OFF: Everyone's A Critic

[DFrost8547 at AOL.COM]

Thought you might enjoy the first literary efforts of my friend Carla
DeSantis' 8 year old, just published in shorter form in Seattle's
Rocket...it's more informed and intelligent than just about anything I've
read in the rock press or music sections elsewhere by an "adult" lately....

My Review
By David DeSantis

I went to see my first rock concert, Lollapalooza, with my mom.  I really
like The Ramones, so I wanted to see them, especially since they were going
to break up. My mom talks to Joey Ramone on the phone sometimes and he has
helped her out with her magazine, so he gave us V.I.P. passes. When we got
there, we had to wait a long time to get to our parking spot and tickets.
They checked to see if we had any weapons or anything.  Unfortunately, we
didnit.

Then we went to the Main Stage.  The Shaolin Monks were playing.  I didnit
really see them because we went backstage where they had couches under a tent
and it wasnit so hot.  That was where the dressing rooms were for The Ramones
and Rancid.

Somebody said they saw Joey talking to Eddie Vedder outside the tent.  I
started running down there and my mom followed me. He had long hair and we
couldnit see his face so we thought it was Joey.  I said to my mom, iYou say
hi first.i  She said, iHi, Eddie.  Hi, Joey. When he turned around we saw it
wasnit Joey -- it was Johnny.  My mom said, iIim a friend of Joeyis.i  Then
Johnny said, iHeis your friend and you donit even know what he looks like?i
 And my mom said, iWell, I never met him before.i  My mom was really
embarrassed so we went back to where the dressing room was.

The Ramonesi tour manager came by.  His name was Monty.  I asked him if we
could go into The Ramonesi dressing room and meet Joey.  Then he said, iokay,
come on.i  We saw Joey talking to these two other people.  I gave him some
candy and two pictures that I drew. He had to go and get ready for the show
so we went to the press area to see if my friend, Charley, the editor of The
Rocket was there.  He wasnit, so we went out to the audience and waited for
The Ramones to start playing.

They were a very good band and I liked them a lot.  I thought it was loud.  I
noticed the songs were a lot faster than on the tapes.

When they were done we went back over to the tent.  Joey came out of the
dressing room and asked us if we wanted to go eat with him.  I asked my mom
and she said yes so we ate at the tent where only people like rock stars and
their friends could get something.  We didnit have a ticket so Joey asked his
friend if she had one for me, and she did.

After we ate, Joey took us backstage and Soundgarden started to play. We went
up to the side.  I liked all the songs, especially iBlack Hole Sun.i Chris
Cornell played it alone.  He said iThis is the very first concert I ever
played with my car keys in my pocket.i

Andy, the guitar tuner from Metallica, let all the kids get closer to the
band, where he was getting the guitars ready. I said to him, iI like your
guitar,i so he gave me a Metallica guitar pick. Then he put part of the
guitar over me, and I played it with the pick.

After Soundgarden was done we left.  I threw a fit because I didnit get to
see Metallica.  Mom said it was too late.