

Ever the showoman, Siouxise looked wonderful onstage, dressed in a black silk outfit, with feathers in her hair and silver sleeves (separate from the rest of the outfit). Also, may I add that few 47-year-old women can get away with showing the amount of cleavage Siouxsie did. Budgie, on the other hand, went more casual, opting only for biker shorts and a pair of matching gloves.

I already mentioned that the venue was too hot for human occupation (or more accurately, because of it). As for the humans occupying the place itself, I don't have many complaints, comparatively. Some of them were actually as entertaining as the concert itself. There was the gothic "Weird Al" Yankovic, for example. Then there was day-glo spandex boi with his buddy, glittery-head boi. Joi and I got much mileage out of those two from a safe distance.

Not as amusing was a certain drunk who decided to grope Joi not once or twice, but three times as he walked past her on the floor of the venue. Apparently he also copped a few feels from SD as well. Joi mentioned this to me the second time she was groped. On the third time, she lashed out at the perpetrator, screaming, "what the fuck do you think you're doing! Get your hands off of me!" At this point, I glared at the guy, a skinny reject from the frat-house who had been continually returning to an equally waify skank not ten feet in front of our group. I put my arm around Joi, as he glared back at me in a way that was apparently meant to be threatening. Before I had a chance to launch into my "ever had you arse kicked by a faggy-looking guy in eyeliner," tirade, one of SD's beefier friends gave him a death stare of his own, causing him to back down. He left the venue with his skank not long afterwards. Still, I would have like to have committed some acts of violence upon his person.

After the show ended - a little past midnight - SD took Joi and I to a 24-hour restaurant. As the two of us were tired, Joi from being sick and myself from having been awake since 5:00AM, we didn't stay out as late as we may have otherwise. Bidding farewell to SD after the restaurant, we turned in at about 1:00AM.

The ride back to Pittsburgh was as uneventful as the ride to Detroit. Thankfully there are plenty of service plazas along the Ohio Turnpike, allowing me to caffinate as needed. While I have never fallen asleep behind the wheel, having a cup of iced mocha nearby gave me some piece of mind in the midst of the dullness that was the Ohian farmland coupled with what is, for me, waking up far too early on a weekend.

We got back to Pittsburgh around 6:00 in the evening. Joi dropped me off at my apartment, where I just dropped my bags and then played Simcity 4 for several hours. Since her throat was hurting again, I assume that Joi went directly home and got reacquainted with a cup of hot tea, a heating pad and her bed. Vacations are good things - I do believe the two of us need to take more.

Comments

[evilkellychan.livejournal.com]

i'm still so jealous of you and joi... i would have been leaving for DC this thursday for that evening's siouxsie show... feh... oh well... glad you're back, we're (me, you, and joi.. and whoever else wants to come...) having dinner soon... still got your cell phone number... i'll call you, promise! :)

*huggles*

[illusion-of-joy.livejournal.com]

That sucks that you won't get to be going. Regarding dinner - just give me or Joi a call with the when, where, how, etc. :)

[slinkybetty.livejournal.com]

Me<--- jealous! That's great that you got to go.