la_belle_laide (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_belle_laide) wrote2006-10-29 04:25 am
la_belle_laide) wrote2006-10-29 04:25 am
Entry tags:
30STM 10-27 - a freaking novel
WHEW! What a concert. I could easily say: band was great, crowd was dangerous and stupid, CD signing was not worth the wait, Roseland staff was mostly stupid with a few exceptions, and 30 Seconds To Mars are as polite as they could possibly be in the space of ten seconds, but hey, thi sis me. Is anything ever a short story? Some parts of it were exciting and wonderful and fun, some parts were scary, some annoying (one so annoying that I'm still fuming over it,) and some parts were disappointing, but in a way that was inevitable, so there's no reason to be sad over it or anything.
The train ride into the city was loads of fun for Meghan and I. She was really super excited and had never been on the LIRR before or to Penn station or anything. We brought some sandwiches and the some snacks that I had bought the night before because I had the feeling that dinner was not going to be an option. (I was right; we didn't get there until like 7 or so and missed the first band. No big.) We goofed off for the entire train ride, eventually getting out my iPod and listening to 30STM songs and--much to the eventual annoyance of the woman sitting across from us--started acting them out with hand motions. (She asked us if we were doing Rocky Horror Picture Show. I told her, No, we're just dancing. Eventually she switched seats.)
We had another cab ride from hell, after I had told Meghan that not all cab rides were going to be as bad as her last experience in a cab, which was to the Makaha Sons concert. A guy hailed a cab for us, and even he didn't know where the hell the Roseland was. I was like, "Dude, it's like the oldest club in the city." He went into this building and looked it up, I think. The address wasn't on the ticket (the guy: "Ooh! $2 tickets? Wow! Is this band any good?" Me: "They're fabulous, but the tickets weren't actually two dollars. They ended up being $36." Guy: "Oh, maybe it was just the first hundred buyers who got the $2 tickets." Me: "First hundred scalpers, you mean.") Anyway, so the cabbie had no idea where the Roseland was. The cab hailing guy had actually told him the address, but the cabbie didn't believe him and yelled into his phone the entire time about finding "The Rosedale." WTF? He told us it was his first time out, and he drove like a maniac. Meghan officially hates all cabs now.
Anyway, we got there and found that the line was around three blocks, all the way to where the tour busses were parked. On line, I did manage to sell one of my tickets. The guy said he really wanted to get into the show and asked how much I wanted. I said, "I'm not going to give you a hard time since you really want to get in. I'll give it to you for ten." He gave me a 20 and asked for change, then when I took out my wallet he said, "Wow, where'd you get all that money?" I shoved my wallet back into my bag, immediately ready to punch him if need be and said, "I work." He said, "You must make a lot of money." At this point I just closed my bag and turned away because he was making me nervous. He went on to say, "You're a caring person. You help people. Let me guess: You're a nurse." I was so shocked (at work we refer to ourselves as "animal nurses") and I said, "You're close; I work at an animal hospital." He said, "See? I had a feeling about you. Hey, if you ever need anything, I got you covered." As if this guy ws ever going to see me again. Whatever.
We got in and immediately found a nice spot to the left of the stage, up against the second to last column. We had a clear view to the stage aside from the fact that once again it looked like Tomo would be hidden by the band's equipment (and once again I mean MUSICAL equipment and not, like, crotches.) Meghan enjoyed Pink Spiders, thought Cobra Starship was pretty neat for a few minutes, and was already tired by the time Head Automatica came on. Then she realized she had to go to the bathroom. This proved to be one of the biggest and worst adventures of the night. (Aside from the overly crowded and super smoky bathroom--not cool for the little chick with severe asthma.)
So we got back from the bathroom about halfway through Head Automatica's set to find this woman in a stupid beany kind of hat and her very tall, very hugely broad boyfriend standing where we'd been standing all night. Oh well. That's the way it goes: you move, someone takes your spot. I told Meghan that as soon as the 30STM show started, everyone would push towards the stage and we'd get out spot back. In the meantime, this was my view:
Sure enough, right before the street drum corps came on, the two of them moved, and we got back into our places by the column. Meghan was dead tired already and all smoked out and wheezy from the bathroom, and she sat down against the column. The two people came back, and the woman almost tripped over her. I gave Meghan a hand up and said, "Maybe you shouldn't sit; you'll keep tripping people up." The woman said--to Meghan, NOT to me--"That's right, you have to move anyway, honey, because I was standing there." And then actually stood in front of her against the column. I felt my blood pressure, which is normally super low, start to spike, and I wanted to grab her by the larynx. But one doesn't do that in polite society and expect to be welcome in the venue anymore, so instead I said, "Actually, we've been here since seven." She said, "No, I've been here since six." I asked her, "Right here, in this exact spot?" She said, "No, but we were here a few minutes ago and then we moved somewhere else, and when we came back, you guys were here." I told her, "Right, but before that, we were sitting here all night. We left to go to the bathroom, you took ths spot. YOU left to go wherever, and we took the spot. That's the way it goes." She gave a huff and said, "Well, whatever." Didn't seem to know how to follow up, and planted herself against the column, directly in front of Meghan. I told her, "Look, when you took this spot, we were standing here the entire time behind this very large and solid guy of yours," and I patted him on the arm, to get his attention. The guy said, "No, I know; no one wants to be behind me because I'm really tall." And he stood away, which was super nice of him. The stupid beany-headed woman didn't move. So I told her, "Okay, that's fine. You can stand there." Then I took Meghan by the arm, steered her in front of me, and parked myself--all 5 feet 9 1/2 inches--directly in front of her, with my back right in her face. "How's that?" I said. She ignored me. I turned to the big guy she was with and said, "I appreciate you standing behind my cousin. It's her first concert, and this is very gracious of you." He just kind of nodded. Later I saw the stupid beany-headed woman inch her way closer to the pit and try to get in front of Meghan again, but I kept on blocking her. She did end up in the pit. Sometime during the middle of the show, the big guy leaned over a bunch of people and tried to grab her out of the audience (I think things were starting to get rough in there.) She pulled away from him and they started to have a fight over it. I didn't see how it ended, but it was actually pretty funny.
I don't like to solve things through violence but I was itching to hit her, and even now she stands out as the one spot in the evening that pissed me off more than anything. My foot wanted to have a Meet and Greet with her ass, although I would have contented myself with knocking that stupid ugly beany off the top of her overly hair-sprayed head. It's a good thing for everyone involved that I don't want to exemplify the trashy, scrappy south-shore broad image in front of my young goddaughter (or really in front of anyone,) because I wanted more than anything to kick her and her snotty, priviledged attitude into next week. No one mouths off to my goddaughter, and at that moment I could completely and utterly understand Jared going all Nazgul on Frodo Baggins at that awards thing the other night. He doesn't strike me as a loose canon, but the rule is: you don't mess with family members. Also, I just wanted to say to her, I mean really, you were rotten to a 14 year old girl at her first concert. Does that make you feel good? >_>
End rant.
So then, after all of that, the tech guys lowered the lighting rigs with the huge (and creepy) 30STM / mass mask-wearing backdrop attached to it, and when they raised it back up, it had four long, red 30 Seconds to Mars banners hanging from it. Just as soon as they started raising that, the entire crowd cheered and I actually got chicken skin over that. Soon after, they dimmed the lights and the drum corps people came on. They were pretty decent, and I'm a fan of percussion. They reminded me vaguely of this band I used to love when I was in Seattle, !TchKung! (Anyone else ever heard of them?) They were pretty good, but they played for a bit too long: everyone was itching for the band to come out. I had heard that this was how they opened the show, with Shannon coming out to drum with them and start the concert, but instead the drum corps left and they started to play O Fortuna. Some of you may remember me saying the last time I saw them that I think that's a cliche way to start the show, and I still think so. But damned if it doesn't still give me the all overs anyway. The only complaint I have is that they played it so low you could hardly hear it over the screaming. I grabbed Meghan by the shoulder and said (in a low voice, and she could still hear me,) "Jo-chan, listen to what's playing!" And she couldn't hear it either. She just knew that people had started to move towards the stage. Meanwhile I was also trying to get my camera focussed at the same time. "It's O Fortuna!" I told her. "This is it!" And although the music was still too low, eventually it clicked that this was the entrance. The human wave started to surge. Meghan started to surge with them.
I had told her earlier that we were most definitely NOT going to rush the stage when everyone else did. That was the pit, I told her, where people went to slam and surf, and we were not going up against that. Yet when the music got to that part--you know what part that is if you know the song--and one of the guys (who could tell who? They were wearing those silly masks,) came out carrying the big white flag, Meghan was just drawn towards the stage. I had to put my hand on her shoulder and pull her back and she was all, "BUTBUTBUT!!!" I went to my first concert when I was 14, too. My Dad took me to it. When the house lights went down and the stage lights went all purply and hazy and the first chords sounded, I very much remember looking back five rows and seeing my Dad way behind me. I don't know how I cleared five rows of metal seats that quickly, but I did. It's overwhelming; you can't help it.
And so the band came out with the flags and the masks and whatnot, and started right into A Beautiful Lie.
And then after a few phrases, Jared stopped the show.
It was clear from the surge forward that people were going to get crushed up front. There was this very sweet, very small and adorable lady who had been standing next to Meghan and I for most of the night, and she kept saying, "Where do these people think they're going to go? They can't get any closer! It's not going to happen!" She was right, and people were getting trampled and pulled out of the front row within minutes. Jared stopped singing while the rest of the band played on, Matt kind of stoically scanning the crowd to see what was going on down there, Shannon standing up behind his drums without missing a beat. Jared leaned over the crowd (all I saw was a sea of hands reaching for his legs,) and said, "I want everyone to take one big step backwards." Many of us did, even though we were nowhere near the pit. It only made sense: you had to leave space for everyone else to step back. Then he started asking people directly: "Are you okay? Do you have enough air? Can you move?" Yet everyone was still clamoring for him. I was disappointed in the audience. If they had stopped their clamoring, he could have got on with the song instead of having to act like a babysitter. Eventually he was the one who had to take a step back, and then he tried again. "EVERYONE TAKE ONE STEP BACK. YOU ARE CRUSHING THE PEOPLE UP FRONT."
Okay, Le Jared may have his quirks and I fully admit that sometimes the things he says in public irk the crap out of me and I want to stuff a sock in his mouth. But when you get down to things like this, I don't think he's doing it to be a big shot or to win people over. I think he genuinely doesn't want to see people get hurt, and at that point, I don't think that has anything to do with the band's popularity (which I admit seems to sometimes motivate him otherwise.) He totally meant for people to quit hurting each other and that was all. Then, I was proud of the band again.
So they went on with the show. I wish I could remember the set list in some kind of order, but there's just no way. I don't know how anyone else does it. I remember Battle of One, because that's the point where I start dancing like a fool. It's terrific for moshing in general, and that's what I was doing. I can't express how much Shannon owns music in general on this one. Meghan still seemed a little overwhelmed, but when she saw me moshing all around she started laughing, and then started dancing. "I'M WATCHING FULL HOUSE!" she screamed, which is a reference to a very adorable comic made by a very adorable little Echelon girl. Dude, it so does sound like he says all that stuff in that song.
They did Buddha for Mary, and Jared did one shallow stage dive and very quickly got back to the stage. He also attempted a crowd walk, but couldn't get far. The audience up front was too out of control; they weren't even holding him up and for a second it looked like he was sinking into a sea of arms. Eventually he just dove forwards towards the stage (very calmly, I will add,) and was pulled out by security.
The band sounded terrific; Jared was slightly off during Praying For A Riot, but I was so glad to hear them doing that song, which is another of my favorites, that I just didn't even care. It's a beautiful song. Somewhere along the lines they did The Mission and I almost peed my pants, because holy crap. Anyone who says that Jared has left singing behind in favor of screaming has not heard him do this song live. He can still hit those notes and he hits them clean and true, or at least he did last night. It was awesome.
At one point, we actually got a clear view of Tomo. It was when he was playing the keyboard, which is kind of shoved between two amps on the left side. Everyone started going nuts when he did that, and everyone had either their fists in the air, or the standard rock concert devil horns. (I never did get that. What's that supposed to mean?) Meghan was trying to get a picture of Matt, I think, who had come to the front, and I nudged her and said, "Look, it's Tomo!" We both went, "Hi, Tomo!" and waved like a couple of morons. To our surprise, he just started laughing and nodded in acknowledgment. Then we started laughing, too, because how silly is that, to wave at the musicians onstage at a rock concert when everyone else is busy moshing at them? A few minutes later he came back and peeked through the amps again, and we waved again, and this time he waved back. It was hilarious.
Thankfully they did From Yesterday, which is another favorite of mine. On the train when Meg and I had been listening to the iPod, we were replacing certain words with "your mom", so there we were, the only two dorks in the audience screaming as loud as we could, "ON HIS FACE IS A MAP OF YOUR MOM!" and cracking up. Jared totally did not even attempt the high notes on this one, which boggled me, because he did it so effortlessly on everything else. (Although come to think of it, I think this song is actually probably a lot harder to sing.)
I don't remember which song it was, but it was sometime after From Yesterday (maybe right after,) these two girls came barreling out from the pit, a small, dark-haired girl leading a taller blonde girl whose eyes were practically standing out from her head. The guy next to Meghan and I took one look at her and backed the hell away. I grabbed Meghan around the shoulders and literally yanked her away from these two freaks. Then the guy and I shared a nod of acknowledgment like, "Holy crap. That girl is messed up." Meghan turned to me and said, "What's up with that loser?" "She's drunk," I told her, "and probably going to puke or something." (Although she was quite a bit more than just drunk.) That very sweet lady who was by the column the entire night said to us, "I saw the guards grab her and drag her out a little earler. She just keeps going back in." No sooner had she said that than the crazy drunk girl came around my left side, tripped, and would have fallen on Meghan if I hadn't caught her. Then she kept grabbing onto my left arm (my right arm was linked through Meghan's in a death grip,) and trying to pull me towards her. I said, "What is it? What do you need?" For a second I thought she was going to pass out or something. She leaned over and said, "Everyone hates me, everyone's pushing me away. My life is over. I might as well kill myself." It's very rare that I'm struck totally dumb, but I had no idea what to say to her. Her smaller friend looked at me almost apologetically. "I'm, uhh, sorry to hear that," I said to her. "Now move along." Which she did, by going back into the pit. And a little while later, stumbling out of it again, spilling drinks on everyone the entire way.
Among the other crazies in the audience was the Bra-wearing Crowdsurfer (you're a class act, lady,) and the Crazy Hopping guy. The Bra-wearing Crowdsurfer was just that: some half naked chick groping her way over the heads of the audience towards zOMGs JARRED! And Crazy Hopping Guy was this older fellow (and by older I don't mean old, just older than me,) who started to go berserk when the band played what I believe was a Jane's Addiction song. I knew that I knew the silly thing and had heard it at least a handful of times before, but I couldn't make out a word of it. For as great as the band themselves sounded, the sound itself was baffled and almost staticky. Anyway, this guy was just bouncing and thrashing in a small mosh pit consisting of just himself, a few feet away from us. He kept turning back to us and saying, "AWESOME! THIS IS AWESOME! BEST SONG! OH MY GOD!" And when the song was over he said, "YES! DUDE! This is why I FRIKKING LOVE THIS BAND!" And then he made his way to the back of the crowd like nothing had happened.
And for all the craziness, there was this one moment when I looked out into the crowd and saw this one girl crowdsurfing--fully clothed, thank you--looking up at the lights playing across the ceiling with such a look of joy on her face that I had to laugh out loud. I don't think she was drunk or stoned or anything like that. Maybe, but that wasn't my impression. She just looked happy. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that.
Before getting into this story, it's worth noting that Jared doesn't even have to sing The Kill anymore. The audience basically sings it for him. And there's something about when the band plays its most popular and well-loved song that, even if you don't like it, it still infects you in some way. If you do love the song--if, for instance, it's the song that introduced you to the band inthe first place--then it's just one of the best moments. Or it would have been, at any rate, if it hadn't been violently interrupted.
I actually think Jared saw this coming, or maybe after so many concerts he just as a sense for these things. At any rate, his spider sense was tingling and he started to try to mellow people out before the song. I didn't catch exactly what he said (like I said, the sound was baffled and I thought his mic was too low,) but I caught the words "North, South, East and West," and "you guys want to make a mosh pit" and "a circle just for this section." The gist I got was that he was trying to make a space for the people who wanted to slam and keep it seperate from the people who just wanted to listen and watch the band. I have no idea if it worked or not. My guess would be no.
So they begin the song and, ladeeda, singing along with the most popular song, business as usual. This was when Meghan really, thoroughly started to let loose, fists in the air, screaming along with the lyrics, huge grin on her face. (I kept trying to get a picture of that moment, but Meghan always seems to know when the camera is on her and self-consciously stops what she's doing. I didn't capture the moment, but I came close.) I was also videotaping some of this, and then right before what is the best part, I stopped taping because I just wanted to enjoy it and not worry about how the video was coming out. I swear, sometimes that camera ruins moments instead of capturing them. So anyway, here comes the crescendo of the song and everything is about to go busting loose! And just then the group of us on the left side hear, "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" (This, by the way, would not be the last time we heard that order; not by a long shot.) "Show us where!" one security guy was yelling to an audience member who was leading them somewhere. A few of us got shoved to the side. One of them would have been Meghan if I hadn't put both arms around her shoudlers and pulled her out of the way. "We're going to hang back," I said, "because I don't think they're finished." I held onto her for about 60 seconds, and then sure enough, this sea of people started to part like Moses had just done his thing, and the security staff came hurtling out ("MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!") with two guys all twisted up in that way security guys have of grabbing and removing people. This time we actually did get shoved pretty hard, because the people to the left of us did not stand clear and we had nowhere to go. Later, when I asked around, I found out that there had been a pretty nasty fight going on there, unusually violent and unlikely to resolve itself. That shook Meghan up for the rest of the night. "Don't let go of me," she said. So I linked my arm through hers for the rest of the concert, which was a hell of a lot shorter than I thought it would be.
They did Attack, and we had a huge amount of fun singing along with that one, too. I remember at one point the entire little section I was standing in started singing the wrong verse so loudly that when Jared started singing the right verse, it almost sounded like a correction. It was pretty funny.
Then they played some other song I didn't recognize, but it sounded really cool and bouncy. Tomo and Jared started bouncing like Tigger, just BOING, BOING, BOING in time with the music. Meghan and I looked at each other, shrugged, and started bouncing, too. I had to stop sooner than I wanted to, because my pants (which were my tight, SKINNY pants a few months ago,) were down around my hips and almost to my crack, for godsakes. (WTH?) While I was yanking them back up, the band left the stage and I didn't even see them go. I looked at my watch. It read 11PM and I said to Meghan, "Oh, they're not done. They've got an encore." And then the houselights came up. My face must have just said, "WT?!"
We knew in advance that there was going to be a CD signing, and we figured we'd wait until it cleared out so we could avoid the mad rush. Being some of the first to rush the band sounded like a bad idea. We couldn't have been so wrong. The setup for the signing was mass confusion. The staff was rude, unhelpful, and had no idea what was going on. We were directed to five different places. At one point we were directed to a small anteroom (the ticketroom) and then told by a very HUGE bouncer that the signing was, in fact, inside, and we weren't allowed back in. I said, "But dude, I paid for this." (You had to buy something to get it signed: earlier I had bought two very reasonably priced CDs, one for Spence and one for Meg, neither of whom had a copy. Meg always just listened to mine.) Those who bought stuff to get signed were given a wrist band, which I showed the bouncer. "Too bad," he said. "You walked out the door, now you can't get back in."
"EFF THAT," I said, (and I honestly did say "eff",) and went to the other door. I wanted to get a picture of Meghan with Shannon (Meghan is a drummer, too, and I thought that would have been so cool.) The security woman directly next to the huge guy let us back in and gave us seperate instructions towards the signing.
Okay, I could drag this part out but I won't, because it's boring. It was literally about 30 minutes of being told to go here, there, the other place, the basement, outside, inside, by various different staff members. At one point they were putting barricades up and had no idea where they went, and they hit some guy waiting on like to buy something in the back with their big metal barricade. Eventually, we finally did get on the right line. This stupid effing line went down the stairs to coat-check, through the basement, and then back up the opposite stairs. The line, we noticed, was moving super quickly. This was, in part, because security was running along the line yelling, "NO CAMERAS! SHOW YOUR WRISTBAND! HAVE YOUR CD READY TO SIGN," and the ever popular, "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" It was also moving quickly because the guys were really just going down the line: scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble. I knew there was no way we were going to get that picture. One of the security guys yelled at a bunch of us, "The fast you effing move, the sooner this stupid signing is over and then WE can go home!" COme on, guys, what the hell? Has there never been a CD signing before? CHRIST. We heard a lot of muttering about "this stupid band" and "stupid line" and "goddamn CD signing" etc. Overall, I think the staff was less than pleased to have 30 Seconds to Mars playing there.
After about twenty minutes of being moved along like cattle, we were at the top of the stairs, and the first person I saw there was Shannon, looking down the long line of people being bullied by the staff. I don't presume to know what he was thinking or feeling, but he sure did look distracted. I saw him sign a few things before we got to their table; he didn't even look up. He was just looking all around and didn't seem entirely pleased. Tomo was next to him, and I didn't see him look up from whatever he was signing.
For that matter, though, no one looked at the guys or spoke to them much as the staff was all with the "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" before the guys even finished signing. I put Meghan in front of me and she very shyly put her CD in front of Shannon, who signed it quickly while the staff was still yelling at us to get going. (Allow me my hormonal female moment to say, dude, I know all the talk is always about Jared's pretty blue eyes, but it makes one wonder if those people have ever really looked at Shannon. His eyes are this weird green-gold hazel. Okay, done for now.) I gave Shannon Spencer's CD to sign and when he did, I said, "Thank you, Shannon." Then, he did look up, and he seemed kind of surprised. "Oh, you're welcome," he said with a smile. Tomo did not look up. I'm telling you, the whole thing was so hectic for everyone involved. I made myself be determined not to be intimidated by the yelling security guys. While Meghan was being too shy to murmur "thank you" to Jared, who was last, I handed Spencer's CD to Matt and said, "Hi, Matt!" He looked up, took a long look at my T shirt and then totally made my entire night. "Hi. Oh! Hey! I love your T shirt!" "Finally!" I said. "Thank you!" My T shirt is this design:
And no one outside of my geeky little social circle has ever gotten the joke. I think this may be part of why everyone is just quietly in fannish love with Matt: he takes the time that he doesn't actually have to be sweet to people.
Jared quickly signed the CD for Spencer and I said, "Thank you, Jared," above the constant barking of the security folks. As I was walking away he said, "Hey!" I turned back around and he said, "See you next time, huh?" For one horrible second I toyed with the idea of being my usual smartass self and going, "OMG, how did you know?! ARE YOU STALKING ME?!" Then I decided, thankfully, that no one was in the mood for jokes, especially my special, doofy brand, so I just smiled and nodded. Of note: as I'd heard from a few concert-goers, Jared does look you dead in the eye for what it's worth for all three seconds he's got to say something to you. Of course he does, what has he got to lose? Everyone is always talking about Jared's eyes for a reason: they are intense.
Outside, it was raining like mad. I wondered aloud if Meghan wanted to hang around the tour busses to see if the band would come out for a picture or two, but I pretty much knew that they would not want to hang around in the pouring rain. Neither did Meghan. It was midnight and she was totally wrung out. (She'd gotten up at 6 AM for school that day anyway.) I was disappointed that we would not get our picture, (and I stalled a while, milling around anyway,) but it was clear that she wanted to go home. And then my cell phone rang, and my Mom told me that the trains were not running back to Ronkonkoma.
WTF. Just WTF. Why, I wondered to my Mom, had the woman at the station sold me two ROUND TRIP TICKETS of they knew they were going to be doing track work and we would not be getting back the same way?! She didn't know why, but she was in a panic, thinking that Meghan and I were going to have to stay in the city or something crazy like that, so she sent my Dad all the way out to Penn Station, where he was, at that time, riding around looking for a place to park, thinking that we were there already.
Okay, this is another long story, but let me shorten it a bit: we waited by the busses for about 20 minutes, chatting in the rain, between me trying to call either my Mom or Dad to find out who was where. I was hoping that during this interim of confusion the guys would come out for a bit, but they never did. We were informed by quite a few people that it would likely be another hour or so before they came out, and also that they would probably just say "Whaddup" and run to the busses. Jared apparently doesn't like the rain and cold. At that point, neither did Meghan.
We met up with these two awesome Echelon ladies who were there with the ubiquitous Emma, a dedicated fan and fantastic photographer. (She's the one we gave the donations to the last time. She's good at organizing things.) Standing under the overhang a few yards away from the front of the Roseland, we chatted for about twenty minutes with the official forum's lovely and sweet "CMW" and another equally sweet lady whose name I didn't catch, while looking for my Dad's car. Didn't find it, so I tried to call. Another 20 or so minutes of me trying to call all and sundry and being told by my cell phone that it was not "authenticated" and I couldn't make phone calls. Again with the WTF. One of the Echelon ladies offered me her cell phone and I was able to call my Mom who was able to call my Dad to tell him where we were. During the wait, we talked about the band, the state of the official bulletin board, and a TV show with a midget in it. They were super sweet and made up for all the rotten people we'd seen during the show. In the soggy small hours, my Dad pulled up across the street. I hugged both Echelon ladies, said we'd see each other in Philly, and then off we ran.
The ride home was slick and dangerous and we almost hydroplaned into the cement guardrail at one point. My Dad and I talked about the show and other stuff, and Meghan slept the whole way. We got in at 3 AM.
Hold up, I am doing this again on Tuesday? O_o
Okay, you knew this was coming: PICTURES!
Ghostly Jared in a sea of hands:
Ghostly Shannon:
Hair flip!
Happy, singing Meghan:
Why, yes, I do see the resemblance. She's much prettier and more symmetrical, though, the lucky.
Backlit:
Tomo mid-bounce behind the amp:
Boing! Boing! Boing!
The only pic that came out not blurry:
Attempted crowdwalk:
That's about it. Today we just chatted about the show, played with the dogs in the yard, played Dirge of Cerberus for a few hours etc. Had dinner, then I went to the store to buy some cookie dough which we baked at Mom and Dad's house and then watched Lost Boys.
Good times.
The train ride into the city was loads of fun for Meghan and I. She was really super excited and had never been on the LIRR before or to Penn station or anything. We brought some sandwiches and the some snacks that I had bought the night before because I had the feeling that dinner was not going to be an option. (I was right; we didn't get there until like 7 or so and missed the first band. No big.) We goofed off for the entire train ride, eventually getting out my iPod and listening to 30STM songs and--much to the eventual annoyance of the woman sitting across from us--started acting them out with hand motions. (She asked us if we were doing Rocky Horror Picture Show. I told her, No, we're just dancing. Eventually she switched seats.)
We had another cab ride from hell, after I had told Meghan that not all cab rides were going to be as bad as her last experience in a cab, which was to the Makaha Sons concert. A guy hailed a cab for us, and even he didn't know where the hell the Roseland was. I was like, "Dude, it's like the oldest club in the city." He went into this building and looked it up, I think. The address wasn't on the ticket (the guy: "Ooh! $2 tickets? Wow! Is this band any good?" Me: "They're fabulous, but the tickets weren't actually two dollars. They ended up being $36." Guy: "Oh, maybe it was just the first hundred buyers who got the $2 tickets." Me: "First hundred scalpers, you mean.") Anyway, so the cabbie had no idea where the Roseland was. The cab hailing guy had actually told him the address, but the cabbie didn't believe him and yelled into his phone the entire time about finding "The Rosedale." WTF? He told us it was his first time out, and he drove like a maniac. Meghan officially hates all cabs now.
Anyway, we got there and found that the line was around three blocks, all the way to where the tour busses were parked. On line, I did manage to sell one of my tickets. The guy said he really wanted to get into the show and asked how much I wanted. I said, "I'm not going to give you a hard time since you really want to get in. I'll give it to you for ten." He gave me a 20 and asked for change, then when I took out my wallet he said, "Wow, where'd you get all that money?" I shoved my wallet back into my bag, immediately ready to punch him if need be and said, "I work." He said, "You must make a lot of money." At this point I just closed my bag and turned away because he was making me nervous. He went on to say, "You're a caring person. You help people. Let me guess: You're a nurse." I was so shocked (at work we refer to ourselves as "animal nurses") and I said, "You're close; I work at an animal hospital." He said, "See? I had a feeling about you. Hey, if you ever need anything, I got you covered." As if this guy ws ever going to see me again. Whatever.
We got in and immediately found a nice spot to the left of the stage, up against the second to last column. We had a clear view to the stage aside from the fact that once again it looked like Tomo would be hidden by the band's equipment (and once again I mean MUSICAL equipment and not, like, crotches.) Meghan enjoyed Pink Spiders, thought Cobra Starship was pretty neat for a few minutes, and was already tired by the time Head Automatica came on. Then she realized she had to go to the bathroom. This proved to be one of the biggest and worst adventures of the night. (Aside from the overly crowded and super smoky bathroom--not cool for the little chick with severe asthma.)
So we got back from the bathroom about halfway through Head Automatica's set to find this woman in a stupid beany kind of hat and her very tall, very hugely broad boyfriend standing where we'd been standing all night. Oh well. That's the way it goes: you move, someone takes your spot. I told Meghan that as soon as the 30STM show started, everyone would push towards the stage and we'd get out spot back. In the meantime, this was my view:
Sure enough, right before the street drum corps came on, the two of them moved, and we got back into our places by the column. Meghan was dead tired already and all smoked out and wheezy from the bathroom, and she sat down against the column. The two people came back, and the woman almost tripped over her. I gave Meghan a hand up and said, "Maybe you shouldn't sit; you'll keep tripping people up." The woman said--to Meghan, NOT to me--"That's right, you have to move anyway, honey, because I was standing there." And then actually stood in front of her against the column. I felt my blood pressure, which is normally super low, start to spike, and I wanted to grab her by the larynx. But one doesn't do that in polite society and expect to be welcome in the venue anymore, so instead I said, "Actually, we've been here since seven." She said, "No, I've been here since six." I asked her, "Right here, in this exact spot?" She said, "No, but we were here a few minutes ago and then we moved somewhere else, and when we came back, you guys were here." I told her, "Right, but before that, we were sitting here all night. We left to go to the bathroom, you took ths spot. YOU left to go wherever, and we took the spot. That's the way it goes." She gave a huff and said, "Well, whatever." Didn't seem to know how to follow up, and planted herself against the column, directly in front of Meghan. I told her, "Look, when you took this spot, we were standing here the entire time behind this very large and solid guy of yours," and I patted him on the arm, to get his attention. The guy said, "No, I know; no one wants to be behind me because I'm really tall." And he stood away, which was super nice of him. The stupid beany-headed woman didn't move. So I told her, "Okay, that's fine. You can stand there." Then I took Meghan by the arm, steered her in front of me, and parked myself--all 5 feet 9 1/2 inches--directly in front of her, with my back right in her face. "How's that?" I said. She ignored me. I turned to the big guy she was with and said, "I appreciate you standing behind my cousin. It's her first concert, and this is very gracious of you." He just kind of nodded. Later I saw the stupid beany-headed woman inch her way closer to the pit and try to get in front of Meghan again, but I kept on blocking her. She did end up in the pit. Sometime during the middle of the show, the big guy leaned over a bunch of people and tried to grab her out of the audience (I think things were starting to get rough in there.) She pulled away from him and they started to have a fight over it. I didn't see how it ended, but it was actually pretty funny.
I don't like to solve things through violence but I was itching to hit her, and even now she stands out as the one spot in the evening that pissed me off more than anything. My foot wanted to have a Meet and Greet with her ass, although I would have contented myself with knocking that stupid ugly beany off the top of her overly hair-sprayed head. It's a good thing for everyone involved that I don't want to exemplify the trashy, scrappy south-shore broad image in front of my young goddaughter (or really in front of anyone,) because I wanted more than anything to kick her and her snotty, priviledged attitude into next week. No one mouths off to my goddaughter, and at that moment I could completely and utterly understand Jared going all Nazgul on Frodo Baggins at that awards thing the other night. He doesn't strike me as a loose canon, but the rule is: you don't mess with family members. Also, I just wanted to say to her, I mean really, you were rotten to a 14 year old girl at her first concert. Does that make you feel good? >_>
End rant.
So then, after all of that, the tech guys lowered the lighting rigs with the huge (and creepy) 30STM / mass mask-wearing backdrop attached to it, and when they raised it back up, it had four long, red 30 Seconds to Mars banners hanging from it. Just as soon as they started raising that, the entire crowd cheered and I actually got chicken skin over that. Soon after, they dimmed the lights and the drum corps people came on. They were pretty decent, and I'm a fan of percussion. They reminded me vaguely of this band I used to love when I was in Seattle, !TchKung! (Anyone else ever heard of them?) They were pretty good, but they played for a bit too long: everyone was itching for the band to come out. I had heard that this was how they opened the show, with Shannon coming out to drum with them and start the concert, but instead the drum corps left and they started to play O Fortuna. Some of you may remember me saying the last time I saw them that I think that's a cliche way to start the show, and I still think so. But damned if it doesn't still give me the all overs anyway. The only complaint I have is that they played it so low you could hardly hear it over the screaming. I grabbed Meghan by the shoulder and said (in a low voice, and she could still hear me,) "Jo-chan, listen to what's playing!" And she couldn't hear it either. She just knew that people had started to move towards the stage. Meanwhile I was also trying to get my camera focussed at the same time. "It's O Fortuna!" I told her. "This is it!" And although the music was still too low, eventually it clicked that this was the entrance. The human wave started to surge. Meghan started to surge with them.
I had told her earlier that we were most definitely NOT going to rush the stage when everyone else did. That was the pit, I told her, where people went to slam and surf, and we were not going up against that. Yet when the music got to that part--you know what part that is if you know the song--and one of the guys (who could tell who? They were wearing those silly masks,) came out carrying the big white flag, Meghan was just drawn towards the stage. I had to put my hand on her shoulder and pull her back and she was all, "BUTBUTBUT!!!" I went to my first concert when I was 14, too. My Dad took me to it. When the house lights went down and the stage lights went all purply and hazy and the first chords sounded, I very much remember looking back five rows and seeing my Dad way behind me. I don't know how I cleared five rows of metal seats that quickly, but I did. It's overwhelming; you can't help it.
And so the band came out with the flags and the masks and whatnot, and started right into A Beautiful Lie.
And then after a few phrases, Jared stopped the show.
It was clear from the surge forward that people were going to get crushed up front. There was this very sweet, very small and adorable lady who had been standing next to Meghan and I for most of the night, and she kept saying, "Where do these people think they're going to go? They can't get any closer! It's not going to happen!" She was right, and people were getting trampled and pulled out of the front row within minutes. Jared stopped singing while the rest of the band played on, Matt kind of stoically scanning the crowd to see what was going on down there, Shannon standing up behind his drums without missing a beat. Jared leaned over the crowd (all I saw was a sea of hands reaching for his legs,) and said, "I want everyone to take one big step backwards." Many of us did, even though we were nowhere near the pit. It only made sense: you had to leave space for everyone else to step back. Then he started asking people directly: "Are you okay? Do you have enough air? Can you move?" Yet everyone was still clamoring for him. I was disappointed in the audience. If they had stopped their clamoring, he could have got on with the song instead of having to act like a babysitter. Eventually he was the one who had to take a step back, and then he tried again. "EVERYONE TAKE ONE STEP BACK. YOU ARE CRUSHING THE PEOPLE UP FRONT."
Okay, Le Jared may have his quirks and I fully admit that sometimes the things he says in public irk the crap out of me and I want to stuff a sock in his mouth. But when you get down to things like this, I don't think he's doing it to be a big shot or to win people over. I think he genuinely doesn't want to see people get hurt, and at that point, I don't think that has anything to do with the band's popularity (which I admit seems to sometimes motivate him otherwise.) He totally meant for people to quit hurting each other and that was all. Then, I was proud of the band again.
So they went on with the show. I wish I could remember the set list in some kind of order, but there's just no way. I don't know how anyone else does it. I remember Battle of One, because that's the point where I start dancing like a fool. It's terrific for moshing in general, and that's what I was doing. I can't express how much Shannon owns music in general on this one. Meghan still seemed a little overwhelmed, but when she saw me moshing all around she started laughing, and then started dancing. "I'M WATCHING FULL HOUSE!" she screamed, which is a reference to a very adorable comic made by a very adorable little Echelon girl. Dude, it so does sound like he says all that stuff in that song.
They did Buddha for Mary, and Jared did one shallow stage dive and very quickly got back to the stage. He also attempted a crowd walk, but couldn't get far. The audience up front was too out of control; they weren't even holding him up and for a second it looked like he was sinking into a sea of arms. Eventually he just dove forwards towards the stage (very calmly, I will add,) and was pulled out by security.
The band sounded terrific; Jared was slightly off during Praying For A Riot, but I was so glad to hear them doing that song, which is another of my favorites, that I just didn't even care. It's a beautiful song. Somewhere along the lines they did The Mission and I almost peed my pants, because holy crap. Anyone who says that Jared has left singing behind in favor of screaming has not heard him do this song live. He can still hit those notes and he hits them clean and true, or at least he did last night. It was awesome.
At one point, we actually got a clear view of Tomo. It was when he was playing the keyboard, which is kind of shoved between two amps on the left side. Everyone started going nuts when he did that, and everyone had either their fists in the air, or the standard rock concert devil horns. (I never did get that. What's that supposed to mean?) Meghan was trying to get a picture of Matt, I think, who had come to the front, and I nudged her and said, "Look, it's Tomo!" We both went, "Hi, Tomo!" and waved like a couple of morons. To our surprise, he just started laughing and nodded in acknowledgment. Then we started laughing, too, because how silly is that, to wave at the musicians onstage at a rock concert when everyone else is busy moshing at them? A few minutes later he came back and peeked through the amps again, and we waved again, and this time he waved back. It was hilarious.
Thankfully they did From Yesterday, which is another favorite of mine. On the train when Meg and I had been listening to the iPod, we were replacing certain words with "your mom", so there we were, the only two dorks in the audience screaming as loud as we could, "ON HIS FACE IS A MAP OF YOUR MOM!" and cracking up. Jared totally did not even attempt the high notes on this one, which boggled me, because he did it so effortlessly on everything else. (Although come to think of it, I think this song is actually probably a lot harder to sing.)
I don't remember which song it was, but it was sometime after From Yesterday (maybe right after,) these two girls came barreling out from the pit, a small, dark-haired girl leading a taller blonde girl whose eyes were practically standing out from her head. The guy next to Meghan and I took one look at her and backed the hell away. I grabbed Meghan around the shoulders and literally yanked her away from these two freaks. Then the guy and I shared a nod of acknowledgment like, "Holy crap. That girl is messed up." Meghan turned to me and said, "What's up with that loser?" "She's drunk," I told her, "and probably going to puke or something." (Although she was quite a bit more than just drunk.) That very sweet lady who was by the column the entire night said to us, "I saw the guards grab her and drag her out a little earler. She just keeps going back in." No sooner had she said that than the crazy drunk girl came around my left side, tripped, and would have fallen on Meghan if I hadn't caught her. Then she kept grabbing onto my left arm (my right arm was linked through Meghan's in a death grip,) and trying to pull me towards her. I said, "What is it? What do you need?" For a second I thought she was going to pass out or something. She leaned over and said, "Everyone hates me, everyone's pushing me away. My life is over. I might as well kill myself." It's very rare that I'm struck totally dumb, but I had no idea what to say to her. Her smaller friend looked at me almost apologetically. "I'm, uhh, sorry to hear that," I said to her. "Now move along." Which she did, by going back into the pit. And a little while later, stumbling out of it again, spilling drinks on everyone the entire way.
Among the other crazies in the audience was the Bra-wearing Crowdsurfer (you're a class act, lady,) and the Crazy Hopping guy. The Bra-wearing Crowdsurfer was just that: some half naked chick groping her way over the heads of the audience towards zOMGs JARRED! And Crazy Hopping Guy was this older fellow (and by older I don't mean old, just older than me,) who started to go berserk when the band played what I believe was a Jane's Addiction song. I knew that I knew the silly thing and had heard it at least a handful of times before, but I couldn't make out a word of it. For as great as the band themselves sounded, the sound itself was baffled and almost staticky. Anyway, this guy was just bouncing and thrashing in a small mosh pit consisting of just himself, a few feet away from us. He kept turning back to us and saying, "AWESOME! THIS IS AWESOME! BEST SONG! OH MY GOD!" And when the song was over he said, "YES! DUDE! This is why I FRIKKING LOVE THIS BAND!" And then he made his way to the back of the crowd like nothing had happened.
And for all the craziness, there was this one moment when I looked out into the crowd and saw this one girl crowdsurfing--fully clothed, thank you--looking up at the lights playing across the ceiling with such a look of joy on her face that I had to laugh out loud. I don't think she was drunk or stoned or anything like that. Maybe, but that wasn't my impression. She just looked happy. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that.
Before getting into this story, it's worth noting that Jared doesn't even have to sing The Kill anymore. The audience basically sings it for him. And there's something about when the band plays its most popular and well-loved song that, even if you don't like it, it still infects you in some way. If you do love the song--if, for instance, it's the song that introduced you to the band inthe first place--then it's just one of the best moments. Or it would have been, at any rate, if it hadn't been violently interrupted.
I actually think Jared saw this coming, or maybe after so many concerts he just as a sense for these things. At any rate, his spider sense was tingling and he started to try to mellow people out before the song. I didn't catch exactly what he said (like I said, the sound was baffled and I thought his mic was too low,) but I caught the words "North, South, East and West," and "you guys want to make a mosh pit" and "a circle just for this section." The gist I got was that he was trying to make a space for the people who wanted to slam and keep it seperate from the people who just wanted to listen and watch the band. I have no idea if it worked or not. My guess would be no.
So they begin the song and, ladeeda, singing along with the most popular song, business as usual. This was when Meghan really, thoroughly started to let loose, fists in the air, screaming along with the lyrics, huge grin on her face. (I kept trying to get a picture of that moment, but Meghan always seems to know when the camera is on her and self-consciously stops what she's doing. I didn't capture the moment, but I came close.) I was also videotaping some of this, and then right before what is the best part, I stopped taping because I just wanted to enjoy it and not worry about how the video was coming out. I swear, sometimes that camera ruins moments instead of capturing them. So anyway, here comes the crescendo of the song and everything is about to go busting loose! And just then the group of us on the left side hear, "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" (This, by the way, would not be the last time we heard that order; not by a long shot.) "Show us where!" one security guy was yelling to an audience member who was leading them somewhere. A few of us got shoved to the side. One of them would have been Meghan if I hadn't put both arms around her shoudlers and pulled her out of the way. "We're going to hang back," I said, "because I don't think they're finished." I held onto her for about 60 seconds, and then sure enough, this sea of people started to part like Moses had just done his thing, and the security staff came hurtling out ("MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!") with two guys all twisted up in that way security guys have of grabbing and removing people. This time we actually did get shoved pretty hard, because the people to the left of us did not stand clear and we had nowhere to go. Later, when I asked around, I found out that there had been a pretty nasty fight going on there, unusually violent and unlikely to resolve itself. That shook Meghan up for the rest of the night. "Don't let go of me," she said. So I linked my arm through hers for the rest of the concert, which was a hell of a lot shorter than I thought it would be.
They did Attack, and we had a huge amount of fun singing along with that one, too. I remember at one point the entire little section I was standing in started singing the wrong verse so loudly that when Jared started singing the right verse, it almost sounded like a correction. It was pretty funny.
Then they played some other song I didn't recognize, but it sounded really cool and bouncy. Tomo and Jared started bouncing like Tigger, just BOING, BOING, BOING in time with the music. Meghan and I looked at each other, shrugged, and started bouncing, too. I had to stop sooner than I wanted to, because my pants (which were my tight, SKINNY pants a few months ago,) were down around my hips and almost to my crack, for godsakes. (WTH?) While I was yanking them back up, the band left the stage and I didn't even see them go. I looked at my watch. It read 11PM and I said to Meghan, "Oh, they're not done. They've got an encore." And then the houselights came up. My face must have just said, "WT?!"
We knew in advance that there was going to be a CD signing, and we figured we'd wait until it cleared out so we could avoid the mad rush. Being some of the first to rush the band sounded like a bad idea. We couldn't have been so wrong. The setup for the signing was mass confusion. The staff was rude, unhelpful, and had no idea what was going on. We were directed to five different places. At one point we were directed to a small anteroom (the ticketroom) and then told by a very HUGE bouncer that the signing was, in fact, inside, and we weren't allowed back in. I said, "But dude, I paid for this." (You had to buy something to get it signed: earlier I had bought two very reasonably priced CDs, one for Spence and one for Meg, neither of whom had a copy. Meg always just listened to mine.) Those who bought stuff to get signed were given a wrist band, which I showed the bouncer. "Too bad," he said. "You walked out the door, now you can't get back in."
"EFF THAT," I said, (and I honestly did say "eff",) and went to the other door. I wanted to get a picture of Meghan with Shannon (Meghan is a drummer, too, and I thought that would have been so cool.) The security woman directly next to the huge guy let us back in and gave us seperate instructions towards the signing.
Okay, I could drag this part out but I won't, because it's boring. It was literally about 30 minutes of being told to go here, there, the other place, the basement, outside, inside, by various different staff members. At one point they were putting barricades up and had no idea where they went, and they hit some guy waiting on like to buy something in the back with their big metal barricade. Eventually, we finally did get on the right line. This stupid effing line went down the stairs to coat-check, through the basement, and then back up the opposite stairs. The line, we noticed, was moving super quickly. This was, in part, because security was running along the line yelling, "NO CAMERAS! SHOW YOUR WRISTBAND! HAVE YOUR CD READY TO SIGN," and the ever popular, "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" It was also moving quickly because the guys were really just going down the line: scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble. I knew there was no way we were going to get that picture. One of the security guys yelled at a bunch of us, "The fast you effing move, the sooner this stupid signing is over and then WE can go home!" COme on, guys, what the hell? Has there never been a CD signing before? CHRIST. We heard a lot of muttering about "this stupid band" and "stupid line" and "goddamn CD signing" etc. Overall, I think the staff was less than pleased to have 30 Seconds to Mars playing there.
After about twenty minutes of being moved along like cattle, we were at the top of the stairs, and the first person I saw there was Shannon, looking down the long line of people being bullied by the staff. I don't presume to know what he was thinking or feeling, but he sure did look distracted. I saw him sign a few things before we got to their table; he didn't even look up. He was just looking all around and didn't seem entirely pleased. Tomo was next to him, and I didn't see him look up from whatever he was signing.
For that matter, though, no one looked at the guys or spoke to them much as the staff was all with the "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" before the guys even finished signing. I put Meghan in front of me and she very shyly put her CD in front of Shannon, who signed it quickly while the staff was still yelling at us to get going. (Allow me my hormonal female moment to say, dude, I know all the talk is always about Jared's pretty blue eyes, but it makes one wonder if those people have ever really looked at Shannon. His eyes are this weird green-gold hazel. Okay, done for now.) I gave Shannon Spencer's CD to sign and when he did, I said, "Thank you, Shannon." Then, he did look up, and he seemed kind of surprised. "Oh, you're welcome," he said with a smile. Tomo did not look up. I'm telling you, the whole thing was so hectic for everyone involved. I made myself be determined not to be intimidated by the yelling security guys. While Meghan was being too shy to murmur "thank you" to Jared, who was last, I handed Spencer's CD to Matt and said, "Hi, Matt!" He looked up, took a long look at my T shirt and then totally made my entire night. "Hi. Oh! Hey! I love your T shirt!" "Finally!" I said. "Thank you!" My T shirt is this design:
And no one outside of my geeky little social circle has ever gotten the joke. I think this may be part of why everyone is just quietly in fannish love with Matt: he takes the time that he doesn't actually have to be sweet to people.
Jared quickly signed the CD for Spencer and I said, "Thank you, Jared," above the constant barking of the security folks. As I was walking away he said, "Hey!" I turned back around and he said, "See you next time, huh?" For one horrible second I toyed with the idea of being my usual smartass self and going, "OMG, how did you know?! ARE YOU STALKING ME?!" Then I decided, thankfully, that no one was in the mood for jokes, especially my special, doofy brand, so I just smiled and nodded. Of note: as I'd heard from a few concert-goers, Jared does look you dead in the eye for what it's worth for all three seconds he's got to say something to you. Of course he does, what has he got to lose? Everyone is always talking about Jared's eyes for a reason: they are intense.
Outside, it was raining like mad. I wondered aloud if Meghan wanted to hang around the tour busses to see if the band would come out for a picture or two, but I pretty much knew that they would not want to hang around in the pouring rain. Neither did Meghan. It was midnight and she was totally wrung out. (She'd gotten up at 6 AM for school that day anyway.) I was disappointed that we would not get our picture, (and I stalled a while, milling around anyway,) but it was clear that she wanted to go home. And then my cell phone rang, and my Mom told me that the trains were not running back to Ronkonkoma.
WTF. Just WTF. Why, I wondered to my Mom, had the woman at the station sold me two ROUND TRIP TICKETS of they knew they were going to be doing track work and we would not be getting back the same way?! She didn't know why, but she was in a panic, thinking that Meghan and I were going to have to stay in the city or something crazy like that, so she sent my Dad all the way out to Penn Station, where he was, at that time, riding around looking for a place to park, thinking that we were there already.
Okay, this is another long story, but let me shorten it a bit: we waited by the busses for about 20 minutes, chatting in the rain, between me trying to call either my Mom or Dad to find out who was where. I was hoping that during this interim of confusion the guys would come out for a bit, but they never did. We were informed by quite a few people that it would likely be another hour or so before they came out, and also that they would probably just say "Whaddup" and run to the busses. Jared apparently doesn't like the rain and cold. At that point, neither did Meghan.
We met up with these two awesome Echelon ladies who were there with the ubiquitous Emma, a dedicated fan and fantastic photographer. (She's the one we gave the donations to the last time. She's good at organizing things.) Standing under the overhang a few yards away from the front of the Roseland, we chatted for about twenty minutes with the official forum's lovely and sweet "CMW" and another equally sweet lady whose name I didn't catch, while looking for my Dad's car. Didn't find it, so I tried to call. Another 20 or so minutes of me trying to call all and sundry and being told by my cell phone that it was not "authenticated" and I couldn't make phone calls. Again with the WTF. One of the Echelon ladies offered me her cell phone and I was able to call my Mom who was able to call my Dad to tell him where we were. During the wait, we talked about the band, the state of the official bulletin board, and a TV show with a midget in it. They were super sweet and made up for all the rotten people we'd seen during the show. In the soggy small hours, my Dad pulled up across the street. I hugged both Echelon ladies, said we'd see each other in Philly, and then off we ran.
The ride home was slick and dangerous and we almost hydroplaned into the cement guardrail at one point. My Dad and I talked about the show and other stuff, and Meghan slept the whole way. We got in at 3 AM.
Hold up, I am doing this again on Tuesday? O_o
Okay, you knew this was coming: PICTURES!
Ghostly Jared in a sea of hands:
Ghostly Shannon:
Hair flip!
Happy, singing Meghan:
Why, yes, I do see the resemblance. She's much prettier and more symmetrical, though, the lucky.
Backlit:
Tomo mid-bounce behind the amp:
Boing! Boing! Boing!
The only pic that came out not blurry:
Attempted crowdwalk:
That's about it. Today we just chatted about the show, played with the dogs in the yard, played Dirge of Cerberus for a few hours etc. Had dinner, then I went to the store to buy some cookie dough which we baked at Mom and Dad's house and then watched Lost Boys.
Good times.