Storytelling [The Last & Longest Chapter]: Washington D.C., MD May 15, 2002
Woke at 10:30 to find Fotini asleep and Jenn gone, she reappeared with breakfast for us which was real nice. We ate, lounged around till it was time for her cab, and helped her bring her bags down to the cab. Fo & I said our goodbyes to dear Jenn Su who left to her native Californiiyay and off I went to meet Jon. I was a half hour late and we ended up running to catch the 1pm bus to D.C. Of course the bus was crowded and we ended up sitting way in the back. No sleep was caught up on we just gushed about how excited we were and I kept talking about Sam and Elia and Iain etc.
We arrived around 4 and walked around the oh so lovely ciy of D.C. I was amazed by just about everything, how much it reminded me of Europe, the cleaness of it, the strangely clam [and thinner looking] squirrles, everything seemed so foreign to me. I cheesed for the camera in front of various buildings like a tourist and took cool photos of washington momument that i hope come out okay.
Got to the Daughters Of The Revolution Constitution Hall pretty early, i'd say about 6 or so. There I ran into Brian who I met at the second NYC show and we stood around the top of the stairs talking...all of a sudden out walked from the stage doors at the bottom of the flight of stairs, Stuart in black turtle neck bopping along quite quickly across the street. I went mute and ran behind Brian as Jon said to me "go! run! talk to him!" I didn't find it right to run down the stairs [and most likely fall and break my neck], run down the block and catch up with Stuart to say hello inbetween panting and catching my breath. We waited around for an hour at the bottom of the stairs and just ran into that kid Jeff who was supposed to give us a ride to the show. I kept pretty quiet and had my eyes peeled for Stuart...alas, no luck. The show was about to start and I didn't want to miss Sleater Kinney so in we went.
The venue was amazingly gorgeous and posh, and quite shockingly the seats started at row C so I ended up with a 8th row prime seat...it was actually the first row of a section and an aisle seat so I had NO ONE remotely in front of me and had a great view [even if it was right off sarah's side]. S-K were rocking great and they actually played all the new songs on their upcoming album and they were fucking great. I wished they had played One More Hour or Get Up or ANY old song but it was a great preformance anyway.
Twiddled my thumbs till the lights dimmed again and the venue cheered as the band took the stage. The started up with Dirty Dream #2, Stuart felt that the venue wasn't filled and kept asking "where is everyone else? at the bar?!" They held the middle of the song for awhile, invited 2 super shy girls on stage and started over. The girls really sucked, they hardly danced and they didn't even try singing...by far the WORST people I ever saw take the stage at a B&S show, a lot of other people would have done a better job at the show but oh well, they the ones up in front. During the middle of the show there was a flood of people who ran up to the front of the center aisle and well, i went and joined them! There were about 20 or so people bopping and dancing along having a good ole' time to Dirty Dream #2 and then Woman's Realm...that is until the sercurity got mean. They started shouting at people to get back into their seats and kept saying FIRE HAZARD! There was a hold up since so many more people had moved down and at one point I turned my head to watch stuart from where I was standing and one sercurity guard stared me in the eyes and shouted "what are you waiting for?!" I wanted to cry and tell him they were all stupid and to let everyone have a good time but, I just turned my head and muttered something under my breath.
I finally made it back to my seat by the end of the song and Stuart asked the sercurity guards if we could dance in the aisles and they shouted no back at him and he said alright and that he wanted everyone to just try to have a good time. It was Storytelling song time and Stevie gave a little intro about the songs and he must have introduced "Fuck This Shit" numerous times probably due to the situation with the security & in response to Stuart's comment after he himself said shit and quickly said "i shouldn't swear in here..it's too posh!" Next thing I knew I was gazing at Mick's intro on If You're Feeling Sinister...God have I grown to love that song more than ever in the past 2 weeks. What better to follow it by than JONATHAN DAVID one of the 4 songs i was dying to hear the whole tour! I sat at the very edge of my seat dying to jump on stage and toss my arms around Stevie and praise him for playing the song! When they started up with The Simple Things I just nearly started crying just due to Sam qouting the first verse of the song to me in an e-mail recently...it was just nicer listening to that song after that than an other time before...
During The Boy With The Arab Strap the entire venue didn't stand up and clap along which made me sad but didn't stop me from having a great time on my own. It was then that I realized that the boy next to me followed every action that I did, he stood up shortly after I did for every song I stood for, he danced when I danced, and clapped when I clapped I was quite ecastic to have a little bit of unity there. The band went into a little Tigermilking segment and played We Rule The School, Wandering Days Are Over, and I Don't Love Anyone which was absolutely stunning. Again the band followed it up with another special song for me....Sleep The Clock Around! I got all hyped up and danced in my seat, I really think it was the best preformance of the song I have ever seen, it was just perfect. After that I got to watch dear Mick jump like a jumping bean to The Wrong Girl.
Next...dun dun dun....Stevie and a harmonica I let out a shreik at the top of my girly lungs that will more than likely be on any bootlegs of the show and off they went into Me & the Major, I jumped out of my seat and danced my favorite B&S dancing tune away. I think it was then that I realized that the show was bordering Philly's greatness. Legal Man wasn't as good as it was in NYC and even though the band came out to do an encore it consisted of Judy & Her Horses and then they ended the show with Dog On Wheels which was a pretty bizzare ending. But all in all it was an amazing show that was more than well worth the 5 hour suffocation of a bus! I had moved over to the mini crowd of people dancing during Legal Man and stayed there during the encore and rushed up to the stage and was able to get a setlist.
I found Jon, we hung around and found out where the fan after party was, then found Jeff outside and headed out to the corner where we were to meet with Jeff's friend Juan. On the walk over we passed the tour bus and a man who looked very manager-like walked by Jon asked him if Chris was planning on spinning and he told us no, but also told us about the same after party that we had heard about inside. I then chimed in and asked "are you neil the tour manager" and when he responded yes, I congratulated him on his new baby and he grinned, said "thank you....wow, everyone knows!!" some girl interupped my little moment with the nice tour manager and we went on our way.
Jeff wanted to go home right away since it was a long drive and Jon & I just decided to go home and forget the after party. I kept thinking "there's still benicassim". Ride back was fine, I really love the Delaware Memorial Bridge, so much so I stayed up till we crossed it and then went to sleep! Got to Jon apartment around 4 and passed out rather quickly. What a great day it tured out to be, hurrah for traveling to see your favorite band!
TODAY I spoke to Sam for a long while and it looks like I've convinced him to come to Benicassim and we're going to share a tent and we are going to stay up with a torch and some multi-colored pens that I will be taking notes with...then we'll mess about with Mick and Stuart and Spain will be better than anything else in the world this summer. Yes, I really think it will be.
We arrived around 4 and walked around the oh so lovely ciy of D.C. I was amazed by just about everything, how much it reminded me of Europe, the cleaness of it, the strangely clam [and thinner looking] squirrles, everything seemed so foreign to me. I cheesed for the camera in front of various buildings like a tourist and took cool photos of washington momument that i hope come out okay.
Got to the Daughters Of The Revolution Constitution Hall pretty early, i'd say about 6 or so. There I ran into Brian who I met at the second NYC show and we stood around the top of the stairs talking...all of a sudden out walked from the stage doors at the bottom of the flight of stairs, Stuart in black turtle neck bopping along quite quickly across the street. I went mute and ran behind Brian as Jon said to me "go! run! talk to him!" I didn't find it right to run down the stairs [and most likely fall and break my neck], run down the block and catch up with Stuart to say hello inbetween panting and catching my breath. We waited around for an hour at the bottom of the stairs and just ran into that kid Jeff who was supposed to give us a ride to the show. I kept pretty quiet and had my eyes peeled for Stuart...alas, no luck. The show was about to start and I didn't want to miss Sleater Kinney so in we went.
The venue was amazingly gorgeous and posh, and quite shockingly the seats started at row C so I ended up with a 8th row prime seat...it was actually the first row of a section and an aisle seat so I had NO ONE remotely in front of me and had a great view [even if it was right off sarah's side]. S-K were rocking great and they actually played all the new songs on their upcoming album and they were fucking great. I wished they had played One More Hour or Get Up or ANY old song but it was a great preformance anyway.
Twiddled my thumbs till the lights dimmed again and the venue cheered as the band took the stage. The started up with Dirty Dream #2, Stuart felt that the venue wasn't filled and kept asking "where is everyone else? at the bar?!" They held the middle of the song for awhile, invited 2 super shy girls on stage and started over. The girls really sucked, they hardly danced and they didn't even try singing...by far the WORST people I ever saw take the stage at a B&S show, a lot of other people would have done a better job at the show but oh well, they the ones up in front. During the middle of the show there was a flood of people who ran up to the front of the center aisle and well, i went and joined them! There were about 20 or so people bopping and dancing along having a good ole' time to Dirty Dream #2 and then Woman's Realm...that is until the sercurity got mean. They started shouting at people to get back into their seats and kept saying FIRE HAZARD! There was a hold up since so many more people had moved down and at one point I turned my head to watch stuart from where I was standing and one sercurity guard stared me in the eyes and shouted "what are you waiting for?!" I wanted to cry and tell him they were all stupid and to let everyone have a good time but, I just turned my head and muttered something under my breath.
I finally made it back to my seat by the end of the song and Stuart asked the sercurity guards if we could dance in the aisles and they shouted no back at him and he said alright and that he wanted everyone to just try to have a good time. It was Storytelling song time and Stevie gave a little intro about the songs and he must have introduced "Fuck This Shit" numerous times probably due to the situation with the security & in response to Stuart's comment after he himself said shit and quickly said "i shouldn't swear in here..it's too posh!" Next thing I knew I was gazing at Mick's intro on If You're Feeling Sinister...God have I grown to love that song more than ever in the past 2 weeks. What better to follow it by than JONATHAN DAVID one of the 4 songs i was dying to hear the whole tour! I sat at the very edge of my seat dying to jump on stage and toss my arms around Stevie and praise him for playing the song! When they started up with The Simple Things I just nearly started crying just due to Sam qouting the first verse of the song to me in an e-mail recently...it was just nicer listening to that song after that than an other time before...
During The Boy With The Arab Strap the entire venue didn't stand up and clap along which made me sad but didn't stop me from having a great time on my own. It was then that I realized that the boy next to me followed every action that I did, he stood up shortly after I did for every song I stood for, he danced when I danced, and clapped when I clapped I was quite ecastic to have a little bit of unity there. The band went into a little Tigermilking segment and played We Rule The School, Wandering Days Are Over, and I Don't Love Anyone which was absolutely stunning. Again the band followed it up with another special song for me....Sleep The Clock Around! I got all hyped up and danced in my seat, I really think it was the best preformance of the song I have ever seen, it was just perfect. After that I got to watch dear Mick jump like a jumping bean to The Wrong Girl.
Next...dun dun dun....Stevie and a harmonica I let out a shreik at the top of my girly lungs that will more than likely be on any bootlegs of the show and off they went into Me & the Major, I jumped out of my seat and danced my favorite B&S dancing tune away. I think it was then that I realized that the show was bordering Philly's greatness. Legal Man wasn't as good as it was in NYC and even though the band came out to do an encore it consisted of Judy & Her Horses and then they ended the show with Dog On Wheels which was a pretty bizzare ending. But all in all it was an amazing show that was more than well worth the 5 hour suffocation of a bus! I had moved over to the mini crowd of people dancing during Legal Man and stayed there during the encore and rushed up to the stage and was able to get a setlist.
I found Jon, we hung around and found out where the fan after party was, then found Jeff outside and headed out to the corner where we were to meet with Jeff's friend Juan. On the walk over we passed the tour bus and a man who looked very manager-like walked by Jon asked him if Chris was planning on spinning and he told us no, but also told us about the same after party that we had heard about inside. I then chimed in and asked "are you neil the tour manager" and when he responded yes, I congratulated him on his new baby and he grinned, said "thank you....wow, everyone knows!!" some girl interupped my little moment with the nice tour manager and we went on our way.
Jeff wanted to go home right away since it was a long drive and Jon & I just decided to go home and forget the after party. I kept thinking "there's still benicassim". Ride back was fine, I really love the Delaware Memorial Bridge, so much so I stayed up till we crossed it and then went to sleep! Got to Jon apartment around 4 and passed out rather quickly. What a great day it tured out to be, hurrah for traveling to see your favorite band!
TODAY I spoke to Sam for a long while and it looks like I've convinced him to come to Benicassim and we're going to share a tent and we are going to stay up with a torch and some multi-colored pens that I will be taking notes with...then we'll mess about with Mick and Stuart and Spain will be better than anything else in the world this summer. Yes, I really think it will be.