Day 23 FRI: 2/29: MR FLASH

Friday morning I woke up in a quiet apartment and enjoyed walking around in my underwear for a while with nobody to see me. Enjoy that image.

I had the flyer saved for almost two weeks now. Ed Bangers presents: Mr Flash. I was so excited- I just needed to get to the club- Brancaleone- which is not close by. I talked with Sino and Angels to see what they were doing to get there. Sino wanted to leave by cab @ 10:30, but I wasn’t ready yet. I cooked dinner with Blake and headed out on the town (Blake had an easy night in). I met up with Angels at her and Olga’s place. There were five other people there who I recognized from previous night. I had a Bergen Brau (the cheapest beer in Rome which is excellent) and we headed out. We split up 4 and 4 in each taxi to have equal fares. The ride was much nicer than the first taxi I took and the fare was reasonable when split 4 ways. Well we walked in and the place was huge. I think they had 3 different rooms for DJs and one big area in the middle. The group DSL came of first to open for Mr. Flash. They played Pharoahe Monch's “Simon Says (Get the F*** Up)” before Mr Flash came on- I was already going nuts. Luckily we brought some entertainment to the show. Because they don’t check bags at these things we could bring in our own dranks. Hey it saves money. Well the show was insane. Some highlights from the show: “still dre”, mr oizo- “positif”, the proxy- “who are you”, daft punk- “television”, lil wayne- “a milli” (yes I know it’s lame, but it surprised me… I mean it’s italy… come on).

The best part of the night was when Angels dragged me and Hannah over towards the back wall off to the side of stage. She walked up and started talking to this bouncer standing in front of a black curtain that I hadn’t even noticed. Immediately Hannah grabbed my hand and interlocked fingers. She leaned on me and sort of grabbed my arm. I gave her a funny look and she fiercely whispered in my ear “DON’T SPEAK ANY ENGLISH!” I immediately understood what was going on. The bouncer stared us up and down then finally parted the curtain aside. Hannah clenched my arm as we walked through the curtain with a forced air of confidence. We were now backstage. I was in a room with a few people that I felt were giving me a cold stare. I kept my composure and walked to the left to look at Mr Flash from behind. You could see out across the stage towards everyone in the audience. I slowly slid my camera out of my pocket, held it waist level, and calmly tried to take a picture without anyone seeing me. I thought I was sly. Angels got some free champagne and then we walked right back out. I realized that I never had a picture of the VIP room so I carelessly snapped one behind my back as we were walking out of the room. The flash lit everything up behind me, but it was too late- we were already out. I hope my picture turn out OK. I’m still waiting for the film to develop (which takes FOREVER here, not just 1 hour like in the states).
UPDATE: here they are:







CLICK ON THEM TO SEE THE WHOLE SET