Flashback Friday, aka The Goldfinger Riot

In June of 2005, George and I went on one of our many vacations to Los Angeles. As soon as we landed at LAX, we rented a car and drove 7 hours to San Jose so we could see our favorite band, Goldfinger, perform a free concert. It was a concert experience we'll never forget.

We hit traffic and were running late to the concert, so we had to park and RUN through downtown San Jose. We made it to the concert just in time. Goldfinger took the stage and everything was wonderful.


Except for the fact that after about 15 minutes people started jumping onstage with the band. Now, this wasn't a problem for the band, as they like for fans to jump onstage with them.


But it was a problem for security. The concert was put on by the city of San Jose, so several police officers made the band stop the show for safety reasons. Well, John Feldmann, the lead singer of Goldfinger, has a bit of an issue with authority. (Isn't that a prerequisite for the lead singer of a punk band?) He was not happy being told his fans couldn't get onstage and that he had to stop his own show. He yelled, "F--- the police!" and all sorts of *fun* mayhem ensued.

We were a tad bit uncomfortable, as we're normally fans of the police, and we worried about how this would all end. We stood around for what must have been 20-30 minutes, thinking that we'd wasted the past 7 hours of our lives in a rental car for no reason. Finally the show continued without further problems. George even got his picture taken with Feldy after the show.


The next day back in L.A. we ate at our favorite vegan restaurant, Native Foods. George learned about Native Foods from an interview he had read with John Feldmann. Besides being the lead singer of a punk band and music producer, he's also a vegan and animal rights activist. We had visited the restaurant on previous trips to L.A., and each time we hoped we'd run into Feldmann. When we're in L.A., we always eat every single meal at Native Foods. I'm not joking. It's that good.

We sat down to eat our food in the tiny upstairs eating area, and George ran to the restroom. I looked over to my right, and there sat Feldy and his wife! I was so shocked to see him I could barely contain myself! I was grinning ear to ear when George came back to the table. He said, "He's here isn't he?!" We knew we had to say something to him, and I could barely eat the rest of my yummy Native Nachos I was so nervous. What if he acted like a jerk because we were imposing on family time?

When they got up to leave, George stopped Feldy and told him we were huge fans. We talked about the good vegan food in L.A. and the lack of it in Dallas, the crazy concert experience in San Jose, and his wife took our picture.


He wasn't a jerk and it made our day whole trip.