Last night totally solidified why I have a 3OH!3 tattoo!
Yeah, yeah... this should be my post all about my trip to New York and the American Idiot Musical--I know, I know. But, I have a little bit of free time (for once in my life!) and while it's fresh in my mind, I want to share all about my night last night seeing 3OH!3. :) I guess I should be taking this time to go over American Idiot on Broadway, but I'm afraid if I go back to gather all those details, I'll completely forget every detail from last night! lol.
I took my momma to this show... surprisingly because she requested to go! Unfortunately, she's been sick since Friday, so I knew I couldn't push her too hard throughout the night. When we originally got our tickets, the drive to the venue-- Crocodile Rock Cafe in Allentown, PA-- was longer than the trips I usually take to concerts, so my mom made the decision that we should stay the night. It ended up working out very nicely, actually. But, it could've gone either way... driving back last night or this morning like we did, didn't really matter to me. Usually the drive is about an hour or hour and a half depending on the venue. This one was a bit over 2 hours. So, we got up there around 3 pm, checked in to our hotel and all that, and got a bite to eat before heading down to the venue. We got there around 5:30 pm and, yes, there was a bit of a line, but not that much! Surprising since the doors opened at 6 pm. After we got our place in line, though, it seemed that's when the crowd starting forming!
I hate the way the crowd was laid out, though. Because the venue is a club regularly open, not just for concerts, it's separated for the 21 and over crowd and the under 21 crowd. However, because of tickets, if people in your party are under 21, if you're over 21, you have to enter with them. Meaning, the under 21 section was littered with all kinds of parents! So, in the crowd, parents are doing nothing but complaining about the pushing, yelling at people who aren't even the cause of all of it, bitching about people in the first two rows, and instructing their children to push back! Hello, concert etiquette- you don't push back! Expect you're going to have little to no room to breathe, therefore accept it when everyone in the row is all up on your and unintentionally feeling you up! The pushing back just creates mass amounts of chaos, and allows to people to continue to whole pushing thing! Hello- if your "babies" are old enough to be in the General Admission pit in the midst of mast amounts of crazy, and sometimes insane, people, they're old enough to not have to have their mommies and daddies standing over them creating problems for everyone else experienced enough to handle a concert crowd!
Maybe I'm getting too old to handle concert crowds! Or maybe I've just dealt with enough concerts to know the proper way a crowd should behave and have little to no tolerance for those too eager first-timers who feel like everyone in the crowd should bow to their needs because they're new at this, young, or the "I promise you, this is my favorite band !!" types. But, I stuck it out through the end! :) ...Partly because there was literally no space to get out of the crowd if I even wanted to try, lol.
The first band was Neon Hitch. She did a song with 3OH!3 for the Alice in Wonderland "Almost Alice" Soundtrack, but she doesn't have a CD of her own out yet. She's... interesting. To say the least. Her sound is definitely different and unique and some of her songs had a really good beat, but she's out there. At one point, she wanted to invite us all to a "tea party in the sky." Uhm.. ok?! And, instead of putting our hands up, she wanted us to grow wings. lol! I like her voice, but at times she was very hard to understand, and it seemed as though she was too much like Ke$ha, or at least trying so hard to be different, it came off as a little odd! Especially during the first song where she sang... or something... with a headdress on her head and with a fog machine going off the whole time. Created interesting visuals, but dear Lord I was suffocating from the smoke and couldn't open my eyes for a little bit after that! lol. One of her band members, or "gypsies" as she called them, was Sean from 3OH!3's girlfriend. She's cute! lol. Neon Hitch also brought out big African drums for a few of her songs and she did a pretty kick ass cover of The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" all while singing through a golden megaphone.
Next up was Down With Webster. I've never heard of them before, but apparently the crowd has! They went absolutely wild! I started out at the show about 4-5 rows back, when Down With Webster was on stage, I somehow got to Row 2! lol. They kind of reminded me of Linkin Park, except how Linkin Park is more rock-based than rap, DWW was more rap-based than rock. They were really cute and fun! I really enjoyed each and everyone of their songs and I like how they have, basically, 4 lead singers. 3 are rappers (one is really short, skinny, nerdy, awkward and so cute! lol. Oh, plus one is like a more drop-dead gorgeous version of Drake!) and one is a guitar player/singer. Every song they played was catchy, they had great crowd interactions, and I just can't emphasize enough how insane their crowd was! Possibly the worst crowd (best for the band, worst to be a part of! lol) of the night... even worse than 3OH!3. But I will definitely look into more of their music! :)
The last band before 3OH!3 was Hellogoodbye. Uhm... can we say snoozefest?! They were cute enough (the lead singer reminded me of Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory), but I mean... there songs were really mellow and in between each song they'd literally talk for 5 minutes. Sometimes what they'd say was funny, like the one dude saying his mom is trying real hard to be on "Teen Mom," but after a while it was like... can we just get on with the set?! Shut up and play your damn music, lol. I thought my mom would like these guys since their music is really low-key. Nope, she much preferred the previous, more rappy, band than these guys!
Finally, 3OH!3! :) I mean, there's not much to say about these guys other than... they put on a damn good show! It's fun, it's energetic, it's crowd interaction while not losing the energy of the songs, it's a dance party... it's everything! The only complaint I have, though, is that they seem to be one of those who puts out a new album and then plays 85% of their set based on that track list. :/ I love their new CD, let's not get me wrong... but songs off of 'Want' are sometimes more fun to hear live and rock the eff out to. Also, they used to do this cute little dance during a lyric of the song 'Starstrukk,' but since their set list has changed, the little dance was taken out. :( Boo. The crowd was so energetic! Not as aggressive as during Down With Webster, but there was so much jumping and rocking and dancing. It was really hard to take pictures... especially since the girl next to me had her elbow in my face the whole time and would elbow me from time to time. >.< Oh, and her hands were up in the air the entire freaking show because she took video of the whole thing. Uh, honey- we're right up front, in front of the speakers, 3OH!3's music is bass-heavy, you're sound isn't going to turn out! The guys brought in a bunch of different elements though... they brought up a fan on stage who had won a contest, Sean played piano during a song, Nat played guitar and even bass at one point, and they even attempted to play an audience request! Someone in the crowd yelled "We Are Young!" which is a song of theirs, and Nat's like "What?! We're effing old! No we're not!" They also mentioned their amazement at how many girls were crowd surfing.
Setlist: Beaumont (Intro), I Can Do Anything, Touchin' On My, I Know How To Say, Don't Dance, My First Kiss, Punkbitch, I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby, House Party, Colorado Sunrise, Starstrukk, See You Go, Streets of Gold / / Encore: / / I'm Not The One, Double Vision, Don't Trust Me
While I thoroughly enjoyed their set, my dream would've included the addition of two songs: Holler Till You Pass Out and Love 2012. I definitely rocked out as much as I could (I was able to get a hold of the barricade so I was able to have some support! lol.), all I could think of was... man, I need some water! lol. However, the bar closed. :/ Ugh, timing, right? There's a pizza place that was connected to the venue, so everyone was told to get water/food/etc. from down there. The guys from Hellogoodbye were in there! I didn't say anything to them, though. After I got a nice, refreshing drink, I met my mom outside and she was gracious enough to let me stay and wait for Nat and Sean to come out. :) There was actually a pretty decent crowd forming, I was surprised. People were like 'Oh, this isn't much!' Really? Last time I met Nat and Sean, there was like 10 people, lol. But last time I didn't have a tattoo to show them, so I was determined to get my time with them!
And get my time I did! :D Nat came out first. My mom was being so aggressive! She's like... "Get in there!" lol. But I actually wanted to talk to Nat! Not just 'hey, let me get a picture!' Everyone that went up to him all remarked about how tall he was. >.< Poor guy. I mean, yeah, dude is 6'7... but he can't help it! lol. So I finally went up to him and said "I have to show you this... I have a 3OH!3 tattoo!" He says: "Really?! Let me see!" So I show him and he gets all excited and he's like "This is awesome! Thank you so much!" I tell him, "No- thank you." And give him the spiel about how I love 3OH!3, they've changed my life, etc. He seems genuinely appreciative and could not stop thanking me for my dedication, etc. He even tells me that he remembers seeing the picture online. He asks if I sent it to their myspace or something--I say, "no, twitter." :) He remembers then, thanks me again, lol--all that. So we get a picture and when he signs my 3OH!3 bag (which is old-school, which he really liked, lol) he signed it with a heart! :)
My mom took the picture, so I look to see how it turned out, only to see that Nat wasn't even looking! :( So I stood around in the crowd some more and after he was done, he walked by and I said "Nat, I'm so sorry, but our picture didn't turn out- can I get another one?!" He says, "Oh, for sure! Of course!" So my mom takes it and I point her out and say to Nat: "I brought my mom! She loves you guys just as much as I do!" And he gives her the cutest look ever and opens his arms up to her! She says "I do!" and asks for a picture, to which he responds: "For sure!" So then he starts thanking my mom and my mom says "I really love you guys because you're so down-to-earth and intelligent!" He laughs and thanks her and he starts to talk to the both of us about how they're all about fun and really just want to create a fun environment for the kids to come out to and enjoy themselves and we agree and tell him how much we enjoyed the show and how it was so much fun. So my mom leaves him with words of wisdom, that she wishes him a blessed and prosperous life. He really appreciated it!
My mom mentioned how he seems so reserved when you meet him. He really is! Kind of shy, almost. When he was talking to us, it almost sounded like he was being interviewed, lol. But he was so, so sweet! More people came up to him and none of them had anything to sign their stuff with, so they borrowed my sharpie. After all was said and done, Nat turns to me and he's like "Is this your sharpie I keep taking!?" So he gives it back, thanks me once again, and heads to the bus.
Sean is finally out and he's surrounded my a crowd of people. But, my mom and I weasel our way in, lol. We get up there and some girl--there's no way she could've been 18 yet!--asks Sean to sign her chest. Thankfully, Sean says no! Good boy! lol. Someone else wants to take a picture and instead, her camera keeps turning to record and Sean keeps going "This is the most awkward video ever!" lol. He was the talkative one! And so sweet to everyone, like Nat was. I kind of insert myself in the middle of the crowd and when there's a moment, I get his attention by saying "Hey Sean!" So he turns to face me and I take the opportunity to tell him "I have a 3OH!3 tattoo!" So he asks to see it and says "Yeah, I've seen this on twitter! This looks so cool!" I wanted to ask 'Why didn't you reply to me if you saw it on twitter...!? But I refrained, lol.
He tells me he's only seen a few tattoos of their band, but the cool thing is that everyone he's seen (mostly from online) are all different. No ones tattoos are alike. I told him that's the point of getting mine the way I have it and that I know I'm not the first or only one with a tattoo of theirs. So, he asks me if I've seen his 3OH!3 tattoo. I tell him "Well, I know you have one, but I've never gotten to see good quality or anything of it..." So he turns his leg around and pulls up his pant leg and shows me his 3OH!3 tattoo that's on his calf. Other fans were crowding around and trying to look at his tattoo and you could hear them say things like 'Oh, that's so cool!' but Sean's focus was totally on our conversation! It was great! lol. After he shows me his tattoo, I tell him: "That looks so neat! Oh, we can be like twins now with our tattoos! Except yours is better and original." He smiles and laughs at my stupidity, lol... but I think we have a bond, regardless. ;) hahaha. XD
We continue to talk and he says "Man, I wish I had my phone on me! I'd take a picture!" Their tour manager, Peter, was standing basically right next to us, so Sean asks him if he can go his phone for him. But the tour manager suggests that he take the picture and just send it to Sean. It was really neat meeting their tour manager, too! They always talk about him and he's in a few of their tour-update videos and such. He's British, so they always say his name like "Petah!" lol. So, I got to meet Petah! Petah loves my tattoo as well and especially remarks about how well the 'love' is done that's underneath it. I think Peter and Sean even rub their hands over my tattoo, lol. I tell Sean that the 'love' is for the lyric in Starstrukk that goes 'l-o-v-e is just another word I'll never learn to pronounce.' But I say, "Only, I didn't get it so it looks like it's spelled out, sorry." Sean jokes and says "That's OK, I couldn't read it anyway." Or something along the lines of how he can't read, lol. I say: "That's funny you say that! When I was getting my tattoo done, the dude was, yanno, doing it upside-down because of the way it's faced and the whole time he's saying 'What does this even say?!'" He laughed at that, too. :) I'm telling you... we bonded! lol. Peter ends up taking two pictures and Sean goes "I'll definitely get this and post it on twitter for you!" I got all excited and asked something stupid like, "Aww, you will, really?!" (He hasn't yet... I'm waiting, Sean! ;) LOL.)
After all of this, I finally ask him to sign my bag. He, like Nat, is impressed at the merch I have, lol. And I finally ask to get a picture, to which he says "Of course!" My mom takes the picture and again I point out my mom to Sean and say that she loves them, too, and she wanted to come see them. He's like "Is this true?!" She says "Yeah! How many other parents do you know that request to come to your show!?" He laughs. She also says how she enjoyed the show, but she couldn't get right in the middle of the crowd. Sean's like "That's OK! We love that you're here, anyway!" And him and I joke about how she's too old anyway. But Sean and my mom decide that she can be an official 3OH!3 mom. :) They get a picture and Sean thanks my mom for all her support, as well. My mom gives him the same spiel she gave Nat, and she even said "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Nat... I wish you many blessings and much prosperity!" Sean is very humbled by her words and thanks her so much and says "That means so much, sometimes it's words like that that we just need to hear every once in awhile!" So, we thank him again for everything, including for what his band means to me, and let him go mingle with all the other fans still waiting. :)
We easily talked to Sean for 10 minutes and Nat for about the same time, but it was broken up with Nat. They're SO sweet! Seriously. The nicest, sweetest, more humble guys and they're genuinely so appreciative of all the support they get from their fans. I felt kind of bad we had kept Sean so long from the crowd of people, but I think that they (even other bands, in general) appreciate when a fan comes up and actually wants to talk to them, not just get a picture and leave, yanno? Both seemed very, very appreciative of my support. I'm proud to give it to them! My mom liked to remark about how they're on-stage personas totally did not match their personalities in real life. Yeah, they're a bit goofy, but on stage they act like they own the place (which they do, for that hour or so), but in real life they're just so down-to-earth and sweet dudes.
But, now I'm definitely in concert withdrawal. :( It happened fast, too! We woke up early this morning to get back on the road because I needed to be home in order to get to class today. So, having such a long drive and then having to dive right back into the real world by heading to class definitely made me snap back into reality much quicker than usual. Sean and Nat, I miss you....! lol. Such a fun day/night. Even though my mom was sick, she thoroughly enjoyed herself, too. The only thing she wishes is that she felt better! She was a good sport through it all, though. :)
Long and detailed... sorry. You should know this is me by now. ;) lol. I'm totally and completely exhausted. Running on about 3-4 hours of broken up intervals of sleep. Not to mention my whole body is completely sore. My back aches and my one whole leg is completely black and blue... have no idea how that happened! A night to never forget. ♥ Perfection!
Once I upload my pictures, I'll throw pictures in here to break up the text a little bit. :)
I took my momma to this show... surprisingly because she requested to go! Unfortunately, she's been sick since Friday, so I knew I couldn't push her too hard throughout the night. When we originally got our tickets, the drive to the venue-- Crocodile Rock Cafe in Allentown, PA-- was longer than the trips I usually take to concerts, so my mom made the decision that we should stay the night. It ended up working out very nicely, actually. But, it could've gone either way... driving back last night or this morning like we did, didn't really matter to me. Usually the drive is about an hour or hour and a half depending on the venue. This one was a bit over 2 hours. So, we got up there around 3 pm, checked in to our hotel and all that, and got a bite to eat before heading down to the venue. We got there around 5:30 pm and, yes, there was a bit of a line, but not that much! Surprising since the doors opened at 6 pm. After we got our place in line, though, it seemed that's when the crowd starting forming!
I hate the way the crowd was laid out, though. Because the venue is a club regularly open, not just for concerts, it's separated for the 21 and over crowd and the under 21 crowd. However, because of tickets, if people in your party are under 21, if you're over 21, you have to enter with them. Meaning, the under 21 section was littered with all kinds of parents! So, in the crowd, parents are doing nothing but complaining about the pushing, yelling at people who aren't even the cause of all of it, bitching about people in the first two rows, and instructing their children to push back! Hello, concert etiquette- you don't push back! Expect you're going to have little to no room to breathe, therefore accept it when everyone in the row is all up on your and unintentionally feeling you up! The pushing back just creates mass amounts of chaos, and allows to people to continue to whole pushing thing! Hello- if your "babies" are old enough to be in the General Admission pit in the midst of mast amounts of crazy, and sometimes insane, people, they're old enough to not have to have their mommies and daddies standing over them creating problems for everyone else experienced enough to handle a concert crowd!
Maybe I'm getting too old to handle concert crowds! Or maybe I've just dealt with enough concerts to know the proper way a crowd should behave and have little to no tolerance for those too eager first-timers who feel like everyone in the crowd should bow to their needs because they're new at this, young, or the "I promise you, this is my favorite band !!" types. But, I stuck it out through the end! :) ...Partly because there was literally no space to get out of the crowd if I even wanted to try, lol.
The first band was Neon Hitch. She did a song with 3OH!3 for the Alice in Wonderland "Almost Alice" Soundtrack, but she doesn't have a CD of her own out yet. She's... interesting. To say the least. Her sound is definitely different and unique and some of her songs had a really good beat, but she's out there. At one point, she wanted to invite us all to a "tea party in the sky." Uhm.. ok?! And, instead of putting our hands up, she wanted us to grow wings. lol! I like her voice, but at times she was very hard to understand, and it seemed as though she was too much like Ke$ha, or at least trying so hard to be different, it came off as a little odd! Especially during the first song where she sang... or something... with a headdress on her head and with a fog machine going off the whole time. Created interesting visuals, but dear Lord I was suffocating from the smoke and couldn't open my eyes for a little bit after that! lol. One of her band members, or "gypsies" as she called them, was Sean from 3OH!3's girlfriend. She's cute! lol. Neon Hitch also brought out big African drums for a few of her songs and she did a pretty kick ass cover of The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" all while singing through a golden megaphone.
Next up was Down With Webster. I've never heard of them before, but apparently the crowd has! They went absolutely wild! I started out at the show about 4-5 rows back, when Down With Webster was on stage, I somehow got to Row 2! lol. They kind of reminded me of Linkin Park, except how Linkin Park is more rock-based than rap, DWW was more rap-based than rock. They were really cute and fun! I really enjoyed each and everyone of their songs and I like how they have, basically, 4 lead singers. 3 are rappers (one is really short, skinny, nerdy, awkward and so cute! lol. Oh, plus one is like a more drop-dead gorgeous version of Drake!) and one is a guitar player/singer. Every song they played was catchy, they had great crowd interactions, and I just can't emphasize enough how insane their crowd was! Possibly the worst crowd (best for the band, worst to be a part of! lol) of the night... even worse than 3OH!3. But I will definitely look into more of their music! :)
The last band before 3OH!3 was Hellogoodbye. Uhm... can we say snoozefest?! They were cute enough (the lead singer reminded me of Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory), but I mean... there songs were really mellow and in between each song they'd literally talk for 5 minutes. Sometimes what they'd say was funny, like the one dude saying his mom is trying real hard to be on "Teen Mom," but after a while it was like... can we just get on with the set?! Shut up and play your damn music, lol. I thought my mom would like these guys since their music is really low-key. Nope, she much preferred the previous, more rappy, band than these guys!
Finally, 3OH!3! :) I mean, there's not much to say about these guys other than... they put on a damn good show! It's fun, it's energetic, it's crowd interaction while not losing the energy of the songs, it's a dance party... it's everything! The only complaint I have, though, is that they seem to be one of those who puts out a new album and then plays 85% of their set based on that track list. :/ I love their new CD, let's not get me wrong... but songs off of 'Want' are sometimes more fun to hear live and rock the eff out to. Also, they used to do this cute little dance during a lyric of the song 'Starstrukk,' but since their set list has changed, the little dance was taken out. :( Boo. The crowd was so energetic! Not as aggressive as during Down With Webster, but there was so much jumping and rocking and dancing. It was really hard to take pictures... especially since the girl next to me had her elbow in my face the whole time and would elbow me from time to time. >.< Oh, and her hands were up in the air the entire freaking show because she took video of the whole thing. Uh, honey- we're right up front, in front of the speakers, 3OH!3's music is bass-heavy, you're sound isn't going to turn out! The guys brought in a bunch of different elements though... they brought up a fan on stage who had won a contest, Sean played piano during a song, Nat played guitar and even bass at one point, and they even attempted to play an audience request! Someone in the crowd yelled "We Are Young!" which is a song of theirs, and Nat's like "What?! We're effing old! No we're not!" They also mentioned their amazement at how many girls were crowd surfing.
Setlist: Beaumont (Intro), I Can Do Anything, Touchin' On My, I Know How To Say, Don't Dance, My First Kiss, Punkbitch, I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby, House Party, Colorado Sunrise, Starstrukk, See You Go, Streets of Gold / / Encore: / / I'm Not The One, Double Vision, Don't Trust Me
While I thoroughly enjoyed their set, my dream would've included the addition of two songs: Holler Till You Pass Out and Love 2012. I definitely rocked out as much as I could (I was able to get a hold of the barricade so I was able to have some support! lol.), all I could think of was... man, I need some water! lol. However, the bar closed. :/ Ugh, timing, right? There's a pizza place that was connected to the venue, so everyone was told to get water/food/etc. from down there. The guys from Hellogoodbye were in there! I didn't say anything to them, though. After I got a nice, refreshing drink, I met my mom outside and she was gracious enough to let me stay and wait for Nat and Sean to come out. :) There was actually a pretty decent crowd forming, I was surprised. People were like 'Oh, this isn't much!' Really? Last time I met Nat and Sean, there was like 10 people, lol. But last time I didn't have a tattoo to show them, so I was determined to get my time with them!
And get my time I did! :D Nat came out first. My mom was being so aggressive! She's like... "Get in there!" lol. But I actually wanted to talk to Nat! Not just 'hey, let me get a picture!' Everyone that went up to him all remarked about how tall he was. >.< Poor guy. I mean, yeah, dude is 6'7... but he can't help it! lol. So I finally went up to him and said "I have to show you this... I have a 3OH!3 tattoo!" He says: "Really?! Let me see!" So I show him and he gets all excited and he's like "This is awesome! Thank you so much!" I tell him, "No- thank you." And give him the spiel about how I love 3OH!3, they've changed my life, etc. He seems genuinely appreciative and could not stop thanking me for my dedication, etc. He even tells me that he remembers seeing the picture online. He asks if I sent it to their myspace or something--I say, "no, twitter." :) He remembers then, thanks me again, lol--all that. So we get a picture and when he signs my 3OH!3 bag (which is old-school, which he really liked, lol) he signed it with a heart! :)
My mom took the picture, so I look to see how it turned out, only to see that Nat wasn't even looking! :( So I stood around in the crowd some more and after he was done, he walked by and I said "Nat, I'm so sorry, but our picture didn't turn out- can I get another one?!" He says, "Oh, for sure! Of course!" So my mom takes it and I point her out and say to Nat: "I brought my mom! She loves you guys just as much as I do!" And he gives her the cutest look ever and opens his arms up to her! She says "I do!" and asks for a picture, to which he responds: "For sure!" So then he starts thanking my mom and my mom says "I really love you guys because you're so down-to-earth and intelligent!" He laughs and thanks her and he starts to talk to the both of us about how they're all about fun and really just want to create a fun environment for the kids to come out to and enjoy themselves and we agree and tell him how much we enjoyed the show and how it was so much fun. So my mom leaves him with words of wisdom, that she wishes him a blessed and prosperous life. He really appreciated it!
My mom mentioned how he seems so reserved when you meet him. He really is! Kind of shy, almost. When he was talking to us, it almost sounded like he was being interviewed, lol. But he was so, so sweet! More people came up to him and none of them had anything to sign their stuff with, so they borrowed my sharpie. After all was said and done, Nat turns to me and he's like "Is this your sharpie I keep taking!?" So he gives it back, thanks me once again, and heads to the bus.
Sean is finally out and he's surrounded my a crowd of people. But, my mom and I weasel our way in, lol. We get up there and some girl--there's no way she could've been 18 yet!--asks Sean to sign her chest. Thankfully, Sean says no! Good boy! lol. Someone else wants to take a picture and instead, her camera keeps turning to record and Sean keeps going "This is the most awkward video ever!" lol. He was the talkative one! And so sweet to everyone, like Nat was. I kind of insert myself in the middle of the crowd and when there's a moment, I get his attention by saying "Hey Sean!" So he turns to face me and I take the opportunity to tell him "I have a 3OH!3 tattoo!" So he asks to see it and says "Yeah, I've seen this on twitter! This looks so cool!" I wanted to ask 'Why didn't you reply to me if you saw it on twitter...!? But I refrained, lol.
He tells me he's only seen a few tattoos of their band, but the cool thing is that everyone he's seen (mostly from online) are all different. No ones tattoos are alike. I told him that's the point of getting mine the way I have it and that I know I'm not the first or only one with a tattoo of theirs. So, he asks me if I've seen his 3OH!3 tattoo. I tell him "Well, I know you have one, but I've never gotten to see good quality or anything of it..." So he turns his leg around and pulls up his pant leg and shows me his 3OH!3 tattoo that's on his calf. Other fans were crowding around and trying to look at his tattoo and you could hear them say things like 'Oh, that's so cool!' but Sean's focus was totally on our conversation! It was great! lol. After he shows me his tattoo, I tell him: "That looks so neat! Oh, we can be like twins now with our tattoos! Except yours is better and original." He smiles and laughs at my stupidity, lol... but I think we have a bond, regardless. ;) hahaha. XD
We continue to talk and he says "Man, I wish I had my phone on me! I'd take a picture!" Their tour manager, Peter, was standing basically right next to us, so Sean asks him if he can go his phone for him. But the tour manager suggests that he take the picture and just send it to Sean. It was really neat meeting their tour manager, too! They always talk about him and he's in a few of their tour-update videos and such. He's British, so they always say his name like "Petah!" lol. So, I got to meet Petah! Petah loves my tattoo as well and especially remarks about how well the 'love' is done that's underneath it. I think Peter and Sean even rub their hands over my tattoo, lol. I tell Sean that the 'love' is for the lyric in Starstrukk that goes 'l-o-v-e is just another word I'll never learn to pronounce.' But I say, "Only, I didn't get it so it looks like it's spelled out, sorry." Sean jokes and says "That's OK, I couldn't read it anyway." Or something along the lines of how he can't read, lol. I say: "That's funny you say that! When I was getting my tattoo done, the dude was, yanno, doing it upside-down because of the way it's faced and the whole time he's saying 'What does this even say?!'" He laughed at that, too. :) I'm telling you... we bonded! lol. Peter ends up taking two pictures and Sean goes "I'll definitely get this and post it on twitter for you!" I got all excited and asked something stupid like, "Aww, you will, really?!" (He hasn't yet... I'm waiting, Sean! ;) LOL.)
After all of this, I finally ask him to sign my bag. He, like Nat, is impressed at the merch I have, lol. And I finally ask to get a picture, to which he says "Of course!" My mom takes the picture and again I point out my mom to Sean and say that she loves them, too, and she wanted to come see them. He's like "Is this true?!" She says "Yeah! How many other parents do you know that request to come to your show!?" He laughs. She also says how she enjoyed the show, but she couldn't get right in the middle of the crowd. Sean's like "That's OK! We love that you're here, anyway!" And him and I joke about how she's too old anyway. But Sean and my mom decide that she can be an official 3OH!3 mom. :) They get a picture and Sean thanks my mom for all her support, as well. My mom gives him the same spiel she gave Nat, and she even said "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Nat... I wish you many blessings and much prosperity!" Sean is very humbled by her words and thanks her so much and says "That means so much, sometimes it's words like that that we just need to hear every once in awhile!" So, we thank him again for everything, including for what his band means to me, and let him go mingle with all the other fans still waiting. :)
We easily talked to Sean for 10 minutes and Nat for about the same time, but it was broken up with Nat. They're SO sweet! Seriously. The nicest, sweetest, more humble guys and they're genuinely so appreciative of all the support they get from their fans. I felt kind of bad we had kept Sean so long from the crowd of people, but I think that they (even other bands, in general) appreciate when a fan comes up and actually wants to talk to them, not just get a picture and leave, yanno? Both seemed very, very appreciative of my support. I'm proud to give it to them! My mom liked to remark about how they're on-stage personas totally did not match their personalities in real life. Yeah, they're a bit goofy, but on stage they act like they own the place (which they do, for that hour or so), but in real life they're just so down-to-earth and sweet dudes.
But, now I'm definitely in concert withdrawal. :( It happened fast, too! We woke up early this morning to get back on the road because I needed to be home in order to get to class today. So, having such a long drive and then having to dive right back into the real world by heading to class definitely made me snap back into reality much quicker than usual. Sean and Nat, I miss you....! lol. Such a fun day/night. Even though my mom was sick, she thoroughly enjoyed herself, too. The only thing she wishes is that she felt better! She was a good sport through it all, though. :)
Long and detailed... sorry. You should know this is me by now. ;) lol. I'm totally and completely exhausted. Running on about 3-4 hours of broken up intervals of sleep. Not to mention my whole body is completely sore. My back aches and my one whole leg is completely black and blue... have no idea how that happened! A night to never forget. ♥ Perfection!
Once I upload my pictures, I'll throw pictures in here to break up the text a little bit. :)