I finally got home to baltimore after staying up all night in NYC. The bad news is that I did not get to do the interview. Both Hooky and Hybrid schedules were so hectic that they could not do it. The good news, for me at least, is that I had a blast! This trip is one of the better times i've had in a long time.
Me and my friend Tim arrived in NYC around 7pm. The bus we were on was stuck in traffic the whole way up. We had dinner and then headed to the club. We walked around to find an entrance, and somehow ended up in the employees entrance. We ask the guy at the door if this was the place to pick up our passes. Just guy looked at us like we were crazy. He did not know what we were talking about. Then sent he let us in to talk to the receptionist, still did not know what we were talking about, Suddenly everyone we're on the walkie talkies saying that they needed help at the receptionist area. We didn't really want to cause such a stir, and it did make me a bit nervous that there was no pass for us. FInally the club owner comes down and explained to us that the club was not open yet and we needed to pick up the passes in the main entrance. Felt a bit stupid at that point.
It's 8:30 and Me and Tim are waiting in front of Avalon to meet up with Frank Smarra. Frank and his friend Harry arrived. I have to take a moment to thank them right now for the great time they showed us and for being great hosts to us. Thanks Frank and Harry
The Club is not open yet, so we go to find somewhere to get a drink and chat a bit. I've only met frank once before, but we only talked for 10 minutes last time. After a drink, we head back to Avalon. There is now a long line in front. We get in line and chat some more. When we got to the front, it turns out I could have waited in a much shorter line since i was on the guest list. oh well. But we finally got in. At this point I was wondering if were the other NOOLiners were. I knew Graham and David Molyneux were supposed to come. I was really looking forward to meeting David. But I never saw him last night.
We started looking around the club and eventually met up with Betty Kang who arranged this whole thing with NOOL. She seemed pretty excited to see hooky also. She had a copy of the 12" true faith single to get autographed. She told me she just saw Graham at the door and he was about to walk in. I was looking forward to meeting him, so we waited at the door to greet him. We waited and waited, and never saw him. So we walked into the club to see if we can spot him. I ask betty what he looked like. She did not really remember, all she said that he wore glasses and had dark hair. That was like 1/4 of the people there. So me and Frank browsed around for a bit to see if we could spot a scottish guy in glasses. But you know, how the F*ck are you supposed to do that. So we gave up.
Hybrid finally comes on......
I will finish this later, the football game is coming on. enjoy these pics in the mean time... http://homepage.mac.com/wenorder/PhotoAlbum9.html more photos to come
...... (after sleeping 18 hours straight, I ready to finish this).
To be honest, I really did not expect much from hybrid. I guess the real reason i was there was to see hooky. They came out rocking! Not knowing to much about the band, i did not know all the songs they played. I assume most of the songs that I did not know were from their first album. I'm not going to pretend to know how to write a concert review, but All I can say is, if you have not listened to hybrid yet and like their music that they describe as "music has been described as a mixture of breakbeat and progressive,"
YOu have to check them out. They are even better live.
So obviously the highlight for me was when Hooky finally arrived on stage. The crowd immediately roared. I was shocked to see his hair grown out again, like how it was in the Perfect kiss video ;). They started out with Higher than a Skeyscraper, one the songs they collaborated on.
From the beginning, hooky looked a bit annoyed and pissed. But we kinda expected that. They crowd getting more excited by the second. You could hear various chant of "Hooky, Hooky" I was dancing like a madman! Then I heard someone chanting "New Order, New order" it was the guy standing right next to me. So I tapped him on the shoulder to give him a thumbs up. Then he yells, "Are you a big New Order Fan?" Of course I replied. Then he says " My name in Graham". Immediately I was excited an surprised we finally found him! I pointed Frank out to him they hugged, then we started having even better time! In the meantime, I was trying to take photos. With all the people dancing and hooky moving all around the stage, I could not get a clear shot. I also really did not have time to fiddle around with the settings on my camera.
At this point, Hybrid and hooky started playing Hybrid's Single "true to form" When Hooky got to his familiar bass part, the crowd lit up again. I wanted to get graham a beer, so I asked what he drinked. But then he insisted that he wanted to buy us a drink. I never got a chance to thank him and offer him another drink because he suddenly disappeared as soon as Hooky walked off stage. I did not see Graham for the rest of the night. :(
So the concert finally ended, and Pete Tong started his dj Set. I immediately went to find Betty to see if she could arrange a meeting. but she was not easy to find in the big club. We finally found her at the dj booth. She was busy talking to someone. Me and frank then realized that we were standing next to the bassist for hybrid, so we wanted to talk to him, so did everyone else. we waited a bit, then Frank wanted to find the other two.SO we thought we'd track them down and come back. We did not find others, so we came back. BOth the bassist and Betty were gone. I was bit annoyed and coming to the reality that I will not get to meet HOOKy again. So went to find the others again.
We eventually found Frank's friend Harry. We just needed to find my friend Tim. We went to look for him, but I decide to turn around and see if I could find betty again. I did see her again,but again, she was busy talking to others, I did not want to be rude so I left her alone. I decided to walk around the club. Met some nice people, and got a few more drinks. I saw the bassist again.
This time I went up to him and congratulated him on a great show. I found out his name was Tim Hutton. I started chatting with him a bit. I remember seeing a live video of hybrid on the DVD that their record company sent to me. During their performance of True to form on the DVD, I noticed Tim was playing his bass below his knees like Hooky. So I asked Tim if he did that as a HOmage to Hooky. He acknowledge that is was, but he also normally plays his bass that way :). Mike Turman, one of the main members of Hybrid finally came by. It was loud and really hard to speak, so I did not ask too many questions. I did tell him that i enjoyed his show and I told him I was supposed to interview his band before the show. He apologized that they could not do the interview because they were so busy, but he told me he'd be very happy to do one via email. After chatting with him a bit more, they had to leave the club and head to their next location I guess. I was please to chat with them. Then I realized that they might see hooky again, and I did not think to ask them if they could maybe hand off some COMMUNITY CDs I prepared for him. So I rean back. and they were gone.
Yes, I am slightly disappointed that I could not meet hooky. but I am very happy that I went up there and to see the show and had a great time. So the rest of the night was filled with more dancing and drinking. Left the club around 4 in the morning. Had Breakfast somewhere. then me and Tim headed back to baltimore. :D
