Fangirl Post. Warning. SWITCHFOOT!
Springfield MO-- Destination, SWITCHFOOT!
We were on the road and we were both exhausted but we didn't sleep-- because Mandi was driving, and because I didn't want her to be the only one up. So we had fun doing nothing for a good 3+ hours until we got down there.
We got down there and we found where they were going to be playing and there was no line, and it was 2PM and we were like WHAT?! And then we saw their tour bus and had a minor moment of OMG!!!-- and then went back to Sarah's apartment to put our stuff down and then go back down to be first in line. We didn't honestly plan to be first in line, but close to first in line.
So we are trying to nonchalantly act cool and see if anyone comes out of the bus and who do we see? JEROME. I wave, and he comes over, and we talk for a bit, and I told him I was skipping school and he promised he wouldn't tell, and we took pictures. Well, we planned to take one but then Mandi zoomed and it was just her and him [still think she did it on purpose] but then, he got another one with me so that was awesome.
So we stayed out there a little later, and Jon walks out. Mr. Foreman himself. I was like...*stare*. I couldn't help it. I mean I know I most likely looked extremely creepy to the core but I couldn't not stare at him. So I waved and he waved back and I was like "OMG JON FOREMAN WAVED TO ME! MY DAY IS COMPLETE!" Chad came over and got pictures, and we met up with two guys who were just as hardcore fans as we are. The tall one was nice, I don't know if the short one was shy or just acting standoffish but I didn't let it bother me.
Then this one girl Lori comes along, and is talking about how she goes to shows all the time, and she stopped by to give them sweet tea because Andy [thought he went by the name “Drew”] loves it, and she told us all the shows that she has gone to, and that they were scoping out a place for an after show and so we were in line, just the 5 of us, for a good 2 hours.
Well, before that, Jon came back out again and we were all getting pictures with him, and I was sitting on this ledge, and I got so excited and I forgot that my phone was on my lap that it flew in the air and landed in three pieces by Jon. And he fixed my phone. Yes, he is more than just a talented musician, and an awesome role model --- he fixed my phone. I told him that he is awesome, [I am so dorky, I had all these actual inspirational things that I wanted to tell him, about how he is just.. so amazing.. and all I can come up with is ‘awesome’] and he says I am too. *grin*
We are sitting in line there, for ... ever [more people came.. not a lot though..] and these two radio stations set up their booths when we are listening to Switchfoot do their sound checks and playing 4:12, Burn Out Bright, and Awakening-- and this really really really REALLY hot boy is working this one radio group. Well our one friend Clayton [very outgoing, loudmouthed and generally a comic relief {So invaded my territory, I am those three things and I don't like my territory threatened...}], went to the other booth and randomly got a shirt and I was like "I want one!!" So Mandi and I went over and they denied us shirts so for a while we held a grudge against them. [We will come back to this radio station...] The other radio station with the hot boy gave us shirts, and I talked to him about NHL and Tampa Bay Lightning and St. Louis Blues and he asked for my number for the contest thing-- but I like to just say he asked for my number because his hotness was amazing. So he gave us some butt juice [not really] but he said it tasted bad, and Clayton and Mandi had some and they agree, and then we went back into line for a while. Well, I went to stretch, and the guys from Q102.1FM [that we had a grudge against] come up and go "Would you three *pointing to Lori, Mandi and me* like to go Meet and Greet?"
I don’t remember if I said anything or if I simply shook my head dumbfounded but the next thing I remember, I am standing outside the room, getting ready to meet them, and I get this wave of nervousness. Like, beyond thought. I thought if I was going to shake one of their hands I would throw up on one of them, so I started backing out. Mandi took my photo that we got and told me that she would sign it, and she went in, and this one girl was telling me that I could do it, and she would hold my hand, and that these guys are nothing to be afraid of [I know that… but I think she was just trying to be helpful.. and I thought it was sweet] and so Chad, must have heard me, and he was holding the door at the time. He stepped out just a tiny bit, and extended his hand and goes “Hi, I am Chad”, and I am shaking his hand and he is sorta gently pulling me through the door, and the door closes behind me and he goes “Great to see you could make it in”. I have a feeling I could get through any anxiety disorder if I had a member of Switchfoot holding my hand through it but I won’t go into that. Everyone was worried about me because I wanted to go in but then I freaked out so when I was in there everyone was smiling and me and all happy that I could go in and I was proud of myself but more than anything all that kept going through my mind was “OMG SWITCHFOOT. OMG THAT IS TIM. OMG JON! OMG DREW! OMG CHAD! OMG JEROME! “ I was smiling so much my cheeks hurt. Really hurt. I couldn’t stop smiling but they were hurting. I got pictures with all of them, individually, and then all together with some random boy also standing in the picture. Not happy about that but I can deal with it. Then Jerome, Mandi, and I had some fun pictures. Mandi did her classic ‘thumbs up’ pose [we will get back to that too] and Jerome and I posed- and then we all three had a picture of us doing the can-can.
We step out of there and my face must have been really red or something but I step out and I feel like everyone is looking at me and everyone wants to see the picture and what happened and Clayton and gang [I can’t remember the girls names but they were sweethearts] kept saying “No Way!” and then we waited in line a bit longer and were first in line still [YES!] I call up TERRi and she can’t understand a thing I am saying and she keeps telling me to breathe- and I can’t..haha and then I tried to call Gina but I got her brother [I think] and he said that he would tell her to call me back but… I don’t know if he did.--and next thing we know, they are taking tickets.
We get in first, and we are told to go the side way and Lori and I get lost, but we also lost Mandi. Mandi ended up saving spots for us but we had to squish because this one girl beside her was being a complete and total meanface. Seriously, so rude. Not even kidding. She kept bumping into Mandi and squeezing me out of my spot and just… mean girl.
We didn’t let that damper the mood though. I had to pee, and I got the Switchfoot bootleg for Mandi, Lori and myself, and waited for the opening band. We didn’t know who they were going to be. We heard the name like 8 times but I never remembered it. Mandi was so excited she was going to throw up, and I wanted to tell her ‘welcome to my life’ cause that is how I feel every time that I am excited/nervous. Quite disgusting. Anywho, so they come out, and they are amazing! They were the best opening band that I have ever heard. ReeveOliver is the name. If you say it fast enough it is ‘revolver’ and I didn’t understand that until later on. [I am a bit on the slow side]. Jon came out and helped sing the last song because apparently the lead singer Sean and Jon are like.. be-ef-efs and such, and it was awesome. We are waiting for Switchfoot and I get nervousy again because they aren’t coming out and it is taking FOREVER so I had to step out and then come back in so I could gain some composure before I went insane because I felt totally clasterphobic, and I get back in there and we are discussing the first song to be played. Well, Clayton had been going on and asking if we know that Switchfoot would be playing on this here stage in around 10 minutes and all smartbutted like that, and I wanted to shut up him. So, the techie guys taped down the list of songs that Switchfoot was going to do, and we made a friend with a security guard and he read that the first song was going to be ‘Stars’ and so I made a bet with Clayton it would be ‘Stars.’ He was all for it because he went to the concert in South Carolina or something and they started with Oh! Gravity and he was telling me to get my dollar ready because I was so going to lose. Well, the open up with ‘Stars’ of course, and all of the girls that are new friends of mine all go “OOOHH!!” and point at me and Clayton gets a little huffy and I crack up. They ended up playing:
-Stars [ah I win! First song!]*
-oh! Gravity*
-ammunition*
-company car*
-dirty second hands*
-meant to live*
-this is your life*
-learning to breathe* ["I can't see you, but I know I love you." Jon Foreman]
-sorrow* [cover from Bad Religion, He dedicated it to everyone who had to deal with the shootings, which I had no idea about because we weren’t listening to the radio or anything and later found out about it after he stated he wanted to dedicate it]
-yesterdays* [made me cry my eyes out. I really am still not sure why. I don’t even know why I was crying. I don’t even know that I was crying-tears just started pouring down my face..]
-chem 6a* [song that was voted most]
Then he stopped and had his profound thought process and he was talking about how he used to never like to do songs live because things aren’t in a test tube and broken strings and bleeding happens and he explains how that is how life is and then he summed it all up with “Maybe we can find ourselves in the broken cords.” [I would give anything to know his exact wording for everything else..
-gone [weee!]
-american dream [and froze for 73 seconds. The two boys we met had started a count for how long they would be frozen..]
-politicians
-we are one tonight
-shadow proves the sunshine [where they used a ropelight, and he went all around the venue and walked through the crowd, and then stood on a speaker and his shadow was on the wall and the full ‘shadow proves the sunshine’ ]
-awakening [weee the song I wanted to hear the most!!!]
-faust, midas, and myself
-dare you to move
** are on the bootleg cd
After the concert, I can’t hear a thing, and I am supposed to collect my dollar, and we ask them if they are going to the aftershow if they have one, and they are like TOTES and we are like US TOO! And we go and get the ReeveOliver CD and our bootleg CD and wait outside when everyone bombares Jon. I lay down on the grass because my back is killing me and so are my legs and I point and say “OH! STARS!” and hum to myself like a retard, and then someone drives up blaring ‘Awakening” and Mandi whispers “Lets scream out ‘I’m Bleeding!’” and I agree and they drive away before it comes up and then we scream it and everyone looks at us like we were actually bleeding… we didn’t think that through too much but it was fun.
Find out that Switchfoot is going to be at a place called the ‘Mudhouse’ and the nice tall guy that we met at the very beginning walked with us to the place so that we knew were it was, and we get there and I see a chair and I was like COMFY CHAIR!-and I launch into it and sit down and Mandi squeezes in next to me and we were sitting by our friends sans Clayton and this one guy.. comes up and goes “Save this spot, this is going to be for Jon” and we all look at each other and we are like.. “FOREMAN?!” so Sean and him came in and sang like.. RIGHT in front of us, and our one friend Anna [?] was sandwiched between them, and they sang the Weezer “Say it ain’t so” [I LOVE WEEZER AND THEM!] and then he was taking requests, and this one girl asked for a song called “Someone’s Baby” and apparently it is a song that Jon wrote one time when he saw this one homeless women. It was a really good song, I will try to find the lyrics… -- and then Sean sang a song from his band, and it was really good but it wasn’t on the CD that I bought and then Sean and the drummer sang a song about SeaWorld and it was hilarious. Jon played ‘Only Hope’ and finished up with ‘Revenge’ though Mandi and I requested “C’mon C’mon” and no one listened to us. He joked about they could continue singing at the park because the coffee shop was closing at midnight but they never did. We talk to them for a bit, and hear them sing a bit more, and Clayton is talking how he wants this picture with Jon with a thumbs up-and that is like Mandi’s signature pose, and so they had to take a picture together of doing their signature poses together. I then gave him my email so that he could send me the full video of Jon singing ‘Only Hope’ so that I can have it. [now turns out he doesn’t have a full video of it so I am a little peeved. But everyone said to facebook each other so that we could keep in touch though we most likely wont talk to each other for the rest of our lives.
Mandi called Sarah to pick us up, and she didn’t know that she was supposed to, so we were like “uh.. ok”. We had to find our way back to the venue so that we could walk back to the apartment which is less than a mile from the place but we were lost. So we were asking people if they knew how to get back and this guy goes “Well you can walk with Jon, he is walking back” and so Mandi and I were like.. OK! And so Jon is like “Well you take a left up there and then you just keep going straight..” and I thought that he was just going tot tell us directions, and then he said “We will make sure you get there safely, and walks with us, and his photographer. We are walking and randomly in this parking complex is a tiny store called the “Silver Alcapa” and I pointed it out to them, and Jon feels the need to make a podcast about it, so it should come out soon.
n Nothing feels softer than Alpaca fur. That is a good band name. AlpacaFur. One word.
We continue walking and there are these motorcycles and he goes “Wow, six fast, four furious. Other two are just miffed.” And then we saw this other car and it was a junky car and he is like “He is just furious. He is furious that he can’t be fast. You can tell when he stops and starts up again, the car sounds like it is crying..” and so we get to the block and say thank you, and I hug him though I am sure I wasn’t supposed to but I did anyway, and I told them thank you, and then Mandi and I relived everything over again on the walk home.
And we have decided now we have the right to be lazy, for if someone asks the random question “Who did you walk with last? Our answer can always be JON FOREMAN!” - so from now on, we aren’t walking anywhere.
For a condensed version, go here [we were there for all of it, even the Alpaca part..]
You can find pictures and videos at
shakeupmylife
[Mandi's Livejournal]-- so be sure to check that out.
Now I have to try to study math without passing out. Like that is going to happen.