In comparison to last weeks excursion to the middle east, last nights gig was many kinds of awesome. Meat Beat Manifesto put on a real cool visual show. Total sensory overload. Of course, the music was also really good, with a mix of new stuff I hadn't heard before, along with a bunch of old favorites like Helter Skelter, Radio Babylon etc.

I managed to find a really good spot to take a ton of photos. Somehow I even managed to stay in a section that was later cordoned off without being evicted by the security guys like everyone else. Maybe they thought I was the band photographer or something. I wasn't complaining.

At the end of the night, I was somewhat relieved to not have a repeat of the craziness after last weeks show. Autechre had just walked off stage, and the security guys were marshaling us upstairs so they could close that part of the club. Ajax and I still had some beer left, so we took a seat, and finished. After which, we found out that we still had time for another, so the inevitable ensued. We were barely halfway through drinking when we were told we had to leave. Immediately. "Sure" we said, "just need to go the bathroom". I waited outside the bathroom whilst Ajax did his business. Shortly afterward, he reappears, and I enter. At this point, things go a bit weird. The lights go out. "Hey" I shout. The lights go back on. A few seconds later, they go off again. I holler again, but this time, no reactivation of the lights. Being a resourceful type, I happened to have a torch on my keyring. So I'm finishing up by torchlight, and finally emerge from the bathroom. Into complete darkness. All the lights in the place are out. Not a soul to be seen. "Strange" I think, and head to the door. Locked. Apparently from the outside. I wander around for a while shouting. No response. I wandered some more pushing doors to no avail, and then saw the fire exit. "This has to open" I thought, but then I hesitated. "What if an alarm goes off?". I pondered my quandary for a moment, before thinking to hell with it, and shoved the door open, and fled to the street, to bump into Ajax again who was wondering where the hell I had got to.

Crazy.

And then, we had pancakes. And all was right with the world again. There is no problem that ihop can't solve.