And finally, my craziest experience of 2004:

OK folks, here it is, the much anticipated "Jeff's insane experience of 2004!".........I know I'm sooooo boring, you can wake up now!!...thank you!!

[ahem]...And it has to do with the 1st show I attended, involving my brother's band, the Ghosts of Pasha...

So me and my other brother Dave had heard for months that GOP (Ghosts of Pasha) were going to play in NYC...But we didn't know any other minor facts, like where, and when they would play. So why didn't I try to contact Chris via a phone or email? Well, (a: they don't have a phone....no really, I'm not kidding (b: they do have email!...but they don't respond to it that often.

And then one day, Chris sends a mass email to about 50 people, proclaiming that the GOP were going to play in Brooklyn at The Charleston, on April 10, 2004. Still, however, we didn't know the time of the show.

After dissecting all the emails I received from Chris and looking for hidden messages and codes within them using the latest techniques in code breaking, I deduced that the GOP would be playing around 8PM. So Dave and I embarked, on what would be the nuttiest journey of the year...

After some semi-vague directions given to us by a colleague of Chris, we arrive at the Charleston, right in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant! However, we were prepared for the situation, as we brought our assault rifles, body armor, and bomb-blast suits. (Dave and I had a minor tiff about which bomb-blast suit belonged to each of us..."I thought I labeled my bomb-blast suit in black magic marker! And it says Jeff P. right on the back of the collar!"...we resolved it through a best of 7 rock-paper-scissors competition...I lost, and as a result, had to wear the white and pink striped bomb-blast suit made by Matel.)....OK, that last blurb was BS.. :-)....Anyway, we found the Charleston, and it was 8PM.....

As soon as we entered the place, the toughest 80 year old guy we've ever seen (We'll call him "Mickey", from the Rocky movies) chases after us, grabs us by the shoulders, and gets in our faces, as he shouts, "If you're gonna be in here, you gotta buy a drink! You can't just waltz in and out as you please!!".......no, this really happened....so while nearly pissing in our pants, we explained how we were there to see the GOP, and that we didnt' know what time they played....Mickey tells us, "They're playing at 1AM"...

So me and Dave looked at each other, as we both realized..wait a minute, the train that we took to NYC stops running about 1AM!....Uh oh..

So Chris shows up, with his band members....we say hello, we chat, and I meet their groupies.....then Dave and I decided to offer Chris a drink....He accepted, and after a few minutes, wolfed it down.......then he had another drink, and he finished that off....then I went to the bathroom.....where I saw Chris go into the stall with a large green bottle, which he started downing.

It was around this time that we told Chris about the fact that we couldn't get out of NYC, so he offered us to stay with one of the band members....Dave felt a bit squeamish about sleeping in an unknown apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant with people he doesn't know (except for me), so he backed out...Chris just didn't understand why Dave felt squeamish..(another example of how radically different my brothers are....In these situations, I just slowly slip away, and let them duke it out.) ...In desperation, Dave called my parents -- we got the machine, so we hoped that they could get here at some point during the night.....and they would....heh heh...

At about 10PM, Chris was totally trashed -- this was made immediately clear when we all went outside and he screamed at the top of his lungs, "I'M SO F*CKING TRASHED!!!!!!!"...I then saw the extremely worried looks of the rest of his band, and so they went up to him and tried to calm him down. Dave and I again just looked at each other -- At this point, I think we knew the calamity we were going to witness shortly.

After all of the other CRAPPY bands that preceded GOP (including one guy, who sang "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".....I started getting along with Mickey when I made fun of the singer by saying, "Hell, if you want to see that, just watch one of the 100,000 of American Idol Rejects who try this song)....So Mickey laughed -- He wasn't just old and tough, he was also a hip 80 year old......Hmmm....

So finally, it's 1PM....the band is ready to play....There's about 50 people I haven't seen since high school, all waiting in anticipation of this amazing show......

Chris has trouble plugging in his guitar....the audience begins to notice that something's up.....

Chris then sits down in a stool for 10 minutes, without moving....People begin to theorize that he's imitating "The Thinker" sculpture, for no reason whatsoever...I went up to talk to him..he didn't say a word....he just sat still...

Finally, the band starts playing.....now you have to realize that the band's songs are largely dependent upon Chris's guitar playing......After the first 3 minutes of the song, Chris was to go into some weird guitar jam for 4-5 minutes...However, his hand was moving in a woozy, uncontrolled manner, and what came from his guitar wasn't a solor -- but it was chaotic noise.
The rest of the band was looking over at him in confusion.

After the song ended, 2 things happened at the exact same time:

(1: My parents arrived to rescue me and Dave..Woohoo! We have a ride home!
(2: At the same time, Chris clutches his stomach, and runs towards the restroom.....

Let me say one thing first.....When you're parents see you throw up after getting trashed, that just isn't cool.

He proceeds to throw up for about an hour, with Dave holding him up in the bathroom...Everyone in the entire audience is looking towards the bathroom, with looks of half-shock, half-laughter, while the rest of the band keeps playing songs. I'm sorta caught directly in the middle, communicating to everyone what was happening, and standing by to help out Chris.

This went on for about 30 minutes...After about 15 minutes, the band couldn't play anymore, since they couldn't do any other songs without Chris.

Finally, Mickey gets tough again, and charges into the bathroom. He screams, "GET HIM THE HELL OUTTA HERE!!! PEOPLE GOTTA USE THE BATHROOM! THROW HIM THE HELL OUT!!"....So me, Dave, and my parents had to carry Chris to the car, with him still throwing up. The vomiting continued in the car.

When we got home, it was about 5AM....we had to take Chris down to the basement, and line the floor with old newspaper, so he could throw up the rest of the night without ruining our house.

The next morning, the bathroom smelled like the Velveeta cheese factory...

A lot more personal stuff which I won't go into resulted from this....

So I think you can now understand why I am BOTH (a: looking forward to the show (b: terrified of the show..

And that is my story...I'll let you know how things go this weekend in NYC with GOP....Thank you!!