drownsoda

Seriously dude? Why would I dramatize it? You can ask the three people who were with me. I had a gaggle of teenage girls (all of whom I believe were together as a group) who were trying to maul and pick a fight with me the ENTIRE time. When I pushed back at them after they were kicking and thrashing at me, they tried to yell for the security guards to have me thrown out. It really made the show hard to enjoy.
 
Given the fact that Lana's music is so languid, it was kind of absurd how rabid the crowd was. Period.
 
I was front row at the far right (she stopped and turned around to go back onstage just a few people over from us when she came down to sign stuff and take pictures). I've been to big music festivals before and been in mosh pits in stadiums and I would liken my experience at the Seattle concert to that. It was the same level of energy and insanity, except at other events I've been to, the people were actually NICE. The people at the Lana show by and large were spoiled teenage brats with fuckin' nasty attitudes.

I am so glad that Sleep Country Amphitheater is seated. Seriously.
 
I seriously wouldn't recommend the GA pit, especially if you are of small stature or don't do well in crowds. I saw Lana in Seattle this past May, and it was the most violent concert experience I've ever had. I had braced myself for it because I'd heard her shows were bad, but it was a pain in the ass. I waited with my friends for twelve hours outside before showtime because I was gonna be damned if I didn't get front row. The waiting was worth it and we all got front row, but I could barely concentrate on the show because I was trying to shove rabid tween girls off of me the entire time. The crowd was absolutely psychotic, and there was a group of girls behind me who were mad that my brother and our two female friends were in front of them, so they made it their personal mission to kick the backs of my knees, throw water on me, spit on me, pinch my ribcage, and try to climb over me in order to get in the front. My brother and I are both over six feet tall so they didn't stand a goddamned chance, but besides that, we waited from 6 in the morning to get front row— i.e. we earned it, and they didn't.
 
Honestly though, I saw at least 30 girls get pulled out of the crowd by security throughout the show, and quite a few of them were unconscious. It was so bad that after the opening act they had to turn the house lights on and threatened to stop the show if the audience didn't calm down. I believe this is why she's moving to amphitheaters; smaller venues simply can't accommodate the demand, and not only that, the shows are out of control and bursting at the seams with chaos. The Seattle venue this past May was maximum 5,000 people; the Sleep Country Amphitheater in Ridgefield, WA is 18,000 in comparison. It's not only able to accommodate her fanbase in Portland/Seattle, but it's also SAFE because it's seated. 
 
Because of the utter hell I experienced the first time, I wouldn't be interested in seeing Lana live again if it weren't for the fact that Courtney Love is opening and I am a diehard Hole fan. I read about their tour announcement this morning and it seemed so bizarre that I literally thought I was dreaming— it almost seems like it's tailor made for my music taste. I'm a much bigger fan of Courtney than I am of Lana, but I love them both dearly, so it's a double billing to die for as far as I'm concerned.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

All that said, I got some really good pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

Well said, my friend. 
 
It sounds like you showed up right after the opening act finished his set— the reason that the security guy was giving his speech about safety then was because at least 5-10 girls had been dragged out of the crowd at that point, some of them passed out, and Lana hadn't even come on yet. The crowd was actually more pushy during the opening act, and in-between his set and Lana's. When Lana came onstage things calmed down a little bit in terms of crowd movement (i.e. not as many huge waves of shoving), but the aggression of the girls there got worse.
 
I was disappointed that the stories were true too. My friend in Chicago who saw her warned me, and I didn't want to believe her, but everything she told me about her experience was just about exactly what I experienced. Somehow Lana has gotten a huge draw on the 18-and-under crowd, and these shows have turned out horrifying as a result— gaggles of mindless 10th grade Tumblr drones who, as you said, are hell-bent on sucking everything out of Lana and her image. I didn't realize she had stepped up into Katy Perry/Lady Gaga status— she never struck me as someone who pandered to a young tween crowd, but for reasons beyond me, it happened.  I didn't even realize she was on the radio until last year when someone told me she was— I never listen to the radio so I had no way of knowing. That seems to me to be when she started amassing the psychotic fans I saw at the show.
 
There was a pretty clear division of age at the concert, with a fraction being college-aged kids and older, and a disproportionately large number of tween girls with a cult mentality in flower crowns. The older kids were mature and respectful (i.e. the French girl next to my group and the guy with his girlfriend to my left), but the younger ones were absolutely rabid. I honestly wish her shows could be 21+. Since I was front row, I got to see every single person who was pulled out of the crowd by security, and ALL of them were girls and ALL of them looked like they were 16 and under. It felt to me like those girls should not have been there just for mere safety reasons.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

All that said, I got some really good pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

It was extremely frustrating. I got really angry with them and I scared a few of them because I was NOT being nice at all. If you have a chance to see her, I'd opt for a seated venue to be honest. The view from the barricade was amazing, but the crowd is beyond violent.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

It was extremely frustrating. I got really angry with them and I scared a few of them because I was NOT being nice at all. If you have a chance to see her, I'd opt for a seated venue to be honest. The view from the barricade was amazing, but the crowd is beyond violent.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

All that said, I got some really good pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.

So I was at the Seattle show yesterday on the 27th, and I thought I'd share my experience just to give other people some insight into what they are really getting themselves into at these shows.
 
We showed up at 6am outside the venue and there were already a few people waiting. By 8am, there was a full line that had formed, and the venue staff gave us raffle tickets for being the early birds that guaranteed us first entry into the show, which was really nice. I was in a group of four— myself, my brother, my friend, and my brother's girlfriend. We hung out all day at the show and would leave in groups of two for food and bathroom breaks. By 10am there was a line around the building, and by noon they had herded the line into winding gates, and later formed more lines on the opposite side of the venue doors. By the afternoon it was a zoo there, and one lady told me about an hour or so before the doors opened that the line on our side had extended into three levels of the parking garage across the street. There were A LOT of people there.
 
As far as the tickets went, myself, my brother and his girlfriend all had will-call through Adventures in Wonderland, and my friend had gotten hers through the Ticketmaster presale. The staff kept telling everybody it was a paperless event and that you needed your credit card only to get inside, but they failed to acknowledge the fact that a lot of us had the AIW tickets which were made available to us around 2pm at the box office. Anyway, the AIW tickets were totally valid. Our line got first entry as promised when the doors opened at 6:30pm, and everyone of course ran to the stage against the staff's command. My friend had a hurt knee so we walked as fast as we could and were still able to get a spot up against the barricade. About 20 minutes later we were given the okay to stand, and then shit really got insane. My brother and I secured spots at the barricade and had the two girls in front of us with our arms extended around them so that they wouldn't get crushed against the barricade. 
 
I'm going to be honest here— the majority of the crowd was extremely rude. "Feral teenage girls" is the only way I can describe it. Fortunately my brother and I are both over 6 feet tall and weight 200 pounds each, so we were able to hold our ground, but it was a nonstop struggle from the time we stood until the end of the show. It honestly was the worst during the opening act— SO much pushing and shoving. There was a group of girls behind me who were physically assaulting me the entire show— hitting me, pinching my ribcage, kicking the backs of my knees, scratching me, pulling at my hair— it was ridiculous. One girl who looked like she was sixteen told me she was going to stab me if I didn't move. I of course didn't move, and she of course didn't stab me. One girl poured water on me. My point is, people are INSANE at these shows. My friend in Chicago warned me about it and I took her warning lightly, but now that I experienced the show, I cannot imagine being under 5'5" and lasting long on the floor. There were at least 20 girls who I saw get pulled over the barricade and taken out by security; some of them were stone cold passed out, and at one point during the show, cops came in and were arresting people. 
 
The large group of girls behind me who were attacking me the whole time did not seem to understand that I was physically pressed against a metal fence with a 5 foot tall person in front of me whom I was trying to protect from getting crushed— they still thought they were entitled and should have been allowed to be where I was standing. Before Lana came on, after the opening act, a security guard told all the guys in the front (myself included) to put our arms out against the bar on the barricade and push our bodies back to keep the girls in front of us safe, which I had to do multiple times throughout the show, and every time I did it all of the girls behind me screamed and acted like I was abusing them. Several of them tried to tell the security to kick us out for pushing back against them, but there was literally no other option— these girls did not seem to understand that our bodies were up against steel and that we were NOT going to move any further. One girl gave me a lot of trouble (the one who was pinching my rib cage) and she kept wedging her arm in-between mine and the guy's next to me on the barricade, and I told her repeatedly to get her arm out because when a pushing wave came she was going to end up with a broken arm, but she refused to listen to me. 
 
Luckily, I had a really nice Australian guy to my right who was protecting his girlfriend against the barricade, and to the right of us was a French female college student from Paris who was super friendly and had seen Lana before in Paris last year. I felt bad for her because she was against the barricade as well and people were pushing on her the entire time and she was fighting back. 
 
Honestly though, the crowds— mainly teenage girls in flower crowns— need to CHILL out. I waited in line for 14 hours and we EARNED our spot against that barricade. Honestly I felt like 80% of the crowd were a bunch of spoiled high school girls who had gotten tickets through their parents, and they had absolutely no respect for anybody and were horribly entitled. One girl who was attacking me informed me she "knew more of Lana's songs than I did," and that I shouldn't even have been there— goes to show the maturity level/age group of these girls. I'm glad I was able to give them a wake-up call that they can't always get their way, especially when they are going to try to cheat their way to the front and threaten and hurt people to do so. As I said, I had the benefit of being a big guy who could easily handle their attempts at destabilizing me, but it was disturbing how aggressive and pissed off they were. When the show ended, the security guard near us came up to the barricade and gave me a thumbs up and told me I did the right thing by pushing back and holding my ground to protect my friend in front of me, and all of the girls who had spent three and a half hours mauling me scoffed and were appalled. It was a nice affirmation.
 
As far as Lana's show goes, it was of course incredible. She came down to the barricade and took pictures with fans midway through the set, but stopped and turned around literally FEET before us unfortunately. I got some great photos though and did my best to enjoy the music. 
 
But, yeah, the show was as insane as I was warned it would be. Worse than punk shows. I've seen Hole live before and the crowd was tamer than this. What it comes down to is that the majority of the crowd was immature, selfish, and incredibly mean-spirited. Beware of that. Unless of course you ARE one of these people, in which case all I have to say to you is: GROW UP.
 
Also: make sure you are hydrated and have eaten something, even if it's light. A lot of these girls were passing out as I said and many of them were pulled over the barricade because they couldn't handle it. One of my friends from college was there on the opposite side with three of her friends, and she told me that two of her friends collapsed one had a panic attack and had to be taken out. I guess my point is, yes, these shows ARE as crazy as people are saying they are, and this is coming from a 23 year old male who has gone to multiple punk and rock shows before and been in moshpits. BE PREPARED PLEASE.