5:00pm: Gensho arrives at Meghan’s apartment in Fishtown in Philadelphia. Gensho is visiting the east coast from Los Angeles for two weeks. Meghan is one my best friends from high school who lives in Philly. Gensho, Meghan and Caitlin & Kristin (two of my best friends from Delaware), are going to see Disclosure at a new venue in Philly called the Fillmore and I decided to make the trip to join them. The Fillmore is a medium sized venue, similar to NY’s Terminal 5. Disclosure is playing at Madison Square Garden in New York and I would prefer to see them in a smaller venue so I can see their adorable British faces.

I can't be in the nosebleeds for these cuties.

Initially Caitlin, Kristen, Gensho & I were going to get a hotel using the app Hotel
Tonight but unfortunately there were no available hotel rooms in the area. The original theory behind Hotel Tonight is you can get a hotel only for tonight. However, now you can get a hotel for tomorrow or the next week. This is the first time I used it since this changed and it seems like the “tonight” selection has really gone down hill. However Meghan graciously offers that we can all stay at her apartment. She has a huge living room where we can put down airbeds and she lives like a 15 minute walk from the venue. Crisis averted.

7:30pm: We go to Johnny Brenda’s, a bar/venue/restaurant for dinner. We are in a rush since doors opened at 7pm but Caitlin only got to Meghan’s apartment at 7pm and we all need to eat since we’ve been drinking and we’ll be drinking... The waiter is nice although a little frazzled by our loud table but he gets us all of our food quickly. The food was good, reasonably priced. and pretty fancy for bar food, Meghan had croquettes. What bar has croquettes?* And who eats them?

8:30pm: We arrive at the Fillmore and there is a very long line to get in. It’s so cold and there are so many mostly naked college students. I don’t understand people in cities who don’t wear their coats out. Like coat check is at most $5, which is way less than taking a cab home because you’re freezing. It’s just impractical, you’re uncomfortable and it also makes you look like a tourist. One New Years Eve I was the only one of my friends dressed for the 15-degree weather and we had to wait in line for the party for 45 minutes. I just started handing out my scarf, sweaters, hat and gloves to my other friends so they didn’t freeze to death in the line.

Denial doesn't save you from hypothermia.

9:00pm: We get to the front of the line and see why the line is moving so slowly. They are going through everyone’s bag super thoroughly and throwing away chapstick, gum, hand sanitizer, eye drops and you know regular things that most ladies have in their purses. Throwing out gum I can sort of understand because people throw their gum on the floor which makes a big mess but hand sanitizer? What is in my hand sanitizer? Why aren’t you allowed to have chapstick? Do people put drugs in their chapstick or something? Also the rule makes no sense because you can’t bring in chapstick but you can bring in lipstick… What the fuck is the difference between chapstick and lipstick in term of a security risk? Who is making drug chapstick? I seriously might invent it if it’s not a thing so that their arbitrary rule has a purpose.

They threw out someone’s bottle opener keychain… These people are stricter than the TSA. The super ironic thing is we get into the venue and the women’s bathroom REEKED of weed. Soooo all of this bag searching, body searching time wasting nonsense did nothing to keep drugs out of your venue. If people are going to bring illegal substance into your venue they are going to hide them pretty damn well. You just threw out my $4 chapstick for no reason and wasted everyone’s time.

9:15pm: We get drinks. Meghan knows the bartender so he gives us a hefty discount, which is great because these drinks are super overpriced. We try to go onto the dance floor but we aren’t allowed to bring our drinks. WHAT IS THIS PLACE? This venue is the anti-fun. Who is running this place? It’s a concert venue not a museum.

9:30pm: Disclosure starts. The venue isn’t anywhere near full so we can get really close to the front and still have lots of space to dance. Meghan, who came along basically because we’re staying with her (she hadn’t heard of Disclosure before today) is dancing like a wild woman. I love Disclosure- they make everyone boogie. They use many of the same visuals and play a lot of the same songs they did at ACL but it’s nice seeing them inside at a small venue. The crowd is also a lot more into them here because it’s not a festival crowd. Everyone came here to specifically see them.

11:30pm: After the show we end up at a dive bar. I don't actually know what it was called but my beer was $2, so I was pleased. I used to hate Philly because I thought it was super boring and dirty but recently it’s really grown on me. The last few times I have visited, I’ve been to really cool and unique places. I would never move there but I enjoy visiting now. I mean they have a restaurant where you can get a challah french toast monte cristo with eggs on top...so it can't be that terrible of a place.

*Besides wine bars which usually have tapas such as croquettes. However, Wine bars are not really bars though. They are just places to take your date so you don't have to buy her a real dinner.