Jane's Addiction

Technology is a crazy thing. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter...all things I never would have imagined that would connect me to lost friends, family and rock stars. The evolution from one thing to the next has been quite an adventure in itself. First it was Friendster. Then it was the big move to Myspace, and this is when I was introduced to blogs. From there, I discovered Wordpress and then set up shop on Blogger. I heard rumblings about Facebook but was determined not to give into it. But once my friends were on Facebook, I buckled under peer pressure. Then there was all this talk about Twitter, and I said to myself, "That is ridiculous. There is no way I'm going to add another networking site to my list. Nope." But curiosity got the best of me and I had to check it out. I was enthralled by it. I could actually keep up to date on what total and complete strangers were doing. Then I discovered that there were tons of celebrities and rock stars on Twitter and I was hooked. I follow Slash, Sebastian Bach, Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, Dave Navarro, Ron Jeremy's penis (who's hysterical by the way), along with other comedians, celebrities and other blog writers.

This past Friday, I was sitting in my cubicle in corporate America full of lack of concentration and an extreme urge to check out for the week. To pass some time, I decided to see what was going on in the world of Twitter. I noticed a tweet from Dave Navarro that said, "Columbus? Anyone? Bueller?" Columbus? I live Columbus. What's he talking about? I scrolled down to see what was up, "Giving 2 tickets for the Columbus Jane's show... NOW, first reply goes + a guest." I replied IMMEDIATELY. His next tweet was a reply to me, "DM me your name and I will put you on the list + 1." HOLY SHIT! Dave Navarro just gave me free tickets to his show! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!! Next...find someone to go with me. My fiance couldn't escort me because he had a gig, so I called on my trusty pal Susan to come along for the ride.

The evening started off with pre-drinks at Susan's house along with Susan serenading me with Be My Plus One by an old Hollywood band, Coyote Shivers. Then it was off to the show! Parking was a disaster since there was an event at the hockey arena, a baseball game at the new stadium and this show. As we were making the trek to the venue from our parking spot about 100 miles away, Susan says to me, "I have a feeling about tonight. We're going to have a Susan moment. I can feel it." If anyone knows Susan, they know that the strangest and most random happenings always befall her. Good or bad, I was ready for the Susan moment and the lovely night of good music that was ahead of us.

As we approached will call, I ran into my good friend Amy, the marketing director at the venue. She hooked us up with VIP wristbands, so we could sit inside and chill before the show. I got up to the will call window and slid my ID under the glass partition to retrieve my tickets given to me by Dave Navarro, thank you very much. The attendant slid two tickets and something else back to me. I grabbed everything up and as I'm walking away I noticed the extra: two backstage passes. Susan's intuition was right! Color this girl stunned because if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all; things like this don't happen to me. We giggled like school girls and skipped off to tell Amy and our friends.

Finally, it was show time! Immediately you could feel the power and the excitement rushing through the crowd. Jane's Addiction hasn't toured in years and I never got a chance to see them live, so I didn't know what we were in store for. Honestly, I was so captivated that I can't even tell you what song they opened with. Perry Farrell busted out on stage in a gold lamé suit with a voice that was so dead on that I could swear he was lip synching to an album. Fear not faithful readers, he was absolutely not lip synching; he just sounded that good. Farrell's stage presence is unstoppable and only comparable to Freddy Mercury or Mick Jagger. He's just got a swagger that can't be touched.

The band pounded through their hits, each one making me reminisce about my high school days. I never realized how many amazing bass lines their songs contained until that night, and Dave Navarro's guitar playing was on fire. The show was incredible and impressive. They ended the set with Jane Says (of course), and as the song was ending, it started to rain, which prompted Perry Farrel to say, "We made it rain!" To wait out the downpour, we rushed to the indoor VIP section.

With backstage passes in hand, Susan and I waited with anticipation to see what would happen next in our concert adventure. Amy hooked us up with Jane's Addiction's tour manager, Pete, who was kind enough to get us drinks to keep us hydrated...or get us drunk; I opted for H20 since I was the designated driver. It wasn't too long before Pete brought back two other girls to wait for the after show festivities. Drummer Stephen Perkins rushed in to greet the other two girls and to freak out about a random guy who happened to be on their bus. Dave Navarro entered and headed straight for the other two girls and they all started walking outside. Pete turned and said to us, "Go with them to the bus." I followed orders and started walking with Susan behind me being the good angel on my shoulder, "Ummm...we can't go on the bus." I assured her that I had the situation handled; we're getting on the bus, getting our shot and we're out.

As we entered the world of the Jane's Addiction tour bus, Dave headed directly to the back of the bus with one of the girls. Girl #2 was M.I.A. Meanwhile, Susan and I were left in the front of the bus with Stephen Perkins. We ended up chatting for a while, but things felt a bit awkward, perhaps because we were totally out of place and I couldn't get Dave's attention to save my life. Eventually, Stephen left to get beer and Susan and I were left by ourselves to contemplate how to get the shot and leave the bus.

Dave walked up and entered the bathroom. He came out and went to his bunk and then the girl went into the bathroom. Susan and I locked eyes in a non verbal exchange of words and we both knew what had to be done. I stood up and walked to Dave to introduce myself. Apparently he was trying to change, so I went up front to wait out his wardrobe change. He asked me my name and as I turned around and looked at him, he was standing in his underwear (they were black bikinis if you're wondering) waiting for my answer, "Uhhhh...Christine. Christine Sixx. I won the tickets on Twitter." He finally recalled his little contest from earlier in the day and proceeded to ask me a couple of other questions that I promised to keep between the three of us: me, Susan and Dave. By this time, Dave had made his way over to us to take a picture with me but suddenly, the girl stumbled out of the bathroom. Dave walked over to help her and while his back was turned, Susan snapped a shot that only tabloid paparazzi dream of. I'm frozen in terror that the two may have noticed the flash but they were too busy to care. Dave got her back into the bathroom and walked over to us. Susan took the picture of us and Dave grabbed the camera for approval. As he's telling me that we look great, the girl pops out of the bathroom and starts pulling Dave away to the back of the bus. He waved and told me that he was glad I won the tickets. I pointed to him and told him thanks and have a good time. Then, they disappeared.

Susan and I just stood there and stared at each other in complete and total disbelief. What the hell just happened? What was that whirlwind of insanity? Susan said, "We got the shot." I nodded and said, "Let's get the hell off of this bus." And wouldn't you know it, we couldn't get the damn door open. As we struggled in desperation, Susan found the lights to the driver's area of the bus and at that exact moment I figured out how to unlock the door and we were out like a fat kid in dodge ball. I immediately texted Amy to come get us. On my drive home at 1AM, I got a text. It was from Twitter letting me know that I received a direct message from Dave Navarro, "Good to meet you hun! Glad you made it. XOXO." Needless to say, I almost crapped my pants that I actually got a message from Dave. I responded with, "Thanks SO much. Had a blast. Hope you had a good time. You guys kicked ass!" And Dave replied, "Great to meet you and glad you had fun." Yeah, Dave Navarro sent me messages. How f-ing crazy is that?

That night was probably one of the most exciting and most bizarre rock and roll nights of my entire life. I cannot divulge everything from the evening because I would not want to destroy the journalistic code of ethics...if there even is such a thing. Dave Navarro will surely never read my blog, but I'd hate for him to read it and see his laundry, dirty or clean, posted up all over it. The events of the evening aren't nearly as bad as you're envisioning in your dirty little heads, but they were very interesting to say the least.

Thank you Twitter for a most unusual and eventful evening full of good friends, good music, hot rock stars and interesting stories. Whoever said Twitter was stupid never won free tickets and backstage passes from Dave Navarro. And thanks @DaveNavaroo6767 for hooking this girl up with a night of fun!