Garden of Sound

It's no secret that there are A LOT of things to complain about if you live in LA. The concrete jungle, the crowds of inconsiderate and rude people. And who could forget its legendary amount of traffic - which seems to be in full force no matter what time of day (or night ) it is. However, despite the numerous things that there are to gripe about (and trust me, I am a GREAT griper), every now and then something will happen – and living in LA is suddenly kinda cool again. A couple of weeks ago, I had one of these occasions.

I was sitting at home, checking my facebook (I know, I'm super cool), when one of my co-workers posted something about scoring two tickets for a secret Soundgarden concert for that night. Now, I like Soundgarden.....but my roommate, Rachel, is OBSESSED with them. In fact, I believe that her number one goal in life is to bear Chris Cornell's child someday.

I texted her, asking if she knew about the concert. "WHAT!!!!," was her reply. "Secret concert?!!!! I MUST GO!!!!" Luckily, she works a block away from Amoeba Records, where they had the tickets. She literally dropped everything, ran out of her office, and high-tailed it down the road. She managed to get four wristbands for the concert, and the best thing about it was.......they were FREE!! Seriously, that DOESN'T happen.

The concert turned out to be a promo event for the release of both Soundgarden's new album and the new Guitar Hero game, held at the Paramount Studios Lot.

(Side note: A few years back, my old roomie, Jamie, and I randomly stumbled upon the release party for a different Guitar Hero game. This event featured Poison and was held on the roof of a Best Buy. How the Guitar Hero people manage to get such big names to perform at their releases is beyond me. But hey, free concerts!! Woo hoo!!)

Here we are, waiting to get onto the lot…..

Not only were the tickets free, but once we got onto the lot, there was free food, free drinks (open bar, not that I could partake or anything), free posters, and free gift bags. Guitar Hero stations were set up all over the place so you could try out the new game. AND, this was all taking place on one of the New York City street movie sets outside on a gorgeous, warm evening. Oh, and the concert was being held in a tiny little venue – which is the coolest way to experience any concert.

Needless to say, we were all in heaven.

There was a great energy and excitement once we got into the venue, and we managed to elbow our way up to about the 5th row.

FINALLY, at around 10:30 (this was supposed to be an 8:00 concert), Soundgarden emerged.

And all hell broke loose.

I SOOOO totally didn't realize that standing in the 5th row of people = being smack dab in the middle of the mosh pit. The music started, and suddenly I was being stepped on and tossed about like a rag doll. And I was completely trapped!! I kid you not, I was actually afraid for my life. Somehow, I managed to scramble my way out of that violent mess, and took refuge behind my friend Derek. But, not soon enough to prevent my poor little bare feet from being trampled. My feet felt kind of sticky during the concert, and I thought somebody had spilled a drink on them. It wasn't until afterwards that I realized that that stickiness was from my own blood. Crap. I’m lucky I didn’t catch hepatitis or something.

I guess that’s what I get for wearing flip flops to a rock concert.

Anyway, it was a totally fun night. Made me actually like living in LA for once. Go figure. :o)