"Noooooooo .... Dude! Don't do it. You go into the vortex and you never get out. That place is HELL!!!!" That's what a young prophet on the streets of Victoria told me when I mentioned that I was going to see Dinosaur Jr. play at Sugar later that night.
Naturally, I thought the kid was on drugs or perhaps a schizophrenic. It turns out that he is a modern day Nostradamus. The only thing sweet about Sugar is its alluring name. Its like candy in a pedophile's hand and whatever you do, I beg you, don't get in that van. You're in for a rough ride.
As another reviewer mentioned, the sight lines suck. The stage is buried in a hole in what can only be described as an extremely narrow and confining space. Not only had we heard that the sound system is awful, but it was pretty clear that due to the low, cascading ceiling that the acoustics were going to suck as well. In an awful venue, your only hope is to get close to the stage, so we figured out best bet was to make our way to the front. After all, Dinosaur Jr. brought several stacks of Marshall amps. All our problems were theoretically solved.
With only minutes to go before Dinosaur was set to take the stage, we were ready to bask in the waves of crunching guitar. Unfortunately, to add to their claustrophobia-inducing layout, the venue has absolutely no circulation and it was so unbearably hot that each step closer to the stage was one step closer to the heart of hell. The band hadn't even started and I was growing faint.
Having never fainted before, I tried to fight it, but alas, it was a battle I was destined to lose. I blacked out before the show even started. Now I know what it was like to be a 14 year old girl at a Beatles concert. I was back on my feet in no time and my friend got me to the hallway that leads to the street and in a few minutes, I was seemingly fine. Unfortunately, each time we tried to make our way back into the crowd (i.e. the Vortex), I was overwhelmed by the heat and had to retreat. We eventually gave up and went back to our hotel without having heard a single note.
Thanks Sugar for the good times. Not only have I gotten a glimpse of hell, but I've also seen a preview of what it's like to die. In the scheme of life, this isn't exactly unwelcome knowledge to have ... but I really would have just liked to have seen Dinosaur Jr. read more