"hey sis, let me use your credit card....."

by roberto_espinoza420 on jun 09, 2011

it was the summer of '96 & i was into the second year of my first ever job. i was fortunate enough to be working with one of my best friends at the same job when he told me about Lolla & how we should really go. i said cool, make it happen. i remember we were at work on a saturday & he happened to have the keys to the office so he went upstairs & called ticketmaster to see when the next show was coming to our area. tennessee. cool. now to come up with the way to pay for the $45 tickets via credit card. hmmmm, who did i know with a credit card? ah, my sister who just happen to carry american express, never leave home without it! after begging her to order the tickets for me & my buddy, oh yeah & my girlfriend at the time, a few other of my pals heard about it & wanted in too. hah, this next part is so insane, my parents heard us overtalking about & decided they wanted to make the trek as well. my parents were really cool, so i didn't mind. so after seven tickets being purchased on the ol' AE, we were ready. my buddies left the day before the show & decided to camp there overnight (it was in the middle of a HUGE cornfield down by the river with train tracks nearby). my parents & my girlfriend set out the night before the event. we drove for probably about close to 170 miles to get there only to find out you couldn't get a room anywhere. so we slept in my parents chrysler new yorker in a gas station parking lot. i remember when we got there it was so damn HOT! after meeting up with my buddies, we rode around the campgrounds in his nissan sentra with the hatchback popped open stopping at various campsites to partake of a cold beverage or two. then it was showtime. it was the greatest thing i ever witnessed. they stopped my buddy at the gate with loaded down pockets full of beer. the guard told him to either dump them or chug 'em. he chose the latter. after making our way inside & witnessing rancid open followed by the screaming trees, i remember telling my girlfriend how hot it was. we decided to find a place to sit down & the last thing i remember is passing out while the Buddhist monks performed on stage. i was awakened by the sound of Joey Ramone wailing "I Wanted to Be Sedated". but the messed up thing was my girlfriend was no longer beside me. oh well. i ventured out to see if i could find her & in the process ran into my parents by the gigantic inflatable gorilla entrance. my mom was sitting leaned up against it & my step-dad was passed out, a victim of far too many cold ones. it was hot & my mom was worried about my step dad's long hair making him hotter so i pulled out my pocket knife & cut a small section of the string the gorilla was tied down with & made us some pony tail holders to tie our hair back with. so as the evening progressed with performances by Rage & Soundgarden,(it finally rained as Cornell performed an acoustic of "Black Hole Sun"), i gradually made my way to THREE ROWS UP FROM THE FRONT just in time for the Metallica performance. it was everything i thought it would be. my chest felt like it was going to cave in as they done sound check on Larrs' drumset. then they opened with "Stone Cold Crazy" & the rest was totally insane from that point on. i remember some guy in a wheelchair being body surfed right into the waiting hands of security at the front of the stage. after about an hour & a half into the performance i decided i should probably go find my girlfriend. i remember making my way away from the stage through the crowd & thinking that this really sucked. i had her to blame. right in the middle of " Nothing Else Matters". so when i finally did find her, finding my parents first, i asked where the hell she'd been! she never would tell me, so i was naturally pissed. it was a very distant 175 mile ride back home. it wasn't until the next day at work my buddy who's idea it was to go told me what happened. he arrived back at the campsite where my other buddy had parked his nissan. he said that he tried to open the car door but it was locked. meanwhile after about 15 to 20 minutes worth of protest, he & my girlfriend finally emerged from the car, sweaty, red-faced, & out of breath. oh well, they were together for almost two years & while he was at army basic training she wrote him a letter telling him she was dumping his ass. now she's married to an ex-felon & has sixty million kids. i myself am making my plans for my next Lollapalooza memory.

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