I still think the FS has no meaning as I explain in my blog post: http://www.unovis.com/index.php/archives/24 . Rather it is the epilogue to the series since the producers need to keep dramatic interest until the last minutes of the last episode and will have no time to show what happens to the characters. So the FS will serve as that purpose.

Having Sayid’s episode first and showing how the fight in the restaurant occurred and that he rescues Jin caused the Jin episode to be dramatically void. However, the Sayid episode could be thought of as a foreshadowing of what would occur in this episode. Much like how I believe the FS is a “foreshadowing” of how the epilogue to Lost will be. I think the creators were using this device in the Sayid/Jin story as a device to get people comfortable with the next shift when the FS becomes the new reality.

Will they explain how everything works? I doubt they will. They will cause Jacob/MIB to not exist and I think the plot will be satisfactory in that we see how we got to that point and then we know from the FS how everything turns out. But because Jacob/MIB won’t exist in the new timeline they won’t have to explain what might have happened. What bad thing MIB would have done… How would he have done it…. All these questions will be pointless when they don’t exist. Is this going to piss us off? I am not sure. Sure we would want to know what was going to happen. But much like any other fictional story where the bad person is bad because he is going to do something, we never see what they MIGHT because the hero always stops them before it happens. We are satisfied with the story and how it got to the conclusion and the climax that causes the badness to go away without having occurred. Moreover, I think had they tried to explain it any further some would like it and some would not. So if they can end it without having to get to the point where they need to show it then they can leave the mechanics of what would have occurred and how to our imaginations.

As for what triggers the FS to become the new reality I am not 100% sure.The story will culminate with someone (last candidate?) making a choice and causing some event back in time to cause the Jacob/MIB events to not occur. This changes all of the future from that trigger event forward. And it causes no contradictions in as much as the current reality will have occurred. (What happened, happened). This will be just like Back to the Future where MJF DOES exist and do things in 1985 but goes back in time and causes things to change from 1955 onward thus causing him to NOT exist. In Lost, the stuff we have already seen did and does occur, someone goes back in time or causes an event back in time that causes Jacob/MIB to not do their thing (or some other such plot device) and this causes the entire time shift to occur. And this implies there is no inherent meaning between the two timelines. They are not running in parallel nor are they linked in any way. The FS is just the changed timeline from the trigger event onward. And the trigger is NOT Jughead. The bomb did not destroy the island. BTW My prediction is the series will end with them boarding the plane in Australia and Jack lying back in his seat and the show ends on his eye closing.

I don’t think time has been “ripped asunder, into two discrete lines”. Not only have the producers stated we are not watching parallel timelines but my blog post does a fairly good job explaining the FS will be the new reality and will serve as the epilogue to the show. An epilogue the producers knew back in Season 1 they could not show AFTER the climatic events of the last episode. http://www.unovis.com/index.php/archives/24

And about chaos….an observer of a chaotic event, observed for the first time cannot know where it is going. It precludes prediction of the final event. You can study the event afterward and conclude that the seemingly unpredictable nature of the events did lead to the specific point and that it will always lead to a specific point. In other words, to use the rock in a pond analogy, we know from multiple times of throwing a rock we cannot predict the ripples but can predict it will end calm. But the first time we threw the rock we had no idea what we can predict about the ending.

Speaking creatively about Lost, the viewers cannot predict where this is going anymore than Jacob and MIB can do it. Any prediction Jacob/MiB might have is not chaos but rather whatever powers they have. However, the creators of Lost have had 6 years or so to create the events and study in minutiae how it all works. THEY can most certainly place a butterfly any point in the show, have it invoke meaning that someone might construe as the butterfly event and be able to point afterwards to say that this was what led to the inevitable conclusion. After all, it is not Jacob/MiB or the little kid that is God…it is the creators of the show who are.

And I was thinking one other thing now. The act of viewing something changes that which is being viewed. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle) As the creators of Lost have finally finished the script for the last episode and are filming it now, once it gets to editing the show is no longer in their control. So they will no longer be able to react to people writings and theories on the show and make changes so that someone did not predict the ending long ago. This will be the first time in history of the show where what we write can be proven correct or incorrect without the ability of the creators to manipulate the results.

However, in thinking about the question, the first thing that comes to mind is the classic Chaos theory example involving a butterfly. As (probably) shown in The Butterfly Effect movie (which I never saw) and as explained in the book on Chaos theory the point of the butterfly in chaos was to show that a single simple event such a butterfly flapping its wings could have massive and dramatic effects elsewhere in the world.

Moreover, invoking the Chaos theory lead me to a better understanding of Lost. One of the basic tenets of Chaos is that unlike normal scientific studies where things are very predictable and repeatable, Chaos theory shows that seemingly random and highly unpredictable events can be shown to lead to a predictable state. For example, throw a large rock into a small pond. The waves move out to the sides and bounce back in a very complex and unpredictable way but never-the-less the pond slowly settles down to being peaceful.

As applied to Lost it does seem to me that characters and events are very random and very unpredictable but that we are heading to a rather predictable state. Moreover, the butterfly as used in Lost I originally thought had no meaning other than to lazily (as the butterfly effect connection seems obvious to me) invoke the chaos theory. But it could be something else.

Assuming the creators did it for a specific reason and not just because they wanted to show a butterfly, I think the placement of the butterfly could be very significant. I now think they are trying to show that Richard’s landing on the island and the rescue by MIB is the butterfly effect. That this one little event will cause massive and dramatic effects later on. And I think the evidence in the show itself backs this up. Jacob seems to imply or flat out state (I cannot remember) that he had no plans for trying to influence events. But Richard convinces him to try to do so. And thus from this point on Jacob watches and manipulates events to bring about the story we have watched these past few years.

As for my earlier blog post about the trigger event for causing the FS to become reality, I now believe Richard is the event. That it will be shown in the next few episodes that Richard’s choice will change. He won’t convince Jacob to becoming pro-active and thus nothing we saw occurs and thus the FS is now reality as I explained before. How does this “choice” get made? It could be an actual choice by him. He could die on the boat. He could even not leave Canary Island. Something could cause this but who knows what.

Furthermore if Richard is the trigger and not killing Jacob as I speculated before then its Jacob’s choice to become pro-active that is the key to the events and not the existence or non-existince of Jacob and the MIB. In other words, they can still exist in their tug of war until Dharma sinks the island. I still think my original idea about them not being around in 2000′s is more likely but either thing can happen if its Jacob’s choice that causes the FS to become the new reality.

Years ago when Lost started I would casually think about how this can possibly end. And here we are getting to the end of the show. It dawned on me recently that this has to end one way.

Let us assume two things:

1) The Flash Sideways (FS) will be used for something. The show won’t end with the FS being just a wasted 30 minutes of each episode. Or that we could have ended the season with 8 fewer episodes or whatever…
2) I don’t think the producers will be throwing us for a twist at the last minute. In other words we won’t get to the final 30 minutes of the show and find out Ben was a woman, gave birth to Jack and the story was all in Kate’s head. The show will end in a reasonable and normal story fashion.

So how will it end? No idea… lol.

Ok…Let’s assume we had to write this show ourselves. We need to do one particular thing. We need to keep people watching and entertained until the very last minute. What we cannot do is have the audience be bored and change the channel. Moreover, the ending cannot be so easy that the audience can figure it out before hand and then sit there just waiting for the inevitable ending. Furthermore we cannot spend time on the aftermath. If the producers learned one thing from Lord of the Rings it will be the ending cannot drag on and on. Even though I will argue LOTR:RotK’s ending was just tidying up the storylines in a proper fashion the reality of TV is that people will turn the channel if Lost ends at 8:15 and still has 2 hours left.

So, the show needs to do a few things:
1) Keep people watching in a dramatic fashion until the very last minute.
2) Make the story be complex and interesting enough that the audience does not completely figure it out before the show ends.
3) And somehow the show must be able to show the aftermath of the events without forcing the audience to stick around for an “extra” episode or to read ancillary material (comic/novels etc).

Given all of the constraints of a final show here is what I see as creatively having to happen. The FS will be reality. The show, sometime near the end if not the very ending, will have some mechanism to cause the events we have seen not to occur. In other words the show will reset like the end of Season 5. Will the mechanism be killing Jacob in the past? Maybe…but it does not matter. The actual mechanism does not matter to the creative question of HOW to produce the show. It only matters to the actual plot and I won’t bother trying to figure that out.

So my point is, somehow in the past something will occur that resets time so that the events we think of as real life (RL) do not happen. And the FS is the result of this event. The audience will have seen the aftermath of what occurs in the shows climax.

Ok…so now we know the ending will be making the FS “real”. However many years ago, in the producers “real life”, when they came up with the ending they had to have known it could not be just thrown at the audience. They needed to set this up somehow…so they figured they would need about 3 seasons to tell the story properly and set up the ability to do this. First they have to set up the Flash Forward in time (end of season 3?). Then establish the ability to go back and forth in time (Desmond’s cool episode). And finally they show that they can actually jump in time (Season 5).

So the producers take the ending they need to have. A story of Jacob and whomever else. And creatively they work backwards trying to figure out the bullet points of where the story needs to go. So they figure X number of episodes to pull this off. And finally they decide with ABC to end the show and that they will have time to pull this off. So now they can start all the weird stuff we the audience need to see so that in the last episode someone (the last candidate?) goes back in time or causes an event back in time to occur and thus Flight 815 never crashes and everyone’s lives go on as we see in the FS.

Is this possible? Why not. Is there a lot of loose ends; like people need to do things in the future etc? Not really. Let me say that all of the RL we have seen will happen. People got off the island….things in the future happened. Things in the past happened etc… Life moved forward and gets to a point where something in the past gets changed. Just like Back to the Future the things in the future AFTER that event will change. Is there a paradox in that the future event does not happen so the triggering event could not happen? I don’t think so. I believe the timeline can move forward and the RL future does happen and the events lead to the triggering event and that changes everything afterwards. And after that, people that were dead could now be alive. Some people could die that were alive. Anything can happen. But the key thing here is that “What happened, happened”. In other words even though it cannot happen again it DID happen at one time.

Of course there are tons of questions to be answered. But I am solely discussing the creative mechanisms around how they can write and produce the show. I have no special insight on the story that causes the trigger, the meanings behind any of it, the metaphors etc. This is strictly just supposing the show will have some event that causes something so that the FS will be the aftermath and the new reality.

I also want to say that I don’t think the FS has any special meanings. People are analyzing the FS for every bit of meaning between the RL and the FS changes. Could there be meaning and ideas at work here? Certainly. But I laughed at the final reveal of the Numbers. For years people have analyzed the Numbers and sought meaning behind them and they meant nothing. They are just a list of numbers that go with the Candidates. Nothing else. As I said, I laughed at this because I saw the producers sitting there giggling as they wrote it….”How about we have the Numbers mean nothing? lol….Won’t that be hilarious after all the years??? LOL”. Seriously…even though I was shocked at this; it made sense. Had they tried to place more significance behind the numbers than they did it would have likely been disappointing. As it is now, the Numbers mean nothing but do still have a very significant purpose. I feel the same about the FS. Ultimately it has no meaning and it will just be the new reality.

In writing this someone post mentioned the producers denying the FS is a parallel universe. I agree with this. The end of season 5 did NOT cause a split. These two timelines are NOT running concurrently; in parellel. They are merely a dramatic device used by the creators in order to give the audience a very satisfying ending. In this I mean that at the end of the show, the trigger will occur and the FS is now the new reality. And we, the audience will have seen close to 8 hours of aftermath and will know how the lives of most, if not all, of the people on the show end up. And they did it by not wasting one moment of the last episode to show this. And moreover, they did it by giving the audience massive amounts of information to discuss while watching the season and afterwards.

I want to mention some other things. In the last broadcast episode, Ben and his father discussed being in Dharma. And leaving them. It is clear to me that the triggering event was a LONG time in the past but that the island still existed. Dharma went there and did things. Built their village etc. Ben and his father left for whatever reason and possibly left the Dharma. The Dharma continued drilling and caused some event that probably caused the island to sink as we saw in S6 E1 cut to commercial scene. And since Ben and his father left Dharma they do not know what eventually happened and thus the conversation they had speculating about their future if they had stayed in Dharma was just the writers having fun with the new FS “reality”.
And about the cut island sinking scene, what that scene did not show is what timeline that was but I think it was part of the FS. The producers claim some evidence is in that scene but to my understanding no one has found the evidence yet. Maybe after reading this we can see something in it…

I also want to point out a couple of flaws or inconsistencies in my theory. I do mostly claim the triggering event that cause the FS will be the last thing we see. That could be wrong. For all I know it could happen in tonight’s episode. And the rest of the season will be more future from the point of view of everyone in the FS stories. What I am saying is that this could happen at any point between now and the end of the series. I just claim that for creative purposes as stated at the beginning of this post that the FS will be the new reality. When this occurs I have no idea. But I think due to it being too obvious at some point it won’t be the final thing in the show. Moreover, I do not think it will be too early. If they end the Jacob storyline sooner than later and we then have to see multiple episodes of the FS future, I am not sure where the story is that will make the episodes dramatically sustainable. Of course they can do anything so it is impossible for me to speculate where the story can go plot wise…

Also wrong with my theory is ….lol….after all this writing I lost my train of thought. Maybe I will think of it later tonight…

Anyway, hopefully tomorrow I will do a real post and actually put something useful up on the site…

But this post will try to list all the shows I saw from bands people have heard of. Hopefully I can get the dates filled in and placed into the timeline:

Coroner @ Iguana’s
Slayer @ Iguana’s
GWAR @ Iguana’s twice 3/15/91 is one show
Red Kross @ Iguana’s
Public Enemy @ some nightclub in TJ
Exploited @ Carpenters Hall
GBH @ Carpenters Hall
DRI @ Wabash Hall
Meat Beat Manifesto/Consolidated @ SOMA
Sonic Youth @ Iguana’s
Joe Satriani/Steve Vai @ Disneyland hotel as part of the NAMM show.
Miranda Sex Garden @ Troubador in Hollywood
Anthrax @ Troubador in Hollywood
Negativland @ Belly Up Tavern recorded and released onto a bootleg CD
Mary’s Danish @ Belly Up
Mary’s Danish @ UCSD
Firehose/Minutemen(?) @ UCSD
TAD/Helmet @ Bodies
Melvins @ SOMA
Melvins @ Dream Street
Melvins @ Casbah
Nymphs/Dragons @ (old) Casbah – really early Dragons show but I went for the Nymphs at the time
KMFDM @ Iguana’s
AC/DC @ SA Who Made Who tour (Queensryche?)
Exodus @ a roller rink in Oxnard
Exodus @ an unknown bar in Anaheim the next day
Death Angel/Possessed @ Adams Ave Theatre
Cramps @ California Theatre either 1987 or 1989. As listed in previous post, one of these Cramps shows is the “chair” story. I don’t remember which show though…
Aerosmith/Guns and Roses @ Pacific Ampitheater in Orange County
Iron Maiden/Motorhead/Dio @ SA 200?
King Diamond/Flotsam and Jetsam @ Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim
Pixies @ UCSD 200?
Living Color opened for Jane’s (or Primus?) at UCSD? Something like that…
Overkill @ Fenders Ballroom one week after one of the other Santa Monica civic shows. My “Almost Famous” story….
Dickies @ Bacchanal
Love and Rockets @ OAT
Ratt/Fastway/Mama’s Boys @ OAT circa 1984
Skinny Puppy @ Hollywood Paladium
The Residents @ Belly Up Tavern
Supersuckers @ (old) Casbah (twice I think)
Foetus @ Troubador
Racer X @ The Whisky
Bauhaus @ Hollywood Palladium
Bauhaus @ Golden Hall
Megadeth @ Country Club in Reseda for the Decline of Western Civilization movie shoot
Pat Benetar @ SA
Celtic Frost/Voivod @ Jackie Robison YMCA
Living Color/Social Distortion/Cop Shot Cop/more? 91x fest thing @ SA

Tool @ Winters – way early, pre Opiate EP and I have a song sheet from the show
Pigface @ El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles
Pigface/Phylr/Not Breathing(?) @ El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles
Negativland @ El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles
Diamanda Galas @ UCLA theatre. With John Paul Jones I think
Faster Pussycat @ Stratus in Lemon Grove
Rush @SA

Looking through the ticket stubs leads to this post. Here is what I think I have seen in my lifetime:

1983
Sept:
17th - Def Leppard, Eddie Money, Motley Crue and Uriah Heap. Last KGB Sky Show concert. Motley Crue in a pre Shout at the Devil appearance.

1984
March:
31st - OZZY/Ratt @ Sports Arena
April:
24th - Scorpions/Bon Jovi @ SA. Recorded for their live album. I went with my friend David and sat next to my friend Eric who I went to Hoover with. Unfortunately I had brought a stink bomb with me and dropped it under my seat between the opening act and Scorpions. I grabbed David and ran before everyone smelled it. Needless to say, Eric was not happy when I saw him at school the next day.
May:
9th – Judas Priest/Great White @ Sports Arena
21st – Van Halen @ Sports Arena. Never was a big VH fan and I just did not like this show. Maybe if  I knew Dave was going to leave. But I mostly did not like the tone that Eddie started using on this album. It went from a metal guitar to this over processed sound. Typical of a lot of bands back then who for some reason thought better production made their albums heavier. It just made them sound washed out IMO.
Aug:
7th – Ratt/Fastway @ Open Air Ampitheatre
Sept:
28th – Quiet Riot/Whitesnake/Kick Axe @ SA. Fucking ridiculous that I get this info from a Kick Axe website and cannot find the info on any Whitesnake or Quiet Riot sites.
Nov:
27th- Dio/Dokken @ SA – (No ticket(meaning not confirmed)) Last in Line Tour
Dec:
26th – Ratt/Lita Ford @ SA. No ticket and not sure if I went.

1985
Feb:
22nd – KISS/Queensryche @SA Well…sort of. I have (had) a ticket for the show and can tell a story about getting it. But my parents would not let me go because of my grades…
March:
9th – Metallica/Armored Saint @ Backdoor at SDSU. This show was actually mentioned in Kerrang magazine (UK) as one of the hottest shows the author had been to. The show was incredible. Metallica on the Ride the Lightning tour. Talk to anyone that was there but Armored Saint almost out performed them. I think this was probably the strongest show I have ever seen two bands perform. It was definitely the hottest show ever. I remember at one point wiping my hand on the wall and it was covered in water. It was literally a sauna in there. I can’t remember how many people were there but not many. This was before they remodeled it. So it was a really small place. If I remember correctly its probably smaller than the Ken Club. If not for the Metallica secret shows this would be my favorite Metallica show.
25th- Iron Maiden/Twisted Sister @ SA. Powerslave tour horrible upper level seats and last time I was not on the floor… I KNEW I saw Twisted Sister
30th – Raven/Keel @ The Lyric. Ok…can anyone tell me where this place is? I don’t think anyone in San Diego remembers the place. Great show. Raven when they were at their best. They did a record signing at Off The Record that day and I got my album signed. Still have it somewhere…
July:
6th – DRI @ Wabash Hall
14th – Queensryche/Keel @ California Theatre
25th – Megadeth/Exciter/Hirax @ Palisades rollerink. Pretty awesome place to see these bands this early in their careers.
Aug:
25th – Motley Crue/Loudness @ SA. First time I had floor seats I think.
Dec:
6th – DIO @ SA. Rough Cutt opened I think
31 – Ratt/Bon Jovi @ SA. No ticket and no remembrance of going.

1986
Feb:
1st – Slayer/DRI/Rigormortis/Legion/Bloodcum @ Adams Ave Theater. Absolutely incredible show. Slayer on their Live Undead tour. The DRI singer got arrested for drinking at the car wash across the street so crowd members would jump onstage and do the singing for them. And Slayer! The mic’s were not set up right so Tom kept getting shocked. So he gave his Bass to Jeff. This is the only time I know of they did not play as dual guitar band. And I have heard the soundboard recording from this show and it doesn’t matter. They sounded just as good. The crowd was jumping off the balconies and at one point one guy jumped onto and through the stage! I remember Tom looking down into the hole singing while the guy was crawling out of it. What a fun show…
3rd – Rush @ SA (No ticket and might not have gone to this show but I did see Rush once)
10th – Kiss/WASP @ SA. (Backstage pass story???)
Mar:
21st – Megadeth @ Adams Ave Theatre. I think I went to this. Can’t imagine why I wouldn’t have…
April:
1st – Death Angel @ Adams Ave. Date from a bootleg list. This should be the DA/Possessed show
27th – Marillion @ California Theatre
May:
10th – Judas Priest @ SA. Defending the Faith tour I think
June:
10th – OZZY/Metallica @ SA. So my mom did a lot of work for KPBS and every year they had auctions to raise money. Early in 1986 I had bought at the auction 2 front row seats to the show of my choice. I had a letter certifying this. Being smart enough I made a copy of the letter before I went to school. I showed everyone there that I was going to use it for the OZZY/Metallica show which I actually cared more about Metallica. At this time not many had heard of them but it was a huge show for me. The letter got stolen or something. Can’t really remember. In any case, this ticket scalper who hung out with me at the pizza place down the street ended up with the letter and tried to use it. When I went to the SA to get the tickets I had to prove that my letter was the real one.
In the meantime, my friends and I had a scheme to get great tickets to shows for “free”. The basic idea was to buy a bunch of tickets when they went on sale and sell it for enough profit to buy tickets from scalpers. So the net cost would be around nothing. Of course its a lot of work but I had my front row seats and I was selling 10th row and some a little further back. Somehow my 10th row got stolen at school so I told either the school or the police. Cannot remember. But the night of the show the security guards were waiting for someone to sit in the seats. The first person there was a friend who was using these seats as they were the next best seats we had. The security guards grabbed him but we explained it and he was ok. Next was someone from school. NABBED! He got thrown out. But, trying to remember how it went down, I don’t think he stole them. I think someone else did and sold them to him. In any case, I was pissed at him as he knew they were mine. I still don’t know how he could have been so stupid as to think he would not be caught. If anything he should have just used the tickets to get in but never gone to the seats.
The show? Metallica kicked ass. Got all the people who never knew them to like them and then became mega huge on their next album.
15th – Celtic Frost/Voi Vod @ Jackie Robinson YMCA. (Date not confirmed as I got it from one bootleg website. CF is bootlegged!) Great show. Rather scary show. VHS according to one site…!!!! http://www.moonfrost.net/wolfheart/music.htm
July:
25th – DIO/Accept @ SA
Aug:
12th – AC/DC/Queensryche @ SA
29th – Loudness/Poison @ California Theatre
Sep:
10th – Dokken/Great White @ Golden Hall. No ticket and not sure if I went.
Oct:
22nd – Queensryche/Saxon @ Golden Hall
Nov:
7th – Slayer/Overkill/Metal Church/Heretic/Blast @ Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. OMG what a great show. I was scared to death at that place. One of the most violent shows I have seen. But it is just the first show of the greatest music weekend of my life. Read previous post.
8th – Metal Church/(Metallica secret show)/Heretic @ The Country Club in Reseda. First show with their new bass player. Read previous post.
9th – Metal Church/(Metallica secret show)/Heretic @ Jezebel’s in Anaheim. Second show with their new bass player. Read previous post.
Dec:
4th – Megadeth/Prowler @ La Paloma Theatre. UPS guy, Rusnack et all…No drug taking liar Dave!
13th – Yngwie Malmsteen @ California Theatre

1987
Jan:
16th – Bon Jovi /Cinderalla @ SA
28th – Triumph @ SA
Feb:
1st – Alice Cooper/Megadeth @ SA
14th – Iron Maiden/Vinnie Vincent Invasion @ Orange Pavilion San Bernadino
16th - Iron Maiden/Vinnie Vincent Invasion @ Long Beach Arena
17th - Iron Maiden/Vinnie Vincent Invasion @ Long Beach Arena
18th - Iron Maiden/Vinnie Vincent Invasion @ Long Beach Arena
24th – Iron Maiden/Vinnie Vincent Invasion @ SA. Front row dead center and I got a drumstick!
27th – George Carlin @ Symphony Hall
May:
2nd – Iron Maiden @ Irvine Meadows
6th – Billy Idol/The Cult @ SA. I am fairly certain I did not go to this show but that I was down at the SA anyway. I remember this because I think this is the show I ran into Billy Squire in the parking lot heading towards the back door of the place….
9th – Joe Walsh @ OAT. Great Story…Joe Walsh came to town and was sort of a guest DJ at some radio station. I was listening to it and they started talking that he should play a show while he is in town. He agreed so they called up someone and set up a show at OAT and put the tickets on sale right now. I drove quickly to Mad Jacks and told the Ticketmaster guy the story and he looked it up and sure enough it was true. I got two front row dead center seats. The Ticketmaster guy sat next to me and my sister and some friends sat around me. What a fun night.
June:
5th – Slayer/Dark Angel @ Hollywood Palladium. Awesome show…read previous post for details
13th – Megadeth @ ???? Not sure….my shirt from the show has this date on it. Maybe this is Anthrax/Megadeth?
July:
3rd – Anthrax/Metal Church @ Santa Monica Civic
5th – Anthrax/Metal Church @ Old World Beer Gardens in Corona. Incredibly fun show
12th – Megadeth @ Santa Monica Civic
17th – DRI/Adrenalin OD @ Wasbash Hall
Aug:
1st – Dio and Guests @ Irvine Meadows. I think this was with Yngwie and Lita Ford. It was a benefit for Children of the Night.
7th – King Diamond/Trouble – Variety Arts Theatre downtown LA. Scary show…KD did an actual black mass on stage. A little table with candles and cleaning the air and all of that. But he did not really do it as part of the show but with his back to the crowd. I was front row and could see what he was doing but I don’t recall him drawing attention to it. Trouble shot a video that night that I have still never seen.
Sept:
4th – The Cult/Guns and Roses @ OAT
5th – The Cult/Guns and Roses @ Long Beach Arena. I believe this is the only show I have seen where there was a TRUE encore. The lights were on and they came back out and played LA Woman.
23rd – Roger Waters @ SA
Oct:
2nd – Motley Crue/Whitesnake @ SA
Nov:
21st – Exodus and Celtic Frost @ Fenders Ballroom. I have stories about this show but I’ll save that for later.
22nd – Megadeth @ Jezebels in Anaheim. Fairly certain this was the Anarchy in the UK video shoot.
????: Nuclear Assault(?) and Piranha. Sometime in 1987…Ticket says Charged GBH at Fenders Ballroom in Long Beach but I am pretty sure that was the ticket they gave us for the NA show. James Hettfield story…

1988
Feb:
1st – Aerosmith/Dokken @ SA
8th – Guns and Roses/T.S.O.L. @ Montezuma Hall. Ticket autographed by Steve Adler.
24th – Alice Cooper/Motorhead/Faster Pussycat @ SA
27th – Exodus @ Perkins Palace in Pasadena. I have a great story about this show….We took them out to dinner! I will someday go into the details of how this happened…
March:
7th – Dio/Megadeth @ SA
12th – Rodney Dangerfield @ Civic Theatre
April:
1st – KISS/Anthrax @ SA
12th – Whitesnake/Great White @ SA
15th – Pink Floyd @ LA Coliseum
25th – Joe Satriani @ Roxy Theatre in Hollywood
May:
28th – Yngwie Malmsteen @ Irvine Meadows.
June:
5th – Fates Warning/Psychotic Waltz @ Rio’s
10th – Iron Maiden/LA. Guns @ SA. Guns and Roses cancelled so LA Guns came instead
11th – Joe Satriani @ California Theatre
25th – Nuclear Assault @ L’Amour’s in Brooklyn. Just getting to the place scared me. Incredible show. Only time I ever saw true skanking. These guys knew how to mosh/slamm the best way. The West coast version was just a viscous circle that in later years would turn into big fighting rings. But this show was just people dancing wildly.
27th – Jethro Tull @ The Pier in Manhattan New York.
July:
2nd – Megadeth @ Santa Monica Civic
22nd – Sam Kinison @ OAT
23rd- Dickies/Metal MC @ The Scream in Los Angeles
24th – Monsters of Rock (Van Halen/Scorpions/Dokken/Metallica/Kingdom Come) @ LA Coliseum
and D.R.I/Kreator/Holy Terror @ Carpenters Hall in San Diego. RIOT!!! Whew…the story is this….I had front row dead center seats for the Monsters of Rock show. This was Metallica’s first “real” appearance in SoCal since the OZZY tour in June of 1986. When Cliff died they got a new bass player and finished the rest of the world tour and then came back to US and did an east coast headliner swing. But they never made it back to the west coast. So except for the 3 secret shows they performed between the death and this show most people in SoCal had never seen Metallica. In the interim they had grown into a HUGE band so the fans here were practically rabid. No sooner did the intro music start than a lot of the crowd pushed forward and jumped the walls of the Coliseum. I turned around and saw the fences coming down and the crowd being pushed forward. I grabbed Hans and pulled him to the wall in front of the stage. The security guards started yelling at us but we held on waiting for the crowd to reach us. Eventually they did and it was mayhem. They destroyed maybe the first 50 feet worth of seating. (Geoff would know more as he was in the middle of this.)  Hans and I just held on and watched the show. When it was over we had no where to sit and we still had 3 major bands to see.
So we decided to just leave. While I would love to have seen the Scorpions and to see how the show turned out now that it was destroyed we decided to give up and drive back to San Diego to see Kreator. Because the festival started during the day we had plenty of time. It turns out this was the only time I ever got to see Kreator so I am really glad I left the show.
Aug:
12th – Slayer/Masi/Danzig @ Hollywood Palladium. RIOT!!!! Read my previous post for details…. 3rd Danzig show ever.
13th – Slayer/Masi @ De Anza Theater in Riverside
Sep:
14th or 15th Aerosmith/Guns and Roses @ Pacific Ampitheatre in Costa Mesa. I am not sure which show I went to. GnR came out on stage on the 15th as it was the last shows of Aerosmiths tour. I do not remember that happening so maybe I saw the 14th. But then again I do not remember anything at all about this show…
Oct:
12th - Judas Priest/Slayer @ SA. Front row….nice. Left after Slayer played….Backstage story with the note and hiding in shadows….details later with a nice photo.
15th – Judas Priest/Slayer @ Irvine Meadows. Again I left after Slayer
28th – Cramps @ California Theatre -(Might be the chair story but I am not sure…)
Nov:
4th – Nuclear Assault @ De Anza Theatre in Riverside
12th – The Dickies @ Backdoor at SDSU. Killer Clowns!!!!
Dec:
5th – Metallica/Queensryche @ SA Filmed the video for ONE the next day. I got the song sheet from the first secret show signed.
17th – Sam Kinision @ Golden Hall
28th – OZZY/Anthrax @ SA (Not sure about Anthrax….)
31st (New Years Eve) – Jane’s Addiction/Nymphs @ the Embassy Theatre downtown LA. WOW!!!! Look at the list above you and think about what I had previously seen and was now watching. This totally changed me and if not for the other even more incredible shows I fortunately got to see this would be the stand out Jane’s show. They did it all including Chip Away, the song on the ice chest. Perry had a cast on his leg so he couldn’t move much but he still got around. I think this was the girls in diapers show also…

1989
Jan:
2nd – Danzig @ Rio’s. Wow…first Jane’s Addiction blows my mind to start the year and now Danzig before people cared. Pretty good start to the year. If you know Rio’s you know how small this place is so imagine Danzig there.
Mar:
16th – R.E.M. @ SA
April:
9th – Anthrax/Helloween/Exodus @ Long Beach Arena. Headbangers Ball tour
20th – Jane’s Addiction/??? @ John Anson Ford theater
25th – Jane’s Addiction/Caterwaul(I think) @ John Anson Ford theater
29th - Jane’s Addiction/Nymphs @ John Anson Ford theater 7 shows and I went to three of them. If I lived in LA I would have been at all 7. Some of my happiest moments were here. We were in the front of the line at this wonderful outdoor venue in the Hollywood Hills. While we waited in line Steve came out and played bongoes/timpanies(?) for us. They had a carnival up the hill with booths and prizes and what not. The show was beautiful. Jane’s at their fun best. I remember girls coming out on stage with trays full of stuff they threw out at the crowed. Balloons, tortilla’s(!) and other things. Great fun time…
May:
1st – Jane’s Addiction/Wonder Stuff @ Montezuma Hall SDSU. The show where Hans wanted me to drive a friend of his to LA to score some dope. I said no way as I was paranoid about that type of thing. And somehow I did not recognize his friend was the Jane’s Addiction bass player Eric. I knew Hans knew them but I just did not recognize him. Oh well…
2nd - Jane’s Addiction/Wonder Stuff @ Montezuma Hall SDSU. I don’t remember a second show but their website said it happened and it even had a review fromt he SD Tribune. There is no way I would have missed it so I assume I went.
5th – Jane’s Addiction @ Iguana’s. Sneak Preview show of this new club. I remember the spackle was still wet and got all over me. Probably the single greatest live venue I ever saw shows in. Strangely I remember nothing at all about JA’s performance that night.
June:
14th – Danzig @ SOMA
23rd – The Ramones @ Iguana’s. Second show at Iguana’s if I remember correctly. I think Ramones played the Bacchanal the next night but I didn’t turn 21 for another 6 days. So thankfully they opened the all ages Iguana’s the week before and I was able to see them.
July:
19th – Love and Rockets @ OAT
Sept:
3rd – GWAR @ Iguana’s
12th – The Cure @ SA. Disintegration tour. Amazing show. I felt so out of place with really long hair at the show but it was just beautiful.
21st – Metallica/Faith No More @ Irvine Meadows. End of the And Justice For All tour…
23rd – Metallica/Faith No More @ Irvine Meadows. End of the And Justice For All tour…
Oct:
21st – Rolling Stones/Guns and Roses @ LA Coliseum. Grrr…I have the ticket right now but missed the show because I had lost the ticket at the time. I blame Brian G as we were cleaning my room and he put it somewhere and forgot where.
Nov:
11th – Raging Slab @ Iguana’s
Dec:
7th – Soundgarden @ Iguana’s
16th – Testament @ Santa Monica Civic. I am pretty sure this is the show I drove Ted to where he got to interview the band so we went back to their hotel down the street. He went to one room to interview the singer and I stayed in another watching a Woody Allen film with the band and Silver Fox( or Sable) from GLOW.
29th – The Cult/Bonham @ SA
31st – B52′s/Red Hot Chili Peppers @ SA. Fairly certain Psychotic Waltz played Rio’s that night. That should be the night that Tammy maced some chick in the audience. I dated her one time a couple of years later and she told me she got maced and was looking for the girl who did it. That was the last date as there was no way I could bring her around anymore…

1990
Feb:
16th – Voivod/Soundgarden @ Iguana’s
18th – Voivod/Soundgarden @ Jezebel’s in Anaheim.
March:
3rd – The The (with Johnny Mar) @ California Theatre.
July:
???? – Jane’s Addiction @ Mount Baldy. Video shoot for the song STOP from their up coming album. I got wind of this show prior to the tickets going on sale so just about everyone I know went to this. I would be surprised if anyone of them does not have this show in their in their top 5. What an incredible day. We drove to a parking lot in Ontario (east of Los Angeles) and they packed us into buses and drove into the mountains north of LA County. The show was on a stage built at a swimming pool at a lodge up in the mountains. A great Mexican ska band opened up and then Jane’s Addiction played. They did a full set and not just the song for the video. So we got to drink and lounge by the pool and watch JA during the day. Could anything be better?
Aug:
4th – Ramones/Blondie/Tom Tom Club @ OAT. I am fairly certain Hans forced me to leave after Ramones. I am not even sure I saw Tom Tom Club and I know I did not see Blondie. He really pissed me off that night…
Sep:
30th – GWAR @ Iguana’s
Oct:
31st Halloween – Jane’s Addiction @ Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. I told you I saw some great secret shows. I found out about this show the week before. So me and my friends spent the night in line (at the front of it!) but they fucked us over and gave out numbers in line. So only Hans and Tammy got tickets. I drove up there with them anyway hoping to score tickets from a scalper or something. Even luckier I ran into someone from SD that published a monthly fanzine and he got me on for face value. This was the unoffical opening night for the Ritual tour. Its really hard to describe the top JA shows as they were so special. The thing I remeber about this one was Perry talking about how good it feels to have a dick in your mouth. Not sure why he was talking about this but in his poetic way he had the crowed mesmerized.
Nov:
4th – Sonic Youth/Mudhoney @ Iguana’s. Goo tour…
Dec:
10th – Cocteau Twins @ Speckles Theatre. In their prime…
19th – Jane’s Addiction/Pixies @ Hollywood Palladium. They did 3 shows in a row. I thought I went to two of them but I can only find one ticket stub. I know for sure I missed the show where Perry got hit by the Birkenstock…

1991
Feb:
6th – Jane’s Addiction/Screaming Trees @ Golden Hall
April:
18th – Red Hot Chili Peppers/Beastie Boys/Mary’s Danish/Thelonius Monster @ Hollywood Palladium. Fund raiser for a member of Mary’s Danish. Almost every one I meet is so full of shit in regards to Beastie Boys. Paul’s Boutique was a complete bomb and the band was nothing more than has beens in 1990 and 1991. No one cared at all. At least if any one cared they kept it a secret. They killed that night. The crowed was so into them it was insane. I was really surprised as I thought I was the only one who liked PB when it was released. Upon reflection it was just a totally underground success during 1990 and 1991. Slowly, around 1992 and especially when the follow up came out and they got a whole new crowd, was the album actually ever talked about. And of course now it is rightfully considered a classic. Except for a show played to record a video for the album this is the only actual show they ever played for the album due to its commercial failure. http://www.beastiemania.com/gigog/index.php?t=&c=&e=100&p=6 In any case, this whole show was MC’ed by Tom Arnold and Rosanne Barr. I still have the shirt from the show and it shows all the members of each band and Tom and Rosanne. I don’t even remember RHCP but I do remember the powerhouse show BB’s put on…
July:
20th – Lollapalooza (Jane’s Addiction/Siouxsie/NIN/Butthole Surfers and others)  @ Southwestern College
Sep:
26th – Supersuckers @ Casbah (old)
Oct:
24th – Nirvana/Hole/Sister Double Happiness @ Iguana’s. The tour where they met, fell in love and then …well you know the rest. They also played a 30 minute set at Off The Record that afternoon. I missed that show. But did see them packing up and leaving. No idea why I was late…
Dec:
28th – Red Hot Chili Peppers/Nirvana/Pearl Jam @ O’Brien Pavilion, Del Mar Fairgrounds

1992
Feb:
7th – Public Image Limited @ Iguana’s. Video shoot.
8th – Infectious Grooves @ Iguana’s. Don’t remember it being the day after PIL. I also seem to recall No Mercy opened but I can’t prove it.
April:
24th – Soundgarden @ Iguana’s
Aug:
10th - Slayer @ Iguana’s

1993
Feb:
13th: Buck O’Nine @ Soma#2 CD release party I think
May:
7th – Einstürzende Neubauten/Miranda Sex Garden @ The Palace in Hollywood
22nd – Fluid/Supernova @ Dream Street
Oct:
26th – Diamanda Galas @ Mandeville Auditorium. Such an incredible singer…
Nov:
19th – Front 242 @ Iguana’s
27th – My Life With the Thrill Kill Cult @ Worldbeat Center. One of my favorite bands and one hell of a boring live show. Sad.
Dec:
29th – Nirvana @ SA

1997
Oct:
31st – The Residents @ The Fillmore in San Francisco- Halloween night midnight. Discussed in a previous post…

1999
April:
23rd – The Residents @ House of Blues Los Angeles. Wormwood tour.

2000
July:
21st – Einstrezende Neubauten @ The Palace in Hollywood
 
Oct:
3rd - Front 242 @ Canes

2001
May:
23rd – Ogre @ Canes. Sad…

2004
Nov:
28th – Skinny Puppy @ House of Blues in Anaheim

Shakespeare in Love. I love this movie. Just rewatched it on some channel. This has some of the best writing I can imagine though of course the general story is from the man himself. I prefer this to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead but not by much. R&G is just a tad slow for repeated viewings. In any case, SIL is one of my favorite movies.

Some general things to start off my Favorite things:

Music:

Best albums (albums that I think are perfect):
Slayer – Reign in Blood. Cannot be surpassed. Probably the single greatest album ever made.
No Means No – Wrong. Just slightly behind RiB and, honestly, depending on mood I would probably listen to this over the Slayer.
Skinny Puppy – Ain’t It Dead Yet? Live album from the Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate tours or there about. I think this album (along with Janes Addiction’s Nothing Shocking) is the main reason I began to hate heavy metal. But the AIDY video is what made me embarrassed I actually ever liked heavy metal as much as I did.
Fantamos – The Director’s Chair.
Venetian Snares – Rossz Csillag Allat Szletett. Wow! The classical music mixed into this album is a great listen in itself. Reminds of the soundtrack to Blue. But when the breakbeats start…hard to explain the insanity. And the mixing of the two disparate genres is unmatched. And what’s even more amazing is that even though I think this album is perfect and I have listened to it hundreds of times it actually does not even contain my favorite Snares tracks.
Alec Empire vs Merzbow – Live at CBGS’s. Not sure why I like this so much. At times it is pure noise and other times just a droning slow beat. But it works and is the album I have had in my car the longest time. Coming up on two solid years of listening to this album.

Concerts:
Metallica: Nov 8th and 9th 1986. Absolutely hate this band now pretty much since 1988. But even in this hatred of them I have to admit that the best concert moments in my life was that weekend. At the end of September Cliff Burton, Metallica’s bass player, died in a tour bus accident. On Fri Nov 5th I was in Los Angeles seeing Slayer at the beginning of the Reign in Blood tour. While this show in and of itself would be a great show and a great weekend I overheard two people in front of me talking about Metallica playing the next day. Amazing news since the tragedy of 6 weeks earlier. So me and a friend drove up to the club in Reseda the next afternoon to see if it was true. Not only was it true but one of the opening bands sold us tickets to the show AND told us that Metallica was doing yet another secret show the following day in Anaheim. So I called up everyone I knew and had them go to Ticketmaster and get tickets. So at Midnight on Sunday of that weekend I had seen Slayer, and two Metallica secret shows with their new bass player. While the Sunday show was great I liked the Saturday show a bit better.
Slayer – June 5th 1987. Ok In Nov 1986 I saw what I think was the second show of the Reign in Blood tour. On this night in June I saw the last show of the tour. If not for the weekend described above this would be the greatest concert I ever saw. OMFG was this show intense. If I remember correctly they played almost every song they ever recorded. I think the show was close to 1hr 45m long which is amazing since RiB itself is only 28 minutes and is their third album. So they played all of RiB, all of the Haunting the Chapel ep, and I think all of Hell Awaits. As for Show No Mercy I think they did not play 2 or 3 songs. If you have not seen a pit and especially the mid 80′s pits which are different from todays style then it is hard to explain the sheer intensity of this show.
(Other Great Shows)
The Residents – Halloween 1997 (I think). Drove up to San Francisco to see them as they had only previously toured a couple of times in 20 years. So at this point any show whatsoever from them was special. They did a weeks worth of shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco and I went to the midnight show on Halloween. This was later released on CD. A great show from one of my favorite bands.
Slayer – August 1988 Los Angeles (Again…lol) I don’t even like this bands music any more. But relistening to the first few CD’s brings back the memories of all that was great about them. This show was the first (?) show of the South of Heaven tour. While the performance was great it does not come close to the RiB finale. So why is this here? OMG The riot! The way I tell this story me and my friends, about 6 of us at least, drove up to LA for the show like we always did back then. In separate cars… We met at the show and had dinner. It was a fairly sunny day and the anticipation was high for the show. We waited in line and got in and saw two (or three?) great performances. I seem to recall hearing rumblings of trouble when I went to the bathroom or went to buy shirts. Anyway, the show ended and we were not only exhausted but totally drenched with sweat. We walk outside into HELL! A nice sunny day turned into hell as a thunderstorm had rolled in. Off in the distance there was thunder and lightning. But more amazing was the police in riot gear and the helicopters. Sunset Blvd was closed off and we were being rushed to the cars and told to leave. We have no idea what the hell is going on and had no intention of leaving. We were to tired to want to start driving to San Diego already and just wanted to relax for awhile and discuss the show since we had been seperated. Apparantly what happened was the promoter over sold the show so not everyone got in. If you can imagine a few hundred rabid and probably drunk/drugged Slayer fans outside a venue where the band is playing(!) and having a legitimate ticket and being told you can’t come in!!!! Well they rioted. Started destroying store fronts along Sunset and other mischief. The worst I remember seeing was a girl being carted away on a stretcher. She was hurt by glass from the doors in front of the Palladium. To this day I was under the impression she was thrown through the window but I doubt that now. Needless to say she was hurt. It was on the news that night and I showed it to my parents to show them what it is I do in LA….they were not pleased and to this day I doubt they understand why a person would riot. I understand it perfectly especially if the people rioting had seen the RiB show 13 months earlier. They knew what they were missing…

(More stories to follow)