The Chemical Brothers Live in Austin Music Hall, Austin, Texas, April 22nd 2002, by Zero

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THE TRIP

We left San Antonio kinda late, because I get out of school at 4 and my sister didn’t even start getting ready, and I had already died my hair red (this concert also acted as an excuse for me to die my hair a natural red) so we left here at 5:30. Once we finally got there the Austin streets confused us because it is on 3rd street but 3rd street has 2 or 3 endings... so we were lost until 7:40 when we finally found it.

WAITING IN LINE/SECURITY

Me and my sister were in the somewhat end of the line but I guess it wasn’t that bad because there were only 100 or so people in front of us. Earlier before I got out of the car, (this is somewhat of an instructional guide) I got my camera (which I broke the flash out of by using a hammer and nail that I heated up) and some tape, and wrapped the tape around my waist a few times to hold the camera mainly with the force of the tape acting like a belt more than sticking... anyway security wasn’t much, they just pat your sides for weapons. and it was horribly easy to get by with anything really.

INSIDE THE VENUE

Just like before... except that everything was on stage instead of in the middle, and for some reason people weren’t rushing to the front. I went ahead and checked out what merchandise they had...they had stickers, a poster, 2 girls shirts, 2 guys shirts, a fisherman’s hat, a ski cap, a coffee mug ($12.00?!) and I guess thetas all.

FREE STUFF

The cool part is some guy there was handing out free stuff. I got 2 packages, each one has the new Astralwerks various artists (sampler CD), some other band's 3 song CD, a chemical bros. postcard and a chem bros. sticker. and a "rhinoceros" sticker plus a later grabbed 4 more postcards for free.

James Holoyed Sucks

So I went and got probably the best standing spot, it was in the front and just a little to my left of the stage, I could see everything. Bad part is to keep the spot I had to stay, and some guy going by hoyle was d.j.ing and it was like slow techno kinda jazzy and it was totally feelingless crap music. slow! I was falling asleep, I heard 1 or 2 boo's and he went on for 1 1/2 hours... for some reason people started liking the music, I guess they went insane or the drugs kicked in, or maybe it isn’t my style but he didn’t even mix the songs together sometimes and he didn’t really do more than simply wait forever to mix 2 songs together. I can actually find ways to tolerate or dig some bad music if I am at a concert but whatever he was playing really sucked until the last half hour when I could tell he was mixing in Fatboy Slim's "essential selections" mix CD with some weak DnB.

Chemical Brothers

Bare with me, I don't remember it in perfect order. I know what your saying, "if I saw them live I would remember everything." but it is
hard to remember because they played over 12 songs and used drum beats and samples from other songs of theirs in other songs of theirs. plus remembering everything in perfect order is something I never could do. 

Finally! their setup was awesome... they weren’t out yet and some guy undid the curtain and their setup looked like a spacecraft, and the walls of it were bent and white, (perhaps the fact the instruments were up in a circular way was to make it like their "dust bowl" studio) there was a pink Floyd like circular display the floated above it to really make it look like a spacecraft. Suddenly you here whirring sounds like it is from a sci-fi scene, it turned into their new song. then the projectors were displaying stars and flying through space. It mixed into something else that I cant even remember the beat to right now, but I know I knew the song, and I was about 10 feet from the left speakers and as close to the Chemical Bros. Setup as you can get for being a few feet to the side, so it was defiantly the best spot, except for the other side of where I was. Then "music: response" started playing and there were those dancing black and white dudes everywhere, and one huge one on the circle display. tom was working on something in the front center, and he was wearing that shirt! I was about to laugh about it. and during this song Ed was "hiding" on the other side probably playing a synth or something.

They had visuals of robots, skeleton hands, stars, the background to the star guitar CD single was moving with colorful starburst or something going on. a few times the fog machines went absolutely crazy and fogged up the entire place so much you couldn’t see the person next to you, and then the strobe lights were the only thing that pierced the fog, they played a bit of song to the siren, which was probably one of the big highlights of the show for me, Ed and Tom were shouting to the crowd, getting hyped up, and jamming to the music. and then they played the end of "Electrobank" where the drums slow
down, and then the crowd went wild as they began to play "block rockin beats"! even though I have heard that song more times than any other song by anyone, including all the times in movies and various artists CDs, is still was as excited about it as everyone else. the bass was so heavy I could barely hear the main animal sound effect.

Ed would step outside of the circular area and stand right in front of where I was, and one time he even did a small dance to one of the songs. I think the song was "music: response (I have a picture of that to). they also mixed in the sound clip of "come on yall lets rock the..". from their remix on the "chemical reaction" CD. tom was so into it, I could only imagine that nothing could be more exciting than jamming out to your music with many fans. On my side some girl kept trying to get the security guard to let her go stand between the front gate and stage, since there
was about 5 feet between, but he didn’t. (I think he had a mullet) then they slowed the music down back to a sci fi sounding synth beat and they left the stage. People were going crazy, trying to get them back on stage, then after about 2 minutes of that synth beat they came back out and slowly mixed
the synth beat into "Private Psychedelic Reel", then the citar of that song built up like it does, and when the drums kicked in it was harder than the rest! and strobe lights were the best ive ever seen, machting the beat,it made the entire thing a lot better! and they played that song for 11 minutes like it is, maybe longer! 

Then Ed played some slow bassy synth that tore through the venue and rattled your brain and literally vibrated my head so much it was effecting my vision slightly. he took that and speed it up so fast it was like a whirring noise as they left the stage. they ran out onto the stage and stood right in front of me waving to everyone and I took a picture as they looked right at us, then I waved at them as they waved at me and my sister and a few people around us. I got that feeling they were starring right at me. they seemed to enjoy the entire show more than the fans (in a good way), but I cant blame them, I think it was the best it could be. Then they left the stage. on my way out I grabbed another free postcard and bought a poster, and it was very cheap, cheaper than normal posters in a store. and it has lyrics, pics, and a big pic on one side... really cool, grab one if you see it.

After the Show

Me and my sister were now deaf with horribly loud ringing in our ears which I still hear, just not as bad, and we went to a gas station for gas because we were running on nothing. as I pumped gas I saw 2 drug deals in front of the store, a car full of prostitutes, a cope cut through the gas station flooring it with the lights on, finally the car has enough gas.

LA FIN

Me and my sister went to ihop, I drank 4 cups of water cause it was hot in that venue, we couldn’t hear for much so I think we were yelling accidentally whenever we ordered or talked, and then we got home about 3 am. I got to miss half the day of school, and everyone liked my red hair.

««Zero D1gitalz»»

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