21/07/98 - DV8. Salt Lake City.

The only things I can remember about the last time I came to Salt Lake City
are odd. I got stoned. I sat on the corner of the street. A couple pulled up
in a battered car and asked me if I wanted to be in a movie. When I stood up
to talk to them they backed their car away and drove off. The other thing I
can remember is buying the biggest pair of shorts I ever owned. What any of
that means I'm not sure but that's Utah for you.

Before the show Greg finds a black and white photobooth in a mall. He's been
looking for one for days. We need 8 passport sized photos each for all the
visas and papers for this year of touring. We're off to Australia, Japan,
Europe and Canada that means a lot of photos. In the store we meet a gaggle
of girls who duly get put on the guest list. They're young and fun and
they're bored in Salt Lake City (and who can blame them?).

The show goes really well (don't I just always say that?). The crowd are
ready to roll in Salt Lake and we are the boys to ease down the handbrake. I
guess the restrictive Mormon control from the parents goes out the window at
gigs and the kids get to let their hair down. The blacony (ironically) is
reserved for drinkers. I guess drinkers are nearer to God at club DV8
despite the fact that Mormons don't drink. Very odd.

After the show we all hang out with some of the kids who have waited a long
time to see us play. I like the genuine ones. The ones who just want to say
hello and thanks for playing. Makes me feel like there is some worth in this
stupid thing we do. It transpires that the gaggle of young girls are all
Mormons. Here they are in vest tops with pierced tongues and crazy hair at
an alternative show and they're all fucking Mormons. This religious thing is
killing me over America. These kids don't want to live like monks, they get
indoctrinated into that shit by their extremist parents. I smoke drugs, I
have sex before marraige, I masturbate, I drink alcohol and I enjoy all of
it. Does that make me a bad person? Hell no, look at me, I'm a fucking
pillar of the community! I pity these kids. Do you think that them never
realising their full sexual potential and always feeling guilty about
perfectly normal feelings like feeling hrny is going to assure them a place
in the after life? What if there is no fucking after life? What if man
created heaven because he's afraid to die?

I liked it when the lines were drawn. Christians used to keep to themselves
and only hassle you out in the street or on your doorstep. And they looked
like Christians too. You could tell they were Christians. They wore tank
tops and goofy glasses. The lines were drawn. These days you get Christian
punk bands and Mormon girls who look like they're 'one of us'. Fetch me my
lions and get me the hell out of here! Back to the East coast. Drugs, porn,
Satan, and guilt free masturbation!