Reminiscing
Jan. 14th, 2004 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rusty_haloThinking out loud--er, in writing.
The Uranium 235 show last night was ... interesting.
It's so weird and surreal to be there again. Uranium 235 shows now are like little snippets of an epilogue of a part of my life that's now over.
It used to be that (mostly) teenagers from all over would come out to Uranium 235 shows. U235 started in ... 1993? 94? and toured the U.S. and Germany with some fairly major bands (they've toured with Type O Negative and Motorhead, and played with many many more). But that was before my time--I got into them in 1999 (I saw them play on Jan 1 '99 with Dope and Vampire Love Dolls), and when I was a fan they never went farther than Boston or D.C. Mostly they stuck to the NYC area, with occasional forays into Connecticut or Philadelphia.
But they had lots of fans. There was the Connecticut group, the Philly group, the Jersey group, some people from Boston and D.C. and Long Island, bunches of people from Brooklyn and various NYC locations. Mostly teenagers, and at that age it took a whole lot of effort to travel all over the tri-state area to see a band play late at night. So we'd travel together, or stay together, or sleep over at each other's houses, or keep each other company at train stations all night long. I made some really good friends at Uranium shows. High school sucked (to put it lightly), and at some points the only thing keeping me going was the prospect of a Uranium show on the horizon.
I guess I was the equivalent of a BNF in that fandom, if you called it a fandom. I ran the band's official website, street team, and mailing list. I often designed fliers for their shows, and always made copies and sent them to the street team members. I sold their merchandise at shows, with occasional help from friends like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xssy, dizenchanted, and expandyourmind. I hand-made all of their T-shirts, which were many different shapes and sizes and had the Uranium 235 logo in silver glitter on the front, with various different song quotes on the back. The glitter shirts were seriously cool--really shiny and glittery, and the glitter stayed on in the wash. I still have the first U235 shirt I ever made and it still glitters perfectly.
Since I ran the street team and sold the merch online, I communicated with people all over the world. I got Christmas gifts from a fan in Japan, and a girl in Germany still sends me holiday cards. I met my best friend at the time,dizenchanted (still a wonderful friend, though sadly we don't see each other often anymore), at a Uranium show. We used to travel together a lot--we went all over the place--Tower Records in Nanuet, New York; Great Kills Park in Staten Island; a really scary ghetto club in North Philly; a road trip to Brooklyn, D.C., and Philly (U235 was doing a mini-tour with Godhead and the Genitorturers) with our friends April and Athena. We had such interesting experiences and met so many people.
We used to help out the band hand out tapes and fliers after other concerts. I remember helping them hand out tapes at a Manson show at the Meadowlands, a Type O show in NYC, and I travelled with them to successive NIN shows in Connecticut, Philadelphia, and NYC to hand out tapes and fliers.
A U235 show used to be an event. Since I lived way out in suburban New Jersey, there was always a significant amount of travel involved, and thus, lots of travel plans and places to meet up with others. We would spend hours getting all dressed up gothic and metal and glittery. U235 used to pack clubs in NYC, and tons of people knew me from the street team or the website or the merchandise or other shows, so I'd either be at the merch booth or walking around chatting with everyone. It was such fun--I'm so reserved and awkward in real life, and in high school I was the biggest loser on the planet, but it was like a chance to play someone else--someone who was actually successful at something.
Of course, anytime you've got semi-famous people + fans angling to get closer to them, it's a recipe for drama and disaster. My friendship withdizenchanted was nearly destroyed by a psycho bitch who was obsessed with the lead singer and who pretended to be our friend, but was really just using and manipulating us to get closer to him. And at one point, a band member was getting harrassed by some online stalker (I don't think they ever found out who) that the FBI investigated--the FBI came to my dorm room and interviewed me about it and everything. (That was an interesting experience--the FBI guys were actually really nice, though unfortunately they didn't seem all that concerned about the problem).
After all that, I usually find myself rolling my eyes at all the drama that surrounds James Marsters. So many aspects are exactly the same. Been there, done that.
It also struck me last night that Shane, the lead singer of Uranium 235, is exactly the same physical type as James Marsters. They're both "compact but well-muscled," I'd guess they're the same height and about the same age (but both look a lot younger), with very fine features, nice lips, high cheekbones, and intense eyes. Do I have a type or what?
One thing is that I learned from Uranium 235 to never mistake the artist for the art. You can be deeply touched by someone's art, but that doesn't mean you'll like them as a person or get along with them as a person. Which is how I can adore JM's portrayal of Spike and have no interest in the man personally--that's a refreshing feeling.
Anyway, so last night. U235 broke up in ... 2001? And got back together late in 2003. Lots of fans have moved on, though, and they don't have any kind of promotion machine anymore. So the shows haven't exactly been packed. At the first one, a lot of the old crew showed up--it was much like a high school reunion. But I think most of us have moved on in our lives and only went to that one for nostalgic purposes. Last night there were only a few of us--I thinkdizenchanted and this girl Kristeen, who used to work for their management, were the only people I knew well. There were maybe 50-70 people watching them, total. (And that's probably a high estimate, given that they didn't start playing until around 1am).
Anyway, so it was neat. Nice to connect with old friends, and the music is still great. But it's nothing special--nothing to feel passionate about anymore, and it doesn't have that central place in my life. I'm very much the type to get immersed in one thing completely, and not be able to devote attention to anything else. Back then it was Uranium 235, now it's Spike.
The Uranium 235 show last night was ... interesting.
It's so weird and surreal to be there again. Uranium 235 shows now are like little snippets of an epilogue of a part of my life that's now over.
It used to be that (mostly) teenagers from all over would come out to Uranium 235 shows. U235 started in ... 1993? 94? and toured the U.S. and Germany with some fairly major bands (they've toured with Type O Negative and Motorhead, and played with many many more). But that was before my time--I got into them in 1999 (I saw them play on Jan 1 '99 with Dope and Vampire Love Dolls), and when I was a fan they never went farther than Boston or D.C. Mostly they stuck to the NYC area, with occasional forays into Connecticut or Philadelphia.
But they had lots of fans. There was the Connecticut group, the Philly group, the Jersey group, some people from Boston and D.C. and Long Island, bunches of people from Brooklyn and various NYC locations. Mostly teenagers, and at that age it took a whole lot of effort to travel all over the tri-state area to see a band play late at night. So we'd travel together, or stay together, or sleep over at each other's houses, or keep each other company at train stations all night long. I made some really good friends at Uranium shows. High school sucked (to put it lightly), and at some points the only thing keeping me going was the prospect of a Uranium show on the horizon.
I guess I was the equivalent of a BNF in that fandom, if you called it a fandom. I ran the band's official website, street team, and mailing list. I often designed fliers for their shows, and always made copies and sent them to the street team members. I sold their merchandise at shows, with occasional help from friends like
xssy, dizenchanted, and expandyourmind. I hand-made all of their T-shirts, which were many different shapes and sizes and had the Uranium 235 logo in silver glitter on the front, with various different song quotes on the back. The glitter shirts were seriously cool--really shiny and glittery, and the glitter stayed on in the wash. I still have the first U235 shirt I ever made and it still glitters perfectly.Since I ran the street team and sold the merch online, I communicated with people all over the world. I got Christmas gifts from a fan in Japan, and a girl in Germany still sends me holiday cards. I met my best friend at the time,
dizenchanted (still a wonderful friend, though sadly we don't see each other often anymore), at a Uranium show. We used to travel together a lot--we went all over the place--Tower Records in Nanuet, New York; Great Kills Park in Staten Island; a really scary ghetto club in North Philly; a road trip to Brooklyn, D.C., and Philly (U235 was doing a mini-tour with Godhead and the Genitorturers) with our friends April and Athena. We had such interesting experiences and met so many people.We used to help out the band hand out tapes and fliers after other concerts. I remember helping them hand out tapes at a Manson show at the Meadowlands, a Type O show in NYC, and I travelled with them to successive NIN shows in Connecticut, Philadelphia, and NYC to hand out tapes and fliers.
A U235 show used to be an event. Since I lived way out in suburban New Jersey, there was always a significant amount of travel involved, and thus, lots of travel plans and places to meet up with others. We would spend hours getting all dressed up gothic and metal and glittery. U235 used to pack clubs in NYC, and tons of people knew me from the street team or the website or the merchandise or other shows, so I'd either be at the merch booth or walking around chatting with everyone. It was such fun--I'm so reserved and awkward in real life, and in high school I was the biggest loser on the planet, but it was like a chance to play someone else--someone who was actually successful at something.
Of course, anytime you've got semi-famous people + fans angling to get closer to them, it's a recipe for drama and disaster. My friendship with
dizenchanted was nearly destroyed by a psycho bitch who was obsessed with the lead singer and who pretended to be our friend, but was really just using and manipulating us to get closer to him. And at one point, a band member was getting harrassed by some online stalker (I don't think they ever found out who) that the FBI investigated--the FBI came to my dorm room and interviewed me about it and everything. (That was an interesting experience--the FBI guys were actually really nice, though unfortunately they didn't seem all that concerned about the problem).After all that, I usually find myself rolling my eyes at all the drama that surrounds James Marsters. So many aspects are exactly the same. Been there, done that.
It also struck me last night that Shane, the lead singer of Uranium 235, is exactly the same physical type as James Marsters. They're both "compact but well-muscled," I'd guess they're the same height and about the same age (but both look a lot younger), with very fine features, nice lips, high cheekbones, and intense eyes. Do I have a type or what?
One thing is that I learned from Uranium 235 to never mistake the artist for the art. You can be deeply touched by someone's art, but that doesn't mean you'll like them as a person or get along with them as a person. Which is how I can adore JM's portrayal of Spike and have no interest in the man personally--that's a refreshing feeling.
Anyway, so last night. U235 broke up in ... 2001? And got back together late in 2003. Lots of fans have moved on, though, and they don't have any kind of promotion machine anymore. So the shows haven't exactly been packed. At the first one, a lot of the old crew showed up--it was much like a high school reunion. But I think most of us have moved on in our lives and only went to that one for nostalgic purposes. Last night there were only a few of us--I think
dizenchanted and this girl Kristeen, who used to work for their management, were the only people I knew well. There were maybe 50-70 people watching them, total. (And that's probably a high estimate, given that they didn't start playing until around 1am).Anyway, so it was neat. Nice to connect with old friends, and the music is still great. But it's nothing special--nothing to feel passionate about anymore, and it doesn't have that central place in my life. I'm very much the type to get immersed in one thing completely, and not be able to devote attention to anything else. Back then it was Uranium 235, now it's Spike.