blondie has been a favorite of mine since i was a little teenager. debbie harry was always so inspiring. and clem...well, you all know how i feel about him, right?
and i saw blondie last year, in dc, which i wrote about before. but that was the only time.
when i was at the split squad show at the brighton bar, and talking to clem, he mentioned blondie touring and i said i was planning on seeing them in bethelehem. and he said "oh cool, i'll put you on the list. just shoot me an email." and he wrote down his email address for me. WHAT. yes. he did. so a few weeks before the show i emailed clem burke (i'm still getting used to that...) and he was totally cool about it and said he'd put me on the list. what i didn't realize was that i was on the list (plus one - so i took my new show buddy) and we got ALL ACCESS PASSES. oh no he didn't. but he did. and then unfortunately we were denied access to pretty much everywhere we went, until we just happened to see clem coming towards us down the hall. he recognized me and said "hey, you guys get in ok?" uh. yes. "do you want to come with me?" uh. yes. we followed him through the doors and into the backstage area. down the hallway, past the closed door with a sign on it that said "DEBBIE HARRY." and the rest of the band's room; the door to that one was open and freaking chris stein was in there, sitting on the couch. i couldn't believe it. then clem opens up the door marked "CLEM BURKE" and ushers us in, offers us a seat on the couch, and some wine to drink. we made small talk. he asked about my band's show that had just happened the night before (i mentioned it in one of the emails) (also don't ask about it. just don't). i'm not going to write about everything because that will take forever and might be kind of boring. but i'm going to highlight the important stuff from here on out. so clem started going through a stack of records that someone had given him the night before; most of them were jazz drummers but one was the soundtrack to christiane f., which was all david bowie songs. he said "i don't know why they gave this to me...you want this?" and that is how i ended up with a david bowie record at a blondie gig. he showed us the stage area, and said we were welcome to watch the show from there, or go to our seats (tickets were included with the passes). so we watched the show from the side of the stage, because when else are we ever going to get the chance to do that??
BE STILL MY HEART.
seriously. i was freaking out.
when they started to play "dreaming" i could not take my eyes off of clem. i watched him throw his sticks in the air and catch them. every. single. god. damn. time. and watching debbie perform is still really surreal to me; i almost couldn't believe i was standing on the same floor as her, but look! there she is! unreal. the set was good. ok, well, i mean, they sounded amazing. and i like the new songs! i don't want them to stop doing that. but it's the same complaint as the last time i saw them; i would just rather hear "fan mail" than "rapture," or "11:59" instead of "hanging on the telephone" or "union city blue" instead of "call me." you know? but i'm not really complaining. i guess. just an observation, really.
then after the show, clem invited us back into his room, after a quick shower. he walked around, packing stuff up, asking us how the show was. as if there was a chance it was going to be anything less than perfect. then he sat down and said "wanna go see what they're up to in the band room?" i was being extremely squirmy and nervous so i finally just blurted out how blondie have been one of my favorite bands for years and that seeing them was a big deal and if i meet debbie i'll fall over. he just looked at me and said "cool." HAHAHA OH MY GOD I'M THE BIGGEST DORK and he's just like yeah, ok kid, cool. OH MY GOD.
so we go to the band room, and there is chris stein on the couch, just hanging out, texting or whatever on his phone. there were a bunch of people but one by one they all left, even clem, leaving me and my friend alone with chris. he didn't seem to notice. so i said "uh, we can go, if you want, i don't wanna cramp your style or whatever." and he just said it was cool, and we could stay, and also that "joan would eat you for dinner." WHAAAAAAAAAAAT. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH. he said "are you in a band?" "uh. yeah." "what do you do?" "i'm the drummer." "oh! cool." then my friend says "i repair grandfather clocks." and chris is like "wow! really?" and they have this whole conversation about clocks. then clem pokes his head in and says to me, "hey. wanna meet debbie?" huhbuhduhhuhbuhduhwha? yeah sure ok let me just evacuate my bowels first.
i followed him into the room next door and there she is. this woman who has been an inspiration for so much of my life. no i'm not a singer, but if debbie can be a sexy lady in a band of dudes and still be taken seriously than surely there is hope for me, no? that's what i mean, i guess. but of course i didn't say that to her because i'm a FUCKING IDIOT. clem introduced me to her and i said hi and she said "hi, chloe" in that fucking perfect voice she has and OH MY GOD THIS IS MY LIFE I AM SITTING ON A COUCH ACROSS FROM DEBBIE FUCKING HARRY HOW DID THIS HAPPEN. so i sat there like a polite idiot while they talked and stuff and then my friend wandered in even though i was trying to make eyes at him not to, and sure enough, right after that, clem kinda ushered us out. but not before asking debbie to sign my record for me. "should i sign it as david?" UGHGHADFSD SIGN IT HOWEVER YOU WANT YOU PERFECT GODDAMN CREATURE YOU. (she signed it as herself). we hung out with clem for a while after that and he even invited us up to his hotel room to hang out with him and the crew members, since it was the last night before the european tour starts, but i was afraid that he would get sick of me and my cough (yeah i had this horrible phlegmy cough that i had to keep stifling) and decided to just leave at that point. but it was a wonderful night overall and i fucking met debbie harry and if i think about it i'm going to cry so la la la la la la here i go now.
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