Posted by: tlnemethy | September 5, 2012

Neon Trees The Continuation

Anyways. I’m roasting to death in the middle of a slow motion mosh pit and my group of friends and I are totally trying to stay close together so we don’t get separated. Of course, I’m always the last in line, and as one of the shortest I can’t see over my own friends, let alone the ogre of a man standing in front of all of us. Oh well. It’s the concert experience, or so they tell me. We’ve already listened to a few “underling” bands and I have no idea what I’m doing, but I start singing along if I can decipher the lyrical codes. Finally, the band before Neon Trees sings a cover of Talking Heads’ Burning Down the House. I know these words. I’m busting out the lyrics and my friend turns to me completely blown away that I know the words to some random band from the fringes of musical awareness.

I just shrug my shoulders because it is way too noisy to explain the situation to her. Every now and then I just lean forward and shout, “burning down the house” into her ears. Being respected for musical knowledge has never been a strong suit of mine so I take the credit when I can. I’m waiting for Neon Trees to play the only two songs that I know, but they just keep toying with me. The lead singer always introduces the songs with a weird little anecdote that acts as a clue for the die-hard fans. All I can do is internally scratch my head and plaster a smile on my face if my friends ever turn to look at how amazing my reaction should be.

I’m mentally calculating how long they could possibly be on stage. Well, if a song is averaging four minutes and they need to be off stage at 11:30 max, then they should only have time for like 10 songs. One down. That wasn’t too bad. Didn’t really like the song, but you can’t like them all. Two down. Man my feet really hurt. Why am I wearing flip-flops? I start doing an awkward shifting thing that might look like dancing. Three, four, five down. Whew, halfway. Still no idea why everyone around me is singing the words. Did I miss the distribution of lyric books? I just can’t believe that these are popular songs. Why is he (the lead singer) yelling so loud? My ears are gonna be destroyed by the sheer volume. I start thinking about how many decibels it takes to destroy your hearing. I want to say that vacuum cleaners are the sneaky hearing killers. Must’ve read that somewhere. Vacuums, lawn mowers, iPods, gunfire, machinery in general…they’re all leading to premature deafness.

Six, seven, eight. I wonder if my friends will notice if I just sneak back to the seats at the far end of the theater. Ooh. I smell weed. Someone clearly didn’t get frisked well. I then spend the next few minutes trying to locate the scent of pot. It’s definitely coming from in front of the ogre, yup, I see some smoke. What balls! Lighting up in the middle of a sardine can of witnesses. My friend turns to me and I plaster that smile on. Hey, what’s up? She comes closer and fiddles with her hair. Oh god. Something just fell into my hand. Spider. I hate spiders. I uncup my hand and let the spider fall to the ground without even looking at it. My friend looks confused like she lost something and she won’t stop fiddling with her hair.  I give her one of my concerned facial shrugs and she points at her ear where there used to be an earplug. I laugh. I guess I know that I didn’t throw a spider on the ground, but an earplug instead. Retrieving it is like picking through a minefield of plastic cups, hair scrunchies, and stickiness. My lip curls up as I hand it back and quickly wipe my hand on my shorts.

Well time’s run out. Bye bye Neon Trees and hello sleepy time. I still haven’t heard either of the songs I know. They walk off stage and I’m glad he never crowd surfed to me. That guy sure could sweat. He changed clothes like four times and he looks like he went swimming in the back every time he returned. I probably look the same so I shouldn’t complain. Encore. Oh yeah. I forgot that happens at concerts. Finally they play not one, but both of the songs that I know. I’m all revved up for when we leave the theater, bouncing around the streets of Providence, completely deaf to normal sounds.

Did I enjoy the concert? Overall yes, but if I’d gone alone I wouldn’t have had half as much fun. Friends make unpleasant things so much more interesting. Would I need to actually learn a few more songs before I went to another concert? Hells yes. No question. Maybe I’ll give it another try sometime, but I’ll damn well wear sneakers and as little clothing as possible to counteract the heat.

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Posted in Pit Stops: No Work & All Play

Posted by: tlnemethy | September 3, 2012

Neon Trees aren’t an indigenous species?

Remember how the fish processing plant in Naknek played music over the loudspeakers in the Fillet House? Well, on my first shift they played Everybody Talks by Neon Trees just about every hour meaning I heard it about 16 times. Now maybe if I’d even heard of Neon Trees before then I might have gotten sick of its continuous playing, but because they were so novel to me –and I really enjoyed the peppiness of the song– I just bobbed my head to the beat and learned the lyrics especially quickly. In case you don’t know the song, here’s a link to the YouTube video for Everybody Talks.

While most people began to deteriorate under the overplaying of many popular songs I just wanted to preserve a playlist of my time in the plant. I want to blare it from my convertible as I go on a huge road trip and share my experiences with the lucky passenger. The songs I remember most are:

  • Everybody Talks-Neon Trees
  • Animal- Neon Trees
  • Home-Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros
  • Don’t Stop Believing- Journey (Let’s just say this song now makes me want to stop believing)
  • Electric Feel- MGMT
  • Some Nights-Fun.
  • Young, Wild, Free-Wiz Khalifa
  • Drive By- Train
  • Call Me Maybe- Carly Rae Jepson
  • Turn Me On- David Guetta & Nicki Minaj

Now, back to the Neon Trees story. I decided that I really enjoyed the band that I hadn’t even heard of until Naknek and the fillet line so when I got the opportunity to go see them in concert I was just plain stoked. Some of my friends from high school who I sadly hadn’t seen in a handful of years decided to let me into the concert sphere and I couldn’t have been happier. I don’t do the concert thing very often and besides a few dates at jazz shindigs, I hadn’t been to one since Martina McBride in the early 2000’s. But this was one to change all my preconceived notions. Instead of sitting like civilized people, we crammed against one another in an attempt to see the band better. Now, I don’t know about you, but I NEVER know what a band looks like. I mean, I like your music but you would only anger me if I knew you were also damned attractive.

More on the Neon Trees concert in the next installment. What fun awaits.

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Posted in Pit Stops: No Work & All Play | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: tlnemethy | September 1, 2012

Naknek: The Aftermath

I’ve officially been out of Naknek, and Alaska in particular, for a month give or take. I spent a good 24 hours of journeying, plant to home, and it took a toll. My feet would not fit into my boots after two days of rest and non-working so I loaned them to my roommate for the remainder of her work at the plant. Her feet consequentially had swollen as well and my boots were just right for her little sausage toes. I wore a pair of hideous flip-flops and through all the pressure changes of elevations and flights and airport time, my feet were the worst they ever looked when I limped my ass to my dad and his awaiting truck. It was a horribly humid day for me to return to after months of Alaska weather. In fact, I make it a point to wear my bulkiest clothing items on journeys Imageso I don’t have to carry them, which was a very bad idea for this trip.

I showed up in my warmest gear, the only gear that I didn’t throw away because of the burnt in smell of salmon. What I couldn’t part with I wrapped in a plastic bag and hoped wouldn’t leach out into the rest of my clothes or disturb fellow passengers. My Michigan Tech sweatshirt was one that I kept, even though the professional laundering service left chunks of salmon on the hood. It’d just seen too much to be thrown away willy nilly.

I’ve since attended physical therapy to regain feeling in my toes. There’s nothing quite so fun as sitting in a public place with your feet in a bowl of rice trying to pick up the tiny grains, or placing rocks into a cup only by using your toes. Before Alaska, I would have won competitions for toe dexterity and manipulation, generally choosing to pick up scattered clothes on my floor only by their accord while my hands were free to do anything else. Trust me, my toes were pretty gifted. It was appalling to struggle with something so basic. The doctor also prescribed I wear compression socks that made me feel like I was 90 years old and decrepit, as well as electroshock therapy. Very awkward sending volts of electricity arching across both of my feet.

Surprising doctors is now something I like to do. My regular doctor was very confused when he got a message stating I was coming in with possible frostbite. New England hadn’t seen any temps lower than 85 and I was “possibly frostbitten.” Priceless faces are worth such things. My physical therapist also had a great reaction when he turned on the electricity through my feet. He’s cranking up the juice and is like “you should feel the volts here. Let me know when it gets too uncomfortable.”  My shrugging expression (yes an expression can shrug without the shoulders being involved) startled him. “You can’t feel that?”

“Ha. No way man. Keep sending the juice.” I threw my thumbs up in the air, gesturing until  I could feel the tingle in my toes. I let it flow until it actually started to make my toes move in reaction and told him it was good. His eyes were pretty bugged out and he left me to go discuss with a fellow therapist. I watched the conversation like a creeper, alternating between that and watching my toes try to escape from the current in my foot. I’m sure a few of the patients working out near me thought I had mental instability issues because I just kept laughing at my twitching toes.

All’s well that ends well though. I now have replaced the numbness in my toes with a completely functioning super sensitivity that is even more annoying. Alaska left me with some great friends, some great experiences, and some stories I’m going to be sharing for the rest of my life. Cross Alaska off the list. Where am I heading next? Move over Mike Rowe, I want some of those dirty jobs for myself.

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Posted in Naknek Or Bust: Working in The Plant | Tags:

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