You can go ahead and file this under “I did not see that coming.”

My Friday night was pretty spectacular. I went to Sacramento to see Between the Buried and Me on their Coma Ecliptic Tour at Ace of Spades. I’m not really a huge fan of these guys (I couldn’t tell you what song is playing in that video, or what that Russian dance circle thing is about), but The Contortionist and Animals as Leaders were providing support and I didn’t want to miss them. All three bands crushed their sets, though I didn’t actually venture out into the mosh pit until BTBAM came up. They put on a pretty amazing show and I’ll probably be revisiting their catalog to see if it does anything for me this time.

Anyhow, among the people I attended the show with was a J-School friend of mine who manged to unearth the above video, which shows the crowd during said circle dance before it breaks into a no holds barred, every man for himself mosh. You can kind of see me at the 32 and 41 second marks; I’m the guy in the gray shirt and navy shorts. Feeling curious, I decided to look up the YouTube user who shot this. His username is NinjaBlaze1025.

And he is a goddamned Juggalo.

If the name NinjaBlaze1025 wasn’t enough, the user profile picture erodes all doubt. He’s got the face paint going on and he’s wearing a black baseball jersey that says “Juggalo” on it. He’s got four videos of the show, including the one above. I mean, I guess Juggalo’s occasionally have good taste in music, given how well liked and respected BTBAM and Animals as Leaders are. NinjaBlaze1025 appears to be a frequent concert-goer; among his other videos you’ll find sets for something called Kung Fu Vampire, as well as Juggalo staples Twiztid and Blaze Ya Dead Homie. He also has a couple videos of Coal Chamber, in case that playlist wasn’t terrifying enough.

Presumably, this is him.

So, there you have it. My friend and I ended up in a Juggalo’s YouTube video. This is one of those situations I’ve never thought possible for me to be in, but there we have it. Of course, this doesn’t make that night any less fun, but it still gives me pause. I guess this is one of those stories I can tell those kids and grandkids that I probably won’t have. On second thought, that would also require me to explain to the tykes what a Juggalo is, so maybe grandpa will keep that one to himself.

On an unrelated note, the best French toast in Sac can be bought here.