08/11/2026
When you look like we do (casual goth), you can have some interesting interactions with people. At the Redmond Arts Festival, Daniel and I were eating sandwiches outside of our truck after the show, before we began the hour-long drive back home.
A security guy was strolling across the parking area at the time and yelled out, "What are you two smoking over there?" We thought that he was joking as we were very clearly eating, so we shouted back, "Sandwiches!" He grumbled in response as he walked away, but continued to hover around the area. Dan and I didn't think anything would come of it.
Soon enough though, he turned back around and asked, "Is that like some kind of synthetic he**in?" and we just stopped, simply shocked he was actually serious. Maybe he didn't hear us clearly, as the parking garage is echoey, so I spoke up a little louder and responded, "No, it's like pastrami." He clearly didn't seem to understand and responded, "What!?" Dan stepped in and spoke very clearly: "Dude, we are just eating sandwiches. We were vending all day at the show and needed some food."
He responded by putting his hands in the air and saying, "Look man, we're all good here, we are cool.” Like, of course we are cool. What do you think is happening here?! I couldn't believe this guy thought we were doing drugs as we were standing next to our car finally having our dinner before going home to come back and do it all again the next day. I even saw the security guy the day before and the following day as he kept shooting me looks while I was in my booth.
We often question if we would do better at shows if we looked more status quo, but on the other hand, we are artists for a living. Everyone says they want the authentic us, so we have been leaning a little more into our love of metal, industrial, and goth music and style. We try not to let stuff like this bring us down, so instead we chose to laugh about it and share the story with our artist friends and crack jokes all next day with each other.
Let us know if you want more fun stories from shows in the comments. Or if you have a fun story to share that you've seen or heard at a festival or art show, share it in the comments.
