Opening for Against Me!

This is where I first ran into Fake Problems.

We met Sean. Haha!

Ugh, I'm fucking sad I didn't get to see this happen. Don't remind me!

Also, Sean looks like a happy 5 year old.

saw them at the new haven, ct show.
that was such an awesome tour.

it was great. i'm not a huge fan of Riverboat tho. But Fake Problems and Against Me! on the same ticket was awesome.

laurendelore wrote:Also, Sean looks like a happy 5 year old.

yeah, my friend actually challenged him to a "who has the hairiest legs competition" that nite, just after the picture. sean wasn't smiling cause he lost. haha

Jay wrote:it was great. i'm not a huge fan of Riverboat tho. But Fake Problems and Against Me! on the same ticket was awesome.

recorded they're pretty eh, but live riverboat are amazing.

actually, that's interesting u say that. my friend in that pic *the topless hairy one* liked riverboat live, but loved the recorded versions. so, hmm. i liked neither.

I caught this tour over in Santa Cruz last year. It was also the first time I heard FP's music. I had heard of them but never took the interest in finding their music until after that night.

lhdez wrote:I caught this tour over in Santa Cruz last year. It was also the first time I heard FP's music. I had heard of them but never took the interest in finding their music until after that night.

I can't fucking believe I missed that show, I am full of so many regrets. I was also googling random interviews and articles, and I came across this old website saying that Fake Problems played a show at a cafe in Salinas a long time ago? It was one of the saddest moments in my life on the internet.

laurendelore wrote:

lhdez wrote:I caught this tour over in Santa Cruz last year. It was also the first time I heard FP's music. I had heard of them but never took the interest in finding their music until after that night.

I can't fucking believe I missed that show, I am full of so many regrets. I was also googling random interviews and articles, and I came across this old website saying that Fake Problems played a show at a cafe in Salinas a long time ago? It was one of the saddest moments in my life on the internet.

I've missed a lot of shows here in Fresno because I didn't take the time to look for them. Now, I check schedules and shit daily. You should have gone to this show though, it was amazing.

I know, I've learned my lesson since then. I also work a lot less now so I have more time to go to shows. I just hope more amazing shows happen in the future.

laurendelore wrote:I know, I've learned my lesson since then. I also work a lot less now so I have more time to go to shows. I just hope more amazing shows happen in the future.

Amazing shows happen all the time, but it's hard to get there. Unfortunately because of my work schedule, the last show I saw was Gaslight in Hollywood. Lex was there but I remember you saying you couldn't make it.

Man, all of my buddies went to the show in London and I had to go to stupid shitty Africa.

Africa? WTF?!?

yeah Ivo, you dropped to ball... stupid vacation... punk rock comes first!!! punk rock always comes first... it did afterall change our lives... come on africa? AFRICA?!?!?!?

It was london, ontario. I met the Streetcore boys, fake problems, and the original drummer of the Gorilla Biscuits all in on night. This post is giong to be a long one because i think its important. I hope the kids from Streetcore read this.


Growing up listening to punk rock, finding against me! was an important part of my life. After years of having to miss them come through the area I finally got to see them on what would probably be their last tour before the release of New Wave. For anyone who is a longtime fan of AM! i'm sure you could understand how important this was.

To make it just a little more life changing me and my good friend (singer in my band) took a hit of very strong acid just as we got into london. I remember stoping at the guitar shop in town just as it was kicking in and playing some fender Mark Hoppus bass.

We get to the venue and I'm starting to trip balls. I mean. My mind was running wild. I couldnt stop thinking about punk rock, and against me! and how their lyrics are so important and symbolic to any show someone would go to.

As i walk in this young band of four kids from Naples, Florida took the stage. My first impression was that this band is going to be some half decent opening act and the night was going to drag on until against me! Well i was wrong, this band Fake Problems was incredible. Thats when i couldnt help but start moving and bumping into people trying to get them to dance, mosh, skank, whatever. But fucking nothing.

Some older guy called me a faggot. It made me think. "Is there something wrong with these songs? Maybe theres something wrong with the audience". It just made me think about why I was even at this concert in the first place and why the guy who called me a faggot was there.

Eventually more ppl were getting into the music, but not many. I kept hearing heckling from older people in the crowd.

FP's set was over and the riverboat gamblers started to set up. I decided to go out on the patio and change the environment. My acid trip was starting to peak and i began to hear more music. I went inside and i see these 4 old guys just rocking out, and i notice the drummers drum set is covered in a few Gorilla Biscuits symbols, it made me wonder. The RBGs were more consistantly upbeat than Fake Problems which made me even more energetic. Im a much bigger fan of FPs but anything remotely hardcore punkrock sets me off. The lead singer Mike Wiebe was towering over people at the front of the stage in Call The Office, London. More people were starting to show up and giving the bands more attention, but not enough.

The riverboat gamblers were playing an awesome set and mike was still singing while steping on the monitors and towering over the crowd. The song was building up and M.W. was giving such a great performance, i was getting so into the was he was towering over everyone i was gesturing to him to crowdsurf, and at the end of the build up of the song he jumped off the stage right onto me. Others grabbed him and supported him and helped him back onto the stage. When he got back up he grabbed the microphone and said "there was only one person holding me up" and pointed at me. There was more than just me holding him up literally but metaphoricaly he meant that I was the only person in that crowd supporting the band and the music, and i must say, while being on acid this really had an impact on my life.

After the RBGs set i was so overwhelmed by everything i've experienced through the night. Everything had related to Against Me!s lyrics and as I walked up to the bar to get a glass of water (the RBGs really made me sweat), I couldnt get through the crowd to get a beer if I wanted. Everyone was waiting in line to get another drink. Now I'm a man that loves to get drunk, but its sad when you cant even get a cup of water because some fratboy infront of you cant give up his spot in line to get another drink. "Give me a scene where the music is free and the beer is not the life of the party."

I started walking towards the merch to see if anyone there could help me get some water. Then i ran into this tall lankey guy who looked like he ran to the venue. He was sweaty as fuck. I seemed to know the guys at the merch so i asked him to help me out, then I realized he was in the opening band. I asked him if [i]he{/i} could help me out and he looked over at the merch table and saw a bottle of water. He asked a guy if there was anymore and there wasnt so i just said to him that i would try to get one at the bar again. He stopped me and said "no man, i have to do this one thing for you". He went to the band area and got me a cold bottle of water and saved my night. We introduced ourselves and talked for a while. He told me about his current girlfriend and I spoke of mine. He is a ladies man and knows a lot about relationships. Derek Perry is a softy. I told him i would make sure to talk to him at the end of the night as against me! started to go on.

The roadies were setting up their stuff and the people started to fill the place at the last minute. That kind of bothers me, but people do tend to work late and cant always make it out to the beginning of the show, but i prefer to see people out to a show early. I went up to the front to get close to the stage and some funky rap music turned on. I was so high on acid that i started moving to the music and this creepy old guy beside me with a rum and coke asked me if i was trying to dance with him. I was kind of intimidated at first but then he just started to laugh like he was incredibly wasted. He looked over and asked me if i was going to sing with him. He asked me what i was going to sing and i told him i was going to sing the lyrics. He looked shocked and in a drunken tone said "thats right, the fucking lyrics".

People started squeezing in. Against me took the stage and with their backs turned Tom Gabel turned his head around slowly and spoke out "oh fuck" with the biggest grin on his face. They started playing Pints of Guinness and people were rushing the stage. Security had never seen anything like it. People were singing along and going crazy. I got lifted up and i landed on the stage and got to rock out with the band for what seemed like an eternity. I couldnt get back into the crowd so i had to leave off to the side, but even then I still couldnt get out. Some of the kids around me kept encouraging me to get up and sing with tom gabel but the barrier was starting to break and security guards were keeping them from busting. i saw a girl at the front who looked like she was about to pass out. It really changed my mood and i rushed to see if she was alright. I went right by the security guard and onto the stage to help her out. This big security guard came running up and told me to get offstage. I brought the girl to his attention and he had this look on his face like he felt like an asshole. He helped her out and I watched them for an hour from the side of the stage.

They played baby i'm an anarchist and people were getting up on stage again. After they took a moment break and the crowd died for a bit. I walked out to get some air and listed to them as I went outside. I went back to the merch table to see if there was anyone around. There were just a bunch of punks from florida out front of the merch table talking to the merch guys. One of them was skanking. I ran into Sean from Fake Problems and had a talk with him, i basically begged them to come to my town to play a show and he said they were coming back to the area soon.

After the show I met up with my friends and i introduced them to derek and sean and i told them they had to come to sarnia. My friends were also suggesting it.

The car ride home was really quiet but hilarious because i was trying to be quiet.

When we got to sarnia me and my friend brent who was also under the influence went back to our friend glens to spend the night. Before we went to bed we went online and watched The Decline of Western Civilization. Its a punk rock documentry of the 80's hardcore scene. I highly recomend it. I immediately emailed fake problems and eventualy after several months they came to sarnia. But that is a new story in itself.

Dude, that was a really amusing story to read.

oh thank god someone actually read it.

I forgot to mention though. Inbetween the RBGs and AM! i ran into the bass player from The RBGs. I mentioned to him that "half the people who are here tonight dont even know why they are here." I continued to explain that most of the people here are just here for the bar and probably heard about against me! through some sort of media and not their music. I also mentioned that the half of the people who dont know why they were there themselves, didnt have a clue why the people who do know why they were at the concert were there themselves.

Well after discussing the signifigance of Against Me! and some of punk rock history, he mentioned to me that the drummer they were touring with at the time was the ORIGINAL DRUMMER OF THE GORILLA BISCUITS.



if that doesnt mean anything to anyone but me then you have a lot to learn.