This is my concert review of the show, how everything worked out, some things that happened, all in all, it was truly really fucking amazing.
We arrived at Gabe's Oasis in IA City, IA an hour and half before the show was scheduled to start, being 7:30. We arrived at about 6 or so. We decided that we were going to go in to check the place out before we went walking around the town. We ended up staying in there the whole time though, and the first people we ran into were Matt and Sarah, which we didn't know, but we started talking to them when we got there. They were really nice and cool, we talked about a lot of different punk bands, punk shows, where we were all from and stuff, and then we started talking about AFI. They excitedly told us that they came about 2 and a half hours early for the show, and around back, in the alley, they said that they spotted Davey back there but they decided to not say anything to him because it looked like he was trying to hide. They also noted that he had no make up on or anything and his hair wasn't done, unlike we usually see Davey. We ended up hanging out with Matt and Sarah for the rest of the time, they were really cool people to talk to, and were huge fans of AFI, it was really awesome.
So we were all pretty much in our own circle and since we were all new to each other, we shook hands and introduced ourselves and continued with our talking of all the punk stuff and how excited we were for the show. (Let me remind you at this time, that when we were talking, it was right at the entrance) We were all talking and laughing and all of the sudden I shut up. Wanna know why? Because Adam Carson just so happened to be walking between us, so I decided that I'd make the move to talk to him, since I was unsure if everyone else knew who he was.
"Hey Adam… *offers her hand* it's really nice to meet you, how are ya?" "Hey! I'm pretty good, cool meeting you too."
That was the breaker, and then Matt, Sarah, Cori, and Jamie all proceeded to introduce themselves, and then we all began to talk. I'm not exactly sure what we all started talking about first, but I think the first thing I asked, was if he would sign my Answer That and Stay Fashionable CD cover, and if I could get my picture taken with him. He seemed really happy to do it, and when he put his arm around me to take the picture, he asked what my name was, and I replied with Abby. "Abby?" he says, "yep", "ah alright **he offers his hand again** It's really a pleasure to meet you Abby."
We ended up talking to Adam for the maximum of about 20-25 minutes. He was really laid back and comfortable with signing our things, taking pictures with us, and didn't mind all the questions that we seemed to have for him. It was really nice because all the other people around us, which really weren't that many, didn't know who we were talking to, and it was just like we were talking to a friend or something. But, maybe some of them noticed that we were hanging onto his every word and heard us say something in a topic we brought up, and his elaborations helped portray the fact that he was in AFI.
But as for the time we had to talk to Adam ourselves, we talked about a lot of stuff. He's 25 years old, haha. I asked him how the tour was with the offspring and he said it was really awesome, and that he enjoyed playing with them. He also noted, "It was pretty weird though because we're so used to playing really small places, or mediumly sized bars, and then all of the sudden we're going over to Europe with a bigger and more well known band, and we're playing these really big arenas. Kinda gives you a taste of what they've been doing I suppose."
I asked him if he usually remembers fans that he's met at previous shows and he replied as, "Well Abby, it's kinda weird actually because it'll go both ways. Most of the time, you'll have people that just-here, turn around for a sec Abby-" So I turned around, and then he tapped me on my shoulder about five times and got really close to my face and goes "hey Adam! Hey Adam! Do you remember me?? Huh, do you remember me?" and then he said "So you know, that's the hard part of things because they're just so persistent with wanting to know that they never give you a chance and you don't want them to stomp off all pissy or anything thinking 'oh and I thought AFI was my favorite band, and that they actually cared enough to remember my name-to the hell with them!' You just have to think about it for a second, and the ones who actually do give you a chance to think about it, they'll tell you things like where it was that you've seen them and things that you may have told us before, or funny things to just bring it back up to memory, and most of the time, yeah then we'll remember."
I told him that I really appreciated what they've done with AFI and that all of it was really awesome. I told him that I really liked the older stuff a lot and that it had always meant a lot to me, but that for some reason when I bought the Art of Drowning, it was like you guys had hit perfection all of the sudden. And he said, "Thank you, really thanks a lot, and I agree with you on that, the older stuff wasn't as good." I went, "NO NO NO! That's not what I mean! I just meant that like before it was really really awesome and everything, but there's just something about the Art of Drowning that really reaches inside of me, makes me feel amazing, and it's just really amazing." He looked very surprised and happy about it and said, "Wow, you know Abby, that really does mean a lot. I really appreciate that."
Matt had followed me with the topic of the art of drowning, and he commented on the days of the phoenix and how people were already saying that AFI were a bunch of sell outs just because that video was being played more and more on MTV-X and a few other music stations, and because it was being played on the radio. (Not around us really, but we knew how it was being played out in CA) He showed feelings for that by rolling his eyes, and said, "You know, that's complete bullshit, it really is. I don't see what the big deal is if you get played on the radio a few times. C'mon, there's a big difference standing in the way, which is…well think about this guys- I can see maybe someone getting pissy with us if we were being played 24-7 on the radio, and every other song was the days of the phoenix, but it's NOT, and it's seldomly played. If we were selling out, we wouldn't even be about being a band anymore, it would revolve around everything else besides keeping it real with the band, we'd want a lot of money, we'd want to be plastered all over magazines and we're not. I guess I just don't see what the big deal is." And I said "Yeah, the Offspring gets a lot of shit for that too." And he said, "Yeah but you see... the Offspring...Dexter and the guys, the live in these huge huge houses, and we live in single bedroom houses and stuff, just like the next guy down the road." That comment made me think, so I was like, "well, then are you trying to say they sold out?" and he goes "oh god no, not in the least bit, but I just mean it's a lot different, you know? I guess that's because of like bigger bands and we're a smaller band."
When we were on our way to the show, Jamie was saying that she had to do a report in English and she was doing hers on AFI, so she was supposed to interview the band some if possible. So she was like "um hey can I ask you some stuff, 'cause I'm supposed to interview you" and he goes "oh gosh, I might need a chair for this…haha" and he got the only chair that was there, and it was the one Sarah had been sitting in, and she goes "oh just because your Adam, you think you can steal my chair?!" and he started laughing and goes "fine then, have it back, take the chair!" but they were just joking. And then all of the sudden he brings up this topic that, well, I was completely oblivious about. He was telling Jamie that it'd really be a lot better if she had brought a tape recorder for the interview, and Sarah goes "oh well, I've got a camcorder out in the car if that means anything" and Adam goes "nah nah we can't do that, our record label won't let us" and I was like "what? Nitro won't let anyone videotape you guys?" and he goes "nope, it's a violation of contract and stuff now, since they just added it to our contract, and anyway, I guess it's because people have video taped our shows and video taped us backstage in some places and they'll post them on the internet all over, or they'll sell the tapes to other people"
I never would've thought Dexter would do that. Maybe you knew about it already, but I was oblivious of it and was pretty surprised about it.
He appeared to be very comfortable with us, and that I enjoyed a lot. We all really respected him and gave him his space and such and didn't ask anything too overwhelming, though at one point, Jamie said that since she was doing her English report on AFI that she would have to ask some questions, and she goes, "What's your phone number?" and he goes "Hahaha, I don't think so, what's next? Haha"
After talking to him for so long, people started to realize that it just wasn't a friend that we were talking to anymore. Now, we all asked a lot more things and got lengthy replies which made the whole time fly by, but I can't remember it all right now. I'll add more later if anything else comes to mind.
By this time this old guy, probably in his mid 40's or so, and his wife were in there, and a couple of other people that they had obviously known, also within the same age. All of the sudden before we knew it, we were just completely pushed out of the way by these people and they're all, "HI HI OH MY GOD IT'S REALLY GREAT TO MEET YOU MAN, IT'S REALLY COOL, SO ANYWAY MY DAUGHTER, I SWEAR HAS TO BE YOUR BIGGEST FAN EVER AND ANYWAY SHE CAN'T BE HERE TONIGHT BECAUSE SHE'S IN THE HOSPITAL AND JUST HAD HER BABY, SO WE WANTED THE WHOLE BAND TO SIGN THIS PICTURE OF HER AND HER BABY ***whips out gigantic picture of lady and baby and a black sails vinyl and practically throws it at Adam***" This really made me angry because I think if it meant that much to them, that they wouldn't have been so forceful because also at the same time, they were cornering him against the wall.
So for a few seconds we just chilled out and stood away from that mob for a while, and all of the sudden cori is punching my left arm, and I was like "what?!" and she pointed over to someone with their back turned to me, with 2 full arms of tattoos, wearing black plants and a black shirt, with unbrushed hair. He looked like he was trying to avoid people, and before that I had already known that it was Davey. I was really thrilled about this too, because I didn't even think that I would see or meet the rest of the band, and as a matter of a fact, it didn't matter. I didn't care. I was so satisfied with Adam, how nice he was, and laid back, that I didn't care if I met the rest of the band or not. It was already more than I could ask for.
So we all moved over to Davey while no one else noticed who he was, and he also signed my Answer that and Stay Fashionable CD cover. He was really nice about it and he seen that I had a camera and asked if I also wanted a picture too, and that was my next approach anyway, haha. He was extremely nice about it, and I told him how much I really liked AFI, and in an appreciating tone, he was happy about it, and that made me feel really good. He was drinking what looked like orange juice in a cup, and he sat it down for a sec on the floor, as he was signing that for me, and I asked him how his orange juice was, haha. And he giggled and said "Actually, that's not orange juice, but it's really good, thanks." A lot of people were starting to come around him and be pushy about it, so I started feeling really bad about it. So since I already told him how much I appreciated the band and how much it meant to me, got my picture and his signature, I just wanted to tell him that I really respected him and the rest of the band for being straight edge, because it made me feel like I wasn't so alone with the whole thing. And anyway he goes, "YOU guys aren't straight edge, I'M straight edge" so I was kinda like..okay, what the hell? It made me feel kinda bad for ever even saying anything….Otherwise he was really nice. Jamie gave him her necklace that she's never taken off that says "Jamisgrat" on it, and he was like "oh wow, thank you, thanks very much" and he was happy about it. He has a soft voice. I'm not sure if Jamie went ahead on and talked to him more, but people were being pushy, and I didn't want to seem like an annoying fan trying to reach Davey bombarding him with lots of stuff, when I could already tell that he thought of it as a huge accident to even make an appearance, and I knew it was unintentional because the second I seen his back towards us, someone had already spotted him, so you could tell that he didn't want to be there.
During the 3rd band that played, I got really hurt. People pushed me out of the way, and then they got 3 security guards finally, and one was right in front of me. So I was thinking, "fuck now I cant get good pics of AFI" but then I was also thinking "yay, I'm not gonna die!" So when I fell, I fell on him and he'd just put me right back up. But, since this place is so tiny and the ceiling isn't too high either, there are these little mini rafters up there. And some jackass decides he's going to climb on the ceiling, and another jackass decides he's going to crowd surf right on top of my head. Fucker landed right on my head and my neck snapped in about 10 different places, and some guy had halfway pulled me up, my hair was being pulled out, I was halfway standing, and then the security guard had to get that guy down from the ceiling, so he jumps right on top of me! Christ, I was being scared for my damn life, everyone was SO pushy and tightly packed together just because everyone was trying to get up front. And the more people trying to get up front, meant more people pushing us up and we were falling and shit.
All I could think was, this is fucking hell and I can't even imagine what it's going to be like when AFI comes on. They then change the sets, and AFI music starts playing, and what do you know!? I'm already getting beat up, and people are literally on top of my back trying to get over me just to get closer, and people falling on the stage. Cori just kept looking back at me really really worried that I was going to get killed screaming "Are you okay?!?!" She didn't make it either, and before I knew it, she was on the corner of the stage to the right because she couldn't handle it. Before I knew it, one of the crew members told me there were too many assholes there and he wanted me to go by him, so I did. That's where sarah was the whole time too because she was really small. Her and Cori both are, and if I was getting killed at my size, I couldn't believe what it'd be like for them to be where I was at. The crew member let me stand right behind him, and he said he knew I'd still fall, but at least it'd be on the stage and I wouldn't get trampled, and he said that if I fell on him that it was fine. So at that point, I was standing right in front of Jade, close enough at all times at any rate to touch Jade if I really felt like it. J At all times Matt had his arm attached to mine so I wouldn't fall, and there was another guy behind me making sure that I wouldn't fall back either. I was really happy that I had those two there for me, but then for the right side of me, I had to have my knee on the stairs that runs off to the stage or whatever and that hurt pretty bad because people were still pushing us over and I had to make it so that Matt wouldn't fall on top of me.
As for how they were playing, my god it was fucking amazing!!! The pain had a lot to do with whether you'd enjoy the show or not but I had a pretty damn good view the whole time. Davey would move around when he was singing , he came over and hold my hand while he was singing in the days of the phoenix, and during a single second, he ran over to me and matt's side of the stage and let us sing some of the chorus, it was so fucking awesome!!!!!!!! Jade was literally right in front of me, and he would get closer to me sometimes too, and I touched his arm once. In between songs, he had turned around and I went "Jade! Jade!" and he turned around, smiled, and goes "hi" and waved. Him and Hunter would also trade places often which I thought was really awesome because being on the right side of the stage, I didn't think I'd ever get any good shots of hunter or anything. Hunter would also periodically move up, and I touched his arm and it was all sweaty! It was really gross, but I was like whoa, this is HUNTER'S sweat!!! And got all psyched about it, hahah. They played cruise control, days of the phoenix, they started out with strength through wounding, ended their set with total immortal, came back for their encore playing God Called in Sick Today, which was very fucking beautiful. They also played Wester, I wanna Mohawk, A single second, tons of stuff. They played something from each of their albums and that was really fucking cool, and it just felt really cool to be able to scream to every single song. I think it was during a single second, davey was singing, and he did this weird little move with his microphone and he bent back his nail, stopped for a sec, laughed and said "fuck that hurt.." it was funny. During God called in sick today, he got really into it, even got on his knees and did, what looked like relaxing arm movements, and made a beauty of it. It was really really awesome. When hunter plays for a while, he'll sometimes make this face that looks funny haha. And he seen that I was gonna take a picture of him when he was playing, so he actually stayed in the same position for a few seconds until I took it. Jade did the same thing. Davey came over a numerous amount of times and he had these mesh-like things around his wrists that looked cool and I got to touch those too. He looked at me when he sang a lot, and I wondered if it was because he remembered meeting me from before the show, but at any rate it was cool. At the same time I was looking back at Adam seeing him get down on the drums, he's really fucking amazing at that! He just kept playing and playing and it was really awesome, and in between songs, me, matt, and sarah started screaming "Adam! Adam! Adam!" until he looked and seen us, he started laughing and waved at us, then began to play Wester.
The show was fucking amazing, it was really energetic. I also wanted to say that Davey noticed that people were getting hurt, so after the next song that they had played he was like, "Hey you guys, I really appreciate you all coming out tonight! You guys fucking rock, but there are lots of people getting hurt up here, can everyone just take a few steps back please? " and that was really cool of him.
After that, I was a complete mess. My hair had been torn out, puffed out, anything you could think of and I looked like a hobo, haha. I just wanted to get some t shirts and a hoodie or whatever and then head on out of there. So I finally got my shit, and I turned around to go on out and what do you know? There's hunter! Haha, he said hi to me, I shook his hand, and we talked a little but not really much. I told him that was an awesome show and what not, he was a really nice guy, didn't mind signing my stuff either. He signed Black Sails in the sunset for me. By the end of the show I didn't have anymore film left. I gave him one of my red bracelets and he was like "whoa this is cool! It's got sparkles in it too!" haha. Then me and cori went to go look for Jamie and who's she sitting by? Jade! He was just sitting there and they were talking. He had a marker in his hand like they were ready to sign stuff and everything, and he signed my black sails for me also, and asked what my name was. He also was really nice, and I have him this blue sparkley bracelet that my friend Melinda from NY, who also is a huge AFI fan, had given me from before. (She is the owner of this website you're reading this on) He was like, "aw, hey thanks Abby, this is really cool. How'd you like the show? I seen you getting into it, hehe" and I was like "oh dear, you guys were fucking amazing, really! That was so awesome, thanks so much for signing this too, I really appreciate it." And he was like "yeah its not a problem at all, do you have to go now or something?" and I was like "Yeah, it's not everyday that you have to walk away from Jade Puget just because you have to go home, but I do… haha" and he laughed, and shook my hand again and said it was nice meeting me, which I gladfully returned.
I ate a tootsie roll on the way home and drank a lot of water. My clothes were soaked in my sweat and everyone else's, eek! It was a great fucking show…
set list: o fortuna (the music they came out to, it's from the omen soundtrack), strength through wounding, sacrifice theory, prayer position, ever and a day, wester, malleus maleficarum, a single second, cruise control, i wanna get a mohawk, third season, the lost souls, days of the phoenix, totalimmortal,
encore: god called in sick today
-Review by Abby
