i had a long weekend of live music. i am paying for it now though. i am still having trouble hearing, especially out of my right ear, and i desperately need sleep. this is going to be a *really* long post because i have a lot to say.
thursday
thursday was the beaner and ken birthday bash with bush and oleander and virgos merlot and others. i wanted to go, but it was thursday and i had to get up and go to work the next day. melissa wanted to go too, but she had a test at 8:00 on friday. oleander was doing an X-lounge performance that day and i won a spot on the list to attend. imagine that, chad won something off the radio. i am getting to be a regular on the X. anyway, of course, i went on my lunch break to see them. there werent that many people there, and nobody knew their songs. the lead singer was getting a little upset at that, but it was cool. i think they were taking themselves way too seriously to be a band. i had listened to their cd a few times before, so i at least knew the songs, even if i didnt know all the words. their lead guitar player is incredible, and their drummer is like my heighth. i talked to him after the show, and it went something like this:
him: yeah, i need to hang out with you.
me: most drummers arent that tall.
him: yeah, just me and tommy lee, i guess.
me: we could compare something else about tommy lee, but we wont go into that.
him: (laughing)yeah, i wish.
it was funny. he was cool. they were all cool. except, i didnt see the lead singer. i wonder if he was really upset and decided not to meet and greet everyone. i didnt stick around for very long because i had to get back to work. so, he could have came out after i left. who knows? the point was that it was a cool show. mark, the sideburned intern, was giving out tickets to the show that night. so, i got a pair and decided that if melissa would go with me, then i would go. she said that she really wanted to, but she decided against it. i told her that i wasnt going unless she went, and i didnt.
friday
my friend steve and owsley were playing the music hall friday night. melissa had to work and vance had a date, so i went by myself. i didnt know what time the doors opened, but i guessed it would be sometime around 8:00. i got there around 7:30 and there were only two people standing in line. i asked them what time the door opened and he told me 9:00. i decided to get something to eat. so i went to johnny rockets. then, i went across the street and watched one of the local street musicians. he was actually pretty good. i listened to a couple of songs, gave him a dollar, and then went back to the music hall. it was about 8:30, and there were still only two people in line. more people started lining up after this, but it was still a very small crowd. the funny thing is that steve and owsley were just walking around outside and no one knew who they were. it was cool. they opened the doors around 8:50 and i went in and sat on of the tables on the floor by myself. they were giving away the two different owsley singles. so i got one of each, even though i already had one of them. i was sitting there watching the braves on the t.v. when shannon, from the train list, came up with her husband and started talking to me. actually, we ended up hanging out for the whole show. i had never seen owsley before and my friend steve only once at X-fest. i wasnt very impressed with their show and i thought the cd was just decent, not great. this show was so much better than that one. they played a lot of new material and i was impressed. owsley played first and blew me away. i love his cd and the live show was just that much better. he is an incredible guitar player, and you cant really tell that from the album. he played a cover of the who song, . my friend steve covered "coming to america" by neil diamond. after the show, i reached on the stage and got setlists for shannon and myself. then we went over and met my friend steve. they didnt have sharpies, so we got them to sign the setlists with regular pens. we both got 3 out of the 5 to sign it; steve, the bass player, and the lead guitar player, who gave me a pick as well. then we left and i got home around 1:30 a.m. which wasnt very cool considering that i had to be in biology at 8:00 a.m. that morning. yuck. i basically slept through that one, except for the run in with stupid lady and her stupid son. then i went home and rested for the rest of the day.
saturday
sometime around 4:30 i grabbed dad's camera and headed out. my first stop: wolf camera to get some film and learn how to load the camera. i stopped by candy's store and said hello to her and terri. then i was on my way to huntsville. it was a nice drive. there were lots of animals, from cows to chickens to goats to dogs and cats. something else that was odd to me was the number of people that were outside. people were out working in the yard, working on their cars, and just sitting on their porches talking with each other among other things. you just dont see that in birmingham, which is probably a good thing. there was no possible way that i could get lost because i didnt have to make any turns once i got onto highway 79. melissa told me that i was going to have to go over a bridge right before i got into huntsville, and i did. she didnt, however, tell me that the bridge was freakishly small and it went straight up in the air. freaked me out, but thats okay. we decided beforehand, that we would meet at chick-fil-a and that was only fitting. i actually got there early so i decided to get something to eat, to kill the time more than anything. the cashier saw that i was wearing my train shirt and said this:
"yeah, definitely"
"they are here tonight, you know."
"thats why i'm here, i'm from birmingham."
"oh really, i wanted to go, but i had to be here."
"oh i'm sorry."
then i ordered chicken soup and a lemonade, which wasnt very good. i sat down and watched some kids run around in the indoor playground thingy while i ate my soup. the chick-fil-a's in birmingham dont have playgrounds. i wonder why that is. i finished the soup and decided to get a piece of cheesecake. yum. i had about two bites of the cheesecake left when melissa walked in. first impression: she's beautiful, but she's looking at me funny.
"nothing," she says, "i'm just tired."
so i threw away my junk and told her about how the bridge had freaked me out. she laughed. this broke the ice and opened the conversation lines. i have to admit that it was a bit weird at first. we rode in her car because she didnt want to leave it at chick-fil-a. so, i got her tapes and beanie cow and my camera out of the truck and got in her car. she has a little car, and was making fun of how uncomfortable i looked in it. from this point on, i didnt feel weird at all. it didnt take that long to get to the venue from chick-fil-a, maybe 15 minutes. so we pulled up to the parking lot closest to the gate and the attendant said that they were full. well, melissa didnt believe him, so we drove around and looked for a spot. guess what. we found one. she had to battle-ready park, but she did a marvelous job doing it. so we got an awesome parking spot for free, which melissa felt bad about until i convinced her that it was the attendants fault for giving out erroneous information. we had to walk across a railroad bridge to get to the gate, and that kind of scared melissa a little. we got to the gate, and i bought a ticket, $15, but train is worth every penny. then, melissa bought a ticket.
"i did, but i gave it away to my friend."
"why?"
"becuase it was a weekend pass and tonight is the only night that i am getting to go. plus, her birthday is coming up soon."
we went inside and started walking around for a while and melissa said, "you know, i dont really know where i am going." we spent the next few minutes walking back the way we had came from, trying to find a map. i stopped and asked people in three different booths if they knew where to get a map. they didnt. they were nice about it, but they just didnt know. we found a big board that had a map on it. so then we knew the general area of the stage. back in the direction where we were going in the first place. as we were walking, we walked by a lot of extension cords plugged into an outlet and melissa said, "i wonder what would happen if i unplugged all of these." that was really funny. so we are walking where we think the stage should be and we cant find it. we walked around the corner and finally found the stage, behind about 30,000 people. fun. bad company was setting up when we got there. i didnt really care to see them and neither did melissa. we just tried to get as close to the stage as we possibly could for train. we fought our way up fairly close, about 30 feet from the stage, and got stuck. i kept looking for a way to get closer, but i couldnt find one. let me just say now that of all the concerts that i have ever been to, *this* crowd was the worst. these people were moshing and crowd surfing without any music even playing. i also saw more nudity at this show than i have seen at any other show in my life. it started with one girl on my right during bad company. she got up on some guys shoulders and started flashing the band, which they really appreciated. then, boobs started popping up all over the place. all kinds of boobs; big ones, small ones, some that really didnt need to be shown in public. it was weird to say the least. as melissa said in her review, all the girls that sat on someones shoulders were subject to cat calls and all the girls that crowd surfed got groped. the really funny thing was that the guys beside me and myself started taking the crowd surfers shoes off and throwing them as far away as we possibly could. thats what they get for being idiots. i know, i know, it was mean, but dang if it wasnt funny. i almost came to blows with this blond kid, but i just let it go after an evil look. let me tell you, its very hard to change film in the dark surrounded by 30,000 people pushing and shoving you and a handful of them crowdsurfing. i am actually surprised that i didnt totally ruin dads camera. during train, melissa and i pushed our way up to the front. we ended up about 5 five from the rail. i hate the way they do festival shows so that you arent close to the stage. it separates the band from the crowd and that is what music is supposed to be about is connecting the artist with the fans. anyway, so i took about 45 pictures of the guys. about 35 of them turned out okay. during train, one of melissa's friends, amy i think, came up and hung out with us for a while. i kept hitting her in the head with the lens of my camera. felt bad about that one, but she said it was okay. the guys put on a good show. it wasnt the best i have ever seen, but it was good. they didnt play hot nancy or days, the two songs that i was really looking forward to seeing live again. they did play the highway/lofi which i had never seen live before. they also played blind, which made melissa happy because it is one of her favorites and she had never heard it live before. they came back for an encore and played want you to want me, which i was screaming for. everyone was looking at me funny for screaming that until they started playing it and then i got a lot of smiles. like i said, it was a really good show, and a really bad crowd. after the show, melissa's friend left and we started walking out. i had my vip pass with me, but i didnt even try to use it to get backstage or anything for a couple of reasons. number one i was tired and i still had about two hours before i would be home in bed. and number two because there was no way that i was leaving melissa behind just so i could talk to them. so we left. we walked out and talked about how it was a good show and how i hope my pictures turned out and everything. well, we didnt actually talk, we kinda screamed it at each other as best as we could because both of our voices and hearing were shot. i really need to start taking ear plugs to shows. anyway, she drove me back to chick-fil-a and we talked the whole way. she asked me if i was going to go back the same way that i came and i told her yes. she said it is not a good way to go at night and i could see that because there arent a lot of streetlights along the way. plus, she said, i would have to go over that bridge again and i definitely didnt want to do that at night. so she decided that she would lead me to I-65 and i could go back that way. we were both dying of thirst so we decided to stop at a gas station along the way. it was a lot longer than i thought it was going to be to get back to I-65, but that was okay. so we stopped and she turned around like she was about to leave.
"i found one in here."
"well, can i get a picture of you. i am not leaving without a picture of you."
"sure, i dont care."
"i thought you were going to get something to drink."
this took me by surprise because i knew that she had told me earlier that she didnt like having pictures taken and she thought that she wasnt the most photogenic person in the world. she didnt seem to mind one bit that i wanted a picture of her. i couldnt get the flash to work so i made her go stand under the light pole. she was a little hesitant at first about it, but i begged. the picture turned out great, especially to have been taken at 1:00 in the morning at some random gas station in huntsville. actually, as i am typing this i am looking at it and it is making me miss her. i dont know what it is about her. i just really like her a lot. so we talked for a little while in the gas station parking lot and during the conversation we hugged twice. i told her what a great time i had and asked her if she had a good time and she said yes. i told her that i had so much fun that we would have to do it again and she nodded, which was very cool. then she left and i went in and got a huge 32oz. mtn. dew after i watched her drive off. i went to the payphone and called home to tell them i was on my way. vance answered and said that he was going to try to stay awake until i got there. i thought that was sweet. so i took my mtn. dew and left. it kept me awake until about warrior where i was getting very sleepy. so i stopped at the old wayne's package store. it was weird that i was coming back from a date and i stopped at the same old convenience store that i had stopped at so many times on my way home from dates with jamie. anyway, i used the facilities and bought a surge and a king size kit kat and was on my way again. this kept me awake the rest of the way. actually, by the time that i got home i was so wired that i didnt want to go to sleep, but i made myself. vance wasnt awake, but daddy was. he asked me how it went and i told him really good and then i went to bed around 2:30. the next morning i asked vance how long he had actually been able to stay awake. he said about 10 minutes after you called. poor guy, he tried.
thus ending my weekend long music excursion. all in all it was a great weekend in more ways than one. i was musically inspired in a lot of ways, plus i think i started a relationship with melissa this weekend. we will see...
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