(no subject)
Typing directly into LJ instead of handwriting first... I hope I don't regret this, cos, well, potential to lose it all. And to never get around to doing a longhand version. Heh. Isucksomuch. But the laziness and apathy are getting kind of on top of me so I have to do something, and this is easier (for which I judge myself, believe me.)
* * *
Even longer day this time - we're up again at five-thirty, sore and tired and it's dark out and the temptation is there, but, you know, we love them, we really fucking do and we need this and we need GA again. So damnit, this time we're doing it all the way. It's still dark and we can't see anyone outside the Pepsi Centre yet, just a few lights. We get ourselves together, get across the carpark, and make our way to the barriers where the line is. To our intense shock, there is no one there. We stare disbelievingly at each other. ...like... whuh? It's already 6am! How can we be the first people here?! So we poing a bit and congratulate ourselves and each other and take a couple photos... and then the security guy comes out, tells us we can't line up on the property til 9am (yet again, though, they give the fuck up and let us at 8) and that the rest of the fans are out in the carpark. Damn, thought that was a bit too easy. So we go over, and find out we're respectively 25 - 30 in line, meet Jimmy who recognises me from San Diego ("you were with the Exit girls and all that lot, weren't you?"), who was the guy who looks like Adam Sandler a bit, and is doing the fan documentary. We find out it was his son Nicholas who Bono pulled on stage last night, and congratulate him and squee a bit. He says something about getting my contact info but we sort of forget at the time, and I'm sure I'll see him in Chicago anyway...
We flop down on the concrete (pillow? still the best three bucks I ever spent at target) and shiver for a bit because it's frigging cold. Around 8 the line sort of casually drifts back over in front of the pepsi centre and given there's about fifty of us by this point they let us get away with it and we settle in. Some smart people have mini tents and sleeping bags as well as pillows and blankets and we are quietly envious. At this point Frog wanders over to sit in line at the Box Office and actually IS number one there today. We've been a little over-confident after the small (nearly non-existent) line of the day before, and it appears everyone else has, too, because we're there all day at number one and thank tawg for that. Third in line this day would have screwed us in the end.
Some point around eight thirty they let us start the U2.com line and we shift over, now number 15-20. I realise very belatedly that we then would be closer to the front if we'd stayed in the regular line, but the night before they seemed to have let the U2.com line through first/faster, so we decide to take our chances and stay put. We've been talking to the people around us, who turn out to be Sheila (the lady who got She's A Mystery to Me played the night before) and a couple other girls from Wyoming whose names I totally don't remember. We have a big bonding discussion on how much we love Pop so I feel pretty safe in assuming they're Our People, though. At this point, Izzy is hard at work painting the banner we're hanging from Frog's dad's apartment balcony. For the record, it looks fucking cool, and I'm posting pictures in a little bit. Joy and Anti are floating between her, me, Frog and the apartment (and the coffee shop, and shite, Anti, I never paid you back for the coffee... remind me I owe you a drink in Cleveland, okay?) and since I'm sat in the shade I'm still bloody cold (two blankets, a pillow and the poncho between me and the ground!) and so take a quick toilet break/walk in the sun break to the coffee shop before they open stuff at the venue at 10 and let us use the bathroom there. (Which was supernice of them, especially *coughroundsoundchecktimecough* Pepsi Centre, aside from a couple idiotic security guys, is totally winning Friendliest Venue Ever award thus far.) At some point during the "brrrr so fucking cold" fest Anti takes one look at me and announces "You need to snuggle in fluff with Daddy Adam and Daddy Larry" and cracked my shit up... (you need to understand nigelpet to get that, but suffice to say: it was funny.) I copy down the fading biro off my hand that I still can't translate (something about the Fly, it looks like 'l nc vt' excet the second bit could be a wonky m, and the last bit could've just been a t... stupid inability to remember.)
Can't remember exactly how, but because of the cold and the fact I have room on my credit card, as soon as they let us into the building to wait in line for the box office (yes! the box office line was inside! in the warm/airconditioning! and they let us just sit there all day and look disreputable so I'm very much filled with respect and liking for them. They were so good to us.) Anyway, as soon as they let us in, I end up shifting in there to sit all day, and poor Joy ends up stuck outside in the GA line getting what ends up being the worst sunburn I've ever seen. And I've seen some impressive ones. Really early in the day Frog finds a guy who needs two seats together, so we take a chance (depending on being able to get at least one GA, because Frog's never had GA and she NEEDED TO, damnit) and sell two of our tickets to him at face value. And thank god for that, because we had to write off completely three of our $70 nosebleeds because there was no one (not even scalpers) who needed them. I have Anti with me for most of the day, and Frog and Izzy for a lot of the time, too, though she and Joy switch out later in the afternoon when it is far, far too late for poor Joy's face. Shortly after ten who should turn up but Jeff from the day before (who was a cool guy, so we were glad to see him) and with him, his mate Neil, who turns out to be an equally cool guy, so we spend most of the day chatting with them on and off, going on food runs for various things, and discussing the Evil of Scalpers and, you know, all the usual stuff you shoot the shit about in line for U2 shows. We talked a lot about the show the night before, too, and that was when I got Neil's story from the club level seats about Barry Fay's ex-wife and Bono and the magic tricks, which was cool. I spent a lot of this time frantically trying to write up the show from the previous night before I lost any more of it, and I wish like hell I'd done that for everything now because it was definitely easier (and I could feel the push to get it all out so much more strongly) and double-checking things with people, and all that kind of thing. Somewhere before midday the dude from San Jose 2 (whose name I still can't remember) turned up and we kinda all went "ih" but spoke to him nicely when he did to us. He spent the entire day floating in and out of line, luckily spending more time away than there, so it was basically the group of six/seven of us and we had a really good time (aside from, you know, the stress and nausea.) He's definitely a fan and all, but... he sells bootlegs and he associates with and helps the scalpers and we just didn't really want to condone that. Plus, he's a bit... I dunno, I'm just not terrifically comfortable around him. (And he was trying to be all 'teasing' the day before when I said something about how I preferred to not hear the music before/after a show and kept mentioning it every now and then when, like, the ladies from Florida asked if the people in the box office would play any music over the PA in there.) But I can't criticise too much, because he seriously did help me out when the Actual Scalpers turned up and then tried to give me a hard time/accused me of cutting.
Anti: "[talking about something]... sexoring? *beat* Shit, she's got ME saying it now!"
Joy: *writes something I don't remember about sexoring on her arm, with an arrow, so of course this leads to a bout of "sexoring in the head? 'he! is fucking him! in the head!'" and " 'i love you dave but i can't breathe!' ", but later crosses it out and just writes 'censored' next to it, which looks kind of cool.*
Then when Joy comes over to join us, Neil's fiddling with his iPod which his wife gave him for Christmas, prompting Joy to squeal "Is that what I think it is? Can I touch it?" and then squeaking when they say yes. Hee.
We hit three-thirty, which is when the two GA we scored yesterday came up, and still nothing. Things are not looking terribly rosy, and we're starting to get a bit worried. Around four, four thirty I seriously consider one of the reallyclose100levelbehindthestage seats which has come up for a hundred bucks, because having sold two tickets means we have five people and four tickets total (not including Lacy and Dasha's tickets, course) but we decide against doing so (phew). By this point, we're all in a big huddle on the floor, playing 'larry-sized uno' - the tiny travel-sized Uno pack that Anti (or was it Frog? dudes, I suck) brought. Much hilarity ensues. Almost everyone who walks in to buy tickets/pick up will call gives us funny looks, and we continue the habit we've had during the day - of being the first line of customer relations/information for people, because half of them come to us to ask what the deal is with everything. About six people walk in and ask if any GAs have been released over a couple hours, we tell them "not yet", they ask if there will be any, we say "we don't know, and they won't until and unless they come up" and then the people walk out again - which makes us somewhat suspicious, as you'd think they'd then join the line if they really desperately wanted GA. Then we get a bit paranoid cos we can see that some of them are going up to the window and asking for GA - cutting in front of us - and it really does warm the heart to see the two guys on the counter shake their heads, point at us, and say that we've got priority. Szo much love for them. The dude who'd been looking after us all day, giving us the best/most up to date info as soon as he had it and double checking from time to time if good seats came up just in case we wanted to take something else in case the GA didn't come through left for the day about five and we went meep, but waved good bye, and he told us "good luck!" and looked fairly positive, so we figured we maybe still had a chance after all.
Course, him leaving made us a bit "eep" about our venue/freaks-in-line relations so we wandered back up to the counter and got reassured by the girl and guy now on duty that they knew the deal and were looking out for us, yay. Which of course didn't stop us talking about what we'd do if someone did cut and make off with the precious GAs we'd been trying for, and plotting how we'd follow them outside and "have words with them."
Neil: "And by words we mean they'd be saying "ow!" and "stop!" and "ow!" "
Oh yeah, they were definitely Our Kind too. Hee. Nearly as dorky as us in a lot of respects. We did a lot of Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars quoteage during the Uno games and all so that was fun. And there was a fair bit of hangman too, but not everyone is as tolerant of my complete tool-ness as Kat and Sandra, so not so much as there was in San Jose.
Around five the scalpers turned up and I did the complete double-take, what-the-shit, you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me routine, complete with high school-ish note passing to explain to Joy, Anti, Frog, Neil and Jeff who they were and that I'd seen them at all the CA shows. Good TAWG. I was just dumbfounded. Half-past five rolled around, and we had to face the fact that despite all that we'd put in, and the smallest numbers on our hands that I'd ever had for a U2 show, it was looking like no GA were gonna come up before they started letting people in at 6. Gave in to the inevitable and handed out everyone's various nosebleeds (singles scattered everywhere, labelled "Larry's ass" "Adam's ass" "Edge's ass" (gotta have a sense of humour, right?), got Izzy's taken over to her, but we still stayed settled cos damnit, we were gonna sit there til ten minutes til showtime if we had to.
Then about quarter to, ten to six the guy at the counter made Hand Gestures of Shh, Come Here-ness and so we swarmed over with our hearts in our mouths, and he asked how many GA we were looking for, and because by god we'd thrown our lot in with them at this point and were not leaving anyone behind, we said "seven" instantly - us five, and the two of them, and he gave us a grin and said "okay, well, we've had six GAs come up" and so of course we were like "WE'LL TAKE THEM" and Frog had first dibs so got her one and Izzy's, then Anti got hers and Joy's, and Neil and Jeff got the last two cos they no other tickets, and hadn't had GA the day before at all, and so I kept our lone 100 level (five rows away from Larry's ass, really, I was not gonna complain at all, was I?) because it was by far the best seat, got Dasha (who'd turned up about twenty minutes earlier and was running as glorified messenger girl between us and Izzy in the GA line) to get Izzy's ticket back and everyone else's tickets back, and we got started on trying to get rid of the three nosebleeds we now had to spare.
I had a small stroke of genius and realised that through the curtains on the side of the room where the box office is I could see clear across to where the GA lines came in, and so Dasha and I figured we could stay sat in line (where we were now at the front, still/again) until they let GA in, cos just in case one more came up... and this was when the guy from LA and SJ who had grey hair who was doing the food run for his little scalper sheep (Pam, you'll probably remember him, if no one else does) and had his wife/partner/whatever with him and constantly on her phone came up to me and got all in my face and "she just bought two tickets, she's cutting, why is she still here?" to which I pointed out that, as he might have observed, neither of those tickets was for ME, and I'd owed my friend the money, and besides, I was only needing one more ticket, was gonna leave and give up as soon as they let GA in so more than likely it was going to be no skin off his nose anyway, and tough shit, mate. Well, without that last bit. Heh. But I was a bit worried because there was no way I was moving of my own free will, but I didn't want to get in trouble or burn any of the credit we had with the venue at this point, but luckily the SJ2 guy and the guy who was selling those flashing Vertigo magnetic badges (who was in line right behind SJ2 guy, before the little quartet of scalpers) stuck up for me and said that I'd been there all day, was genuine, and not to give me a hard time. So, you know, kudos to them for that much, at least.
About quarter past six the GA line got let in so I said goodbye to the guys behind me, gave the scalper a "see, I'm LEAVING like I said I would, ASSHOLE" look (I couldn't help myself. this is so gonna get me in trouble one of these days.) and me and Dash took off to scrounge up some food/drink/bathrooms. Had a stroke of minor genius and realised we could just go back up to the loft (except quietly, because within, like, two hours of the banner being hung there was a note on the door saying "TAKE IT DOWN") and our story was gonna be that we left for the show and didn't see the note til afterwards, so obviously we couldn't get sprung being there before that point. So we did that, and I offloaded half the crap I was carrying, and then we went down, met up with Lacy, got her and Dasha to take their pick of the best two of the five nosebleeds we had (I very selfishly basically nabbed the 100level for myself cos... yeah. heh.) and then we spent nearly an hour walking the pavement trying to find people to flog them to. I really really didn't want them to go to scalpers, especially after we'd sold three into scalpery hands the night before (but I really do expect the scalpers got stuck with them, and some money was better than nothing, mrrh) so we tried desperately to find fans in need, but there really didn't seem to be ANY. So many scalpers out waving tickets to get rid of, and not hardly anyone buying. Only people I spotted was a family that needed like seven tickets, and a scalper who was all "hundred and fifty bucks PER ticket" but unfortunately the guy had a couple young kids and there was obviously no way they could split up inside, so I don't know how he would've managed in the end, poor bugger. We had a close call where we nearly managed to get a hundred bucks for all three out of a very low-on-the-totem-pole scalper (my morals kind of fell over and died at that point, cos, well, we really fuckin' needed the money if possible) but unfortunately his master running guy spotted it just in time and told him he wasn't allowed to buy any 300-levels, especially behind the stage. Damn. So in the end I walked over to the KBCO booth, asked if the girls there had tickets (they did) and if they had any friends who wanted tickets who couldn't get any (they did) so I basically just gave them the tickets. Hopefully they got used, and hopefully the people enjoyed them. Wasn't really anything else to do.
We went inside then, and spent a while trying to find any form of food we could afford and/or eat, so we split a mini pizza and then sloped off to our respective seats. I wandered down, got confused about the seat numbering, so I walked back up and down the other side of the row... realised I'd got it backwards and walked back to exactly where I'd been to start with (all of which Joy and Frog saw, and apparently were very amused by) realised some chick was standing in my seat and kind of went "um" to myself, before looking down and spotting Joy and Frog (looking and waving at me) standing front frigging row in front of Adam in the ellipse, so I squeaked happily and bounced and then spotted Izzy and Anti (the kitty hat makes Izzy-spotting easy!) over in the very tip of the main floor railing, on Edge's side) and was most pleased for them all. And then I spoke to the people in my spot, and the guy next to me told me how he and his girlfriend had only been able to get separate tickets, and would I mind swapping tickets with her so they could be together, and normally I would've done, cos I've been in that situation (well, not with a partner, but you know what I mean) and it sucks, but dude, I had had a hell of a day and there was no way I was going to a worse angle and five rows further back when I was that close. So, uh, I said as much politely and they were really nice about it (yay, I mean I felt bad, but... yeah. :/) and so the three of us stood there hoping the guy on the end wasn't gonna turn up (cos then we'd have all been fine) but unfortunately he did about five minutes before the boys came on, and so she went back to her seat, and I went back to being pumped for information by the guy next to me, cos he'd never seen them, and wanted to know what sort of stuff they were playing, and for how long and all, and I said (probably a lot louder than I should've, I guess, cos I think people behind me that would've got testy with me later heard and thus did not even try to get me to sit down) that I was gonna be standing the entire time and tough luck to anyone who thought otherwise. I was a bit punchy at this stage, heh.
So I pointed out to him the gap in the curtain under the stage and told him to watch there to see when the band were coming on (cos we were close enough to see that, and I couldn't understand why no one in front of me was standing up/watching/looking very interested at all) and then the Magnificent Seven music faded down and Arcade Fire started up and I hissed "this is IT" before scrambling to my feet properly and cheering and singing. By myself because my section was pathetic.
Proper show post to follow.