yellowshirtpeople

Right now I have an active warrant for my arrest. =/
I'm a huge fan of Skrillex.
I got tickets for the Echostage in DC, and tried desperately to contact everyone that works for OWSLA, Echostage, and Club Glow to see if I could get a photo pass for the show. I had a conversation with Doug Van Sant, Caesar Sebastian, and even Skrillex's assistant, Lisa. No one was able to secure me a pass.
Most people would just say "fuck it" at that point. But, I really need to meet Skrillex. I've been trying to meet him again for a few years now, but he's really hard to get in contact with.
So, I studied the staff shirts at Echostage. I looked at some recent photos from the Marshmellow show, and some of them had really good photos of the bouncer's shirts. And, some of the bouncers even taken group photos together. Its a super simple design - a yellow polo shirt with a pocket print of the echostage logo, and "staff" on the back. I pulled the logo directly from the echostage website. And, then modified the word "echostage", pulling the "sta" and then inverting the "t" into an "f". I got a t shirt company to do a one off for me, and, dudes, the shirt looked fucking perfect. I mean, it looked better than the actual echostage staff shirts. Seriously.
So, I had this plan to get backstage and get into the dressing rooms to meet Skrillex. He's met me before and knows who I am, and he would immediately recognize me as soon as he saw me...
I walk up to the barriers right at the start of the show, and one of the actual bouncers says "come on back, man".
So, as soon as I'm backstage I start looking for the dressing rooms... I knew they were on the left after studying backstage videos of echostage...
I tried some random doors that looked like the door, and they were locked and I could see inside that they just had electrical boxes. I see all the way to the wall there is a bouncer standing next to some stairs and walk up to him, wave, and then start going up the stairs.
He stops me and says "Sir, what are you doing?"
"I'm going to watch the dressing rooms."
"Who told you to go up there?"
"Matt" (I knew Matt Cronin is the manager of Echostage after researching on Facebook)
So, he lets me go up stairs, and I see this huge Skrillex poster and the door was wide open. Holy shit.
I walk through it and there's some people in there setting up liquor bottles and I find a bathroom, and lock myself in it. No one saw me.
I notice there's a candle in the bathroom, and start taking selfies, and I took some photos of some graffiti that JAUZ left on the no smoking sign. I wait in there for a long time, maybe an hour, and I hear people walking in to fill the ice and the opener is playing, but that's about it.
Now, I didn't know the layout of the venue, I thought maybe there was an upstairs that I could hangout in and find a seperate bathroom or closet. But, no. Their greenroom is literally just a room at the top of a staircase. No hallway or anything. And, it kinda sucks. It's super small there's like no room.
After about an hour of anxiously waiting, I peek out of the door. And, the room was empty. I start walking around, and I see everything from their rider in front of me. It was surreal. The exact amount of liquor bottles, fiji water bottles, two lighters that aren't white, 4 packs of cigarettes, except I didn't see a meat/cheese tray, fruit tray, and vegetable tray. I walked around to where they had some turntables setup in preparation for an after show party, and got the wifi password for backstage. I felt really bad for them, because the rooms are literally like 10x10 and partitioned with a sliding door, so there's no separate room for vindata. They are literally in the same room with just a sliding door to partition them. And, the vindata dressing room sucks, they just have like a motel 6 refrigerator with some water bottles in it and a coffee table.
I switch to Skrillex's bathroom, and go in there and lock the door. My mind is racing, and I just start looking at random youtube videos on my phone. The sound was really bassy in there, and you can sort of see the show because there is a tinted window so you can see the stage, but there's a curtain in the way.
I keep hearing people coming up to refill the ice, and about 30 more minutes pass by. I peek out one time, and I see a girl with long blonde hair looking at her phone, and she makes eye contact with me and then I close the door.
Shit.
About 15 more minutes pass by and I hear a gentle knock on the door "Hey, man." It kind of sounded like Sonny, but I didn't answer.
Then, a few more knocks, "Are you okay in there?"
Then, there were some loud pounds, and I hear the door make stress cracks over the music. It's definitely not Skrillex, and I'm about to get my ass beat. So, I hide in the shower, like that's going to do anything.
They start beating the piss out of the door, and I'm pretty sure they broke it. It was really scary, so I figured I would just let them get all that stress out on the door because I was really afraid to open it.
They are literally beating the shit out of this door for like 10 minutes and can't figure out how to open it.
Finally, I'm pretty sure they swiped it open and stealthily enter the bathroom.
Some gangsta bouncer dude opens the shower curtain and says "R U gud, B?"
"Yeah, I'm just waiting for everyone else to get here, I'm a photographer."
"OK, do u have any credentials?"
"No, not with me, but I'm on the tour and I talked to Lisa, they told me to just come up here and wait for them to arrive."
(I'm trying to stall as much as I can, in case someone from OWSLA shows up)
They start asking me how I got in there, and I said I was supposed to be there and I just walked in.
The two bouncers start arguing with each other, and the dude from the bottom of the staircase says "He had an echo shirt on!"
"Where's the shirt?"
Then, he lifted up my sweatshirt to reveal the pocket print, and says "Where did u get that shirt?"
"I made it."
"Take it off."
"This really is my shi-"
"TAKE IT OFF!!1"
So, I start taking off my sweatshirt and he's like "I don't care whether u have anything on underneath." But, I had on a wifebeater so it wasn't weird.
Then he's like, "Check this motherfucker's pockets." So, the other bouncer starts running my pockets and goes through my wallet and tries to check my phone, and then he starts trying to get a cop up there.
So, I'm waiting up there, and some dapper Dan cop shows up, and he looks at the yellow polo shirt and compares it to the real one the bouncers are wearing, and he asks me why I'm there. And, I say that I know Skrillex and that I'm supposed to be there. And, that I'm a photographer and I needed to meet him.
Then, he starts asking me if I have any mental health problems, and if I take any medication, and whatever... He says that he's going to put some handcuffs on me "for your own safety" and I sincerely say "Thank you so much, I really appreciate that."
Then, they escort me outside super official and he has me by the bicep and takes me across the street in front of his cop car. And, I'm pretty sure people from the line were looking at me and some people probably recognized me. ;)
Oh yeah, the people that worked there say that they wanted to take a picture of me and I was like "YEAH, TAKE A PHOTO OF ME!" Because, I'm pretty sure it would get circulated to Skrillex and he would recognize me. So, lots of people are taking photos of me. (((((:
Then, I see Matt Cronin come outside and he's looking at me quizzically, and looks at the polo shirt. He sort of raises it up in the air in the direction of the line, putting on a show, and says " 'They' even got the font right!" and starts laughing.
The gangsta bouncer asks me if I have any other form of photo ID, because he probably thought I had a fake ID or something.
Oh, and some dude that works at echostage said "So, do you have a lot of Skrillex tour posters all over the walls of your room?" And, I said, "No, but I have a backstage pass from another show..."
And, really, that kinda pissed me off. Because, I'm sure a lot of people actually do have Skrillex posters on their bedroom walls. Because, people really love his music and that was really shitty for him to make me feel bad for trying to meet him.
So, they tell me that they are not pressing charges and I just have to sign a disbarment form that means that if I ever come back to echostage they'll charge me with trespassing. And, they put "Stalker" at the top of the disbarment form. D:
Then, I get an uber back to my hotel and that was it.
Until, yesterday I found out I have an active warrant for my arrest for "unlawful entry". So, they actually did decide to charge me like a week later. Which, is totally fucked up. So, I got a really nice lawyer that's basically going to handle everything and I'm not really worried about it.
But, what I don't really understand, is why everyone didn't think it was funny. =/
I mean, I'm sure other people have snuck backstage to try to meet Skrillex. But, I actually have a charge because of it. And, I'm pretty sure Skrillex wouldn't want one of his fans to get charged with trying to see him backstage. It's just a bad look.
I mean I get why they kicked me out of a show that I just paid 50 bucks to get into, confiscated a shirt that I paid for, and disbarred me from the venue. I totally get it. That's the risk I took.
But, charging me with trespassing like a week after the fact is just fucked up.
I also have photos of the adventure that I will post a little bit later afterwards...
TL;DR: I got kicked out of the Skrillex show after I locked myself in the dressing room bathroom, and they charged me like a week later to be jerks