The Nacho Before Christmas and Other Fairly Stupid Rockstar Tales
This year for Halloween, I did not dress up, beyond my t-shirt that says ZOMBIE on it. The morning was spent at work, and I came home for the afternoon. rikibeth tried to talk me into doing zombie makeup, but when it comes right down to it, I hate having my face cover in greasepaint, so I didn't do it. Plus I didn't want to look like a big dork if I was the only one who really bothered to get all Halloweened out for the show.
We got there just before doors, and found ourselves standing outside of one of the tour buses. We could kind of see inside, and I saw someone putting on a mask. Then he came out of the bus, and slipped through the line basically unnoticed. Good thing he had the mask, because if the fangirls had realized that William Beckett had just walked past, he would have been mobbed. ;-)
They opened a 21+ entrance, which was nice, because it got us in a lot faster... considering probably 90% of the audience couldn't go through it.
Cobra Starship was already on stage when we got in there, because they were added on mid-tour, I guess, and so they had to go on early to not make the show excessively long. Gabe was dressed as a robot, and Ryland was Where's Waldo. The others were kinda generic whatever's... Victoria had bunny ears. Their set was okay, nothing spectacular, but William came out to sing "Snakes on a Plane" with them, still wearing the hat and mask, confirming that that was, in fact, who we had seen.
Next up was The Nacho Before Christmas. I mean, er, Sherwood. They had Christmas decorations, stockings with presents in them and everything. (They tossed the presents out to the audience. Apparently someone got Play-doh.) Their lead singer, a chunky sort of fellow, decided it would be okay to come out in just a pair of boxer briefs, a garter, and a Nacho Libre mask. It was NOT OKAY. Again, they were not bad, but not particularly good, either. Generic. It was a relief when they left the stage, just because it meant no longer watching the jiggling of man-boobs.
The Rocket Summer was on next. They didn't bother with Halloween costumes or anything else interesting. Somewhere early in their set, a woman who had managed to snag one of the coveted bar stools (there are very few, and it's the only seating in the place) motioned me over. I leaned down to try and hear over the music, and she offered to pay me $10 for me and Rikibeth to save her and her friend's stools while she took her daughter to a meet and greet with The Academy Is... as long as we gave them back.
Well, I would have done it for free, but I'm not going to say not to a free $10! So we saved their stools for them, and got to sit for the rest of the set, and half of the next one, resting our feet.
The last opening band was YARRRRmor for Sleep. (That would be Armor for Sleep dressed as pirates.) Once again, good but not great. The stool woman came back during their set, so we gave them back the stools as promised.
After their set, we saw a kid behind us taking a picture with some girl, showing off the fake tattoo that he'd done on himself... that showed that his costume was of Pete Wentz. Rikibeth complimented him on the costume, and he thanked her. Then he said to me that he was cooler than Pete Wentz, and I said, "Well that doesn't take much." He appreciated that. (There was also a kid there dressed as Gabe Saporta... who did mention it during Cobra Starship's set.)
There was a wait, not too long, before The Academy Is... came out. They were all dressed up, and Rikibeth asked if it made her a bad person that she wished we'd gone to a different show so she'd been able to see William Beckett's face (instead of the skull face paint he had on). I told her yes. Their set was amazing, of course, and I continue to be impressed with the fact that William sounds as good live as he does recorded. They played all but one song off of the first album, I think, and the majority of the second album as well.
Overall, it was a good night... and hey, I made money off the venture, which helped offset the cost of merch.
We got there just before doors, and found ourselves standing outside of one of the tour buses. We could kind of see inside, and I saw someone putting on a mask. Then he came out of the bus, and slipped through the line basically unnoticed. Good thing he had the mask, because if the fangirls had realized that William Beckett had just walked past, he would have been mobbed. ;-)
They opened a 21+ entrance, which was nice, because it got us in a lot faster... considering probably 90% of the audience couldn't go through it.
Cobra Starship was already on stage when we got in there, because they were added on mid-tour, I guess, and so they had to go on early to not make the show excessively long. Gabe was dressed as a robot, and Ryland was Where's Waldo. The others were kinda generic whatever's... Victoria had bunny ears. Their set was okay, nothing spectacular, but William came out to sing "Snakes on a Plane" with them, still wearing the hat and mask, confirming that that was, in fact, who we had seen.
Next up was The Nacho Before Christmas. I mean, er, Sherwood. They had Christmas decorations, stockings with presents in them and everything. (They tossed the presents out to the audience. Apparently someone got Play-doh.) Their lead singer, a chunky sort of fellow, decided it would be okay to come out in just a pair of boxer briefs, a garter, and a Nacho Libre mask. It was NOT OKAY. Again, they were not bad, but not particularly good, either. Generic. It was a relief when they left the stage, just because it meant no longer watching the jiggling of man-boobs.
The Rocket Summer was on next. They didn't bother with Halloween costumes or anything else interesting. Somewhere early in their set, a woman who had managed to snag one of the coveted bar stools (there are very few, and it's the only seating in the place) motioned me over. I leaned down to try and hear over the music, and she offered to pay me $10 for me and Rikibeth to save her and her friend's stools while she took her daughter to a meet and greet with The Academy Is... as long as we gave them back.
Well, I would have done it for free, but I'm not going to say not to a free $10! So we saved their stools for them, and got to sit for the rest of the set, and half of the next one, resting our feet.
The last opening band was YARRRRmor for Sleep. (That would be Armor for Sleep dressed as pirates.) Once again, good but not great. The stool woman came back during their set, so we gave them back the stools as promised.
After their set, we saw a kid behind us taking a picture with some girl, showing off the fake tattoo that he'd done on himself... that showed that his costume was of Pete Wentz. Rikibeth complimented him on the costume, and he thanked her. Then he said to me that he was cooler than Pete Wentz, and I said, "Well that doesn't take much." He appreciated that. (There was also a kid there dressed as Gabe Saporta... who did mention it during Cobra Starship's set.)
There was a wait, not too long, before The Academy Is... came out. They were all dressed up, and Rikibeth asked if it made her a bad person that she wished we'd gone to a different show so she'd been able to see William Beckett's face (instead of the skull face paint he had on). I told her yes. Their set was amazing, of course, and I continue to be impressed with the fact that William sounds as good live as he does recorded. They played all but one song off of the first album, I think, and the majority of the second album as well.
Overall, it was a good night... and hey, I made money off the venture, which helped offset the cost of merch.