IL ALL DISCOS!!!!
Wow, what a week. Let's see. It started on Sunday with "the snakey people," as my mom likes to call them. I don't remember much. I had a presale ticket so I got meet-n-greet. Awkwardly gawked at Ryland for a few minutes then went off for pics with Nate and Vicky T. Right before it was our turn, a guy asked Vicky if he could kiss her cheek and when she said yes, he totally went for her mouth. It was very awkward and probably the highlight of that kid's life. I was having them all sign Julia's The Cab bag and Suarez decided he wanted to sign under Butcher's signature with a "<3'sAlex" and then had a conversation with me about how hot Butcher is and how ridic his body is. I approve of all Alex Suarez's.
I don't remember much about the on stage banter. There was something about only Latinas having Gabe's baby and Alex was all, "I'm Latina, I'll have your baby, Gabe." Ryland had a field day before 'Pleasure Ryland.' He was out there for a good five minutes, dorking it up.
On Monday, there was work blaaaaah.
Tuesday, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off to get all the daily stuff done at work, get my mom to her follow-up doctor's appointment and then meet Shonna (eckerlilas) so we could really start the week. With Metro Station!
I highly recommend going to a Metro Station show if only for lulz. I've never facepalmed so much in such a small amount of time in my life. Creepy!Trace lived up to his namesake tonight, especially when he came out for the encore shirtless. It was ... a sight to behold, trust me. Mason was very Mason which I appreciated until he decided to spit water on us. >:[
We chose our spot on the barrier so we could be close to Blake but we were foiled by the stage setup. Instead of being downstage stage left, he was upstage on stage right and very far away from us and blocked from view by Trace a lot. We were out of there by 9:45 since they only had two openers who both did three songs apiece and then Metro only did eleven songs. Which, why not do the whole album, you twits? Still, it was a good time and I'm glad we went.
Had a sleepover at Jennifer's (vic_ramsey) and then up bright and early Wednesday morning to drive to Dallas for Discos!
We weren't especially concerned about getting there early since this venue, we thought, was all seats. Got there about one, I think. Ok, so the majority of our group had won meet-n-greet for Dallas, Austin or both. But we all wanted barrier for Austin so the plan was to ask Zack if those of us who'd won Austin could just do the Dallas m-n-g instead. But we forgot about the Hot Topic signing the guys did that was in Arlington at four, which meant that it wasn't Zack but Joe who organized Dallas's m-n-g and he was a little iffy about it. Ended up saying that those of us who had Austin should just do Austin but Julia (fiddleyoumust), Miranda (cheapcrowd), Shonna and Sunny (sunn_doyouknow) went. I was a little bummed because I was going to get them to sign one of the drumsticks I had from HCT but I got over it, especially when the girls came out and told us their stories (which OMG EEEEEE! YOU HAVE TO READ THEIR RECAPS! SO MUCH CUTE!!) and it was all I could do to not flail myself to death.
SIDENOTE: omg, I did something I never ever thought I'd do: Shonna forgot to get something for them to sign so I gave her my other HCT drumstick! The one that Zack gave me when we were chilling in line. Before this week, I seriously would have said that only death could part me from those sticks and I ended up giving TWO of them away! I'm actually pretty proud of myself for that. >:D /NOTE
So we get inside and it turns out that there is a pit in this venue. It's very tiny but it's there. Shirley (playfullips and I spend a moment or two grumbling about it because we weren't given the option for pit during presale and when Julia called the venue she was told it was only seats. I figured out that I'd have a pretty good view of Spencer from where I was sitting so I got over it pretty quickly.
I tend to spend most of the show staring at Spencer so I really can't tell you any specifics from this show. Maybe one of the others will remember. I did watch Brendon during his dance instruction bit. And I finally saw a bit of the doowap group since Ryan and Jon's mic stands were directly in front of Spencer's riser in my line of sight. But, just so you know? Spencer Smith? HOT AAAAAAAASS.
So since I'd been thwarted about the whole m-n-g thing, I was determined that I would get barrier for the Austin show. We decided to go ahead and drive to Austin that night. Shonna and I sang Ludo and MCR at the top of our lungs all the way there. Got to Eryn and Katie's place at I-don't-even-know-when and were greeted by a whole host of fangirls. I wasn't expecting that but it was great fun. We stayed up far too late, recounting our adventures and being silly and fangirly. I've already forgotten everyone's usernames, sorry!
We got to the venue around 10:30. Shonna dropped Jennifer and I off and went in search of a battery charger for her camera. We're the first ones there, of course. Our group trickled in slowly but surely. We got bored and started making beads from the kits Shonna brought with her. That's the first time Zack comes out. At least three people looked up at the sound of Zack's voice. We didn't say anything to him as he passed us but on his way back a funny/cute thing happened but that's Sunny's story to tell.
There was a lot of interaction with Zack so here, have a list (of sorts. it started out that way... ?)
~The second time Zack came out, we decided to go talk to him to see if there's any chance of either getting m-n-g and early entry or if we can just skip the m-n-g all together and just go right into the venue. Zack's all, "MTV are assholes," and "If it was up to me, I'd give you guys everything I could." In the end he advised us to stay in line if we wanted barrier.
~At one point, we were talking about the tour ending and Zack mentioned that he might be going out with Cobra.
~Zack gifted a random girl in line with m-n-g which prompted her and the entire group she was with to burst into tears. He appointed someone who was not with that group to go with her and look out for her, make sure she didn't cry when in the room with discos. I forget what he called her but the extra girl was kinda emotional too and Zack was very >:[ about that. We teased him about making girls cry and he's like "This always happens to me." He was like, "Do they cry at Cobra Starship?" and we were all "ahahah, it's WORSE, they ask Gabe to lick their faces," to which Zack was very o_O and Julia explained the whole story (as told to us by Rachel).
It was getting to be pretty late and I had to pee so I decided to go to the Nursing School right across the street. Miranda and Shirley found out that it was for students only and guarded >:[ I don't remember who's idea it was but Zack was standing just inside the doors so I went and knocked and asked if I could use the venue bathroom. He looked to the venue people for the answer which was no but then I asked if they knew of anywhere nearby. The hospital, the lady said, and gave me directions. Zack was all, "Hey, it's an emergency!"
Miranda was the only person who wanted to come with so she and I started walking. We passed by the trucks and I'm nosy so I was looking and then I noticed this skinny little guy in a white t-shirt and black jeans tossing a frisbee. I said something like,"Is that Brendon?" and even as I said it, I recognized Spencer's hips and shoulders (in his customary black tshirt and dark jeans) and Miranda and I had a moment of OMG THE BOYFRIENDS ARE PLAYING FRISBEE TOGETHER.
As we were walking back, Julia texted Zack was lining up the Northern Downpour people, hurry up so we rushed back but not too quickly to notice that Spencer and Brendon and whoever else that was blocked by the building were still out there playing frisbee.
Miranda joined the ND line and I went back to the regular line. I gave my m-n-g spot to Jennifer, Shonna gave hers to Shirley's sister and Julia was Georgia for the day. It worked out that everyone who really wanted m-n-g was able to go which was totally a win in my book and I would have been satisfied with that.
~Someone mentioned that a lady had been out counting the line so we (and this "we" is mostly Shonna and I) went up to ask Zack about that the first 25 m-n-g. He wasn't sure about that but he thought it was a solid question.
Turns out that they did do the first 25 m-n-g so hell yeah! Surprise Discos! I don't think they did it on all the dates but whenever there was no radio station/Hot Topic/whatever else m-n-g, MTV did a quickie one with the first people in line where you go down the row and get shit signed by all four bands. I had given Julia my other drumstick to get it signed for me but when she saw that we had this other m-n-g, she ran and gave it to me so I could get it signed myself. As we walked into the venue, Zack gave me a nod like,"Yeah, see?"
So we get inside the venue and part of the group of crying girls were in this group and when the chick in charge of it saw the one girl, crying, in her birthday tiara (it was her 13th bday, awww), she grabbed her and took her to the front of the line. We go up the escalator (and I can hear Zack behind me start his YOU MUST HOLD ON TO THE RAIL speech) and there were four rectangular tables lined up with posters and markers and holy shit, what, am I really about to meet Panic? Again? I was bullshitting with Shonna so I didn't even notice it when the bands started to come in. I did, however, spot Spencer's head in about 0.00354 of a second once I did see them. The Cab was first. Cash, Johnson, Singer, Ian, Marshall. Cash was all "Hey girl, long time no see." Yeah, um. I didn't really say anything to The Cab. They singed those fug individual "fighter" cards they all have. Dashboard Confessional was next. I think the most I said was "Hey, have a good show," cause Panic was next and OMFG.
Jon was first and I handed him my drumstick and he looked at me with those pretty brown eyes all frowned up and goes, "But don't you want a poster?" I really didn't know what to say to that cause he was kinda looking at me like I'd just confessed that I wanted to kick Clover across the room or something so I just smiled and thanked him and took the poster. Spencer was next and JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, HE IS BEAUTIFUL. YOU CAN NEVER BE FULLY PREPARED FOR THOSE EYES AND THAT SMILE, OKAY? I handed him the drumstick and he grabbed it with both hands and kind of inspected it a little and went, "Where did you get this?" and he looked back up at me with those EYES and I stammered out that I caught it at the end of the Anaheim show and he SMILED AT ME and said, "Right on!" Ryan was next. Sorry, Ryan, I have no idea if we interacted or not. SPENCER. Brendon was last and I finally came back to myself enough to ask if I could get a picture of him.
Plain White T's were last and as I was still reeling from the Discos, I think it was mostly just awkward silence as they signed the poster.
Went the wrong way to get out and the chick in charge was like "It's ok, honey," like she'd seen that happen a thousand times before.
ETA: More crappy camera phone pics!
Passed out posters and stuff from the other bands to random kids in the crowd. I gave out the posters first and I had all five Cab cards in one hand but fanned out so people could pick one. I like how the first girl I went to was all, "Can I have all of them?!" I don't think I said anything but I know I gave her a look so she just chose one and I went on my way. Really? Greedy.
Jay had made a t-shirt that she got all of the bands to sign and then once he was outside again (and talking to us about I-don't-know-what at this point), she came up and got Zack to sign it. I was all "!!!" and asked if he would sign my drumstick. He agreed so Shonna and I ran to the car for our sticks and brought them back to him. He's all "This is the first time I've ever signed one of these! And I'm left handed so this might be messy." So I was all like, "Hey, you know I wouldn't mind having another one of these so tell your boy Spencer to aim for the center of the barricade," and Zack was like, "Hey, I pass out stuff too! Who do you think collects all this shit after the show?" So I go,"All right then, we'll wait for you!"
Right about then Elissa (lissa_bear, Trey (basementmaster) and Erin (reds_toke showed up. Zack maybe was talking to us? Or just passed by? Idk but Erin saw a little peek of his tattoo and was intrigued and we were all "It's Freddy Kreuger! Cause Zack thinks Freddy is the shit!" and then when he came back out, Erin asked to see it. He showed us the Freddy tat and then was all, "Hold on, not a whole lot of people have seen this one!" and then he took his walkie talkie off, handed it to Shonna, "Hold this," then he peeled back his camo shorts to show us his upper thigh and the Fight Club tattoo he has there. Brad Pitt and Ed Norton's faces are on his thigh. We flipped out! As he walked away, Zack called out, "Brad Pitt is SOOO HOT!"
And then he takes ND in for their m-n-g and we go back to the line, very WTF HOW HAS TODAY EVEN BEEN REAL?
At about 5:55, Shonna, who'd been searching for her other ticket for a while, realized that the reason she didn't have the ticket was because the guy had come through and taken the tickets and given them wristbands. Which I didn't have because I was in the bathroom/creeping at frisbee-playing Discos at the time. So I went up to the doors and asked for a wristband. They were very confused as to why I didn't have one but then the guy in charge was like, "We'll just give you one when we open the doors."
I got about ten steps away when he called out, "Okay, they're open now." And since they only opened one door and you had to go through a turn style thingie, I totally held up the line while they got my wristband. And so Shonna and I were the first ones in the venue! Not the first ones on the barrier because we were walking like most venues make you do when this girl went streaking past us. So we started to run and got prime spots on the barrier, maybe two steps to the right of Brendon's mic.
I've had barrier for a lot of shows but never really bothered for trying to be in the center. Apparently, being in the center and dancing/singing along like a fool gets you lots of attention from band boys. >:D JSYK.
The Cab's set was fun. Plain White T's were great. I ... nearly fell asleep through Crabby Chris. (Sorry, Julia.) AND THEN THERE WAS DISCOS!!!
They played music. They mentioned a time or twenty that it was the last show of the tour. Brendon came out again. Or something, idk, ask one of the other girls, I was too busy ogling Spencer to listen.
So the show ended and in typical Spencer fashion, he threw his sticks in a direction that was far away from me. But then! Then! Zack came out and he was taking the guitar picks from the stands and idk, I looked away for a second and when I looked back he had a handful of sticks. And he kind of searched the crowd for a minute and I could tell the minute he spotted us. He grabbed a stick from the pile and goes, "Are you ready? Will you catch it?" And I was all, "Yes, throw it!" and he threw a perfect underhand catch and I leaned way over the barrier and the stick just sort of floated into my hands. It was ~magical~. And then he threw one to Shonna and it bounced off her hand and landed on the ground. Security guard picked it up and Shonna and I were like, "It's for her! It's for her!" And he looked back at Zack and idk if Zack nodded at him or gave him some kind of signal but the guy turned back around and gave the stick to Shonna.
So then we all met up and we're like OMG and SQUEE and FLAIL as you are after you see Discos and Julia is my lovely and really wanted a Spencer stick (AHAHAHA) so I gave her the one I'd just caught. Cause I love her. And possibly was still high from seeing Spencer up close and two feet away from me.
Anycrap, we decided to stalk the buses so we went to where the buses were parked and sat on this little grassy knoll (was that a knoll?). We weren't there but for a minute or two when Zack came up the steps, very obviously searching the crowd. He started talking to the two security guys perched at the top of the steps. "Where's that insane girl?" Then he pointed out this one girl, "Isn't that her? I swear that's her?" And then he announced to the crowd that he was going to bring some of the guys out but THAT GIRL (and he pointed at her again) decided to be crazy and snuck back into the guys dressing room so he's not bringing any of them out. I was all, "If she leaves, will you bring them out?" but he still said no.
I get the order confused for the rest of it but at one point, I went down to where he was to ask him to take a pic with me. He no longer takes pictures with girls but he did take one with the random security guy for us. He did the awkward turtle. He talked more about the crazy girl and how when he politely asked her to leave (the guys were half-naked and Jon was doing pushups (lolol)), she grabbed onto to the doorjamb and clung to it and he had to literally push her out of the room and out of the building. He said that he looks forward to seeing us on the next tour, that he's seen our faces, he knows that we're not creepers (ahaha, yes! foiled!) and idek what else. Then we decided to stop hogging the Zack and said goodnight and thank you and went on our merry way. Almost.
As we were walking, I was all, "We should take a picture of that girl and post it all over the internet," and everyone else was all, "YES!" so I grabbed Julia's camera and we went back. I got a great shot of her face with Julia's camera but the damned flash wasn't on. So I grabbed Shonna's camera and took some more but by this time, the girl realized I was taking pictures of her and kept her face averted. Idk if any of them came out but if they did, I will most definitely post it. I don't give a shit. It's probably a good thing Zack still wouldn't bring the guys out even if she was gone. We probably would have dragged that bitch out of there by her hair.
Ugh, I know there's stuff I'm forgetting so people that were there, fill in the gaps! And tell me your usernames!
Oh! I just remembered that at some point, possibly when Shonna and I were getting our sticks signed, Julia told Zack the story of how when I told her that Zack had given me Spencer's drumstick, she thought he meant chicken and Zack was all, "That'd be a better thing to hand out. Toss our some chicken, a wing, a breast, a buscuit. Toss out some gravy." Idk but it was funny as hell.
We don't get Discos again for a very long time, but what a send off! I do not have a camera but there were some amazing pictures and video taken!! (Has anyone done the flicker?)
Then we had dinner at Kerbey Lane (and everyone had pasta, lol) and then went back to Eryn and Katie's and once again stayed up too late fangirling. We left around ... shit, ider. We headed to Houston for The Cab and Plain White T's.
We got into Houston and headed straight to Lucky's. I love that place. About forty-five minutes later, Julia, Shirley and Miranda arrived and we all marveled over the previous day/our lives/Discos/Zack over lunch.
Got to the venue, hung out on the street like we do. Katie and Jay arrived, along with Katie's puppy, Rufus. I am not a dog person. Rufus seemed to detect this and therefore wanted to be all up my shit. I was less than amused.
I was starting to get sick at this point so really all I remember of this show is that we'd heard The Cab was going to do a fifty minute set but they just did the same set they'd done at Rock Band. By the time the Plain White T's came on, I was pretty out of it. Considered leaving the pit about 9000 times but I could see the set list and it was always 'Oh but after this song, they play ____ that I really like!" I managed to stick it out for the entire show pretty much by the skin of my teeth. Afterwards, Shonna and Jen wanted to meet-and-greet but I was pretty ok with the five seconds I'd had with them at the surprise!Rock Band!mng (oh, and Denny's! I totally forgot to tell y'all about Denny's. It goes like this: we went to Denny's. The Cab was there. Tim from PWTs came in. Shonna and I took pics with him. He was precious. The end.) so I bailed and laid out in the back seat of Shonna's car.
Shonna and Jen got their face time with the T's, we took Jen home, Shonna dropped me off and I spent the next 36 hours in bed, alternately sweating like a beast and then freezing my ass off. I had a fever induced dream that I was a movie producer and was trying to get FOB and Discos to star in my live action version of some 80s cartoon that I never actually named. Idk but I was really earnest about it? And told Pete to have his people call my people? And that by his people, I meant Spencer and by my people, I meant me? Srsly. Idk but it was funny in the dream.
Anyways, I woke up this morning feeling MUCH better which was good because I absolutely had to go to work today. And I did. Lasted about four hours. Then I came home and had a ridiculous fight with my sister about groceries and she hasn't spoken to me since, SCORE!
And now I'm sad that the adventure is over. As is this recap. Thank god. If you read this whole thing, you deserve a hell of a lot more than a cookie!
I don't remember much about the on stage banter. There was something about only Latinas having Gabe's baby and Alex was all, "I'm Latina, I'll have your baby, Gabe." Ryland had a field day before 'Pleasure Ryland.' He was out there for a good five minutes, dorking it up.
On Monday, there was work blaaaaah.
Tuesday, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off to get all the daily stuff done at work, get my mom to her follow-up doctor's appointment and then meet Shonna (eckerlilas) so we could really start the week. With Metro Station!
I highly recommend going to a Metro Station show if only for lulz. I've never facepalmed so much in such a small amount of time in my life. Creepy!Trace lived up to his namesake tonight, especially when he came out for the encore shirtless. It was ... a sight to behold, trust me. Mason was very Mason which I appreciated until he decided to spit water on us. >:[
We chose our spot on the barrier so we could be close to Blake but we were foiled by the stage setup. Instead of being downstage stage left, he was upstage on stage right and very far away from us and blocked from view by Trace a lot. We were out of there by 9:45 since they only had two openers who both did three songs apiece and then Metro only did eleven songs. Which, why not do the whole album, you twits? Still, it was a good time and I'm glad we went.
Had a sleepover at Jennifer's (vic_ramsey) and then up bright and early Wednesday morning to drive to Dallas for Discos!
We weren't especially concerned about getting there early since this venue, we thought, was all seats. Got there about one, I think. Ok, so the majority of our group had won meet-n-greet for Dallas, Austin or both. But we all wanted barrier for Austin so the plan was to ask Zack if those of us who'd won Austin could just do the Dallas m-n-g instead. But we forgot about the Hot Topic signing the guys did that was in Arlington at four, which meant that it wasn't Zack but Joe who organized Dallas's m-n-g and he was a little iffy about it. Ended up saying that those of us who had Austin should just do Austin but Julia (fiddleyoumust), Miranda (cheapcrowd), Shonna and Sunny (sunn_doyouknow) went. I was a little bummed because I was going to get them to sign one of the drumsticks I had from HCT but I got over it, especially when the girls came out and told us their stories (which OMG EEEEEE! YOU HAVE TO READ THEIR RECAPS! SO MUCH CUTE!!) and it was all I could do to not flail myself to death.
SIDENOTE: omg, I did something I never ever thought I'd do: Shonna forgot to get something for them to sign so I gave her my other HCT drumstick! The one that Zack gave me when we were chilling in line. Before this week, I seriously would have said that only death could part me from those sticks and I ended up giving TWO of them away! I'm actually pretty proud of myself for that. >:D /NOTE
So we get inside and it turns out that there is a pit in this venue. It's very tiny but it's there. Shirley (playfullips and I spend a moment or two grumbling about it because we weren't given the option for pit during presale and when Julia called the venue she was told it was only seats. I figured out that I'd have a pretty good view of Spencer from where I was sitting so I got over it pretty quickly.
I tend to spend most of the show staring at Spencer so I really can't tell you any specifics from this show. Maybe one of the others will remember. I did watch Brendon during his dance instruction bit. And I finally saw a bit of the doowap group since Ryan and Jon's mic stands were directly in front of Spencer's riser in my line of sight. But, just so you know? Spencer Smith? HOT AAAAAAAASS.
So since I'd been thwarted about the whole m-n-g thing, I was determined that I would get barrier for the Austin show. We decided to go ahead and drive to Austin that night. Shonna and I sang Ludo and MCR at the top of our lungs all the way there. Got to Eryn and Katie's place at I-don't-even-know-when and were greeted by a whole host of fangirls. I wasn't expecting that but it was great fun. We stayed up far too late, recounting our adventures and being silly and fangirly. I've already forgotten everyone's usernames, sorry!
We got to the venue around 10:30. Shonna dropped Jennifer and I off and went in search of a battery charger for her camera. We're the first ones there, of course. Our group trickled in slowly but surely. We got bored and started making beads from the kits Shonna brought with her. That's the first time Zack comes out. At least three people looked up at the sound of Zack's voice. We didn't say anything to him as he passed us but on his way back a funny/cute thing happened but that's Sunny's story to tell.
There was a lot of interaction with Zack so here, have a list (of sorts. it started out that way... ?)
~The second time Zack came out, we decided to go talk to him to see if there's any chance of either getting m-n-g and early entry or if we can just skip the m-n-g all together and just go right into the venue. Zack's all, "MTV are assholes," and "If it was up to me, I'd give you guys everything I could." In the end he advised us to stay in line if we wanted barrier.
~At one point, we were talking about the tour ending and Zack mentioned that he might be going out with Cobra.
~Zack gifted a random girl in line with m-n-g which prompted her and the entire group she was with to burst into tears. He appointed someone who was not with that group to go with her and look out for her, make sure she didn't cry when in the room with discos. I forget what he called her but the extra girl was kinda emotional too and Zack was very >:[ about that. We teased him about making girls cry and he's like "This always happens to me." He was like, "Do they cry at Cobra Starship?" and we were all "ahahah, it's WORSE, they ask Gabe to lick their faces," to which Zack was very o_O and Julia explained the whole story (as told to us by Rachel).
It was getting to be pretty late and I had to pee so I decided to go to the Nursing School right across the street. Miranda and Shirley found out that it was for students only and guarded >:[ I don't remember who's idea it was but Zack was standing just inside the doors so I went and knocked and asked if I could use the venue bathroom. He looked to the venue people for the answer which was no but then I asked if they knew of anywhere nearby. The hospital, the lady said, and gave me directions. Zack was all, "Hey, it's an emergency!"
Miranda was the only person who wanted to come with so she and I started walking. We passed by the trucks and I'm nosy so I was looking and then I noticed this skinny little guy in a white t-shirt and black jeans tossing a frisbee. I said something like,"Is that Brendon?" and even as I said it, I recognized Spencer's hips and shoulders (in his customary black tshirt and dark jeans) and Miranda and I had a moment of OMG THE BOYFRIENDS ARE PLAYING FRISBEE TOGETHER.
As we were walking back, Julia texted Zack was lining up the Northern Downpour people, hurry up so we rushed back but not too quickly to notice that Spencer and Brendon and whoever else that was blocked by the building were still out there playing frisbee.
Miranda joined the ND line and I went back to the regular line. I gave my m-n-g spot to Jennifer, Shonna gave hers to Shirley's sister and Julia was Georgia for the day. It worked out that everyone who really wanted m-n-g was able to go which was totally a win in my book and I would have been satisfied with that.
~Someone mentioned that a lady had been out counting the line so we (and this "we" is mostly Shonna and I) went up to ask Zack about that the first 25 m-n-g. He wasn't sure about that but he thought it was a solid question.
Turns out that they did do the first 25 m-n-g so hell yeah! Surprise Discos! I don't think they did it on all the dates but whenever there was no radio station/Hot Topic/whatever else m-n-g, MTV did a quickie one with the first people in line where you go down the row and get shit signed by all four bands. I had given Julia my other drumstick to get it signed for me but when she saw that we had this other m-n-g, she ran and gave it to me so I could get it signed myself. As we walked into the venue, Zack gave me a nod like,"Yeah, see?"
So we get inside the venue and part of the group of crying girls were in this group and when the chick in charge of it saw the one girl, crying, in her birthday tiara (it was her 13th bday, awww), she grabbed her and took her to the front of the line. We go up the escalator (and I can hear Zack behind me start his YOU MUST HOLD ON TO THE RAIL speech) and there were four rectangular tables lined up with posters and markers and holy shit, what, am I really about to meet Panic? Again? I was bullshitting with Shonna so I didn't even notice it when the bands started to come in. I did, however, spot Spencer's head in about 0.00354 of a second once I did see them. The Cab was first. Cash, Johnson, Singer, Ian, Marshall. Cash was all "Hey girl, long time no see." Yeah, um. I didn't really say anything to The Cab. They singed those fug individual "fighter" cards they all have. Dashboard Confessional was next. I think the most I said was "Hey, have a good show," cause Panic was next and OMFG.
Jon was first and I handed him my drumstick and he looked at me with those pretty brown eyes all frowned up and goes, "But don't you want a poster?" I really didn't know what to say to that cause he was kinda looking at me like I'd just confessed that I wanted to kick Clover across the room or something so I just smiled and thanked him and took the poster. Spencer was next and JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, HE IS BEAUTIFUL. YOU CAN NEVER BE FULLY PREPARED FOR THOSE EYES AND THAT SMILE, OKAY? I handed him the drumstick and he grabbed it with both hands and kind of inspected it a little and went, "Where did you get this?" and he looked back up at me with those EYES and I stammered out that I caught it at the end of the Anaheim show and he SMILED AT ME and said, "Right on!" Ryan was next. Sorry, Ryan, I have no idea if we interacted or not. SPENCER. Brendon was last and I finally came back to myself enough to ask if I could get a picture of him.
Plain White T's were last and as I was still reeling from the Discos, I think it was mostly just awkward silence as they signed the poster.
Went the wrong way to get out and the chick in charge was like "It's ok, honey," like she'd seen that happen a thousand times before.
ETA: More crappy camera phone pics!
Passed out posters and stuff from the other bands to random kids in the crowd. I gave out the posters first and I had all five Cab cards in one hand but fanned out so people could pick one. I like how the first girl I went to was all, "Can I have all of them?!" I don't think I said anything but I know I gave her a look so she just chose one and I went on my way. Really? Greedy.
Jay had made a t-shirt that she got all of the bands to sign and then once he was outside again (and talking to us about I-don't-know-what at this point), she came up and got Zack to sign it. I was all "!!!" and asked if he would sign my drumstick. He agreed so Shonna and I ran to the car for our sticks and brought them back to him. He's all "This is the first time I've ever signed one of these! And I'm left handed so this might be messy." So I was all like, "Hey, you know I wouldn't mind having another one of these so tell your boy Spencer to aim for the center of the barricade," and Zack was like, "Hey, I pass out stuff too! Who do you think collects all this shit after the show?" So I go,"All right then, we'll wait for you!"
Right about then Elissa (lissa_bear, Trey (basementmaster) and Erin (reds_toke showed up. Zack maybe was talking to us? Or just passed by? Idk but Erin saw a little peek of his tattoo and was intrigued and we were all "It's Freddy Kreuger! Cause Zack thinks Freddy is the shit!" and then when he came back out, Erin asked to see it. He showed us the Freddy tat and then was all, "Hold on, not a whole lot of people have seen this one!" and then he took his walkie talkie off, handed it to Shonna, "Hold this," then he peeled back his camo shorts to show us his upper thigh and the Fight Club tattoo he has there. Brad Pitt and Ed Norton's faces are on his thigh. We flipped out! As he walked away, Zack called out, "Brad Pitt is SOOO HOT!"
And then he takes ND in for their m-n-g and we go back to the line, very WTF HOW HAS TODAY EVEN BEEN REAL?
At about 5:55, Shonna, who'd been searching for her other ticket for a while, realized that the reason she didn't have the ticket was because the guy had come through and taken the tickets and given them wristbands. Which I didn't have because I was in the bathroom/creeping at frisbee-playing Discos at the time. So I went up to the doors and asked for a wristband. They were very confused as to why I didn't have one but then the guy in charge was like, "We'll just give you one when we open the doors."
I got about ten steps away when he called out, "Okay, they're open now." And since they only opened one door and you had to go through a turn style thingie, I totally held up the line while they got my wristband. And so Shonna and I were the first ones in the venue! Not the first ones on the barrier because we were walking like most venues make you do when this girl went streaking past us. So we started to run and got prime spots on the barrier, maybe two steps to the right of Brendon's mic.
I've had barrier for a lot of shows but never really bothered for trying to be in the center. Apparently, being in the center and dancing/singing along like a fool gets you lots of attention from band boys. >:D JSYK.
The Cab's set was fun. Plain White T's were great. I ... nearly fell asleep through Crabby Chris. (Sorry, Julia.) AND THEN THERE WAS DISCOS!!!
They played music. They mentioned a time or twenty that it was the last show of the tour. Brendon came out again. Or something, idk, ask one of the other girls, I was too busy ogling Spencer to listen.
So the show ended and in typical Spencer fashion, he threw his sticks in a direction that was far away from me. But then! Then! Zack came out and he was taking the guitar picks from the stands and idk, I looked away for a second and when I looked back he had a handful of sticks. And he kind of searched the crowd for a minute and I could tell the minute he spotted us. He grabbed a stick from the pile and goes, "Are you ready? Will you catch it?" And I was all, "Yes, throw it!" and he threw a perfect underhand catch and I leaned way over the barrier and the stick just sort of floated into my hands. It was ~magical~. And then he threw one to Shonna and it bounced off her hand and landed on the ground. Security guard picked it up and Shonna and I were like, "It's for her! It's for her!" And he looked back at Zack and idk if Zack nodded at him or gave him some kind of signal but the guy turned back around and gave the stick to Shonna.
So then we all met up and we're like OMG and SQUEE and FLAIL as you are after you see Discos and Julia is my lovely and really wanted a Spencer stick (AHAHAHA) so I gave her the one I'd just caught. Cause I love her. And possibly was still high from seeing Spencer up close and two feet away from me.
Anycrap, we decided to stalk the buses so we went to where the buses were parked and sat on this little grassy knoll (was that a knoll?). We weren't there but for a minute or two when Zack came up the steps, very obviously searching the crowd. He started talking to the two security guys perched at the top of the steps. "Where's that insane girl?" Then he pointed out this one girl, "Isn't that her? I swear that's her?" And then he announced to the crowd that he was going to bring some of the guys out but THAT GIRL (and he pointed at her again) decided to be crazy and snuck back into the guys dressing room so he's not bringing any of them out. I was all, "If she leaves, will you bring them out?" but he still said no.
I get the order confused for the rest of it but at one point, I went down to where he was to ask him to take a pic with me. He no longer takes pictures with girls but he did take one with the random security guy for us. He did the awkward turtle. He talked more about the crazy girl and how when he politely asked her to leave (the guys were half-naked and Jon was doing pushups (lolol)), she grabbed onto to the doorjamb and clung to it and he had to literally push her out of the room and out of the building. He said that he looks forward to seeing us on the next tour, that he's seen our faces, he knows that we're not creepers (ahaha, yes! foiled!) and idek what else. Then we decided to stop hogging the Zack and said goodnight and thank you and went on our merry way. Almost.
As we were walking, I was all, "We should take a picture of that girl and post it all over the internet," and everyone else was all, "YES!" so I grabbed Julia's camera and we went back. I got a great shot of her face with Julia's camera but the damned flash wasn't on. So I grabbed Shonna's camera and took some more but by this time, the girl realized I was taking pictures of her and kept her face averted. Idk if any of them came out but if they did, I will most definitely post it. I don't give a shit. It's probably a good thing Zack still wouldn't bring the guys out even if she was gone. We probably would have dragged that bitch out of there by her hair.
Ugh, I know there's stuff I'm forgetting so people that were there, fill in the gaps! And tell me your usernames!
Oh! I just remembered that at some point, possibly when Shonna and I were getting our sticks signed, Julia told Zack the story of how when I told her that Zack had given me Spencer's drumstick, she thought he meant chicken and Zack was all, "That'd be a better thing to hand out. Toss our some chicken, a wing, a breast, a buscuit. Toss out some gravy." Idk but it was funny as hell.
We don't get Discos again for a very long time, but what a send off! I do not have a camera but there were some amazing pictures and video taken!! (Has anyone done the flicker?)
Then we had dinner at Kerbey Lane (and everyone had pasta, lol) and then went back to Eryn and Katie's and once again stayed up too late fangirling. We left around ... shit, ider. We headed to Houston for The Cab and Plain White T's.
We got into Houston and headed straight to Lucky's. I love that place. About forty-five minutes later, Julia, Shirley and Miranda arrived and we all marveled over the previous day/our lives/Discos/Zack over lunch.
Got to the venue, hung out on the street like we do. Katie and Jay arrived, along with Katie's puppy, Rufus. I am not a dog person. Rufus seemed to detect this and therefore wanted to be all up my shit. I was less than amused.
I was starting to get sick at this point so really all I remember of this show is that we'd heard The Cab was going to do a fifty minute set but they just did the same set they'd done at Rock Band. By the time the Plain White T's came on, I was pretty out of it. Considered leaving the pit about 9000 times but I could see the set list and it was always 'Oh but after this song, they play ____ that I really like!" I managed to stick it out for the entire show pretty much by the skin of my teeth. Afterwards, Shonna and Jen wanted to meet-and-greet but I was pretty ok with the five seconds I'd had with them at the surprise!Rock Band!mng (oh, and Denny's! I totally forgot to tell y'all about Denny's. It goes like this: we went to Denny's. The Cab was there. Tim from PWTs came in. Shonna and I took pics with him. He was precious. The end.) so I bailed and laid out in the back seat of Shonna's car.
Shonna and Jen got their face time with the T's, we took Jen home, Shonna dropped me off and I spent the next 36 hours in bed, alternately sweating like a beast and then freezing my ass off. I had a fever induced dream that I was a movie producer and was trying to get FOB and Discos to star in my live action version of some 80s cartoon that I never actually named. Idk but I was really earnest about it? And told Pete to have his people call my people? And that by his people, I meant Spencer and by my people, I meant me? Srsly. Idk but it was funny in the dream.
Anyways, I woke up this morning feeling MUCH better which was good because I absolutely had to go to work today. And I did. Lasted about four hours. Then I came home and had a ridiculous fight with my sister about groceries and she hasn't spoken to me since, SCORE!
And now I'm sad that the adventure is over. As is this recap. Thank god. If you read this whole thing, you deserve a hell of a lot more than a cookie!