Meat Puppets Concert

I was at a Meat Puppets concert around 1988 or so in some warehouse in LR and was absolutely drunk out of my mind. I am a big guy. I don’t mean I am bowed up by any stretch – I am just plain obese. Sometimes, though, just my size can sometimes be intimidating and I have used it to my advantage to actually avoid fights – it just takes a little bluffing. I’ve been in maybe two fights in my life and wouldn’t hurt a fly, but sometimes I have to at least act like that I am somewhat deranged and more than willing to rip someone’s head off their shoulders to (hopefully) get them to back off.
At this concert, I was loaded and feeling very musically aggressive that night and was exuberantly bashing into other people during the concert. Apparently, this led to the formation of a "space" between me and the rest of the audience. This is what was represented by the picture that appeared on the front cover of the Spectrum newspaper – me, looking wide-eyed and aggressive, and other audience members backing up and looking disturbed. I wish I still had that picture!
Two things that I do remember from that night (mostly because friends of my mine like to play "remember when you….) - The lead singer of the Puppets started telling a story. I was standing right in front of him (low stage, no security guards, and no security fence) and got bored and barked, "Play some music!."’ He said, "Yes sir!", stopped his story, and started playing. The other thing I remember is that I was apparently keeping time to the music by bashing their monitor with my fist; they politely asked me to stop doing that. I promise – I am NOT generally "that guy" that everyone hates at concerts who makes things miserable for everyone around him. I was just very passionate about the Puppets and felt like that those of us who crowded into that warehouse that night were part of something special and I was determined to enjoy it to the hilt.
I saw the Meat Puppets again a few years after that, at Juanita’s in LR. I was much more sedate and they were very good, again. It looked like they were going to break through in the early 1990’s – they had a minor pop hit with "Backwater", Kurt Cobain sang their praises, and he featured them in Nirvana Unplugged (he introduced them as "the Brothers Meat"). After that, though, drugs reportedly interfered in a major way. Recently, I read that one of the Kirkwood brothers was shot by a post office security guard after getting into a parking dispute. His injuries weren’t severe, but he was charged with assault, had several priors for drug offenses, and he has been sentenced to jail. Very sad - wasted potential in a truly great band. I think some form of the band still tours, but its not the same -- and never will be.