Summer’s Last Stand Underneath The Q-Tent (Video)

Summer's Last Stand Tour came to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Friday, although we struggled to find 7 people with Slipknot masks, it was a great show and a lovely day for Metal.

On Friday If you were waiting in line at SPAC, to see Slipknot, Lamb of God, Bullet for my Valentine and Motionless in White, then you may of seen this tent, and me underneath it.

For almost a decade I had not been to a real show or concert, and I did not know if I was going to go for sure until Thursday, but I had never been to a Metal show at SPAC before and I could not resist representing Q103 at one of our biggest events of the year.

I set out from my apartment at 12:45 pm, I took 9 up to Grooms Rd to avoid the bridge traffic, I was thrilled when I merged onto the Northway with no delays, traffic moved at a moderate pace on the way up, which I did not understand, because it was the 2nd Friday of the season at the track.

I had no real trouble driving until I arrived at SPAC, after 1 risky left I found out that I was at the wrong entrance, 1 safe and 2 ricky lefts later I was on the correct side, I could see the Q-Van from the confusing entrance.

Confusing because the right side with the giant arrow pointing in was blocked off, the left side with the giant arrows pointing out was not. I had to go in, through the out side, which was not a bad start, but it made me feel like I was already doing everything wrong.

I was very happy about my parking spot, it was the greatest parking spot I had ever had at SPAC, only a few feet away from the gates. I had to double-check with the event staff though, because my parking spot seemed too good to be true, but what the kid setting up the orange barrels and caution tape said to me did not settle my nerves, so I would keep a constant eye on my car.

My co-worker, Jess, was beginning to pull things out of the Q-Van, I was impressed at how a girl half my size was able to pull the large and heavy objects out of the van by herself, but when it came time to set up the tent, Jess had met her match. We had put in a good effort spreading the tent apart but when it came time to raise it, Jess was too short to be effective. A good samaritan attempted to help us, but then Flounder showed up out of nowhere and set up the tent like it were nothing.

Then Jess and Flounder had to take the Q-Van to the other side of the venue, leaving me to stand underneath the tent for an hour, with nothing but two small plastic tables to sit on.

A held down the fort, despite the event staff chuckling at me for being stranded at the gates. Most of the civilians that walked by me, thought I was the box office, then another couple tried to request a song, to be played on Q103.

Eventually, Jess returned and we continued to set up the tent, but there was some confusion as to how we would set up the banner and speakers, once we found an electrical outlet post, and realized that we did not need to use the generator that was provided for us, setting up was easy, but for some reason, getting the people in line to pay attention to us was not.

The plan was to judge people from 5pm to 6pm, if they had lawn tickets and a Slipknot mask, our job was to judge the mask and upgrade the person's tickets who had the best mask, and we had 7 pairs of tickets to give away.

At 5pm I got on the mic and made the announcement, and everyone standing in line stared at me blankly, the people in line showed more interest in the two Cops that showed up on horseback. I even told them that they could make a mask out of leaves and dirt, but no one was interested in displaying their arts & crafts skills I guess.

By 5:30 pm we had upgraded 1 pair of tickets, Jess and I started to get nervous, I volunteered to keep talking until we gave away every pair, but the idea made Jess nervous.

By 5:50 pm we had upgraded 2 more, then received word to keep the tent up until 7:00 pm. We watched all the metal heads file into SPAC, and in contrary to the Free Beer & Hot Wings Show's claim, there were an awful lot of female Metal heads.

It took 2 hours to give away all 7 pairs of the upgraded tickets, and I was a bit confused as to why, but after Jess and I took down the tent and packed up the Q-Van, I found out why no one was very interested in having their lawn seats upgraded.

Flounder returned, he was busy before, backstage doing a live broadcast and interviewing Corey Taylor of Slipknot, he talked me into checking out the concert, it did not take much persuading.

We entered just before Lamb of God and decided to survey the lawn, I had never been to a Metal show at SPAC, but I had been to plenty shows at the Capital Regions smaller venues, this was like all of them at once, thousands of half-naked people running around all hopped on beer and adrenaline.

We walked to the opposite side in which we entered and stood behind the 'Family Friendly Zone' where Flounder told me that he had actually stumped Corey Taylor with one of his questions.

When Lamb of God took the stage, I found out why most of the people in line had no interest in upgrading their seats from the lawn, because there was a giant mosh pit in the middle of the lawn.

Metal heads were going crazy during Lamb of God, throwing fists and climbing pillars, banging heads and dancing awkwardly. Lamb of God had a good set and I even popped when they referenced Saratoga Winners.

We met with our contact from the record label during Lamb of God, and stood with her for the rest of their set, before following her backstage, we were met with some resistance by security, because Flounder and I did not have a credentials, and so we had to wait before security let us through to the backstage area.

Backstage an army of roadies worked quickly to take down the set for the opening bands and set up the stage for Slipknot. I was mesmerized by the ability of these roadies, that I almost forgot that I was about to step in front of the entire audience with Flounder.

A man gave Flounder a microphone and we walked out from behind the curtain, Flounder introduced himself and I to the audience, then pumped up for Slipknot, then we were done and went back behind the curtain and to our seats.

I stayed for 3 songs, what I saw could only be described as what would happen if a bunch of escaped mental patients, got together and decided to put on a show.

Slipknot was great live and their stage show told a twisted story that went along with their music, and at some points it was like looking into a window and seeing a parallel dimension where only Slipknot exists.

I stayed for my 3 song limit and walked away, back to my car, that was still there in my awesome parking spot and drove home happy, feeling accomplished to some degree, for after my decade long absence from SPAC, in my return I experienced more then I had ever before.