Epic Times Call for Epic Recps (or, How Ryan Star Fangirled me on Monday Night)
Hey tarattack ? You're not the only one Ryan fangirls anymore. Heee. Just kidding. He'll always be your #1 fangirl, but I'm coming close on that list, as proved from this picture, that he took and tweeted Monday night as we were chilling with him.
So. As I'm sure everyone knows, Ryan played a secret/impromptu show at Aloft Hotel in Lexington, MA (outside of Boston) and I was lucky enough to be there. I had asked Ryan what he was doing here on twitter, went away to do some work, came back, and found not only had Ryan retweeted me and answered my question, about 3 other people had retweeted his retweet to me! I decide right then and there I'm heading to Lexington after work and was thankful that for once in my life, I hadn't grunged it to work on a Monday because I wouldn't have time to go home and change. I left work and headed up to Lexington, figuring it'd take me awhile to get there since traffic on 95 at 6pm is unpredictable at best - however that night there was NO traffic, so I arrived around 630, and sat outside for a little while checking my email on my phone while I waited to see if anyone I knew showed up. A few minutes later Lisa arrived and then we ran into Brooke as well, while we were heading to her car to get her water out of it.
So we go inside to the bar since we have time to kill and the show was outside in the courtyard, and once we got there, we could see Ryan soundchecking - we order drinks and asked the bartender if we could take them outside and she said yes (which was awesome) so Brooke and I decide that we're going to go out and say hello. Ryan says hi to us and we talk for a few minutes and he left to get ready for the show so we headed back into the comfort of the AC after we talked to Matt Hires, who was also performing. Eventually, we wander back outside after meeting up with some other friends and grab seats pretty close to the stage. There were maybe only....50 people or so there? It wasn't very big. Matt Hires opened the show and while I had never really heard of him before (other than he had toured with Jason Castro earlier this year) he was great. Really enjoyed his set - he only played about 5 or so songs, but he was fun, and wore inappropriate jeans (what iS IT with boys and tight pants - not that I'm complaining at all. Really). I actually for once in my life - didn't take a zillion pictures from the show because my camera battery was low as it was and I wanted to make sure I had enough battery for Ryan's set.
So, Ryan somehow had snuck outside and was sitting behind me with Hallie and the person from Atlantic Records (Whose name is escaping me at the moment) and he's coming up on stage being all "I'm not performing without a proper introduction like Matt got. Actually, I want Matt to introduce me." So he gets introduced (Not by Matt) and opens with Brand New Day. It bears mentioning that this is the first time I've ever heard him totally acoustic - the other times I've seen him have all either been full band or with Dallin. And he was FABULOUS. In great voice and it was really fun to see him in a small, intimate setting on a summer night like that.
Not to mention it made picture taking easier since he wasn't all over the place. Seriously, I'd love to know where he gets the energy he does on stage, because I get tired looking at him. So then he talks about PS I Love You and introduces Last Train Home, which has always and forever been a favorite of mine because it's just so tender and pretty, followed by In Your Eyes. Which I had only ever heard him sing with the Backstreet Boys in the video from Live at the Vineyard. Ryan of course tells the Backstreet Boys backing him up at LITV and how bad they were at it, and we all laughed and then he sang this amazing chilling version of it. Here, watch it. I'll wait.
Ryan was really chatty with us that night, probably because it was a really laid back environment - I mean, not that he's not usually chatty, because he is, but he was being his total goofy self. He tells us that the next song is really short (Famous Yet) and he's only singing it because it was a request and he invites the girls who asked him to sing it up on stage with him to help him out. So that was fun and he closed with Breathe and Back of Your Car (with Airplanes and Ke$ha thrown in).
Ryan only played about a half hour or so, and that was fine, so after he finished we migrated back inside and mingled around the bar for awhile. Brooke and I ended up talking to Hallie for a LONG time - she's so nice and we had a blast talking to her. She confirmed what I already figured - that living with Ryan is like living with a child -- and that's he totally ADD (he really was - he'd be talking to someone and then someone or something else would catch his attention and he'd walk away). Eventually, I got a picture with him (in which he looks like he's licking my head and I'm not even looking at the camera) and we talked a little bit about Start a Fire and the release party and how this event made my Monday.
But whatever, he makes me laugh. And I have a ton of pictures already in which we're both looking at the camera and smiling. He starts walking away telling us that he promised a girl who got there late that he'd play a song for her, so Brooke and I decided to follow him out to the courtyard where I figured he'd just play a song or two and I'd be going home at a reasonable hour. Instead, epic happened. Ryan dragged Matt Hires outside as well, and it also bears mentioning at this point that Ryan was probably feeling pretty good because there was a French dude who kept buying him and Matt drinks. So we're sitting outside (tehre's maybe only 10 or so of us?) and Ryan starts to sing 11:59 and then starts screwing around, and eventually Brooke asks him to sing Start A Fire. Ryan's like, "I don't know the words" so we gave him the first line, and he sang it totally unplugged and acoustic. Y'all, this is going to be AMAZING live full band.
Ryan makes Matt sing something that he'd never sung before, so that went on for a little bit, and eventually Ryan plugged in (this is like, 11) and sang Psycho Suicidal Girl, Head Like a Hole, and 11:59. Oh and we had a Breathe sing along, in which Matt attempted to use a slide for the first time and failed. We tried to get him to sing Time of My Life and Matt was sitting there all confused so Ryan had to tell him the story - Matt found it as amusing as well all did. :) We tried to also get him to call David and get him to sing it with us, and Ryan was like, "No. But I do prank that kid like, every day." (BOYFRIENDS). Ryan kept checking twitter on his phone, so of course we keep giving him crap about it and he takes a picture of the 7 of us sitting right in front of him and posts it on twitter (see above). My replies start going nuts, and I'm like, "WHAT IS MY LIFE RIGHT NOW". It was seriously awesome you guys. Ryan's still drinking thanks to the French guy buying him drinks still and by the end of the night was totally wasted. It was hysterical.
Finally around midnight, one of the desk guys comes outside to tell us that they're getting complaints from the rooms around the courtyard (we weren't really being that loud, I think it was just echoing weird with the building) so we wrap things up. I had to interrupt and say goodbye to Ryan so I could go home since it was late and Ryan just pulls me into this long and tight hug and called me love, thanked me for coming and that it was always good to see me. He's SUCH a sweetheart you guys. Not to mention an amazing hugger. I said goodnight to Hallie too and she hugged me and said she hoped she'd see me at the release party. I said I still wasn't sure if that was happening and Ryan goes "dude, I actually wrote you a note for your boss," and I laughed and told him I knew but my boss was going on vacation that week. When I said bye to Hallie I made mention to her that he had written me a note for my boss and she laughed and said "he thinks he's a doctor. Its something he'd totally do." I finally got home at 1am, stayed up until 2, and was a zombie at work the next day. It was ABSOLUTELY worth it to be tired on Tuesday. I'm so glad that I had an opportunity to chill with him in a setting like this - was such a blast.
Drunk! Ryan thanks you for your time.
So. As I'm sure everyone knows, Ryan played a secret/impromptu show at Aloft Hotel in Lexington, MA (outside of Boston) and I was lucky enough to be there. I had asked Ryan what he was doing here on twitter, went away to do some work, came back, and found not only had Ryan retweeted me and answered my question, about 3 other people had retweeted his retweet to me! I decide right then and there I'm heading to Lexington after work and was thankful that for once in my life, I hadn't grunged it to work on a Monday because I wouldn't have time to go home and change. I left work and headed up to Lexington, figuring it'd take me awhile to get there since traffic on 95 at 6pm is unpredictable at best - however that night there was NO traffic, so I arrived around 630, and sat outside for a little while checking my email on my phone while I waited to see if anyone I knew showed up. A few minutes later Lisa arrived and then we ran into Brooke as well, while we were heading to her car to get her water out of it.
So we go inside to the bar since we have time to kill and the show was outside in the courtyard, and once we got there, we could see Ryan soundchecking - we order drinks and asked the bartender if we could take them outside and she said yes (which was awesome) so Brooke and I decide that we're going to go out and say hello. Ryan says hi to us and we talk for a few minutes and he left to get ready for the show so we headed back into the comfort of the AC after we talked to Matt Hires, who was also performing. Eventually, we wander back outside after meeting up with some other friends and grab seats pretty close to the stage. There were maybe only....50 people or so there? It wasn't very big. Matt Hires opened the show and while I had never really heard of him before (other than he had toured with Jason Castro earlier this year) he was great. Really enjoyed his set - he only played about 5 or so songs, but he was fun, and wore inappropriate jeans (what iS IT with boys and tight pants - not that I'm complaining at all. Really). I actually for once in my life - didn't take a zillion pictures from the show because my camera battery was low as it was and I wanted to make sure I had enough battery for Ryan's set.
So, Ryan somehow had snuck outside and was sitting behind me with Hallie and the person from Atlantic Records (Whose name is escaping me at the moment) and he's coming up on stage being all "I'm not performing without a proper introduction like Matt got. Actually, I want Matt to introduce me." So he gets introduced (Not by Matt) and opens with Brand New Day. It bears mentioning that this is the first time I've ever heard him totally acoustic - the other times I've seen him have all either been full band or with Dallin. And he was FABULOUS. In great voice and it was really fun to see him in a small, intimate setting on a summer night like that.
Not to mention it made picture taking easier since he wasn't all over the place. Seriously, I'd love to know where he gets the energy he does on stage, because I get tired looking at him. So then he talks about PS I Love You and introduces Last Train Home, which has always and forever been a favorite of mine because it's just so tender and pretty, followed by In Your Eyes. Which I had only ever heard him sing with the Backstreet Boys in the video from Live at the Vineyard. Ryan of course tells the Backstreet Boys backing him up at LITV and how bad they were at it, and we all laughed and then he sang this amazing chilling version of it. Here, watch it. I'll wait.
Click to view Ryan was really chatty with us that night, probably because it was a really laid back environment - I mean, not that he's not usually chatty, because he is, but he was being his total goofy self. He tells us that the next song is really short (Famous Yet) and he's only singing it because it was a request and he invites the girls who asked him to sing it up on stage with him to help him out. So that was fun and he closed with Breathe and Back of Your Car (with Airplanes and Ke$ha thrown in).
Ryan only played about a half hour or so, and that was fine, so after he finished we migrated back inside and mingled around the bar for awhile. Brooke and I ended up talking to Hallie for a LONG time - she's so nice and we had a blast talking to her. She confirmed what I already figured - that living with Ryan is like living with a child -- and that's he totally ADD (he really was - he'd be talking to someone and then someone or something else would catch his attention and he'd walk away). Eventually, I got a picture with him (in which he looks like he's licking my head and I'm not even looking at the camera) and we talked a little bit about Start a Fire and the release party and how this event made my Monday.
But whatever, he makes me laugh. And I have a ton of pictures already in which we're both looking at the camera and smiling. He starts walking away telling us that he promised a girl who got there late that he'd play a song for her, so Brooke and I decided to follow him out to the courtyard where I figured he'd just play a song or two and I'd be going home at a reasonable hour. Instead, epic happened. Ryan dragged Matt Hires outside as well, and it also bears mentioning at this point that Ryan was probably feeling pretty good because there was a French dude who kept buying him and Matt drinks. So we're sitting outside (tehre's maybe only 10 or so of us?) and Ryan starts to sing 11:59 and then starts screwing around, and eventually Brooke asks him to sing Start A Fire. Ryan's like, "I don't know the words" so we gave him the first line, and he sang it totally unplugged and acoustic. Y'all, this is going to be AMAZING live full band.
Ryan makes Matt sing something that he'd never sung before, so that went on for a little bit, and eventually Ryan plugged in (this is like, 11) and sang Psycho Suicidal Girl, Head Like a Hole, and 11:59. Oh and we had a Breathe sing along, in which Matt attempted to use a slide for the first time and failed. We tried to get him to sing Time of My Life and Matt was sitting there all confused so Ryan had to tell him the story - Matt found it as amusing as well all did. :) We tried to also get him to call David and get him to sing it with us, and Ryan was like, "No. But I do prank that kid like, every day." (BOYFRIENDS). Ryan kept checking twitter on his phone, so of course we keep giving him crap about it and he takes a picture of the 7 of us sitting right in front of him and posts it on twitter (see above). My replies start going nuts, and I'm like, "WHAT IS MY LIFE RIGHT NOW". It was seriously awesome you guys. Ryan's still drinking thanks to the French guy buying him drinks still and by the end of the night was totally wasted. It was hysterical.
Finally around midnight, one of the desk guys comes outside to tell us that they're getting complaints from the rooms around the courtyard (we weren't really being that loud, I think it was just echoing weird with the building) so we wrap things up. I had to interrupt and say goodbye to Ryan so I could go home since it was late and Ryan just pulls me into this long and tight hug and called me love, thanked me for coming and that it was always good to see me. He's SUCH a sweetheart you guys. Not to mention an amazing hugger. I said goodnight to Hallie too and she hugged me and said she hoped she'd see me at the release party. I said I still wasn't sure if that was happening and Ryan goes "dude, I actually wrote you a note for your boss," and I laughed and told him I knew but my boss was going on vacation that week. When I said bye to Hallie I made mention to her that he had written me a note for my boss and she laughed and said "he thinks he's a doctor. Its something he'd totally do." I finally got home at 1am, stayed up until 2, and was a zombie at work the next day. It was ABSOLUTELY worth it to be tired on Tuesday. I'm so glad that I had an opportunity to chill with him in a setting like this - was such a blast.
Drunk! Ryan thanks you for your time.