Breaking the Broken

Friday night Sparta was in town opening up for Alice in Chains and Velvet Revolver. It was their first night joining the VR tour and their set was kick-ass, as usual. John and I were supposed to interview the band but after wasting 40 minutes dealing with rude and uncooperative security and venue personnel we knew things would be messed up.

Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

I didn’t expect nor want any special treatment at all, aside from having access to Tony and Keeley as arranged by Sparta’s management. But really, what is it with arena security people in this town? They were snide and demeaning, basically ruining that part of our night and making it impossible to conduct our interview after detaining us for so long. Do John and I just look like total thugs or what?

FYI when you have an arranged interview with a band, the tour manager’s number in your cell phone, a VIP laminate & tickets you still cannot bring in a Canon Powershot camera. Well that was totally fine, no worries, the interview audio was the most important thing so I really didn’t need the camera although it was a bit of a bummer. But when I agreed (with no fuss at all) to leave it at Guest Services, I didn’t expect the reaction I received. The security guard turned to his buddy and said, “she can get it back after the show,” followed by a couple winks and some exchanged laughter. Not only was I already embarrassed enough, I was now the butt of their joke.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to us, all while being 100% cooperative and catering to every request no matter how unreasonable, undeserving or unethical said requests have been.

Despite all of this, it was still a pleasure to deal with Sparta’s management, and tour manager – they are always enthusiastic about our podcasting and promotion of the band and made every attempt to make our night enjoyable. In fact their manager literally went out of his way to rectify the situation, which unfortunately was to no avail by that time.

We still enjoyed our amazing seats compliments of Sparta and stayed in them until Alice in Chains was on stage. Hundreds of people seemed to leave when Velvet Revolver came on and by their drunken rants and shouting, apparently VR’s show was not the best and most would have been happy with Alice in Chains headlining. But that was just a small sampling of the audience, so if you were actually at the concert as well, leave me a comment/review.

All in all, the night wasn’t a total bust, we did have fun although I am pretty soured on attending any big venue shows for a very long time. Best of luck to Sparta who will be opening on the tour through October, and if you’re at any of the upcoming stops, show up early to catch this act, you won’t be disappointed.