The Urge Overkill fiasco

Me, Nash and Pat hanging out in the dark

Wow! What a f*cking night. I'm not even sure where to begin, so I guess I'll just start at the beginning.

We arrived at Phoenix Hill right around 8PM. As we got out of my car, we couldn't help but notice the very dark and menacing clouds approaching. I'll called home and my wife informed me that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning until 9PM. I figured that since Urge wouldn't hit the stage until well after that, that everything would be OK. I was wrong.

Upon entering the club, we found The Last Vegas onstage cranking through a sound check. However, after about 2 minutes of their dirty, crotch rock, the lights and PA went out. At first, there was some uncertainty as to whether the band blew a fuse or if it was the weather. Our questions were answered when one of the crew members opened the double doors that are used to load in equipment. From our vantage point at the bar, we could see the incredibly violent storm that had popped up. And we're not just talking your run-of-the-mill thunderstorm. We're talking a trees-crashing-down-onto-cars kind of a storm.

So, with the lights out for as far as we could see, we figured that there would be no show unless the lights came back on quickly. Unfortunately, they didn't. 8PM turned into 9:45PM and minus the crew and security, there were less than 10 people who had braved the elements to come to the show. The club was almost completely dark. Only the emergency lights on the exits were working.

I bought a UO poster in hopes that Eddie and Nash would at least make an appearance. As I was talking to the guys from The Last Vegas (about Motley Crue's "The Dirt" no less), Eddie and Nash strolled in. My friend Pat (far right in the photo above) and I got autographs from Eddie and Nash and a couple of photos with Nash. Nash signed my poster "That's the night that the lights went out in Lew Ville." Eddie signed Pat's CD with "Ridin' the Storm Out."


The autographs

As you see from the photos, Nash had quite an interesting look going on. He was wearing a Bing Crosby-style hat with his hair twisted into a small bun on the back of his head, jacket, shorts and flip flops. He was very nice and willing to talk with us for a few minutes. To make our chat with Nash even more surreal, some nitwit had pulled their Jeep, complete with 4 floodlights on top, up to the doors of the club in order to provide more light. Unfortunately, it was way too much, so everyone was stumbling around half blind. Nash commented that he felt like he was in "Apocalypse Now" and reminded us "Don't get out of the boat unless you're willing to go all the way."


Nash looking at the weather.

He eventually took our names down and offered us free admission to their show in Lexington tonight. I'm still kicking around the idea of making the drive, especially since the electricity is still off at my house.