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My parents moved out of their house recently, they wanted to be closer to their grandson and cash in on their old house.  I was happy for them, my dad grew up in the deserts of West Texas so he enjoys the quiet wide open spaces of Parker county.  I've had some time off from school recently so I went to pay my parents a visit while my 91 year old grandmother was staying with them for the holidays.  I've said before I'm a pretty sentimental guy and I can now confirm I get it from both of my parents.  During the move there was an insane amount of old junk that nobody wanted to throw away due to the memories attached.  I'll always remember my mother having a hard time when it was time to get rid of an old decrepit table that had been brutalized for 20 years.  All she could think about were the dinners and birthday parties we had at that table, not the fact that it wobbled and one of the legs was about to fall out.
I thought it would be a good idea to help my dad out by getting rid of some boxes that had my name on it. All the junk that cluttered the room of my youth was now stuffed into a series of boxes. There were quite a few GI Joes still in the the box, CDs I remember buying from CD World, and a box full of old tickets that I could hardly read anymore. Stuck in the middle of the ticket stack was one so worn out I could hardly read it.  As I looked closer I could still make out the words "Black Flag W/Henry Rollins"

Free Dessert with Any Purchase

It was the summer of 2003, I had been a high school graduate for about a month. As stated earlier I had no idea what my next move was gonna be and at that time I wasn't too worried about it.  I had just graduated and it was only June, so I had time to focus on important things like skateboards, guitars, and pizza.  The internet wasn't really new at this time, but I feel like it was starting to develop into what it is today (the beginning of the end if you will). I only used the internet primarily to talk to girls on AOL instant messenger.  If the connection was good I could download a song off Napster, Kazah, or Morpheus.  If there were no girls online and no songs I wanted to wait tow hours to download, I'd go skate or play guitar.  Luckily my friend Mario used the internet for more constructive purposes.  Mario was using the internet to learn about new bands, connect with other punk/hardcore kids from around the metroplex, and learn about upcoming shows.  The only way I ever found out about shows was through spoken word, maybe a flyer, or if I was really lucky my dad had a subscription to the Dallas Morning News and the last pages of the Guidelive would have information about upcoming shows.  I also signed up to be on the e-mail list for several local venues, but the majority of their shows were for bands I didn't care about.
I can't remember how he found out, but Mario told me that Henry Rollins was going to sing Black Flag songs with the Rollins Band.  This sounded incredible to us, we both loved Black Flag and seeing Henry Rollins sing those songs would be as close as we would ever get to witnessing the real thing.  Mario told me the show was in Fort Worth at some place called the Ridglea Theatre.  Growing up in Dallas I sometimes forgot Fort Worth existed.  The only memories I had of Fort Worth were going to the science museum with a childhood friend (the same museum I now take my own son to on occasion).   He told me the show was the next day so we had to act fast, I told Mario I'd get us there.  My first thought was, "I have to figure out where Fort Worth is and I have to get a ticket because I'm sure this is sold out."
I figured something like this was heavily promoted in Fort Worth.  I got connected to the internet and had a hard time finding the Ridglea Theatre website, mostly because I didn't know the correct way to spell Ridglea correctly.  At the time Google wasn't the all knowing search engine that could fight through spelling errors.  I eventually found the website and saw you could buy tickets at the customer service desk at Albertsons.  I rushed over to the nearest Albertsons to buy a ticket and the lady at the customer service desk looked at me like I was speaking Swahili.  She was lost, I politely told her that a website said I could purchase tickets to Star Tickets events through Albertsons.  She looked in the computer again and found what I needed, much to her surprise.  I paid the 25 bucks, which was way more than I usually spent to get into a show.  I don't think anyone ever used Star Tickets through Albertsons, because on the back of the ticket was a coupon for a "free dessert with any purchase" at the Hard Rock café off McKinney that expired in 2001.
One of my biggest fears at that time was getting lost in an unfamiliar place. It stemmed from a trip to Deep Ellum one night in high school where I missed the exit and ended up in a part of Dallas that wasn't very friendly.  But this time I had a failsafe plan, the night before the show I got on mapquest and printed out directions.  The morning of the show I would drive to Fort Worth and back to insure no navigational errors would occur.  The next day I made the confusing trek across highway 121 to Fort Worth and back just fine. It cost me a whole tank of gas since my red Dodge Ram was not the most fuel efficient vehicle, but as the insurance commercials say, "you can't put a price on piece of mind."
Later on I drove over to Mario's house to pick him up for our big night in cowtown.  He was still getting dressed when I showed up so I waited down stairs for a minute.  I picked up Mario to go places pretty often so his mom knew me pretty well.  She was always friendly and offered me something to drink/eat when I was there.  She asked me where we were going, I said very casually, "the Ridglea Theatre."
"Where is that?"
"Oh, it's in Fort Worth" I replied thinking she was just curious where we were going.  But after I said that his mom got a very concerned look on her face and went upstairs.  I heard Mario and his mom have a little bit of a back and fourth but nothing real heated.  I had forgotten Mario was a year younger than me and still in high school.  He still had to worry about curfews and I'm sure Fort Worth was outside of his normal boundaries.  Apparently he had told his mom we were going somewhere else, I got worried thinking our night might be ruined.  Luckily his mom was cool with it and we eventually left.  I could tell he was a little displeased with me, but in my defense I didn't know we were on some secret mission.  Had I been given some kind of heads up I wouldn't have blown our cover.  With the cat now out of the bag we made our way West.
After our arrival we waited in line to get in and I pulled out my ticket.  Mario said, "oh you got a ticket?"
"Yeah, you didn't?"
"Nah"
My heart sank again, what if Mario couldn't get in?  I didn't want to see this show by myself and I considered myself to be a good friend, there was no way I'd make him wait outside until the show was over.  After all the effort to get there, I resigned to the fact that if he couldn't get in we'd turn around and go home.  The Ridglea Theater had a really old time marquis that we waited under.  On the walls there were posters  for upcoming events in frames filled with blinking lights, like an old movie theater (which the Ridglea Theatre was).  It was a little big for a punk show, but I enjoyed the old time feel the place.  Hopefully I'd get to see the inside.  We got to the front door and I handed the lady my ticket, she ripped the stub off and gave it back to me, she then told Mario the show was 20 dollars.  He gave her a 20, we got the big black X's on our hands and made our way in.  Mario rolled the dice and it paid off literally, he paid 5 dollars less than I did, but as Sam Waterston will tell you, "you can't put a price on piece of mind."
The show was not nearly as crowded as I expected it to be, looking back I don't think the show was promoted very well.  The crowd was an interesting mix of punk/hardcore kids who seemed to be around my age at the time (18) and dudes who were in what looked like their early to mid 40s who wore really baggy black pants or shorts.  I had only seen maybe one or two guys like that at a show before, and I remember because they kind of stuck out being the middle aged man in a group of younger people.  I always had a level of respect for those guys, they were true to themselves with their dirty long hair and dated attire, and didn't care what anyone else thought of them.
After the hour long drive I really had to pee, I found the bathroom and found the first available urinal.  I noticed a short much older looking guy walk up and occupy the stall next to me.  He had the white man's dreadlocks, thick black glasses, and his face had the look of a well travelled man.  Mario later pointed out that it was Keith Morris, who I had only known as the singer of the Circle Jerks.  Mario informed me that he also sang for Black Flag at one point, which made a lot of sense to me since all the Nervous Breakdown recordings didn't sound like Henry Rollins.  It was a great unexpected surprise.
I was curious as at why Keith Morris and Henry Rollins were in Fort Worth to play Black Flag songs, I thought maybe they had albums to promote but that wasn't the case.  The show was to raise money for the defense fund of the West Memphis 3, which was a cause I knew nothing about.  I felt kind of dumb for not knowing the story behind the West Memphis 3, and wouldn't learn about it until years later.  At the time I wanted to learn more, but everyone I talked to at the show was as clueless as I was.
I wanted to be close to the stage when they played, I knew that would mean standing through the opening bands.  However unlike many of the venues I normally went to, the Ridglea Theatre used to be an actual movie theatre, and had places for people to sit.  I took a seat and waited for the show to start.  The opening bands stick with me until this day because they were some of the most terrible bands I've ever heard in my life.
The first band was actually alright, all I really remember was that their drummer had his cymbals up on really high stands and there was no singer.  It was kind of slow but I was alright with it.  The next band was when things got bad.  I had no idea who these guys were, but the were some kind of rock and roll band with lots of screaming.  They were all dressed like rock stars.  The singer had on leather pants, a vest with no shirt underneath and a little goatee with a Dave Navarro hair cut (I think that's who he was trying to look like).  The singer had this bizarre mic stand he made himself, it was about 3 feet long and at the bottom there was a little skull with it's mouth open.  Every time this guy would scream he'd flip the mic stand up so the little skull would be above his head.  I guess to scream along with him.  I cringed through their set just waiting for it to end, and rolled my eyes every time the singer got upset that the crowd wasn't into them.  To this day I still have no idea who that band was, I've tried to look all over cyber space for the line up that night but found nothing.  Hopefully they aren't around anymore.  When their set finally ended I thought that there's no way the next band could be worse than that.
As the next band got ready to take the stage I saw someone set up a keyboard and computer.  Already a band sign, things only got worse as the band started playing.  The singer looked like some awful white rapper straight out of a small town 7-11 and rapped like someone who should have been working at 7-11.  The band sounded like a poor-man's Limp Bizkit, and the dude with the computer had a track for the gang vocals in the songs since nobody in attendance knew any of their songs.  The band called themselves Zug Izland (yes it is supposed to be island, but that's how the spell it).  As I've done more research on them (i.e. google), I've learned they were formed by former members of the Insane Clown Posse and are still around incase you want to see them for yourself.  Zug Izland would become a punchline between Mario and I for many years to come.  I'm willing to bet if I brought that band up today he would still remember them and laugh.  We made snarky comments to each other through their set to pass the time, but it wasn't enough.  The set took forever because rap metal songs suck and go on for way too long.  Even when their set was over we still had one more band to wade through.
The last band I had to suffer through looked like a bunch of dads that still wanted to be rock stars.  They all seemed to have black jean shorts on, and not the trendy ones that were once jeans and cut to be shorts.  These were the ones that are purchased, created with the intent of being shorts.  Like many dads they had a rather large mid section, not morbidly obese, but you could tell they weren't too worried about their daily vegetable servings.  They also had dad calves, I'll never understand why there are so many dads with big bellies but somehow have enormous calves.    Anyway they were called the Hellions and I think they hailed from Fort Worth.  They played pretty generic punk rock songs and the singer with his bleached blonde hair, was pushing for more crowd participation.  Having been the opening act more times than I can count, you always hope people get into it, but you sometimes run into the crowd that just wants to see the main event.  When that happens I've learned it's best to just play your set, hope some people like it and move along.  This dude really wanted people "moshing" and at the last song he was able to convince a few impressionable younger kids who worked their way to the front of the stage.  Their energy was not infectious and they awkwardly danced along while everyone else stood there with folded arms.  The chorus of the last song had this stupid line I can't believe I still remember that went, "hey ho, lets go, just like, the Ramones."  One kid managed to get on stage put his arm around the singer and sing along with him.  The whole thing set seemed really forced, but like all things it came to an end.  I was so burned out by those bands, luckily I was able to dig deep and get closer to the stage for the final act.
In years to come I would see bands that were a big deal in the 80s take the stage with corny introductions.  Sometimes guys who have paid their dues want some kind of grand introduction, but as I expected this was not the case.  Keith Morris casually walked across the stage, took the mic and introduced the band and himself as though he was coming to my house for dinner.  Then a second later he went nuts into the first song, still one of the coolest things I've ever seen.  The crowd was still kind of dead so it was easy to make my way to the front of the stage.  It probably would have been more fun if I was surrounded by like minded individuals, but I wasn't gonna let these dolts ruin my buzz.  I drove a long way, paid a good bit of money, and sat through some of the worst opening bands of all time.  I thought "maybe these people just didn't like the Keith Morris era of Black Flag, I bet when Henry Rollins comes out people will loose it."
After a couple of songs a slim gray haired Henry Rollins casually walked across the stage to the mic, he was wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt with nothing on it.  A punk rock Johnny Cash if you will.  He didn't say anything and went right into his first song, the crowd was still docile.  It was a little strange being able to hear myself sing along to the songs I was yelling at the stage, but like I said, I wasn't gonna let these dullards ruin the show for me.  As the set went on more people gradually got into it, which did enhance the experience a little more.  There was also a fun rendition of "TV Party" where Henry Rollins changed the lyrics of what shows they were going to watch to fit the time period better.  The only one I really remember was changing Hill Street Blues to American Idol, which got a laugh from me.  Both of those guys were in their mid 40s at the time and they seemed to have more energy than all of the kids they were performing too.  To this day it's amazing to me how those guys would do that night after night at their age.  I know Henry Rollins takes his health very seriously and I'm not sure what Keith Morris did, but they were incredible that night.  Mario and I made the most of our time, we knew they couldn't play the entire Black Flag catalog, however we were still really happy with the set.
When the show was over we climbed into my Red Dodge ram and headed back east.  On the ride home, most of our conversations were about how awful those opening bands were.  We really couldn't wrap our heads around why someone would put those bands on that show.  I got Mario home before his curfew,  another win I could add to the night.  I was never really a fan of bucket lists or things like that but I felt like I had witnessed something I may never see again.

The Ridglea Theatre will always be a special place to me.  The shows I played there alongside good friends are memories I'll always cherish.  Anyone that went to the 2004 or 2005 Ridglea Metal Fest knows what I'm talking about.  I was really happy to see the city of Fort Worth took care of the place while I was gone.  I drive by it every now and then and I always love that it looks just like it did that summer night in 2003.  Well, that's all I know.