Adventures in Towson
Thanks to the lovely MysticalChick over at DC42 I was able to snag a ticket to the concert at Towson University. Sadly, the Wednesday before the concert, my car decided to go and fuck itself and refused to come out of reverse. This was particularly bad because the thing behind my car was my house. I thought I was totally screwed on the concert front because car not coming out of revwerse = really expensive time consuming repair. But my boss just so happens to be going through a divorce and couldn't afford the payment on her ex hubby's car, and voila, car situation fixed in less than half a day. I am now the proud owner of a GMC Envoy, which is, like, massive, compared to my old car, which was a POS Neon. The Envoy is herein referred to as "Tour Bus" or "Tewer Bus" if you so choose, so named by the fabulous Jenn.
So, I drove to Towson on Friday morning through a torrential downpour. I literally could barely see past my windshield, and spent a good time damning David for being so awesome, which...it's tour, right? Wouldn't be tour without damning David for something. (Ah, memories of Hellkins--er--Elkins, WV...). I did manage to make it to Towson, and paid $12 for parking (WTF!Towson!) and then caught up with Serena and Jenn at PAWS which was, like....a cafe/foodcourt/cafe type thing with a lower level filled with pool tables and ping pong tables in front of the stage. We're all thinking, hmm...pool tables could pose quite the obstacle to getting to the front of the stage. I got there around noon, thinking I was totally screwed out of getting the front, and there was like, no one else there. So, Serena, Jenn and I chilled in the cafe.
At some point Kyle and Joey turned up and started playing ping pong and I gotta say, it was kinda a sorry sight. We totally would school those boys on ping pong if given the opportunity. We found out there was a Chick-Fil-A upstairs, which was kind of exciting because usually waiting in line consists of waiting outside in the rain with no bathrooms or food (*cough*Hellkins*cough*). They closed the venue at 3:00, presumably to remove the pool tables and get the venue ready for the show, so we started the line and there we met wurdnurd and a couple of other people from DC42.
While we were waiting in line, Dallin stopped by and mentioned that it was a really small stage and that they would be performing acoustic, and that it would be the same for the next night. We were like..."Don't you mean the day after tomorrow?" and she was like "Oh, I don't know. I just go where they tell me." Serena said Kyle had made reference to another show as well the previous night, so when Ryan stopped by we asked him. He said there was a really small show at a college in Pennsylvania, and Serena was like "Pennsylvania? Really? Again? If it's near Bloomsburg I am totally not going." and Ryan laughed and was like "Yeah, it's totally right near there." Jenn did some Google Foo and found out the show was at Bucknell University, which immediately set us off to scheming. This totally screwed up our plans. I was supposed to meet dreamerren in Northern VA on Saturday, so we could hit Radforf together, and Serena and Jenn had flights to SC. We literally debated all night and the next morning about whether or not to try to do the Bucknell show, which is kind of silly, because honestly, I'm not sure there was ever really a question about it, even though it meant driving all night to Radford after the show.
So, the show, right? That's what you all care about. Stage was small. Dallin had to use Andy's keybpard. The drummer was using that box drum thing and a bongo. It was actually pretty cool. I got video of three songs, since I knew acoustically the sound would come out alright. See below:
Click to view
Andy Skib came out to help out with the "rhythmn" which, actually is this really funny story.
He has SODA in his cup, right? RIGHT??
So, apparently, Andy's help was not enough. Ryan told the crowd he needed someone with rhythm, and asked his guitarist guy to pick someone from the crowd to help out. Guy takes his pic and tosses it into the middle of the crowd. I think no one could find it. Ryan was like "That was the worst idea ever." so he asks Artie to pick someone, and he picks this girl Allison, or Alice, whatever, and she's all adorable, but, damn, the girl had no rhythm whatsoever. It was horrible. She was totally off the beat. The drummer (Chris??) did his best to help her, but it was totally a lost cause.
Ryan is like "What is wrong with this chick??"
Andy tried to keep rhythm depite the completely off rhythm tamborine.
See viceo of Alice's stage adventures here, from Ellemarie at DC42
I love this man.
Dave reads a sign out in the audience.
It was one of those "x# shows, x#miles etc etc 1 More Hug = Priceless". Dave's like "One more hug. pricelss. Okay." Then he walks over to Joey and gives him a hug. Ah, I <3 these boys so damn much.
Neal is clearly amused:
Apparently Ryan was offstage whispering all sorts of naughty things in their ears. David is amused.
I think this is where David finally told us about Ryan's nefarious activities and challenged us to outdo Ryan, before quickly remembering the whole Idol thing and retracting that request.
Neal Fucking Tiemann showing off
Neal!Tongue. I know, it's shocking.
And, sadly, I didn't get a great shot, but during Light On, Neal Fucking Tiemann played the guitar between his legs!
Well, that's it for the show. Stay tuned for Adventures In Bucknell.