Anyhoo. finally there are signs of a concert starting, so we all rise and ah, there they are, its fastball. now i rather like fastball. i do, honest. they have their weak moments, but it's all good in da hood. Tony, Miles and Joey have a lovely little stage presence but you could sense the anticipation of the audience. They wanted to mosh, dammit. I got mad, dammit. you just dont mosh to fastball, dammit. Laura's claustrophobic and freaks out, dammit. We have to move, dammit. its all just, dammit. As far as a set list goes, I know they played: Are you ready for the fallout?, Warm Fuzzy Feeling, Fire Escape, Out of My Head, Damaged Goods, Slow Drag, Sooner or Later, Better Than It Was, Which Way To The Top?, some covers by some band and they closed with The Way [surprise.].

Marcy Playground is up next and i personally really really dig Marcy Playground. Sex and Candy sucks, the rest of the album kicks major arse lads. John Wozniack is so awesome. Now, people started getting more and more into this moshy thing, so they take it up another level. We've now progressed to crowd surfing. Grr. Laura freaks out again, we move, again. I can see, somewhat. Dylan is doing his little dance that he does, all you Marcy kids will know what i mean. The dolls tied to Dan's drum set were interesting, i must say. Set list goes something like this:
Poppies, Saint Joe, Sherry Fraiser, Gone Crazy, Opium [dedicated to Johnny's mommy], Pigeon Farm [woo-hoo!!!], Secret Squirrel, Ballad of Aslan, Dog and his Master, the Shadow of Seattle, and Sex and Candy [yea.]. and all the stupid farcs who were there just to be there were too interested in the crowd surfers to even clap. so i felt really bad for the poor Marcy men.

I knew that the audience would go nutso when everclear came on so I moved Laura and i all the way to the back free from so-called "danger". So we sat in the sand, drank our 3 dollar water, and enjoyed the audio [the visual alternative being small white men in black suits]. As far a musica goes, everclear played: Santa Monica, Heroin Girl, So Much For The Afterglow, Father of Mine, I Will Buy You A New Life, Everything To Everyone, Amphetamine, Sunflowers, Like A California King, Local God, You Make Me Feel Like A Whore, Electra Made Me Blind, Strawberry, Nehalem, Heartspark Dollarsign, and Chemical Smile. There's more than that, i know it, but i cannot recall them since I did not write them down or tape the show. BUT, anyhoo, about this time i'm starting to get panicky. I had received a message from an online buddy to talk to Art about Silver Jet [they're friends] 'cos SJ was having some 'industry probs'. And, no one felt like telling me what these probs were and i needed to know DAMMIT! SJ needed help DAMMIT! but alas, what is that i spot, why its a feller with a backstage pass attached to that lovely shirt of his! My hero! So i explain my situation to him in a very pleading, desperate manner and he says he will talk to their manager. Ok, not quite what I wanted, but i'm not complaining. so after the show we make our way to the buses and our backstage pass friend says the manager said "no." well, screw him. i'm bound and determined to find out what the heck is going on! so we wait and we wait and we wait some more and suddenly there they are! Marcy men!

I trapped John first, made him sign the CD cover and blinded him with the flash. I told him the show was awesome and apologized about all the stupid non-clapping people and he said it was all right. I explained to him how i got the camera into the venue, which resulted in him perking up and exclaiming, "COOL!". I told him how i thought it was so cool that they let fans tape and take pics at their shows [when they headline anyway]. We took a pic and i apologized for the wicked bright flash to which he replied "Oh, it's no problem, don't worry about it" while rubbing his eyes with both hands! It was so cute! We chatted about geetars and he displayed his bandaged, bleeding fingers. Which caused the motherly instinct to me to take over and exclaim "OH MY!!" and grab his fingers and inspect them. I finally decided to free him from my rule and share him with some other chick.

Next I trapped Dylan who was extremely hyper and funny. I kept asking about the songs they do live [Pigeon Farm, Battle Of Aslan, Needle and the Damage Done, etc. etc.] and if they were going to be on the next album and when they were looking at working on the next album. We did the pic/sig thingy again and i apologized for the flash of the evil disposable camera. When i asked him if i could take a pic, he offered to lift me up and put me on the other side of the fence and to this day, I have no idea why in the WORLD I refused! Ahh....

We found Dan and I talked to him the longest. I told him how i wanted to study music in Santa Barbara and blah blah. And he was so nice and an extremely wonderful listener to my blabbing. He was really impressed i knew so much about the band and was even more surprised when i mentioned how VH1 called John, "Mark" and how much little things like that angered me. He has these really deep brown eyes that he never takes off you while he's talking. He's really sincere and very very beautiful. But he has horrendous handwriting! hehe.

Finally I found Art. I asked him what was going on and he informed me that Virgin had dropped them from the label. So, now I'm freaking out. Screaming obscenities at the ground and the trees while Laura standing there like "Ummm....". I gather myself and ask Art to sign my CD cover and pose for a pic. He also mentioned that Silver Jet wanted him to produce an album for them but he couldn't because he was too busy and i think he said something about them not having the label now. I dont know, he mumbled it. We said our departing words and i chased down Greg who's appearance rather frightened me. He was wearing a wife-beater, holding a beer, and rapidly signing autographs. So i got my autograph and ran away. I kept asking where Craig was and I guess he went to do an interview somewhere. =(

I had one more band to go...where were those darned Fastball men? Ah-HA! Miles! I wave him over and he's looking really tired, but really excited that i knew his name and he wasn't just "that guy from fastball!" he signed my CD cover [Hi--Miles] and posed for a pic. He was extremely nice but extremely tired. I asked about Tony and Joey and they were sleeping! It was rather hard to stifle the giggles so Miles and I just laughed at their early bedtimes! We departed and I went to find someone else to talk to...

I spot a rather attractive looking fellow, I call him over and I realised he's in Everclear backup band. So i have him sign my CD cover just for the heck of it and he draws a little stick figure on it and calls it him. He signs it "To Amy ? Brian." He didn't know my last name, so I became Amy ?. hehe. He was incredibly nice, even after he learned i was a mere 15 [he thought i was a sophomore in college......HELLO!]. He talked to me for a good half hour and he was extremely concerned on how we were getting home. Laura started to get worried that he mom would be worried, so she called her mom and we waited for her to come. In the mean time, we chatted with Brain some more, gave our departing hugs and wishes and waved g'bye.

That was one of the coolest shows i had ever been to and the fact the every member [excluding Tony and Joey] took the time out to meet the fans and sign stuff meant so much to me. I was extremely impressed. I can still remember how all the songs sounded that day and what the air smelled like. It was a beautiful day in the life of amy.