mousepeenz~ ALL THE SPACE IS YOURS~
SPAAAACE~!!!1!11
omg yeah. :3
Lol so I had to wait for Avery to get off work. For like, 3 and a half hours. So I wandered around her shopping center, wasted like half an hour between the GameStop and the Best Buy, then made myself loiter some more just chillin' around the side of the building watching people bring their dogs in and surfing twitter, whatevz. I made myself wait until 3:15 and then crossed the street and went to the giant 2-story Target and like, the Claire's in the mall that was over there. I bought singingblonde16's Christmas present! :D
FINALLY it was like 4:45 so I went back over and we waited and then Avery got her shit together so we could leave! While she was changing into her street clothes there was a BnL song on over the sound system in the PetSmart and that was pretty awesome. Then we had to DRIVE FOREVER. We got stuck in gross traffic and didn't get there until a whiiiile later than we wanted to, and then we had a hard time finding Kristen! D: It ended up that that put us kind of near the end of the VIP group that was getting pushed through, which kind of sucked because it meant our individual StarKid reactions only got to last about .2 seconds.
Also that they were running out of lanyards/VIP badges literally ONE PERSON in front of us. Also programs and posters. There was seriously ONE lanyard left when we got through and it didn't even have a badge on the end, and we decided we were going to let Kristen have it, wweh. So we're loitering trying to move on up to the M&G table and this bitchy-ass staff woman (LITERALLY BITCHY NEKOCON STAFF WOMAN: SKINNY EDITION UGH) whisked through and was like "You know that they're only signing one thing apiece and you can't have long drawn-out conversations with them, it's almost over and we've got to move people through" and we were like -____-; we know. But once she was gone I saw Julia kind of creepin' to the side, first on the phone and then just kind of hovering to do some business and like no one else saw her and I was like "lol guys do you even recognize her." Whatever lol. Then someone was like "oh they're bringing more lanyards!" and "they" turned out to be COREY! So he materialized over by Julia and was clipping badges onto more lanyards and then handing them over to the woman at the door who made sure we all got them, and even got Kristen an extra badge to go on her lanyard. Then he and Julia came back with more posters and programs (which had also stopped literally one person ahead of us) and we got handed those ~personally and I was like ~COREY~~ and like having a hard time not being an asshole okay. God he's so adorable and nice and sweet and hot and asdjghsrhbnb. He had on some gr8 shoes.
Then as we moved further and further forward the two of them were standing loitering with Pomme too :D :D :D and he is SMOKINGLY ATTRACTIVE. it was RULL hard for me not to just be like "ohhhhmigod Pomme!!!" and like make him come over and talk to us, but I didn't. I was actually really subdued at this show? I think to make up for the fact that a lot of the other people there were BATSHIT CRAYCRAY. Like, idk if you guys have seen what StarKid themselves have been saying about this show, but we apparently had obscene decibel levels, Jaime at one point said we were one of the rowdiest venues on the whole tour so far (if not THE rowdiest) and during the last goodbye bows and shit people were shrieking so loud that I literally saw Lauren mouth "oh my god" with like a shocked and kind of disturbed look on her face. SHIT WAS CRAZY. so yeah I was trying to noootttt contribute to that if at all possible, I guess.
We got up to the M&G table finally! Dylan was on the front end and I guess I got so distracted with how cute he was and then making sure we were moving so no one got bitched at that I kind of glossed over Joey. (And Brian.) I chatted VERY briefly to Meredith and then went straight over to Joe! I had to tell them that I'd been so excited about making the phone charms but then they just hadn't worked out D: Maybe I might try to get them to Sam and see if she can distribute them in NYC? I won't have one for Darren though lol whoops. Then I was kind of by Jaime and she was like "ohhh~ I remember you! :)" and I was like "omg really?" and she was like "mmhmmm yeah" and Lauren was like "oh yeah!" and alksdjghaslkjfgh that was just great because Jaime is seriously my favorite favorite favorite and she had FABULOUS hair and so yeah I talked to her for a second too. But I was also kind of turning around seeing what was going on with Kristen+Joe+Avery+BHoldz and idk I was just really distracted because we were getting pushed through so fast. It was literally like autograph BAM NEXT PERSON autograph BAM NEXT PERSON and it was idk. Because we were at the tail end. Charlene was on the far end of the table and I DID get to say to her that I was excited to see her because I'd never seen her perform before. So that was neat.
By the time we'd all gotten through the crowd at the stage was like a full row up against the barrier and then like half a row behind them. Corey was still running around all over the place super busy-like and I didn't want to interfere with that, he was like talking to Liam and stuff (Liam is like, shorter than I thought he'd be? WHY DID THAT SURPRISE ME, THEY ALL ARE, but still ahahaha.) So I was like "Oh, wait, we should totally go to merch!!" and so we did that and it was great. Kristen got two slap bracelets and Avery got a little button, and I got a hoodie and JatP bracelet for myself as well as a lion shirt+JatP bracelet for girlsarebummers and more JatP bracelets for Nicole and Jenna ♥ He was worried for a second that they were out of them and that I would end up buying the only two they had left! But then he found a ton more and sold me two more and I spent waaaayyyyy too much money. I'm glad Kristen had already paid me back for her ticket at that point or I wouldn't've had enough. I'd forgotten that Nicole and Jenna had asked for bracelets too so I totally didn't take out enough cash D:
But like, they didn't have any bags??? so I had NOTHING to put my crap in. So we were going to try to go throw it all back in the car, but the woman at the front told us they have a strict no re-entry policy, and sent us down to coat check. Which was sweet because it was like only $6 to check ALL our crap between the three of us? But then we got back upstairs and THEY'D STARTED LETTING IN GEN ADMISH AND WE WERE LIKE FOUR ROWS OF PEOPLE BACK FROM THE STAGE. We were a little frustrated because like, VIP, bitch! Sigh. But we went way far around stage right and were able to worm a little closer, and we ended up standing next to some pretty cool people too, so that was all right.
But then we got stuck just standing there like, forever. And Avery had already been on her feet all day working so she was like, I'm gonna leave and try to go to the upstairs where there are seats. So she left and me and Kristen stood around some more and the crowd started filling in more (lol fillmore) and it was BORING. The music the venue was playing was way weird and we were like wtf is going on with this, and no one especially interesting showed up around us to talk to us so we were just like WELP, WAITING FOR IT TO BE 8. Eventually Avery came back and like, wormed through the crowd to stand with us again because it turns out you had to pay extra money to go sit upstairs, which was dumb because like we were already VIP and they should've just let us in.
Then shit started finally? AND I TOTALLY FORGOT THAT MOTHEREFFING GEORGE WATSKY WAS GOING TO BE THERE. I remember getting excited about it when they first announced it and everything! but I'd like completely blanked until RIGHT IN THAT MOMENT. That was kind of badass because gwatsky is super-legit. He did a handful of songs (and one poem, specifically requested by a group of girls in the front-center - I think he was really surprised that they actually knew him and his stuff well enough to ask for something specific ahahaha) and in general was just very cute and very gay for Dylan with a big Dylan bro-crush. ADORBZ. Then askdhaskjdg the last thing he did was like, I'm working on a bluegrass/hip-hop album, we've literally never performed this anywhere before, still working out the kinks, etc. etc......
And he and Dylan did a hip-hop remix cover of Man of Constant Sorrow.
RIGHT. LIKE. WE WERE JIZZING. There were these adorable black girls next to us who were losing their shit the WHOLE gwatsky set about white boy rappers and then this started happening and like the whole crowd just got its minds fucking blown. UGH I cannot wait till the track's produced forrealz and I can have it in my ears ALL THE TIME. best best best skdjahgkjhnjh.
Okay so here's the part that sucks: because of rude jostling, the weird natural flow of shit, and us being semi-nice guys? By the end of Gwatsky's set we were like eight rows of people back from the stage. We were pretty fucking angry, tbh, because we were getting screwed on a LOT of what was supposed to be the VIP perks just because we dared to not get there until near the end of what was still THE VIP ADMISSION PERIOD. Traffic fucked us and then the venue fucked us even more. D: So during Charlene's set (WHICH WAS AWESOME, I sang along a lot mostly to Mad Tom of Bedlam but like hers was probably my least favorite of the acts just because I'm not that into her even though I think she's a sick awesome guitarist, lol tangent), I am sorry to say that we employed a couple of dirty tactics in our attempts to squeeze our way back a little closer to the stage, including "pretend you're looking for a friend you got separated from" (LOL WE JOKINGLY NAMED HER MIKAELA) and "pretend you dropped your wallet and you're trying to find it." And like, we probably wouldn't have, even, except we got stuck behind people who were over 5'5" and we had Kristen who is like 5'0" and couldn't see SHIT. And at one point I think we separated a group of friends, and we couldn't really move in a way that would get them back together, but the crowd was fucking riDONKulous and we were basically just trying to get back to the spot we'd been in in the first place that we'd somehow gotten shoved out of. We didn't WANT to fuck other people's groups up. D: Also, we got stuck behind a chick with an ENORMOUS BAG - like, so big that we're pretty sure she should've been forced to get it coat-checked like a lot of other girls we saw down at coat check who'd been TOLD that they HAD TO because their bags were too big - and it was seriously taking up all this space that could've been occupied by PERSON which was just fucking annoying. :||||
Charlene's set was fun and she ended with Animal Love which is like one of my favorites of hers? Like I'm thinking maybe I'll be able to get more into this new album than I have been with stuff of hers in the past. Bummed she didn't play the funny Howard song though because it always makes me think of Morgan and lose my shit lol. And of course Dylan sang with her for Dress & Tie and they were like "put Dylan in ALL the acts!!" and it was gr8~ aaahhh enjoyment. Pretty much experienced the first "bleh so this is how it's going to go" on this song: realized that literally all of the other screaming girls in the room were going to singscream along with the girls' parts every time and the dudes were going to get totally washed out. I SANG THE DARREN/DYLAN PART, DAMNIT. sigh lol.
People whoooooo!'d at just about everything, too. Like this guy in like an olive-green t-shirt kept coming out and moving mics around and everyone freaked out for microphone guy. Or like when things would lull someone would start the whole crowd chanting "STAR-KID! STAR-KID! STAR-KID!!" - even at the beginning when we knew at LEAST Charlene (and then not to mention George) was coming on first and that StarKid wasn't going to come out just because you were chanting for them. LOL SIGH PEOPLE WERE JUST CAUGHT UP IN MOB LOGIC AND NOT STOPPING TO THINK. which happens sometimes idk. But like Julia came out for a second and re-adjusted the mics that mic adjuster guy had already done shit with and I lol'd. The way she put stuff I was like "Oh, I bet they're opening with I Wanna Be, and that one that's out a little further is Joey's." It was fun to do stuff like that teehee I felt so smart every time I guessed right. It was cool because I felt like I knew JUST enough about the show going into it that I wasn't spoiled for what was going on and everything still got to be fresh and new BUT it let me kind of anticipate parts that I knew were going to be awesome and get psyched about them in advance. PERFECT.
But yeah thennn after a brief pause and some funny voiceover antics the StarKid set started!!! They all roboted onstage with these groovy helmets and opened with...I Wanna Be just like I thought they would WOOO hahaha. We were on the Jaime+Joey end of the stage which was like, perfect placement for me! But I felt bad for Avery because BHoldz was way on the other side and we were usually stuck in such a way that Joe was hard to see too (which bummed me out too!), sigh. EITHER WAY everyone was absolutely fabulous and gaahhhhhh they did so many songs that I really wanted them to do. LIKE READY TO GO WHICH I KNEW WAS COMING BUT JUST. I'VE BEEN DYING TO SEE ANYTHING FROM MAMD LIVE FOR AS LONG AS I CAN FUCKING REMEMBER and having that actually happen right there was just so goddamn glorious. (Lol it was funny to hear like the crowd sing-along roar die down SIGNIFICANTLY during that song because of all the people who haven't actually watched MAMD. sigh.) The other stuff that made me extra-special happy were the all-girls' No Way, the Even Though/Liam's Got a Phone Call encore and all the LWL stuff! I sang along to It's Over Now probably harder than anything else because it is just SUCH a rock song and it's one of my favorite StarKid songs for sure, and because idk I felt like it was an okay thing to sing along with because it's loud and anthemy and it's MEANT to be done like that, like a big rock 'n' roll party. Stutter, too. :D
You know what was not cool to sing along with? THE 4-PART HARMONY DUDES' STATUS QUO. Like, the audience was so loud, and had been for the whole show, that when I realized that's what was coming up next I actually stopped playing nice and yelled at a fairly loud volume for people to shut up during what was coming next and just listen. GOD I was mad that I couldn't hear parts of that. The audience shouting effectively just nulled out Brian's part completely and made it into a 3-part arrangement and god, I was just so pissed. Like, a lot of the other songs were arranged pretty close to the show versions, or at least to the Slamaganza versions, but that was brand new a lot of effort really powerful and emotional and the fact that people were STILL shouting over it was really making me angry. It didn't help that we were still getting kind of slammed around by the crowd, even after I tweeted @the team account, Corey and Julia to maybe have someone come tell people to spread out a little better and stop crowding and killing everyone, and Julia actually saw it and had Meredith say something about it. BUT LITERALLY NO ONE LISTENED, AND THERE WERE TIMES WHERE I COULDN'T ACTUALLY MOVE MY ARMS and I got elbowed in the boob SO many times and ugh I have just literally never been in a more psychotic crowd of people. Or like I've never been at a StarKid event where the fans have had that little respect for each other. Usually it's just been everyone's nice and then one or two people are assholes and you just avoid them, but this was like...lots of assholes. Or at least lots of people who were inconsiderate enough that things sucked. idk. .____.
BUT LOL MEREDITH BECAUSE right when she came to make that announcement she also told this big story about like, how they had to cut "their best act" because the stage was too small and it involved like all of them getting swallowed by a whale and then blown out his spout and way up into the air, where they were caught by a set of seven eagles and flown around everywhere and the eagles were like "SCRAW!!" but it was all in 7-part harmony so it actually sounded good, and then the eagles flew them in the back doors of the venue and over the crowd and dropped them onstage onto the backs of 7 giant snails, who took the next hour and a half to carry them across the whole stage, where they then backflipped off the snails and landed on each other's shoulders to spell out the word "STARKID" with their bodies. YEP. CLASSIC MEREDITH. It was spectacular. Actually a lot of the dialogue bits between the songs were absolutely hysterical, and I was sad that those were even HARDER to hear than the singing because people kept shouting shit like "MARRY ME BRIAN HOLDEN!!" and throwing their bras onstage (just one, really, but it actually made bodily contact with Lauren during Granger Danger and she was like "Oh, this is like, totally for me" and Joey was like "I hope this didn't actually come off you right now...???" YUCK. SORRY BUT I DON'T THINK THIS IS APPROPRIATE LIKE, EVER). Joey and Joe made a couple venue-specific jokes about running Walker/Richter 2012 that I'm fairly certain were meant to directly take the piss out of Pomme wherever the fuck he was, lol, and Lauren made a joke about Darren being her boyfriend and also called Brian something like "a forgettable nerd who tries too hard" in reference to Zach in LWL and then when we all screamed he was like "Why are you cheering for that? Should I just assume that you, too, are all forgettable nerds who try too hard?" and I felt like that was such a great, legit thing to say in that moment ahahahahahahah.
TL;DR All the songs were great but I wish I could've been able to hear them better because WE WERE THE LOUDEST MOST OBNOXIOUS VENUE ON THE WHOLE TOUR SO FAR. AND IT WAS GROSS. By the end a couple of girls standing near us were screaming on notes that were juuuust off enough from one another pitch-wise that they resonated and vibrated REALLY HARD AND PAINFULLY in a clash against each other and I thought my ears were going to explode. D:
That said, I know Avery and Kristen were dragging for a while and I kind of was too but I think there was this moment like a third of the way into the StarKid set where the songs all started kind of slamming into us in just the right way to get us more energized into actually really enjoying the thing. And there were bubbles and confetti and great choreography (seriously Brian Holden dances SUPER-INTENSE and Jaime is just my favorite) and I was just so glad we were there. :3 IDK if Avery and Kristen really felt the same way about this but bluuhhhhh I love starkid so muuuuuuuccchhhh.
When it was FINALLY over after the encore jank (Even Though/Liam's Got a Phone Call [which they totes did because Liam's actually on tour with them which I LOVE TO PIECES about them ugh] and then Days of Summer/Back to Hogwarts) we were like RUN. RUN TO COAT CHECK and Kristen was also like THERE'S WATER DOWN THERE because there was a stretch of time where she left us because she REALLY needed to not be standing up and she found the water. And so I was like, I want to go find them like wherever they're getting on/off buses and stuff but idk where that is, and we didn't want to MISS it (lol turns out that wouldn't EVER have been a problem....) but once we left the venue we couldn't get back in, but the coat-check line was HELLA LONG, but eventually we just decided to stand in it anyway and it actually went by pretty quick and then we got all our stuff and left. We got back outside and it was RAINING, gross, so I threw on my (omgsocomfortableandwarmandamazingI'mgonnaDIE) new SPACE hoodie and Avery held our posters and programs under her own jacket and we started heading back toward the parking garage.
Conveniently, we stumbled across a large cluster of StarKid fans loitering at this one parking lot driveway thing, and we were like "Oh. Welp. This is totes where it is." And we stood there waiting for a whiiiiiillle, in the gross too-light-to-be-a-thing-but-still-wet-and-nasty rain, waiting, and waiting, and mingling with other people, and talking about the show, and whining about how sore our various body parts were from standing, and waiting some more. It really wasn't that bad, even with the rain, and from where we were standing we could kind of see the butt-ends of one of the buses, so like I knew we were in the right place. We just. Hung out.
Then. THEN. Bitch-ass staff lady from earlier comes out and is like "Guys. If you are waiting around for them to get off the buses, you should just know that IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. It's not. Go home! :D" and like maybe 2 people did but the rest of us were like: lol no. Because EVERY other show at least a couple of them have come out to talk to fans and dis bitch CLEARLY did not know who she was dealing with. So we stayed. I think it was not too long after that that Avery left, though, because she was dying and she was like "gonna go back to the car just so I can SIT." But Kristen and I stayed because I WAS NOT LEAVING UNTIL I GOT A PICTURE WITH COREY THIS SHIT HAPPENED. We got brave enough to sit down on the curb because we NEEDED to sit and we didn't give a fuq about getting dirty because we was tired. A little while later this dudebro with dreadlocks who worked for the venue came out and told us the same thing: "Guys, if you're waiting for them, you're waiting in vain because they're not coming. Go home!" He was way nicer and less anal about it, though. He was like "They're just gonna drive out of here on the bus" and one girl was like "But can't we just wait and wave at them on the bus as they leave??" and he was like "Well, if you want to do that, you need to stay on the sidewalk and out of the street" and so we all kind of shifted a little (but like we didn't need to a whole lot). AND WE KEPT WAITING. Like some people left I guess but most of the rest of us were like "LOL IT'S 12:30? DON'T GIVE A SHIT. GIVE US STARKIDS."
After a loooonnnng time of waiting and the crowd seriously thinning out, WE WERE FINALLY SUCCESSFUL!!! The rain had mostly stopped and here came Dylan and GWatsky heading from the buses over to our crowd. And we were like YAAAAYYYYY and I was like "KRISCHTEN DO U WANT A PICKSHERR WIF DYLAN" and she was like "UM OF COURSCHE" so we hovered over to him but we were near the back of the hovercrowd so we just sort of waited~ and while we were waiting, Brian and Meredith came out too! So a lot of Dylan's hovercrowd shifted over to BHoldz and we were able to get at him faster. (Sadly by the time we finished up with him GWatsky had disappeared again and I didn't get to talk to him at all.) Dylan complimented this girl on her homemade "Set Your Guns To Pew" shirt and told us that that was actually a joke that kind of got cut, was that the zappers only had 2 settings, one of which was pew and the other of which was "gah-gah-gah-gah-gah-gah" (like a machine gun rat-a-tat). So you could either set it to pew or gah-gah. lol. He also told us that they'd clocked our crowd noise at 115 dB, and then googled like, noise levels at rock concerts, and AC/DC had come up at 130 once. WE WERE ALMOST TO AC/DC LEVEL NOISE. THAT'S FUCKING RIDIC. also that like, fighter jets weren't that much higher than us, either. (I just googled it myself actually and "Loud Rock Concert" is often listed at 115. We were officially a Loud Rock Concert.
After Dylan we went to talk to Meredith because she had WAY fewer people around her than Brian, sigh, and we both took pics with her and she was adorable. I love her sooooo much. I felt like I was accidentally kind of awkward around her this go-round though. We asked if anyone else might be coming out and she was like "I think just about everyone is going to come eventually...??" so we were like YAY and while we were waiting to get at BHoldz I was like, peering off into the distance at where the bus was trying to see anyone else. There was this other weird little cluster of people over there on the other side kind of parallel to us and I was like, what are they doing??? but any time we attempted to go that way, this staff guy in a yellow rain poncho herded us back toward our end, so we just kind of gave up.
Also while we were waiting for BHoldz, Avery came back :D So she and Kristen both got pics with him and it was kind of awesome. Aaannnd we loitered and loitered and loitered, and Dylan ended up heading back toward the bus and leaving, and I tweeted at Corey trying to get him to come out and see me us (and so did Teppie XD) and then suddenly I was like "hang on, Joey Richter is over there." He'd come from like, a different angle and we'd missed him! So we walked over to where he was and I was going to chat with him and so was Kristen because he was like "I'm gonna get through this group but then I have to go" so we made sure to be part of THAT GROUP but then right when we were getting kind of close
Clark materialized out of nowhere too.
and I was like EFF YEAH because I'd been holding my rocket all night and dealing with the awkwardness of trying to keep it from getting squashed by the crowd in the venue and angsting because the fin that keeps breaking broke off a little AGAIN because someone made me drop it, all because I wanted to have my rocket in case Mark or Clark surfaced and I could get it signed. So I basically ditched Joey entirely (although while I was waiting for Clark, Avery and Kristen were taking a picture with him together, and I managed to photobomb it - IT IS THE GREATEST PICTURE OH MY GOD) and went over to Clark instead, and talked to him for a bit. He was SOOOO motherfucking out of it, like he sounded kind of stoned omg but he was probz just really tired. He signed my rocket ("CLARK!") and let me take a picture with him :3 and I told him that I was sad because where we were standing we couldn't really see him at ALL, even during the Jim and the Povolos set, and he was like "uhh well that's okay, you could still HEAR me right?" and I was like "yeah! guess that's the important part lol" and it was just kind of awkward because he was SO MASSIVELY OUT OF IT ahahaha poor clark. He left pretty much right after he was done with me because like no one else was really interested and I was like "y'all all suck because Clark is amazing."
So then Brian was still kind of straggling but he left, too, and Joey, and then we were just standing around waiting and there were maybe eight or ten of us left, hoping that someone else would come, and then this guy with the yellow poncho. I started looking back over at the other group off in the distance, and Joe Walker was definitely over there talking to them. And meanwhile we were just standing around like fuckasses with this guy in the yellow not letting us pass. So I was like "dude if we all just rushed at once, he couldn't stop us." And meanwhile Kristen was like, subtly sneakily tapdancing her way past him like way off to the side where he kind of couldn't see. And Avery started joining her and I was like "holy shit guys omg omg" and I turned around to kind of hiss at some of the other chicks to maybe follow us, and by the time I turned BACK around Avery and Kristen were SPRINTING across the parking lot and poncho guy hadn't done ANYTHING about it. (Keep in mind it's like 1am or later by now.) So I started BOOKING it after them and the rest of the girls behind us - three girls in tie-dye tees, a girl in a plaid shirt and a girl with giant shoes, I think that was really all of us at that point - followed behind us and we fucking RAN to where the other group was.
And we got there LITERALLY RIGHT WHEN JOE WAS LIKE "Bye guys going back to the bus!!" and we were like FUCK NO WAIT JOE OMG D: and we were so so sad. But we kind of hovered there a little and poncho guy came over and then BITCH-ASS SKINNY STAFF CUNT CAME BACK and was like "You need to be over there. No, over there, on the other side of this gate" and like herded us around this barricade gate that was chillin' there and then was like, "Get off my property." And we were like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, ASSHOLE. And that was the point when I turned to Avery and was like "ohhhh my god, you know who she is?" and Avery was like "YES. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO SAY IT." jfc. So then she was like getting in her car and she left and we were all just kind of still standing there, being emo that we missed Joe.
So then their badass bus driver came out with his fancy cowboy hat on?? And he sidled up to us and some girl was like "Is that a Stetson??" and he was like "No, it's a ______ (somethingIdon'tremember) - it's like one step up from a Stetson." and he was being rly nice to all of us and then was like "Who is it y'all wanna see?" and several people were like "Joe!" and a couple people were like "Jaime!" and I was like "Corey!" and he was like "whoa whoa so many names" but then he was like "I'll see if I can't get them to come out for you" and we were like OMG THANK YOU sdahklsdjgh. And then Joe came like RIGHT back out like it was nothing, and he was wearing a fake mustache, and it was fucking great. We told him that the lady had seriously told us to get off her property and he was like "Whoa, really? Well, we're not...on her property...so there's that taken care of" because all of us, him included, had edged to JUSt on the other side of the barrier gate and we were all like lol. But then he was like "But I guess we're on SOMEONE'S property? Whoops?" because we were in this other chunk of parking lot and we were like YEAH BUT THEY'RE NOT AROUND, WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW WON'T HURT 'EM. ahahaha Joe is seriously the best.
He talked to us a lot and hugged some girls for pics (he was doing the hug thing where you like hug tight and lift them off the ground, he did it to this one girl and then she was like "whoa will you do that in a pic with me?" and then everyone wanted it, haha) and signed some T-shirts and I was like "dude what I wanna know is like, who's on which bus? lol? Like who's sharing a bus and then who's on the other bus." And he was like "...That's such a complicated question..." and Kristen (or Avery? haha don't remember) was like "you just wanna know where Corey is!" and I was like "shut up!!" and Joe was like "Oh, Corey? Corey's on my bus."
AND THEN JOE SAID ALL THIS REALLY NICE SHIT ABOUT COREY LAKsjhalskdghlskjdghlk he was like "I'm glad to have him on my bus, he and I are like..." and he was trying to come up with some way to describe their relationship and he COULDN'T and he was also in the middle of trying to be in a picture with a girl and so he was finally just like "We think alike" really rushed and then he had to make a photograph-face and stop talking ahahaha. And then he was talking about all the stuff Corey's done for the tour and he was seriously just like "Corey's a genius." AND I WAS LKGHLAIUHSDHYGTE. And I was like "do you think he'll come out and see us?" and Joe was all "Oh Corey? uh probably not" And I was like D: D: D: D: FOREVER.
But then after a few minutes Dylan and GWatsky drifted back out, and Dylan also had a mustache, and everyone else was still hovering around Joe (I think this is actually when Avery and Kristen were getting pics with him lol) but I edged over to Dylan and leaned against the barrier gate to hiss and him and I was like "Dylan! Psssst Dylan!!" and he kind of ambled over to me and I was like "Do you think Corey would come out for a picture with me please?" and he was like "With Lubowich?" and I was like "yeeaahhh thanks :D" and Dylan went back on the bus and was hollering at some people while we stuck around with Joe some more. And then a bunch of people spilled off the bus, Joey and Brian (also with mustaches) and GWatsky (he'd lost Dylan when Dylan got back on the bus but then found him again) and Dylan again and then through the window I could see Corey!! And I was like YES, YES, AND HE HAS A MUSTACHE TOO. He was putting on a hoodie and then he got off the bus and walked over to us and I waved like an idiot and was like "hi!!!"
So we got to talk to him for a minute and we talked about the mustaches and I was like "Whose idea was this?" and he was like "I actually don't know. Mine keeps like, doing weird things when I try to smile but it's actually pretty great. No idea whose idea it was...but it was a good one." and we chatted a little and I don't even remember much of what I said because Corey but then I was like "Do you think I could get a picture with you?" and I was prepared to just like, lean against the barrier gate, with me on the outside and him on the inside where the buses were, and then he leaned against it too so I was like "okay," but then it turns out HIM LEANING ON IT WAS ACTUALLY HIM BRACING HIMSELF AGAINST IT SO HE COULD JUMP THE FUCK OVER IT. Just leapt STRAIGHT fucking over it like it was nothing and it was aksdjghaksfduhgrlyhotandIDIED and ajgjkgajga. And then I took a picture with him and he made this really quality face with the mustache and it was GREAT. THE END.
We left pretty much once we'd accomplished that goal, shooting super-sad-sorry faces at the girl who'd legitimately decided to skip catching the shuttle she needed back to Alexandria so that she could stay longer and meet StarKids (I felt SO bad for her, I wish we could've given you a ride, tall shoes girl!). We thought we were parked in the same garage as Kristen, but we weren't, so when we got over there we put Kristen in our car so we could drive her around to where hers was, ONLY WE COULDN'T FIND WHERE THAT WAS? So we were driving around and pulling potentially illegal traffic maneuvers and trying to make sense of our borked sense of direction from Kristen's GPS that was getting shitty reception and all this other shit augh clusterfuck lol. So we drove past this gas station on one corner and all the StarKid bros were totally there. And Kristen was like "omg honk at them!!" and Avery was like "NO?" so she was like "roll the window down!" and I did and then we were like "WHOOOOOOO!!" and waving at them and they turned and waved back, a couple of them (Joey and Dylan I think, and omg Joey had taken his shirt off and was just in a wifebeater) and then Joe, who was standing closest to the curb, hooked his fingers into his mouth and fucking wolf-whistled at us. and it was AMAZING. SO GREAT. It was like the more fucking time we wasted attempting to make the night better, the better it actually got. I was so happy that the clusterfuck screamingfest of the show itself wasn't actually the end of our experience.
Unnnnfortunately, one of the traffic maneuvers we sort of pulled attempting to find the other garage WAS actually illegal, and at about 1:20...we got pulled over!!! WHAT THE FUCK. Avery was freaking out but the cop was actually really nice and he was just like "you look lost, are you lost? I stopped you because you're driving without headlights and also you're not allowed to make that turn back there. but seriously where are you trying to go?" and he helped us kind of figure it out and let us go scot-free because it was the middle of the fucking night and we were small confused girls. lol. So we FINALLY found the garage and then put Kristen in her car and drove aaallll the way back to Avery's and we only got kind of semi-lost once! And it was like laaaate o'clock and we had to sneak back in as TOTALLY SILENTLY as possible and then we like, fell to pieces and drank some water and went to sleep.
So that was our adventures to SPACE!!! Here's a couple things I left out/couldn't fit into the narrative:
+ Getting recognized from tumblr and actually being asked to BE IN A PICTURE WITH SOMEONE. lol I'm an internet fame fraud, what. Also ran into at least one other person I genuinely knew from tumblr.
+ Totally not ever finding wordplay, though. Biggest letdown of the night!
+ Gabi texting me during GWatsky's set to tell me the all-dudes' Coolest Girl from Slamaganza was up on tumblr yesss YESSSSSS OMFG THE GREATEST.
+ Deliberately screaming as hard as we could for people like Jaime, Mark and Clark, because everyone else was screaming for Brian (A LOT FOR BRIAN??) and Joey and Walker.
+ the hilarious conversations we had in the car on the way there, about Kristen being made of cotton candy and Joe Walker having fake boobs idek
+ Charlene &co. leaving in a fucking BATMOBILE LIMO
+ 4 people who did Charlene's Kickstarter thing came up and sang during Animal Love and they were all really cute~
+ these three girls in MAMD vagina costumes, one of whom was a super-legit Flopsy but had like...large boobs and so that was kind of hilarious
+ Avery called him "BHoldz" to his face like 3 times and he never reacted to it or anything
+ oh god so much I'm probably forgetting that Avery and Kristen will hopefully add in in the comments
Overall, I kind of have to say that this was my least enjoyable Team StarKid event experience to date, which is kind of lame. But that's not to say it was ACTUALLY BAD, because it was amazing! But there was juuuust enough that dragged it down to make it worse than Starship or Slamaganza, and it was mostly because of the screaming crowds and stuff. It was enough that I felt a little bad that this was Avery and Kristen's FIRST StarKid experience, because I know it can be so much better. I'm really glad that it got better as the night went on, even if we didn't end up getting to bed until like 2:45. Fingers crossed we get to do something even MORE fucking awesome in the future. :3
Pictures that don't suck to come whenever I get them from Kristen! There are a handful on my phone that do suck, and they look like this.
Two attempts to creeper-pic Pomme (that's his silhouette in the first one). IDEK it wasn't even that dark!
GWatsky!
A group number which I think was I Wanna Be? ddk.
pretty sure THIS was Ready To Go. Or else just I Wanna Be again. hm.
Mark! Jim and the Povolos ♥
ETA Kristen pics HERE!
wheeeeeeeee SPACE! :D
Now I gotta finish watching The Sing-Off!!
omg yeah. :3
Lol so I had to wait for Avery to get off work. For like, 3 and a half hours. So I wandered around her shopping center, wasted like half an hour between the GameStop and the Best Buy, then made myself loiter some more just chillin' around the side of the building watching people bring their dogs in and surfing twitter, whatevz. I made myself wait until 3:15 and then crossed the street and went to the giant 2-story Target and like, the Claire's in the mall that was over there. I bought singingblonde16's Christmas present! :D
FINALLY it was like 4:45 so I went back over and we waited and then Avery got her shit together so we could leave! While she was changing into her street clothes there was a BnL song on over the sound system in the PetSmart and that was pretty awesome. Then we had to DRIVE FOREVER. We got stuck in gross traffic and didn't get there until a whiiiile later than we wanted to, and then we had a hard time finding Kristen! D: It ended up that that put us kind of near the end of the VIP group that was getting pushed through, which kind of sucked because it meant our individual StarKid reactions only got to last about .2 seconds.
Also that they were running out of lanyards/VIP badges literally ONE PERSON in front of us. Also programs and posters. There was seriously ONE lanyard left when we got through and it didn't even have a badge on the end, and we decided we were going to let Kristen have it, wweh. So we're loitering trying to move on up to the M&G table and this bitchy-ass staff woman (LITERALLY BITCHY NEKOCON STAFF WOMAN: SKINNY EDITION UGH) whisked through and was like "You know that they're only signing one thing apiece and you can't have long drawn-out conversations with them, it's almost over and we've got to move people through" and we were like -____-; we know. But once she was gone I saw Julia kind of creepin' to the side, first on the phone and then just kind of hovering to do some business and like no one else saw her and I was like "lol guys do you even recognize her." Whatever lol. Then someone was like "oh they're bringing more lanyards!" and "they" turned out to be COREY! So he materialized over by Julia and was clipping badges onto more lanyards and then handing them over to the woman at the door who made sure we all got them, and even got Kristen an extra badge to go on her lanyard. Then he and Julia came back with more posters and programs (which had also stopped literally one person ahead of us) and we got handed those ~personally and I was like ~COREY~~ and like having a hard time not being an asshole okay. God he's so adorable and nice and sweet and hot and asdjghsrhbnb. He had on some gr8 shoes.
Then as we moved further and further forward the two of them were standing loitering with Pomme too :D :D :D and he is SMOKINGLY ATTRACTIVE. it was RULL hard for me not to just be like "ohhhhmigod Pomme!!!" and like make him come over and talk to us, but I didn't. I was actually really subdued at this show? I think to make up for the fact that a lot of the other people there were BATSHIT CRAYCRAY. Like, idk if you guys have seen what StarKid themselves have been saying about this show, but we apparently had obscene decibel levels, Jaime at one point said we were one of the rowdiest venues on the whole tour so far (if not THE rowdiest) and during the last goodbye bows and shit people were shrieking so loud that I literally saw Lauren mouth "oh my god" with like a shocked and kind of disturbed look on her face. SHIT WAS CRAZY. so yeah I was trying to noootttt contribute to that if at all possible, I guess.
We got up to the M&G table finally! Dylan was on the front end and I guess I got so distracted with how cute he was and then making sure we were moving so no one got bitched at that I kind of glossed over Joey. (And Brian.) I chatted VERY briefly to Meredith and then went straight over to Joe! I had to tell them that I'd been so excited about making the phone charms but then they just hadn't worked out D: Maybe I might try to get them to Sam and see if she can distribute them in NYC? I won't have one for Darren though lol whoops. Then I was kind of by Jaime and she was like "ohhh~ I remember you! :)" and I was like "omg really?" and she was like "mmhmmm yeah" and Lauren was like "oh yeah!" and alksdjghaslkjfgh that was just great because Jaime is seriously my favorite favorite favorite and she had FABULOUS hair and so yeah I talked to her for a second too. But I was also kind of turning around seeing what was going on with Kristen+Joe+Avery+BHoldz and idk I was just really distracted because we were getting pushed through so fast. It was literally like autograph BAM NEXT PERSON autograph BAM NEXT PERSON and it was idk. Because we were at the tail end. Charlene was on the far end of the table and I DID get to say to her that I was excited to see her because I'd never seen her perform before. So that was neat.
By the time we'd all gotten through the crowd at the stage was like a full row up against the barrier and then like half a row behind them. Corey was still running around all over the place super busy-like and I didn't want to interfere with that, he was like talking to Liam and stuff (Liam is like, shorter than I thought he'd be? WHY DID THAT SURPRISE ME, THEY ALL ARE, but still ahahaha.) So I was like "Oh, wait, we should totally go to merch!!" and so we did that and it was great. Kristen got two slap bracelets and Avery got a little button, and I got a hoodie and JatP bracelet for myself as well as a lion shirt+JatP bracelet for girlsarebummers and more JatP bracelets for Nicole and Jenna ♥ He was worried for a second that they were out of them and that I would end up buying the only two they had left! But then he found a ton more and sold me two more and I spent waaaayyyyy too much money. I'm glad Kristen had already paid me back for her ticket at that point or I wouldn't've had enough. I'd forgotten that Nicole and Jenna had asked for bracelets too so I totally didn't take out enough cash D:
But like, they didn't have any bags??? so I had NOTHING to put my crap in. So we were going to try to go throw it all back in the car, but the woman at the front told us they have a strict no re-entry policy, and sent us down to coat check. Which was sweet because it was like only $6 to check ALL our crap between the three of us? But then we got back upstairs and THEY'D STARTED LETTING IN GEN ADMISH AND WE WERE LIKE FOUR ROWS OF PEOPLE BACK FROM THE STAGE. We were a little frustrated because like, VIP, bitch! Sigh. But we went way far around stage right and were able to worm a little closer, and we ended up standing next to some pretty cool people too, so that was all right.
But then we got stuck just standing there like, forever. And Avery had already been on her feet all day working so she was like, I'm gonna leave and try to go to the upstairs where there are seats. So she left and me and Kristen stood around some more and the crowd started filling in more (lol fillmore) and it was BORING. The music the venue was playing was way weird and we were like wtf is going on with this, and no one especially interesting showed up around us to talk to us so we were just like WELP, WAITING FOR IT TO BE 8. Eventually Avery came back and like, wormed through the crowd to stand with us again because it turns out you had to pay extra money to go sit upstairs, which was dumb because like we were already VIP and they should've just let us in.
Then shit started finally? AND I TOTALLY FORGOT THAT MOTHEREFFING GEORGE WATSKY WAS GOING TO BE THERE. I remember getting excited about it when they first announced it and everything! but I'd like completely blanked until RIGHT IN THAT MOMENT. That was kind of badass because gwatsky is super-legit. He did a handful of songs (and one poem, specifically requested by a group of girls in the front-center - I think he was really surprised that they actually knew him and his stuff well enough to ask for something specific ahahaha) and in general was just very cute and very gay for Dylan with a big Dylan bro-crush. ADORBZ. Then askdhaskjdg the last thing he did was like, I'm working on a bluegrass/hip-hop album, we've literally never performed this anywhere before, still working out the kinks, etc. etc......
And he and Dylan did a hip-hop remix cover of Man of Constant Sorrow.
RIGHT. LIKE. WE WERE JIZZING. There were these adorable black girls next to us who were losing their shit the WHOLE gwatsky set about white boy rappers and then this started happening and like the whole crowd just got its minds fucking blown. UGH I cannot wait till the track's produced forrealz and I can have it in my ears ALL THE TIME. best best best skdjahgkjhnjh.
Okay so here's the part that sucks: because of rude jostling, the weird natural flow of shit, and us being semi-nice guys? By the end of Gwatsky's set we were like eight rows of people back from the stage. We were pretty fucking angry, tbh, because we were getting screwed on a LOT of what was supposed to be the VIP perks just because we dared to not get there until near the end of what was still THE VIP ADMISSION PERIOD. Traffic fucked us and then the venue fucked us even more. D: So during Charlene's set (WHICH WAS AWESOME, I sang along a lot mostly to Mad Tom of Bedlam but like hers was probably my least favorite of the acts just because I'm not that into her even though I think she's a sick awesome guitarist, lol tangent), I am sorry to say that we employed a couple of dirty tactics in our attempts to squeeze our way back a little closer to the stage, including "pretend you're looking for a friend you got separated from" (LOL WE JOKINGLY NAMED HER MIKAELA) and "pretend you dropped your wallet and you're trying to find it." And like, we probably wouldn't have, even, except we got stuck behind people who were over 5'5" and we had Kristen who is like 5'0" and couldn't see SHIT. And at one point I think we separated a group of friends, and we couldn't really move in a way that would get them back together, but the crowd was fucking riDONKulous and we were basically just trying to get back to the spot we'd been in in the first place that we'd somehow gotten shoved out of. We didn't WANT to fuck other people's groups up. D: Also, we got stuck behind a chick with an ENORMOUS BAG - like, so big that we're pretty sure she should've been forced to get it coat-checked like a lot of other girls we saw down at coat check who'd been TOLD that they HAD TO because their bags were too big - and it was seriously taking up all this space that could've been occupied by PERSON which was just fucking annoying. :||||
Charlene's set was fun and she ended with Animal Love which is like one of my favorites of hers? Like I'm thinking maybe I'll be able to get more into this new album than I have been with stuff of hers in the past. Bummed she didn't play the funny Howard song though because it always makes me think of Morgan and lose my shit lol. And of course Dylan sang with her for Dress & Tie and they were like "put Dylan in ALL the acts!!" and it was gr8~ aaahhh enjoyment. Pretty much experienced the first "bleh so this is how it's going to go" on this song: realized that literally all of the other screaming girls in the room were going to singscream along with the girls' parts every time and the dudes were going to get totally washed out. I SANG THE DARREN/DYLAN PART, DAMNIT. sigh lol.
People whoooooo!'d at just about everything, too. Like this guy in like an olive-green t-shirt kept coming out and moving mics around and everyone freaked out for microphone guy. Or like when things would lull someone would start the whole crowd chanting "STAR-KID! STAR-KID! STAR-KID!!" - even at the beginning when we knew at LEAST Charlene (and then not to mention George) was coming on first and that StarKid wasn't going to come out just because you were chanting for them. LOL SIGH PEOPLE WERE JUST CAUGHT UP IN MOB LOGIC AND NOT STOPPING TO THINK. which happens sometimes idk. But like Julia came out for a second and re-adjusted the mics that mic adjuster guy had already done shit with and I lol'd. The way she put stuff I was like "Oh, I bet they're opening with I Wanna Be, and that one that's out a little further is Joey's." It was fun to do stuff like that teehee I felt so smart every time I guessed right. It was cool because I felt like I knew JUST enough about the show going into it that I wasn't spoiled for what was going on and everything still got to be fresh and new BUT it let me kind of anticipate parts that I knew were going to be awesome and get psyched about them in advance. PERFECT.
But yeah thennn after a brief pause and some funny voiceover antics the StarKid set started!!! They all roboted onstage with these groovy helmets and opened with...I Wanna Be just like I thought they would WOOO hahaha. We were on the Jaime+Joey end of the stage which was like, perfect placement for me! But I felt bad for Avery because BHoldz was way on the other side and we were usually stuck in such a way that Joe was hard to see too (which bummed me out too!), sigh. EITHER WAY everyone was absolutely fabulous and gaahhhhhh they did so many songs that I really wanted them to do. LIKE READY TO GO WHICH I KNEW WAS COMING BUT JUST. I'VE BEEN DYING TO SEE ANYTHING FROM MAMD LIVE FOR AS LONG AS I CAN FUCKING REMEMBER and having that actually happen right there was just so goddamn glorious. (Lol it was funny to hear like the crowd sing-along roar die down SIGNIFICANTLY during that song because of all the people who haven't actually watched MAMD. sigh.) The other stuff that made me extra-special happy were the all-girls' No Way, the Even Though/Liam's Got a Phone Call encore and all the LWL stuff! I sang along to It's Over Now probably harder than anything else because it is just SUCH a rock song and it's one of my favorite StarKid songs for sure, and because idk I felt like it was an okay thing to sing along with because it's loud and anthemy and it's MEANT to be done like that, like a big rock 'n' roll party. Stutter, too. :D
You know what was not cool to sing along with? THE 4-PART HARMONY DUDES' STATUS QUO. Like, the audience was so loud, and had been for the whole show, that when I realized that's what was coming up next I actually stopped playing nice and yelled at a fairly loud volume for people to shut up during what was coming next and just listen. GOD I was mad that I couldn't hear parts of that. The audience shouting effectively just nulled out Brian's part completely and made it into a 3-part arrangement and god, I was just so pissed. Like, a lot of the other songs were arranged pretty close to the show versions, or at least to the Slamaganza versions, but that was brand new a lot of effort really powerful and emotional and the fact that people were STILL shouting over it was really making me angry. It didn't help that we were still getting kind of slammed around by the crowd, even after I tweeted @the team account, Corey and Julia to maybe have someone come tell people to spread out a little better and stop crowding and killing everyone, and Julia actually saw it and had Meredith say something about it. BUT LITERALLY NO ONE LISTENED, AND THERE WERE TIMES WHERE I COULDN'T ACTUALLY MOVE MY ARMS and I got elbowed in the boob SO many times and ugh I have just literally never been in a more psychotic crowd of people. Or like I've never been at a StarKid event where the fans have had that little respect for each other. Usually it's just been everyone's nice and then one or two people are assholes and you just avoid them, but this was like...lots of assholes. Or at least lots of people who were inconsiderate enough that things sucked. idk. .____.
BUT LOL MEREDITH BECAUSE right when she came to make that announcement she also told this big story about like, how they had to cut "their best act" because the stage was too small and it involved like all of them getting swallowed by a whale and then blown out his spout and way up into the air, where they were caught by a set of seven eagles and flown around everywhere and the eagles were like "SCRAW!!" but it was all in 7-part harmony so it actually sounded good, and then the eagles flew them in the back doors of the venue and over the crowd and dropped them onstage onto the backs of 7 giant snails, who took the next hour and a half to carry them across the whole stage, where they then backflipped off the snails and landed on each other's shoulders to spell out the word "STARKID" with their bodies. YEP. CLASSIC MEREDITH. It was spectacular. Actually a lot of the dialogue bits between the songs were absolutely hysterical, and I was sad that those were even HARDER to hear than the singing because people kept shouting shit like "MARRY ME BRIAN HOLDEN!!" and throwing their bras onstage (just one, really, but it actually made bodily contact with Lauren during Granger Danger and she was like "Oh, this is like, totally for me" and Joey was like "I hope this didn't actually come off you right now...???" YUCK. SORRY BUT I DON'T THINK THIS IS APPROPRIATE LIKE, EVER). Joey and Joe made a couple venue-specific jokes about running Walker/Richter 2012 that I'm fairly certain were meant to directly take the piss out of Pomme wherever the fuck he was, lol, and Lauren made a joke about Darren being her boyfriend and also called Brian something like "a forgettable nerd who tries too hard" in reference to Zach in LWL and then when we all screamed he was like "Why are you cheering for that? Should I just assume that you, too, are all forgettable nerds who try too hard?" and I felt like that was such a great, legit thing to say in that moment ahahahahahahah.
TL;DR All the songs were great but I wish I could've been able to hear them better because WE WERE THE LOUDEST MOST OBNOXIOUS VENUE ON THE WHOLE TOUR SO FAR. AND IT WAS GROSS. By the end a couple of girls standing near us were screaming on notes that were juuuust off enough from one another pitch-wise that they resonated and vibrated REALLY HARD AND PAINFULLY in a clash against each other and I thought my ears were going to explode. D:
That said, I know Avery and Kristen were dragging for a while and I kind of was too but I think there was this moment like a third of the way into the StarKid set where the songs all started kind of slamming into us in just the right way to get us more energized into actually really enjoying the thing. And there were bubbles and confetti and great choreography (seriously Brian Holden dances SUPER-INTENSE and Jaime is just my favorite) and I was just so glad we were there. :3 IDK if Avery and Kristen really felt the same way about this but bluuhhhhh I love starkid so muuuuuuuccchhhh.
When it was FINALLY over after the encore jank (Even Though/Liam's Got a Phone Call [which they totes did because Liam's actually on tour with them which I LOVE TO PIECES about them ugh] and then Days of Summer/Back to Hogwarts) we were like RUN. RUN TO COAT CHECK and Kristen was also like THERE'S WATER DOWN THERE because there was a stretch of time where she left us because she REALLY needed to not be standing up and she found the water. And so I was like, I want to go find them like wherever they're getting on/off buses and stuff but idk where that is, and we didn't want to MISS it (lol turns out that wouldn't EVER have been a problem....) but once we left the venue we couldn't get back in, but the coat-check line was HELLA LONG, but eventually we just decided to stand in it anyway and it actually went by pretty quick and then we got all our stuff and left. We got back outside and it was RAINING, gross, so I threw on my (omgsocomfortableandwarmandamazingI'mgonnaDIE) new SPACE hoodie and Avery held our posters and programs under her own jacket and we started heading back toward the parking garage.
Conveniently, we stumbled across a large cluster of StarKid fans loitering at this one parking lot driveway thing, and we were like "Oh. Welp. This is totes where it is." And we stood there waiting for a whiiiiiillle, in the gross too-light-to-be-a-thing-but-still-wet-and-nasty rain, waiting, and waiting, and mingling with other people, and talking about the show, and whining about how sore our various body parts were from standing, and waiting some more. It really wasn't that bad, even with the rain, and from where we were standing we could kind of see the butt-ends of one of the buses, so like I knew we were in the right place. We just. Hung out.
Then. THEN. Bitch-ass staff lady from earlier comes out and is like "Guys. If you are waiting around for them to get off the buses, you should just know that IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. It's not. Go home! :D" and like maybe 2 people did but the rest of us were like: lol no. Because EVERY other show at least a couple of them have come out to talk to fans and dis bitch CLEARLY did not know who she was dealing with. So we stayed. I think it was not too long after that that Avery left, though, because she was dying and she was like "gonna go back to the car just so I can SIT." But Kristen and I stayed because I WAS NOT LEAVING UNTIL I GOT A PICTURE WITH COREY THIS SHIT HAPPENED. We got brave enough to sit down on the curb because we NEEDED to sit and we didn't give a fuq about getting dirty because we was tired. A little while later this dudebro with dreadlocks who worked for the venue came out and told us the same thing: "Guys, if you're waiting for them, you're waiting in vain because they're not coming. Go home!" He was way nicer and less anal about it, though. He was like "They're just gonna drive out of here on the bus" and one girl was like "But can't we just wait and wave at them on the bus as they leave??" and he was like "Well, if you want to do that, you need to stay on the sidewalk and out of the street" and so we all kind of shifted a little (but like we didn't need to a whole lot). AND WE KEPT WAITING. Like some people left I guess but most of the rest of us were like "LOL IT'S 12:30? DON'T GIVE A SHIT. GIVE US STARKIDS."
After a loooonnnng time of waiting and the crowd seriously thinning out, WE WERE FINALLY SUCCESSFUL!!! The rain had mostly stopped and here came Dylan and GWatsky heading from the buses over to our crowd. And we were like YAAAAYYYYY and I was like "KRISCHTEN DO U WANT A PICKSHERR WIF DYLAN" and she was like "UM OF COURSCHE" so we hovered over to him but we were near the back of the hovercrowd so we just sort of waited~ and while we were waiting, Brian and Meredith came out too! So a lot of Dylan's hovercrowd shifted over to BHoldz and we were able to get at him faster. (Sadly by the time we finished up with him GWatsky had disappeared again and I didn't get to talk to him at all.) Dylan complimented this girl on her homemade "Set Your Guns To Pew" shirt and told us that that was actually a joke that kind of got cut, was that the zappers only had 2 settings, one of which was pew and the other of which was "gah-gah-gah-gah-gah-gah" (like a machine gun rat-a-tat). So you could either set it to pew or gah-gah. lol. He also told us that they'd clocked our crowd noise at 115 dB, and then googled like, noise levels at rock concerts, and AC/DC had come up at 130 once. WE WERE ALMOST TO AC/DC LEVEL NOISE. THAT'S FUCKING RIDIC. also that like, fighter jets weren't that much higher than us, either. (I just googled it myself actually and "Loud Rock Concert" is often listed at 115. We were officially a Loud Rock Concert.
After Dylan we went to talk to Meredith because she had WAY fewer people around her than Brian, sigh, and we both took pics with her and she was adorable. I love her sooooo much. I felt like I was accidentally kind of awkward around her this go-round though. We asked if anyone else might be coming out and she was like "I think just about everyone is going to come eventually...??" so we were like YAY and while we were waiting to get at BHoldz I was like, peering off into the distance at where the bus was trying to see anyone else. There was this other weird little cluster of people over there on the other side kind of parallel to us and I was like, what are they doing??? but any time we attempted to go that way, this staff guy in a yellow rain poncho herded us back toward our end, so we just kind of gave up.
Also while we were waiting for BHoldz, Avery came back :D So she and Kristen both got pics with him and it was kind of awesome. Aaannnd we loitered and loitered and loitered, and Dylan ended up heading back toward the bus and leaving, and I tweeted at Corey trying to get him to come out and see me us (and so did Teppie XD) and then suddenly I was like "hang on, Joey Richter is over there." He'd come from like, a different angle and we'd missed him! So we walked over to where he was and I was going to chat with him and so was Kristen because he was like "I'm gonna get through this group but then I have to go" so we made sure to be part of THAT GROUP but then right when we were getting kind of close
Clark materialized out of nowhere too.
and I was like EFF YEAH because I'd been holding my rocket all night and dealing with the awkwardness of trying to keep it from getting squashed by the crowd in the venue and angsting because the fin that keeps breaking broke off a little AGAIN because someone made me drop it, all because I wanted to have my rocket in case Mark or Clark surfaced and I could get it signed. So I basically ditched Joey entirely (although while I was waiting for Clark, Avery and Kristen were taking a picture with him together, and I managed to photobomb it - IT IS THE GREATEST PICTURE OH MY GOD) and went over to Clark instead, and talked to him for a bit. He was SOOOO motherfucking out of it, like he sounded kind of stoned omg but he was probz just really tired. He signed my rocket ("CLARK!") and let me take a picture with him :3 and I told him that I was sad because where we were standing we couldn't really see him at ALL, even during the Jim and the Povolos set, and he was like "uhh well that's okay, you could still HEAR me right?" and I was like "yeah! guess that's the important part lol" and it was just kind of awkward because he was SO MASSIVELY OUT OF IT ahahaha poor clark. He left pretty much right after he was done with me because like no one else was really interested and I was like "y'all all suck because Clark is amazing."
So then Brian was still kind of straggling but he left, too, and Joey, and then we were just standing around waiting and there were maybe eight or ten of us left, hoping that someone else would come, and then this guy with the yellow poncho. I started looking back over at the other group off in the distance, and Joe Walker was definitely over there talking to them. And meanwhile we were just standing around like fuckasses with this guy in the yellow not letting us pass. So I was like "dude if we all just rushed at once, he couldn't stop us." And meanwhile Kristen was like, subtly sneakily tapdancing her way past him like way off to the side where he kind of couldn't see. And Avery started joining her and I was like "holy shit guys omg omg" and I turned around to kind of hiss at some of the other chicks to maybe follow us, and by the time I turned BACK around Avery and Kristen were SPRINTING across the parking lot and poncho guy hadn't done ANYTHING about it. (Keep in mind it's like 1am or later by now.) So I started BOOKING it after them and the rest of the girls behind us - three girls in tie-dye tees, a girl in a plaid shirt and a girl with giant shoes, I think that was really all of us at that point - followed behind us and we fucking RAN to where the other group was.
And we got there LITERALLY RIGHT WHEN JOE WAS LIKE "Bye guys going back to the bus!!" and we were like FUCK NO WAIT JOE OMG D: and we were so so sad. But we kind of hovered there a little and poncho guy came over and then BITCH-ASS SKINNY STAFF CUNT CAME BACK and was like "You need to be over there. No, over there, on the other side of this gate" and like herded us around this barricade gate that was chillin' there and then was like, "Get off my property." And we were like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, ASSHOLE. And that was the point when I turned to Avery and was like "ohhhh my god, you know who she is?" and Avery was like "YES. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO SAY IT." jfc. So then she was like getting in her car and she left and we were all just kind of still standing there, being emo that we missed Joe.
So then their badass bus driver came out with his fancy cowboy hat on?? And he sidled up to us and some girl was like "Is that a Stetson??" and he was like "No, it's a ______ (somethingIdon'tremember) - it's like one step up from a Stetson." and he was being rly nice to all of us and then was like "Who is it y'all wanna see?" and several people were like "Joe!" and a couple people were like "Jaime!" and I was like "Corey!" and he was like "whoa whoa so many names" but then he was like "I'll see if I can't get them to come out for you" and we were like OMG THANK YOU sdahklsdjgh. And then Joe came like RIGHT back out like it was nothing, and he was wearing a fake mustache, and it was fucking great. We told him that the lady had seriously told us to get off her property and he was like "Whoa, really? Well, we're not...on her property...so there's that taken care of" because all of us, him included, had edged to JUSt on the other side of the barrier gate and we were all like lol. But then he was like "But I guess we're on SOMEONE'S property? Whoops?" because we were in this other chunk of parking lot and we were like YEAH BUT THEY'RE NOT AROUND, WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW WON'T HURT 'EM. ahahaha Joe is seriously the best.
He talked to us a lot and hugged some girls for pics (he was doing the hug thing where you like hug tight and lift them off the ground, he did it to this one girl and then she was like "whoa will you do that in a pic with me?" and then everyone wanted it, haha) and signed some T-shirts and I was like "dude what I wanna know is like, who's on which bus? lol? Like who's sharing a bus and then who's on the other bus." And he was like "...That's such a complicated question..." and Kristen (or Avery? haha don't remember) was like "you just wanna know where Corey is!" and I was like "shut up!!" and Joe was like "Oh, Corey? Corey's on my bus."
AND THEN JOE SAID ALL THIS REALLY NICE SHIT ABOUT COREY LAKsjhalskdghlskjdghlk he was like "I'm glad to have him on my bus, he and I are like..." and he was trying to come up with some way to describe their relationship and he COULDN'T and he was also in the middle of trying to be in a picture with a girl and so he was finally just like "We think alike" really rushed and then he had to make a photograph-face and stop talking ahahaha. And then he was talking about all the stuff Corey's done for the tour and he was seriously just like "Corey's a genius." AND I WAS LKGHLAIUHSDHYGTE. And I was like "do you think he'll come out and see us?" and Joe was all "Oh Corey? uh probably not" And I was like D: D: D: D: FOREVER.
But then after a few minutes Dylan and GWatsky drifted back out, and Dylan also had a mustache, and everyone else was still hovering around Joe (I think this is actually when Avery and Kristen were getting pics with him lol) but I edged over to Dylan and leaned against the barrier gate to hiss and him and I was like "Dylan! Psssst Dylan!!" and he kind of ambled over to me and I was like "Do you think Corey would come out for a picture with me please?" and he was like "With Lubowich?" and I was like "yeeaahhh thanks :D" and Dylan went back on the bus and was hollering at some people while we stuck around with Joe some more. And then a bunch of people spilled off the bus, Joey and Brian (also with mustaches) and GWatsky (he'd lost Dylan when Dylan got back on the bus but then found him again) and Dylan again and then through the window I could see Corey!! And I was like YES, YES, AND HE HAS A MUSTACHE TOO. He was putting on a hoodie and then he got off the bus and walked over to us and I waved like an idiot and was like "hi!!!"
So we got to talk to him for a minute and we talked about the mustaches and I was like "Whose idea was this?" and he was like "I actually don't know. Mine keeps like, doing weird things when I try to smile but it's actually pretty great. No idea whose idea it was...but it was a good one." and we chatted a little and I don't even remember much of what I said because Corey but then I was like "Do you think I could get a picture with you?" and I was prepared to just like, lean against the barrier gate, with me on the outside and him on the inside where the buses were, and then he leaned against it too so I was like "okay," but then it turns out HIM LEANING ON IT WAS ACTUALLY HIM BRACING HIMSELF AGAINST IT SO HE COULD JUMP THE FUCK OVER IT. Just leapt STRAIGHT fucking over it like it was nothing and it was aksdjghaksfduhgrlyhotandIDIED and ajgjkgajga. And then I took a picture with him and he made this really quality face with the mustache and it was GREAT. THE END.
We left pretty much once we'd accomplished that goal, shooting super-sad-sorry faces at the girl who'd legitimately decided to skip catching the shuttle she needed back to Alexandria so that she could stay longer and meet StarKids (I felt SO bad for her, I wish we could've given you a ride, tall shoes girl!). We thought we were parked in the same garage as Kristen, but we weren't, so when we got over there we put Kristen in our car so we could drive her around to where hers was, ONLY WE COULDN'T FIND WHERE THAT WAS? So we were driving around and pulling potentially illegal traffic maneuvers and trying to make sense of our borked sense of direction from Kristen's GPS that was getting shitty reception and all this other shit augh clusterfuck lol. So we drove past this gas station on one corner and all the StarKid bros were totally there. And Kristen was like "omg honk at them!!" and Avery was like "NO?" so she was like "roll the window down!" and I did and then we were like "WHOOOOOOO!!" and waving at them and they turned and waved back, a couple of them (Joey and Dylan I think, and omg Joey had taken his shirt off and was just in a wifebeater) and then Joe, who was standing closest to the curb, hooked his fingers into his mouth and fucking wolf-whistled at us. and it was AMAZING. SO GREAT. It was like the more fucking time we wasted attempting to make the night better, the better it actually got. I was so happy that the clusterfuck screamingfest of the show itself wasn't actually the end of our experience.
Unnnnfortunately, one of the traffic maneuvers we sort of pulled attempting to find the other garage WAS actually illegal, and at about 1:20...we got pulled over!!! WHAT THE FUCK. Avery was freaking out but the cop was actually really nice and he was just like "you look lost, are you lost? I stopped you because you're driving without headlights and also you're not allowed to make that turn back there. but seriously where are you trying to go?" and he helped us kind of figure it out and let us go scot-free because it was the middle of the fucking night and we were small confused girls. lol. So we FINALLY found the garage and then put Kristen in her car and drove aaallll the way back to Avery's and we only got kind of semi-lost once! And it was like laaaate o'clock and we had to sneak back in as TOTALLY SILENTLY as possible and then we like, fell to pieces and drank some water and went to sleep.
So that was our adventures to SPACE!!! Here's a couple things I left out/couldn't fit into the narrative:
+ Getting recognized from tumblr and actually being asked to BE IN A PICTURE WITH SOMEONE. lol I'm an internet fame fraud, what. Also ran into at least one other person I genuinely knew from tumblr.
+ Totally not ever finding wordplay, though. Biggest letdown of the night!
+ Gabi texting me during GWatsky's set to tell me the all-dudes' Coolest Girl from Slamaganza was up on tumblr yesss YESSSSSS OMFG THE GREATEST.
+ Deliberately screaming as hard as we could for people like Jaime, Mark and Clark, because everyone else was screaming for Brian (A LOT FOR BRIAN??) and Joey and Walker.
+ the hilarious conversations we had in the car on the way there, about Kristen being made of cotton candy and Joe Walker having fake boobs idek
+ Charlene &co. leaving in a fucking BATMOBILE LIMO
+ 4 people who did Charlene's Kickstarter thing came up and sang during Animal Love and they were all really cute~
+ these three girls in MAMD vagina costumes, one of whom was a super-legit Flopsy but had like...large boobs and so that was kind of hilarious
+ Avery called him "BHoldz" to his face like 3 times and he never reacted to it or anything
+ oh god so much I'm probably forgetting that Avery and Kristen will hopefully add in in the comments
Overall, I kind of have to say that this was my least enjoyable Team StarKid event experience to date, which is kind of lame. But that's not to say it was ACTUALLY BAD, because it was amazing! But there was juuuust enough that dragged it down to make it worse than Starship or Slamaganza, and it was mostly because of the screaming crowds and stuff. It was enough that I felt a little bad that this was Avery and Kristen's FIRST StarKid experience, because I know it can be so much better. I'm really glad that it got better as the night went on, even if we didn't end up getting to bed until like 2:45. Fingers crossed we get to do something even MORE fucking awesome in the future. :3
Pictures that don't suck to come whenever I get them from Kristen! There are a handful on my phone that do suck, and they look like this.
Two attempts to creeper-pic Pomme (that's his silhouette in the first one). IDEK it wasn't even that dark!
GWatsky!
A group number which I think was I Wanna Be? ddk.
pretty sure THIS was Ready To Go. Or else just I Wanna Be again. hm.
Mark! Jim and the Povolos ♥
ETA Kristen pics HERE!
wheeeeeeeee SPACE! :D
Now I gotta finish watching The Sing-Off!!