10.29.03
Riverside Theater
Milwaukee, WI
I flew up to central Wisconsin (forever more known as Cheeseland) to meet up with my good buddy, Jackie (bnlloves me on bn.net). Together, in her spiffy car, we drove to Milwaukee. We get there, and after we found parking, and get ourselves all situated. We get to the box office, and get our tix. But, we weren't quite sure where exactly they were. One pair were row A on the floor, and the other were row B in the pit. Either way, we were sure we had some kickass seats. So just then, jackie realizes she forgot her cellphone (she was supposed to give our extra tix to some girl). The security peeps tell us we can't have bag/purses or posters. So we go back to the car, get the cell phone, and resituate ourselves. Jackie's hiding one of the signs for me, and being nosy, I weasel out of her what it says. It was the "She flew here from Florida for this show. Steve: flick a pick!" sign. At first, I was totally against it. But after thinking about it, it didn't seem so bad. So we get back to willcall, waiting for the girl to call for her tix. Turns out they were standing right behind us. So, we take the better of the two pairs, which happened to be row 2 right in front of Steve!!! And, usually, there's a barricade between the front row and the stage, but not at The Riverside. So, I was even closer w/ my row 2 seats than I was when I had front row a couple of years ago. It was so friggin' awesome. I swear, I could have died then and there.
PEEPSHOW!
The more and more I think about this show, the more and more I realize how wonderfully talented this band is. I spent a lot of time just watching Steve, in total awe of him. And I'm saying this in a total non-drooly way. Just the extent to which he belts it out is incredible. It's beyond words really. Songs like Next Time and War on Drugs gave me goosebumps. The way the song kinda builds up to a climax. It amazes me that apparently so many people weren't fazed by War on Drugs at some of the shows. How can you not be touched by it? Steve puts so much emotion into that song. I'm focusing a lot on Steve right now becaues he was right in front of me so I spent a lot of time watching him. But the other guys were just as fantastic. Honestly, I've never paid quite a lot of attention to Tyler or Jim before, but damn, they put a lot into it, too. Jim seemed to be working the stage a whole lot more at this show than any other I've been too. And, on the other extreme, it seemed Ed never came over to Steve's side, like he usually does. But I'll chalk that one up to singing more on songs. In any case, it was a phenomenal show, and the band seemed to be having a great time onstage.
-- I honestly cannot remember what the first banter was about. I remember it started out with the guys thanking "bnl" for letting them be the openers. They played that up a little bit. pretty funny. Then, all i remember is a rap about butter and cheese. or something like that. I remember laughing a lot, so it must have been funny.
-- Straw Hat totally rocked my socks off. I love that song, and I'm so glad I got to hear it again.
-- As previously mentioned, Next Time was a total mind blower. And, as with most of their songs, is much much better live.
-- Funny thing during Unfinished (at least I think it was unfinished). They played some psycho music, and Ed made these stabbing motions at this guy in the front row. I'm sure I'm not relaying it right, but it really was funny.
-- Grade 9 cracked me up. Ed screwed up some of the lyrics: "I got a pair of rugger pants and a pair of rugger pants, Too." So, Steve modified his line: "My dad said I had to be home by 11. Oh man! I've got two pairs of pants on!" Hella funny!
-- When You Dream! It was so friggin' awesome. When they were doing the intro, I looked at Jackie, trying to figure out what song it was. She said, "I think they're gonna play When You Dream." And lo and friggin' behold, they did! The band said they're never played this live before. very cool.
-- The Q&A session was ok. nothing really phenomenal. I
thought the last question was the best, only because the
guys ended up talking for about 5 minutes. Questions:
1. asking about musical influences (the band said the Rheos,
and Ty played part of Black Dog)
2. asking kev to sign a shirt & cd (as kev signed it, he
did a dance and the guys sang a little song)
3. asking ed about what his best lesson he learned, or
something (Ed got put on the spot, which was funny. A teacher
asked this question, and they played the teacher aspect up
later on during the Big Fury Beaver thing)
4. what has changed/stayed the same in your music over the years.
-- The whole acoustic set was just awesome! Ty's "meep meep's" during RoadRunner were priceless.
-- Alt GF owns me!!! that is all
-- During One Week, the whole band was trying to sing Ed's parts, and you could tell they were trying hard and having much difficulty. Ty's facial expressions were just priceless! I swear, he looked almost constipated! I laughed through most of OW.
-- The best part of Trust Me was that they did the "she bibblets" harmony at the end. rawk!
-- Second Best. Ok, so this is where the coolest thing happened. Jackie takes out this sign she made: "She flew here from Florida for this show. Steve: flick a pick!" So she holds it up during the song, and Steve reads it, smiles, and nods. Then he looks at me and smiles. cool beans. I thought when the song ends, he'll just toss it in my general direction and be done with it. Oh no. He throws it right to me, but being the tool I am, I don't catch it. And the lights dim right then. So I couldn't find it on the floor since the pick is black. So while I'm frantically looking, he throws one to Jackie, which apparently this stupid dumb lady knocked over Jackie trying to get it. I didn't see this part, since I was looking on the ground, but i did see stupid, dumb lady hold up her hands and give Steve this innocent look. He replied by saying into the mike:"Lady, if I wanted you to have a pick, I would have thrown one to you!" *dead* But, then he threw one to her anyway, and the crowd "awwed". By this time, I had found the pick. Steve looks at me, and says, "did you get one?", I said yes and thanks, and that was that. Coolest thing every! Jackie friggin' owns me for doing that for me! Steve owns me for doing that! Everyone owns me!
Meeting People
Throughout the night, I had the pleasure of meeting many bn.net people and lj people.
-- Got to meet, very briefly, Carol (swj_ck). It was during intermission, and I was standing in front of someone with my ass in their face, so I didn't want to stay long. But I did get to say hi. So that was cool. :)
-- Also got to meet the ever popular, and hella funny, City Dweller. My favorite part of our convo: "So, are you still CB-ing?" I guess at one point I told him the story behind my user name. hehe. I also met bnlfanWI, doc_Maxy, and a few others, who I can't think of at the moment. During intermission, there seemed to be a whole crowd of people around our seats. I guess Jackie's quite popular in the wisconsin scene. ;)
After Show
After the concert Jackie and I headed back to the car to resituate ourselves. Then we went out by the back to wait. By the time we got back there, there was about 30 or 40 people, maybe. probably 30. There's a security guard waiting around that asks who came the farthest for the show, I guess just to start a conversation. Without hesitation, Jackie blurts out "she flew from FL." I'm glad I can rely on my friends to pimp me so well. ;) Anyway, so we wait around for maybe 15-20 minutes, and then Kevin comes out. That's the shortest I've ever had to wait to meet them.
-- I didn't have much to say to Kev. Honestly, I think my mind was still blown from the awesome night, because i usually talk to Kev the longest.
-- Steve came out next. I shook his hand and thanked him for "making the trip worth it." He talked to Jackie about MB20 and her blog question (which apparently Ed answered by mistake). Then, he proceeded to blow our minds by remembering, unprovoked, about an email he got a year and a half ago about the shirt jackie won at the circus (she's got the OW shirt). very cool.
-- Next out is Ed (I think). As he's signing my cd, the aforementioned security guard goes, "Hey man, she flew all the way from Florida for this show." At first I felt a little stupid, but Ed seemed to appreciate it. I told him that this show was so worth it, definitely the best show ever. He went on to talk about how much the band is enjoying doing these shows, and he's hoping people like them. Then, I ask him to sign a picture I have of us back when I first met them in march of '01 (the infamous mustache contest era!). So we talked about the mustache thing and he told Jackie and I this little story about how he was just upstairs shaving and thought about keeping it on. He asked their assistant, Shannon, if they should do the mustache thing again and she said "NO! It was funny the first time, but not again." Or something to that effect. It was very funny. And he wrote on my picture, "yikes!". Which fits very nicely to what Steve wrote, when I got him to sign it back in '01,: "Hi, I have a mustache!" hehe.
-- Next, Ty came out. He seemed a little rushed, so I kept it short. Just thanked him for the great show and making the trip from FL worth it. To which he said something about "the F-L-A." Can't remember as it's been a week.
-- We waited a long while after that for Jim. I really wanted to get the liner notes signed by all 5 guys to give to my brother for his birthday. But, when it was down to me, Jackie, and one other guy, I resigned myself to the fact that Jim wasn't going to come out. I was just uber excited at the fact that any of them came out. So, we walked back to the car to leave.
I crashed within minutes of getting in the car. I felt bad about it, as my job was to keep Jackie awake. Good job kel. When we got back to her house, it was freeeeezing! for me, at least. We talked for a while and then i fell asleep.
Next day, bright and early, Jackie took me to the airport. The rest of the day went by without a hitch. Made all my flights on time, and got back to Tally safely.
That was the best night ever! big friggin' w00+!