Wi-Wi-Wicked Clowns

This weekend was so eventful, it may take me all week to cover it! (And to recover from it.) During the past week, I’ve gone out in the City four nights and two other nights out elsewhere. That’s far too much for little old me, but there was so much interesting stuff going on! One of the weekend’s many highlights was Friday night’s Insane Clown Posse concert.

The Insane Clown Posse (ICP) are an acquired taste. I still remember when I acquired it. Way back in the day, my high school boyfriend had a car with a cassette deck, and one cassette: ICP’s The Riddlebox. For the longest time, I absolutely hated it. I did most people who hear ICP casually do, I heard only the swear words and violent lyrics.

But as I listened to the album more and more (mostly against my will), I began to hear what they were actually saying. And I liked it. I liked ICP and I liked them for their social commentary and the message in their music: do good, be good and you’ll be rewarded, be bad, do evil and you will be punished.

The line that converted me from hater to juggalette, from the song “Dead Body Man” where the wicked clowns are talking about eating dead bodies:

You think I’m sick, take a look at yourself; you got dead deer heads up on your shelf; on your keychain is a little baby rabbit’s hand; I’m just a dead body man.

As a vegetarian, I thought they made the point rather well.

I couldn’t find anyone to go to the concert with me out here, so I just went by myself. And I had a blast! ICP always does an amazing show! There were crazy dancers, lots of clowns – in the audience and on stage – wrestling antics and a “tribute” to Michael Jackson after which they performed their song about catching pedophiles. And, of course, plenty of Faygo.

The Faygo came out on the first song. And even though I got a balcony seat to avoid being covered in sticky soda, I still got hit in the arm with a Faygo bottle. Root beer spilled down my arm and over my purse. Oh well. It wasn’t a lot. And considering how many 2Liters were launched into the audience, I’m lucky I only got that little bit on me. The people in the general admission area were completely soaked. (That’s where I was nearly 10 years ago when I went to my first ICP concert. I’m too old for that now. Although, SF juggalos are much milder than Milwaukee ones.)

Since the concert was part of the Bang! Boom! Pow! tour, every other song was off the new album (same name) and the classics were sprinkled in between. There were only one or two songs that I didn’t know well enough to sing along. I especially enjoyed the dance-along before the show when the hidden track off the new album, “Chop Chop Slide” was played over the speakers for the waiting audience.

The most surprising thing about the concert was that it was over by 11:30. ICP came on stage much earlier than I expected. At first I was mad that it was done that early because I could have taken BART instead of driving to the City. However, I was very glad that not only was I not covered in sticky sweet Faygo, but also that I had not painted my face. With the concert getting out so early, I was able to meet up with my roommate at one of the dance clubs. But that’s another story.

P.S. My favorite song off the new album is called “Vera Lee”. I think part of the reason I like it is because the hook has few enough notes that I can sing along in tune. Plus it’s got that deep, moving sound that I like and the story is intense.

[Image from: http://www.juggalonews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1596]