Turku, Finland, March 25th 2003

Hmmm. I might have totally lost it. After Helsinki my ex said that Turku, a place which I had never heard of, was only 2 hours away, and since I was already in Finland... well, I felt like I had to go.

I got to know a lot of people there, I got to talk to some funny Finnish teenagers, one of the crew’s bus drivers, who actually gave us a beer and talked to us for a while, then he brought the guitar tech and we talked for a bit and he said he remembered me from Las Vegas, but I think he was just trying to be nice. Then before the concert I talked to Tim, who I think is a carpenter or something?, because he came up to me and said "you were at the show yesterday" and I told him from my sitting spot (which was the best, just like in Helsinki): "you got a haircut!" because he was one of the people I had talked to in Las Vegas, and he said he also remembered me. At this point I wonder if they think I'm nuts. This is the actual set list (of which I have a copy of that the amazing Tim passed to me after the show, and gave me the Helsinki list from the previous day without me having to ask for it!!). He's pretty cool!


I have to say that I didn't enjoy the show that much, besides the fact that I was the only person dancing and everyone was just seating. I couldn't believe it. The gig was lazy, truly, it's the first time I get this impression. Anthony didn't seem that excited either, I wonder if it was because of the audience. On a more exciting note, they played Warm Tape! I love that song.
Flea jumped on top of a speaker right in front of me and maybe it was my imagination, but I think he was dancing with me because he just stood in front of me and I was dancing and standing while everyone else by that side was sitting down....I guess it's kind of nice that some of the crew can recognize me now, although I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Helsinki, Finland, March 24th 2003

12:46 pm. I´m so lucky to have a Finnish ex boyfriend . Although it´s weird since I hadn´t seen him in like 5 years. He gained weight, and is about to lose his last precious bit of hair. Sometimes I amaze myself on how much my taste has changed over the years. But he´s being super sweet, feeding me and driving me to all places. I am blessed.

4:16 pm. I just got my ticket for Helsinki and for the first time I have a sitting ticket and boy am I bummed. Everything is weird. People started lining up at about 4 and still very few people lining up, and it's not that cold. Maybe I got too used to line up since 9 am and I'm the weird one indeed.
There's something very sad about not being able to be in the front row. That's where the action is. The adrenaline, the noise, even the moshpit, but most importantly, I feel that's where you feel the most intense sound vibrations in your soul.

AFTER SHOW
Fucking hell, I was so sad about having to be sitting, but it was the best place ever! I was in the very front row of the side of the stage, almost at the level of the stage. A lot of the sound crew were underneath me, and that was somewhat fantastic because I think they started noticing me for a change. Yes. I danced in a way that most people in that Arena would consider ridiculous, but I just couldn´t care less, because I was dancing from my very soul and I felt every single note that came out of that stage. God how I love that music, I so feel in heaven.
O.K. So Mars Volta opened again. Too many drugs if you ask me, but the music sounds pretty fresh and like something I have never heard before. So that's pretty awesome. The oddest thing was this old guy behind me who started talking to me because it was almost empty when I got there. He said "I am Hilell Slovak". I thought I didn't understand well so I said "Come again", but I didn't misheard. Also he claimed to be friends with John and Anthony, and he said that he might go later to meet them. Riiiiiight. I think he just wanted to make a move.

Johnny was sitting on stage for a while during the Mars Volta and then he stood up and started dancing like crazy, so sweet! He had a funny colored hat on. He was banging his head and then doing a little dance . Then Flea also joined the stage but more briefly than John.People in Finland are scarily civilized, I bet that if I had been standing I wouldn't have gotten smashed or anything. So the lights come off and it was very cool, people were pretty excited. The set list:

Flea complained about his bass strap and how it was hurting him. Anthony's voice was great. BTW I have a copy of the original set list that I got next day in Turku . Yes, I went to another gig in Finland, but first I'll finish the one in Helsinki.... . The audience: everyone was sitting, but they weren't too bad in the standing places.
I was dancing the soul out of me, I guess I must have looked pretty ridiculous, hopefully funny, and some of crew started looking at me. And then, the highlight of my ridiculousness: I kept on dancing and being all super happy and all inner smiles, and I think his name is Patrick?, brought me a drumstick that Chad had thrown away! That was so sweet of him. It was just that I didn't even ask him for it or anything and he just came and gave it to me.
When they played " don't forget me" it was beautiful, Anthony's voice was very powerful and he almost sang a capella. Or that's how it sounded to me.. . I had an excellent time, as I said, the audience was way civilized, that was good to me for a change....I'm so happy about my drumstick!!

London, UK, March 9th 2003

When we drove back to Mexico from Las Vegas I saw a "sign form heaven" (hahaha) I saw the A for Anthony drawn in the sky by misterious forces. So I followed and it led me back to London. In the picture above you can see my finger pointing at the A.After a little law breaking incident, which I’m not going to bother mentioning, I got no success in finding the Peppers in London. David, my Italian flat mate said that he had seen the Peppers before right next to our flat, which happens to be the Four Seasons Hotel, which actually made a lot of sense because the hotel is in the Docklands, very close to the venue. So I went to the lobby and had the most expensive little cup of coffee of my entire life, and I sat there for a long while to see if anything was happening. I felt so stupid, London is just sooo big.
I asked one of the waiters, and of course, nobody knew. Right. And suddenly, a whole bunch of huge men walked into the hotel. And of course it wasn’t the Peppers but the whole Arsenal football team. And I don’t like football, or know the players, except for Seaman, who became so popular after the World Cup because he was crying when England lost some game. Anyways, I saw Seaman and I asked him if he had seen Anthony Kiedis around, and he looked like "What??!!!!". I don’t think he knew who he was, and obviously noticed I was taking the piss, but he said no anyways, and ignored me and went on his way. I also saw Marlon Brando walking around Covent Garden, and I was tempted to ask, just for fun actually. London is a good spot to run into celebrities, except for the Peppers. So they weren’t in the Four Seasons and took the tube to Green Park and looked in the Ritz. I was so completely clueless. And I failed to find them, so I just had to be happy to be able to see the show in the very first row. I was so proud of myself, I finally learnt how to avoid the neck injuries of the head surfers: duck and cover your head. I was so happy! I remembered last time I had been right at the same spot in june, same arena, same Peppers, and I felt like my head was going to be ripped off. Still haven’t learnt to avoid the whole leg bruising. Maybe next time. I was right in front of Flea, and the show was just so incredible! I could actually breath and keep my spot during the whole show.I tried to get noticed somehow, not by flashing anyone (which seems to be a pretty common technique in those massive events) but just trying to hold some kind of eye contact with the people working around, but there were about 18,000 people in that place, so that was kind of impossible.