Banned from the Rose Garden!!!

       BANNED FROM THE ROSE GARDEN

                                          Band names excluded out of authors  embarrassment

You will have to forgive me, my memory of this night was very blurred due to the amount of drugs and alcohol consumed. This tale and what we did was told over by innocent onlookers and those who participated or succeeded for years. Also, this was late 90's so no camera/video phones to catch what happened. This may have actually been my first big stadium concert, which was at the Rose Garden in Portland. I was a freshman in High School and went to the #$%@/!@#$%^% tour stop. I was attending with my sister, her boyfriend and a bunch of his and my friends, maybe 10-15 people in all. They were all Seniors,most of them on the football team, ripped as hell but also known to party and fight the hardest. In the parking lot we started with a couple of half gallons of Jack Daniels. We found our seats to be about as far from the stage you could get and $#!%^*&*’s opening set was spent dropping acid, doing crystal meth and drinking more whiskey. I do not remember who's idea it was but we were all upset with the seats and wanted on the floor/pit area. "Lets rush the gates". We spent the time in between sets in the concession area gathering followers (many would not follow ,but we'll get to that). We asked around, trying to find someone who knew the fastest way to the floor. We found our guy who explained we could go from the concession area, down several flights of stairs, through a set of doors and then through a hallway with barricades and security. It was decided that the moment that first song started we would all rush at once (about 20-40 people) and simply force our way into the pit. Now, from what I recall there was a core group (my friends...out of our minds at this time) who were dedicated 100% to this. There was another group who could probably see that we were crazy and wanted to witness what was about to go down. We had (probably one of the girls, who was not rushing) someone to signal us when it was time. We figured the first chord would be the best time to catch security off guard. "GO!!!" Down the stairs, I remember stepping on and over people who turned around after they saw the first security or barricades and tried to go back. Squish...oh, is that your neck? Sorry bitch, if you were not committed you should stay in your fucking seat. I made it down the stairs fairly easy, through the door and into the hallway. I remember running at full sprint down the hallway and watching as either security got out of the way or got cold cocked by the 3 or 4 main Senior football players that were leading the way. It was an insanely surreal and intense few moments. I made it past the last barricade and two security guards with what looked like broken noses. After that I was out onto the floor and was grabbed by a huge security guard (I later found out it was OSU linemen doing security, or some other college team) who was the last thing between me and the pit area. I struggled with him, my shirt was torn off and he eventually carried me under arm into a security/detainment area. I was hand cuffed to a chair and questioned about the incident. My excuse was I had been on the floor and was returning from the bathroom and my wristband ticket were torn off and lost. I was asked how much and which drugs I was on but I had lost count (I am gonna say 4-6 substances, by different accounts). Luckily, because I was a minor, I was photographed and banned from the Rose Garden, instead of facing assault charges etc. I don't remember ever hitting anybody anyway and was only about 130 lbs. I spent the rest of the evening smoking joints and chatting with prostitutes around the area. I later found out that 4-5 of the bigger Seniors had indeed made it and spent the rest of the concert on the floor, surely moshing and beating people senseless. I got shit from these guys for years for not making it, even though I was 100 lbs. smaller, younger and nobody fucking helped me fight that last security fucking linebacker. For the story alone it was better than spending the entire concert in those awful seats. I quickly grew out of and loathed this type of rock music. Looking back it was very stupid, if you want on the floor don't stomp on and punch people, just buy a fucking ticket for the floor. I do wonder if they still have my picture on the security room wall though. Haha. Banned from the Rose Garden!