Yesterday was the day of the concert I've been talking about for three months now.
I was very excited, to the point of shivers.
My cousin picked me up at about 2:30 and we headed downtown to the House of Blues. It was cold and rainy and we stood in line for 3 hours, under the impression it would be worth it. We were second in line and convinced we'd get good spots.
After a few hours I saw a familiar face.
Not personally familiar but familiar nonetheless. I stared at him, not sure if it was him or not.
Then he spoke and it was clear as day. It was Jack the Camera guy!!! He is short. I think he must be about as tall as I am. But he's still awesome. Unfortunately, when he looked at me he was not recognizing a fellow photographer. xD He was looking for fanclub people. :( Which, unfortunately, I am not in. He walked by again but he looked kind of busy and so I chickened out and didn't ask him for a picture or an autograph. Which i regret now. I really need to stop chickening out. Because I didn't see him again after that.
5:30 rolled around. Thats when the doors were supposed to open. Someone asked the employees when the doors were going to open because it was like 5:45 and the employee said "When we say they're open." and so everyone started complaining. We were ALL freezing, it was so cold. So everyone was a bit annoyed. It was probably past six by the time the doors finally opened. We got in a line, took everything out of our pockets so they could wave their wand over us to make sure we didn't have knives or guns or anything, and then we went down some stairs into the main section.
To our dismay, there were already a bunch of people there. At least six rows worth. So we squeezed in there and waited for a while. FINALLY Cobra Starship came out. They are amazing. I love seeing them live and that was only my second time. :P Gabe Saporta, the lead singer, really knows how to work a crowd. Plus there weren't a TON of people so we could move and breathe and actually see.
At one point the crowd started shoving and it was like dominoes. A bunch of people fell over, myself included. It was pretty annoying because at random times people would start shoving again. But Cobra Starship was worth it. At the very end, the lead singer reached out into the crowd. Everyone surged towards him and then all of a sudden it was like a huge dominoes set, everyone just fell down, almost bringing Gabe with him. Fortunately he was saved by a near by security guard but still...
Then Sherwood came out. They were good. Their keyboardist was awesome, he'd jump around and do crazy stuff. He was cool. Then it was Rocket Summer -- Everybody loves Bryce, the lead singer. He played the piano a few times, the guitar, and then at one point he did a drum solo type thing so he was pretty cool. After them was Armor For Sleep and they were pretty good too. They were all good considering their music from their albums that I had heard online. Sometimes there's a particular sound where you think maybe they messed around with it on a computer or something but the sound was pretty genuine for all of the bands so thats good. :)
But as the night wore on, more and more people crammed into that tiny space. There were more people shoving and several taller people standing in front of me. Finally the Academy Is came out. It's pretty cool, I think, to follow these bands online for so long and see all the pictures and videos and then to finally see them in real life. Maybe I'm just weird. But William Beckett is amazing. He doesnt work the crowd quite like Gabe does but he makes eye contact with everybody he can. And Im convinced he looked at me at least twice. x3 But anyways. Yeah, he sings to people and makes eye contact and then he smiles as we all sing every word.
By this point, I was pretty tired from all the standing and looking up and the shoving and jumping and waving and stuff. And I had been sweating a lot... and really thirsty... REALLY thirsty. Suddenly, I'm pretty sure it was during one of the last handful of songs, I felt really clammy and cold and got that feeling I get when i turn pale. I turned around and told my cousin that I needed water. Now. And I didn't feel good.
So she had her friend's boyfriend take me to get water. We made it through the sea of people and i held onto his arm so i wouldnt get lost. Then I started getting dizzy and my vision was suddenly going dark. I was freaking out, thinking "Im gonna faint. This must be what its like when people faint. Im gonna faint!" but luckily I didnt faint. We got to the counter and water was like $3.50 for a bottle. Then suddenly my stomach gave a few heaves, but there was nothing in there to come up anyways. I went to the bathroom and just sat down for a few minutes to catch my breath and calm down and then I went back out. My cousin's friend's boyfriend had gotten me a bottle of water after all, which i heartily thanked him for and i sat down on the floor and drank almost the whole thing on the spot. We chilled out for a while then he suggested we go buy merch before there was a billion people in the other room. I agreed.
At the first table I saw Cobra Starship's new cd was $10 so i got one. Then I turned and BAM. There was Ryland. ♥
Ryland is the guitarist for Cobra Starship. He's also pretty tall. And VERY nice. So i was tearing off the plastic from my cd so he could sign it for me. :D I had this huge grin on my face and he was smiling at me and stuff. ^_^ So yeah. Then I saw another guy with a sharpie marker and found out he was the drummer. Nate. :)
So i got him to sign my cd too. Then I was standing in line (sort of) to get a shirt and there was Alex!
w00t. So I HAD to get his autograph. I walked in the same parking lot as him at Honda Civic Tour in May :P My mom said I should've gotten his autograph cuz he looked famous but I didnt know who he was at the time so... But i got his autograph this time. And first he said "Do you want me to sign your poster instead?" I said "I dont have one", kind of confused. And he smiled and said "yeees you do..." "I do?!?" "Yeah, this is one of the best things about our album" and he pulled out the booklet and unfolded it and BAM. A poster. ^_^ So i had him sign both and thanked him with my big ol' grin and he smiled and said i was welcome and thanked me for coming and stuff.
So I bought my TAI shirt -- the very last one of the kind I wanted. And then my cousin and her friend came and we got pictures with all three guys. And then we left. lol.
I dont have any pictures since i didnt take my camera but my cousin is going to email me the pictures she and her friend got so I'll post those later. Until then here are some that I have:
Mah poster. ^_^
verreh happeh.
W00t. Ryland signed his name with a heart ^_^
I'm cool like that.
Thats my TAI shirt btw.
Anyways, if I had the chance I might go see TAI again. I would take WATER. And I would know that if I dont shove my way up to the front there is no way William Beckett will ever sing to me. x3
Look for more pics later! :D
