Bright Eyes Weekend
This was the double Bright Eyes weekend.
On Friday we drove to Santa Barbara for the first concert. There was immediately a spot of bad luck when Aurora forgot her glasses. We were able to fashion a new square pair, though. The weather was gorgeous! We got parking less than a block away and could see the front of the venue from the car. We drank whiskey in the car before because it's cheaper that way, but we felt unabashed because we are both 21! (although drinking in a car may still be illegal...) The Arlington theater was beautiful, too. The inside was like if Disney Land were in charge of making a small spanish town-type area. SInce it was cinco de mayo, conor kept calling it "our mexican villa." There was also a fake sky inside that was really cool. We were walking around taking pictures and such and we tried to go into the bar area and realized I had forgotten my ID (more bad luck). While we were walking around we got a lot of comments on our glasses; one kid even said he "admired" them. People smiled and were very friendly about it. A girl took a picture and said she was going to put it on her website. When Bright Eyes came on, we were shocked at the amount of production (do i call it that?) that was involved! There was a huge band all dressed in white (Conor in a white suit) and flowers all over the place in little white flower boxes. He had a huge projection of random stuff that wasn't just on the back wall, but on top of the entire band. It was ridiculous! We were sad because the band member who had smiled at our glasses at the El Rey wasn't there. The show was a whole bunch of Cassadega, with some bright spots like Symmetry and False Advertising, but the cover in the encore was "Mz. Ohio" which no one had ever heard of, even though Conor insisted it was a hit in his mexican villa and he thought it was one in ours too. We found out the name of this song because we both got set lists in santa barbara! Afterwards we snuck around inside the theater trying to get them signed, the process of which included me talking to the sound guy about tape and aurora pretending to have lost an earing back inside the theater. Failures. So we went outside and starting taking pictures down the small street in front of the theater because it was really pretty. We eventually worked our way around back where they were loading out and there were like 30 or so kids waiting around. We waited too and were rewarded with a signature from Mike Mogis! They eventually pushed us back as the tour buses loaded up and drove away and we all knew conor was gone. It was 1:30 so we decided to drive home instead of trying to make last call at a bar.
We were about 10 minutes away from UCLA on the 405 when suddenly the tour buses appeared in front of us! We decided to follow them. We were way too obvious about it, Aurora didn't even signal when following them into different lanes. It got scary for a little while because aurora's low fuel light went on, but we persisted! It all worked out and we discovered they were staying downtown at the standard!
On Sunday we were going to meet up at three so that we could get aurora's free parking from the MOCA, but i missed a bus stop and we had both slept in (meaning no work for our finals and midterms this week!) so we didnt leave until about 5. We got there and walked about five blocks to the standard. Once we got there, we were going to camp out in lobby with books, but realized we should have drinks too or something. So we thought we should go up the bar (where we might see conor) and get some. There was a private party in there, though, and we were sure it was him and his menagerie of onstage friends. We decided to get a drink from the little restaurant downstairs and wait in the lobby for him to exit. When we sat down to get drinks, however, aurora spotted him in a booth with three other people! RIGHT THERE (like 25 feet away). So we waited patiently and drank our TEN DOLLAR drinks (aurora's was just a newcastle and mine was a vodka cranberry). Eventually he got up! and aurora called his attention and we took a picture with him! Aurora asked him how he was doing and he said "not so good, talking business" and i said "oh you should go to the library!" and he said "yeah good idea!" (and not in a fake way at all) and we were like "no, it's a bar" and he was just like "oh!" and then we had a picture and he said it was lovely to meet us and went off to use the restroom! we stayed and finished our drinks and then left and were really excited and realized we should have bought him a drink (even though at this point it was only about 6pm) so we went back. We asked the bartender to send over a whiskey sour! we wrote on the napkin "break a leg! :)" and we left the bar place before he got it, but we peeked in the window and saw him smile when he got it!
Then we went to the disney concert hall where people looked at our glasses judgementally, but didnt smile or comment. Conor sounded terrible, we got kicked out of some seats when we tried to travel to better ones that were empty, some kids next to us got in a fight because the girls stood up and the people behind them couldnt see, aurora fell asleep because she hadnt eaten anything all day, aurora tripped and fell flat on her face on the way out, she realized she had lost the sweater dress that was in her purse somewhere around downtown and we had to hurry home to make sure there was time to read and study and for me to catch the bus home, but all in all it was still a fantastic and exciting weekend!!!
(and the standard found her dress)
On Friday we drove to Santa Barbara for the first concert. There was immediately a spot of bad luck when Aurora forgot her glasses. We were able to fashion a new square pair, though. The weather was gorgeous! We got parking less than a block away and could see the front of the venue from the car. We drank whiskey in the car before because it's cheaper that way, but we felt unabashed because we are both 21! (although drinking in a car may still be illegal...) The Arlington theater was beautiful, too. The inside was like if Disney Land were in charge of making a small spanish town-type area. SInce it was cinco de mayo, conor kept calling it "our mexican villa." There was also a fake sky inside that was really cool. We were walking around taking pictures and such and we tried to go into the bar area and realized I had forgotten my ID (more bad luck). While we were walking around we got a lot of comments on our glasses; one kid even said he "admired" them. People smiled and were very friendly about it. A girl took a picture and said she was going to put it on her website. When Bright Eyes came on, we were shocked at the amount of production (do i call it that?) that was involved! There was a huge band all dressed in white (Conor in a white suit) and flowers all over the place in little white flower boxes. He had a huge projection of random stuff that wasn't just on the back wall, but on top of the entire band. It was ridiculous! We were sad because the band member who had smiled at our glasses at the El Rey wasn't there. The show was a whole bunch of Cassadega, with some bright spots like Symmetry and False Advertising, but the cover in the encore was "Mz. Ohio" which no one had ever heard of, even though Conor insisted it was a hit in his mexican villa and he thought it was one in ours too. We found out the name of this song because we both got set lists in santa barbara! Afterwards we snuck around inside the theater trying to get them signed, the process of which included me talking to the sound guy about tape and aurora pretending to have lost an earing back inside the theater. Failures. So we went outside and starting taking pictures down the small street in front of the theater because it was really pretty. We eventually worked our way around back where they were loading out and there were like 30 or so kids waiting around. We waited too and were rewarded with a signature from Mike Mogis! They eventually pushed us back as the tour buses loaded up and drove away and we all knew conor was gone. It was 1:30 so we decided to drive home instead of trying to make last call at a bar.
We were about 10 minutes away from UCLA on the 405 when suddenly the tour buses appeared in front of us! We decided to follow them. We were way too obvious about it, Aurora didn't even signal when following them into different lanes. It got scary for a little while because aurora's low fuel light went on, but we persisted! It all worked out and we discovered they were staying downtown at the standard!
On Sunday we were going to meet up at three so that we could get aurora's free parking from the MOCA, but i missed a bus stop and we had both slept in (meaning no work for our finals and midterms this week!) so we didnt leave until about 5. We got there and walked about five blocks to the standard. Once we got there, we were going to camp out in lobby with books, but realized we should have drinks too or something. So we thought we should go up the bar (where we might see conor) and get some. There was a private party in there, though, and we were sure it was him and his menagerie of onstage friends. We decided to get a drink from the little restaurant downstairs and wait in the lobby for him to exit. When we sat down to get drinks, however, aurora spotted him in a booth with three other people! RIGHT THERE (like 25 feet away). So we waited patiently and drank our TEN DOLLAR drinks (aurora's was just a newcastle and mine was a vodka cranberry). Eventually he got up! and aurora called his attention and we took a picture with him! Aurora asked him how he was doing and he said "not so good, talking business" and i said "oh you should go to the library!" and he said "yeah good idea!" (and not in a fake way at all) and we were like "no, it's a bar" and he was just like "oh!" and then we had a picture and he said it was lovely to meet us and went off to use the restroom! we stayed and finished our drinks and then left and were really excited and realized we should have bought him a drink (even though at this point it was only about 6pm) so we went back. We asked the bartender to send over a whiskey sour! we wrote on the napkin "break a leg! :)" and we left the bar place before he got it, but we peeked in the window and saw him smile when he got it!
Then we went to the disney concert hall where people looked at our glasses judgementally, but didnt smile or comment. Conor sounded terrible, we got kicked out of some seats when we tried to travel to better ones that were empty, some kids next to us got in a fight because the girls stood up and the people behind them couldnt see, aurora fell asleep because she hadnt eaten anything all day, aurora tripped and fell flat on her face on the way out, she realized she had lost the sweater dress that was in her purse somewhere around downtown and we had to hurry home to make sure there was time to read and study and for me to catch the bus home, but all in all it was still a fantastic and exciting weekend!!!
(and the standard found her dress)