Tao of Poker

Backstage Chinese Poker, Big Day Out, and Kate Hudson

Shecky was supposed to get three tickets to Big Day Out for us. It had been sold out for months, yet he knew Tool's manager who said he'd put three tickets aside for us. When we showed up at Tool's hotel, there were only two tickets for us. Shecky was pissed and called up the manager. He apologized and not only gave us three tickets... but we got backstage passes. Talk about getting the hook up!

Since most of the bands we wanted to see were late afternoon and in the evening, we headed backstage and sat in a huge tent adjacent to the dressing rooms. There was free food and drinks and we found a table to sit down and play Chinese Poker. It was a little strange because members of random bands would be walking past us while Brandon Schaefer, Shecky, and I were gambling. The guys from Chemical Romance, Jet, The Killers, and Tool passed us at one time or another.

Coming into the day, the overall scores were:

Schaefer +30
Pauly +6
Shecky -36

Shecky started out hot and I went South quickly. I had a 32 point swing in the first ten hands while Shecky picked up 16 quick points. Then Shecky went on severe BCPT (Backstage Chinese Poker Tilt) and was getting his ass kicked by Schaefer. Shecky's -36 swing destroyed him as Shaefer went on a rush. I wanted to end the game to go see John Butler Trio's set. The band had walked past us and headed on stage, but Shecky would not let me leave until he won a hand. That went on for about 12-15 hands and we ended up missing the first fifteen minutes of John Butler Trio. Bastard. When the dust settled, the overall scores were:

Schaefer +78
Pauly -24
Shecky -54

I got spanked backstage and lost -30, which was much more than Shecky who stayed on BCPT for the rest of the festival.

I had only been backstage at a major concert once... and that was Phish in Arizona in 1999. The Big Day Out backstage experience was unreal and surreal. When Kate Hudson walked past us, our jaws dropped. She's apparently banging the lead singer of Jet. At one point she bent over in front of me and squated for a few minutes so she could see Muse. Shecky poked me in the ribs and said, "That's the closest Kate Hudson will ever get to your cock."

Two feet away. Surreal. I was jotting down notes and the setlist and just like the scene from Almost Famous, I expected Penny Lane to take the pen out of my hand and toss it away. And yes, she's amazingly smoking hot in person.

Anyway, you can stop by the Tao of Pauly to see some pics. Here's a quick video of Big Day Out. We were not supposed to take photos or video backstage, so I had to be super slick and shoot while the surly security guards were not looking. It features performances from The Killers, John Butler Trio, Jet, and Muse.


Click here to view the video via Bloglines or an RSS feed.