Name: Beau Anderson (sadsilverstar@aol.com)
Place: Providence, RI
Date: March 2nd 2000
Type: Story

I woke up around 7am, central standard, on Wednesday, March 1, 2000. At this point I had 2 copies of Machina already [one from Monday, which I bought for the novelty of having it a day early, and one from Tuesday that I pre-ordered from Sam Goody to get the lithograph]. My bag was packed, I was toting around my limited edition [1 of 500 supposedly] Arising Tour poster [yes, the one with the space people on it], and I had my $350 plane ticket in hand. Pumped as all hell, my mom drove me to the airport in Omaha [1.2 hours from my house] and I caught my first plane to Chicago O'Hare [Worlds coolest airport!]. At O'Hare I tried to call WBRU, the station in Providence that had tix to the Pumpkins show at LUPO's that sold out in 7 minutes, to less than 500 people. I had called them the nite before to tell them I was coming from Iowa, and I was following up my call, because he said he'd hook me up. Busy signal. I desperately tried again. Busy Signal. Again, busy signal. Again and again and again, nothing but busy signals. I gave up, and promised myself I'd call from TF Green in Warwick, RI. I arrived in Warwick at 8:00 PM eastern standard, I'd been awake for 12 hours thus far. Knowing I had to catch the 9:00 bus to Worcester, and not knowing how to get to the Greyhound station, I booked it out of TF Green, and hopped in the first cab. After a 5 minute ride to the CLOSED Greyhound station, I have to pay the cabbie $19.75...I didn't think anything of it...and he didn't have change, so I let the scummy jerk keep the quarter. Naturally, I was a bit worried that since the station was closed I may not be able to ride, but the girl standing by the door, waiting for the 9:10 bus assured me that we'd all get on regardless. The trip to Worcester was uneventful, I arrived with just enough time to pay for my bus ticket [which I couldn't pay for until I got to Worcester] and take a bathroom break. Still carrying only what little I had in my backpack, and my precious poster, I wandered around the station wondering what I'd do if David didn't show up before it closed at 10:30 [This was a valid worry, seeing that it was 10:15 and still no sign of David]. I turned around and there he is. David, the scrawny little shit and I met up. I gave him a handshake, and a manly heterosexual hug, and told him I was glad he arrived. He expressed his concern for me, and apologized about the schedule being slightly different than he had originally told me it would be. We hopped into his sister Krishna's [not sure of that spelling] car and she showed me the only cobblestone road left in the country, before parking at David's dad's Bar in Worcester. We all went inside, and I met David's dad. He's a friendly guy, actually looks like Mario from the Mario Brothers games...you all know what I'm talking about. David and I 3-hole punched everything and put it into the Dreamer book, which was less than 24 hours away from being in the hands of The Smashing Pumpkins. We opted to wait for his dad at his sister's house, so Krishna takes us back to her place. It's in the ghetto of Worcester, and the house is a bit freaky, but nothing out of the ordinary. I take my shoes off and follow David in. He did warn me about the smell, and it was peculiar, but not unholy or anything. We sat down, I emptied some stuff from my bag, including the speakers I bought for the CD player we'd be listening to while we waited in the long line, and my Guitar World. Then I decided I'd call my mom [I'm 18, and I love my mom! =p]. Immediately after I reassured my mom of my OKness, I called up WBRU [who I forgot to call at TF Green] and I got ahold of some chick there. She didn't know anything, just gave me some bullshit about how they are giving tix away every hour the next morning, and expressed amusement and semi-genuine interest about my traveling from Iowa. Well, after that, David and I did the small talk thing until 11:00 PM when Renee called to talk to us. Renee, who was not amused by my sense of humor and oblivious to my obvious mockery of her, sounded nothing like I would have expected for such a "hardcore" Smashing Pumpkins fan. I couldn't even remember what we talked about, but the apathetic qualities of her voice have haunted me since. I remember that she went to Tower in Boston [location of the signing] at 2:30 PM on March 1 [for a March 2 signing] and got kicked out. She called WBCN [the gullible radio station...] and told them she got booted from Tower and they not only came and picked her up, they told her she would be escorted in at the front of the line, without having to wait!! Just the thought of that irked me beyond comprehension. Imagine being so obnoxious as to wait over 24 hours to be first in line, and then rub it in other peoples' faces that you were rescued from a situation you brought upon yourself! :shudders in anger: Enough of that. David and I shoot the shit some more, trying to come up with the best fat jokes and yo momma jokes and other stupid stupid stuff that people do when it's late and they are trying to pass the time. All the while I was writing my letter to the band, with my senior picture attached. Around 2am, David and I go downstairs and wait for his dad on the porch. We get into the car, and after 3 blocks, David realizes that he forgot the Dreamer book at his sister's house! So David's dad reluctantly turns the car around, and we park in his sister's driveway. David runs upstairs, sneaks past the drunk guys passed out on the living room furniture, and grabs the dreamer book. I thank David's dad and let him know I truly appreciate that he's driving us all the way to Boston so late at nite. David returns to the car and we're off. The drive to Boston was mostly a blur. I quickly closed my eyes and tried to get to sleep, nodding off for about 2 - 3 minutes at a time. Suddenly we were there. David's dad, David, and I all got our stuff together, and went to sit in line with three other girls who were there. No sooner did we introduce ourselves to the girls and right before David's dad pulled away, Boston's boys in blue showed up to see what is what. David's dad got out of the car, some strange student kid joined the line, and we told the Police we were waiting to meet the Smashing Pumpkins. They were cool, and took our picture with my camera. The Police left, and we didn't see them again. David's dad left soon after. The first girl in line was Shawna, the multiple self-pierced typical freaky girl...but she's homeless too. As if that wasn't enough...she had a Bass with her, though she knew she couldn't get it signed. She was wearing 2 coats over her home made zero shirt [drawn w/a silver paint pen on the inside of Marilyn Manson shirt, which is blasphemous enough]. The second girl in line was Anna, the blond, slightly cute Russian girl who was so nervous about meeting the Pumpkins that she brought her best friend for moral support. The third girl in line was Linda, Anna's best friend, and a slightly Melissa look-a-like neurotic girl. After the brief intros, I suggested that David and I go buy something warm to eat or drink. I left my poster...but I REALLY didn't trust those people, because I hardly knew them, so I took my bag. David left all of his stuff, and we headed around the corner and across the bridge to Store24, and bought Hot Chocolate, and French Vanilla coffee to drink. Upon our return, the three girls and the freaky student kid [we never found out his name] were still there and so was our stuff. The girls told us how Billy and Jimmy came by at 1AM and how they JUST missed them...but they offered those kids who were still there tickets to the show and a spot in line at the signing, so they could go home. Apparently The Smashing Pumpkins didn't want those kids to be cold. After this heartwarming little anecdote, we decided to go wait by the Tower doors, on the steps. Right next to the signs that say, "Absolutely no camping out for the Smashing Pumpkins Instore." Before anyone else could join us, David's dad pulled up...almost 45 minutes after he left. He forgot to give David his money!! So we're still waiting, listening to Pisces Iscariot on MY cd player and my speakers. Eventually David puts in the copy of Mashed Potatoes I brought along for him, but after 1 and a half songs we take it out because the recording isn't loud enough to be worth listening to, as it was nearly impossible to hear it over the roaring wind. Then we switched to using Jill's CD player as a car pulls up. Shawna is hyper as all hell and she screams something about a poser at the top of her lungs...in between running around being annoying and babbling some bullshit about wanting to be a roadie. Possibly the most annoying thing she did was insist that every car stopped at the intersection honk at her. At this point, David had loaned her his Arising tour shirt. Anna was under a stack of blankets and coats and the student kid was studying for his 11 o'clock exam. Linda was chatting around and huddling up with Anna. I can't remember the exact order of things here, but I know that very soon after this, Sarah and Preston show up. Sarah is a full-blown cutie, long dark hair, and cute glasses, and tall. Preston, at the time appeared to be her boyfriend, but he was a standard guy, short hair, left eyebrow pierced, and totally laid back, definitely cool. Then the "Shale" girls show up. They both had flowers for the band, and apparently in '98, Billy suggested that they name their 2 girl band "Shale" so they came to this signing to tell Billy that their first show is the following day. Then people started flooding in, and we all tried to get acquainted as best we could. Next thing we knew, a WFNX van pulled up and parked by Tower. The guy told us that they were giving away tickets to the people with the best WFNX signs. Immediately, since David and I had no way to get tickets through legitimate purpose, we go on a run for cardboard. The homeless guy at the T station wouldn't give his up, and we end up grabbing the top of a Domino's pizza box from a trash can, and some orange juice boxes out of the trash by the Store24. Then we went in, and I bought two permanent markers, one red and one black. Unfortunately, those were the only colors available to us. Shawna took the pizza box and made a sign that says "FNX is better than Sex." I made a sign that said "$350, 2000 miles, 3 AM, to see SP thanks to FNX" and a couple other less-impressive signs. Sarah and Preston used my markers to make a sign about how they drove down from UMass Amhearst and didn't have tix either. Sarah offered to drive us to the show if we all got tickets, and I am not sure how serious I thought she was when David first told me that. Ahh...7am finally came. The dickhead Tower Event Staff guy showed up. He opened the door, and then booted us off the steps. He made us line up in order alongside the building. But before he gave us the wristbands, he had me take $6 and go get him some cigarettes and a coke. I'm not a smoker...I hate smoking. He does not realize how big of a favor this is for him, because I won't even buy cigarettes for my disabled mother. Well, he let me keep the change, and we were all lined up in order. He came out with wristbands and the order was slightly shifted. Anna was first [because she was the most nervous], and Shawna was second in line. Then it was Linda, David, Me, the freaky student kid, Sarah, and Preston, and Jaclyn [RudyS10] who joined us late, but we sneaked her near the front of the line with us. Our signs were made, and we unanimously decided to hang around near the front of the line in case anything cool happened such as the Pumpkins driving by to say hi, or bring us breakfast or something crazy and unreal like that. Well, the time came that Tower was open, so we ducked in there really fast, took a look-see around. David bought Jill's copy of Machina and got the Lithograph with it. We were just hanging around on the main floor, enjoying the warmth, when the DOGMA screenplay caught my eye. I'm an obsessive Kevin Smith fan, so I bought the screenplay to read on my journey home. Then we went back outside for awhile. So after our first excursion into the Tower, the sun was already hanging high in the sky, but the wind was attacking us full-force. David and I went to Starbucks to use the bathroom. They're some of the nicest people for working at the highest priced coffehouses in the nation. I felt bad for using the bathroom, and not buying anything, so I bought a scone. After not eating for about 14 hours, those are the most scrump-diddly-umptious [as Ned Flanders would say] things on the planet. In reality, I think all this happened before we went into Tower and before Jackie met up with us, but due to the insignificance of the events, it's OK to let the chronology slip a bit. I soon got restless, so David and I took off down Newbury St. to check out some of the shops and see if they were open. Nope. None of them are open at this time, so we head back, slightly discouraged, and walk around with our FNX signs for a bit. Then we get hungry. We head back down Newbury St, and after 2 blocks we see another FNX van...we charge the van, and ask about tickets. He tells us to get back to Tower if we want a chance at winning, I mention that I'm from Iowa, and the guy waves me off and says, "yeah, I heard about you," in a way that made me feel he thought I was a liar or something. Since still no shops had opened, we ran back and walked around with our FNX signs again. The line started getting a bit longerand the next few hours were just waiting in line, and listening to music. First Linda left, she had to go to some day-hospital thing for psychiatric reasons. Then the freaky student kid left for his exam on the U.S. Navy from the beginning to 1900. Soon after he left, Shawna, the homeless girl with David's Arising tour shirt on, left as well. This is when David, Jackie, and I went to Newbury Comics so I could see what a COOL record store was like. We looked around, didn't see anything too out of the ordinary, except I noticed that Newbury Comics sells Unamerican stickers [from unamerican.com] and David spotted the SIYL single! David bought a copy and tried to get one of those 7-track promos from the guy, but he was being a dick. I bought the single, and one more CD copy of Machina so I could get the 7-track promo. I am a sucker for a good deal, and I think 10.88 for a brand new cd is pretty good, especially with a promo disc thrown in for free. On our way out of Newbury Comics [where the Boston '98 signing was held] I spotted some of the little circle Smashing Pumpkins stickers, [the red ones w/the new logo] so we cleaned 'em out [all 4 of the remaining stickers, so don't get pissed] and I still haven't decided where to slap mine. We went back to the line, and waited for a short while, got cold, went into Tower to warm up, waited in line, and went back into the Tower. Well, after nearly losing my tape booklet, and recovering it, Jackie, David, Sarah, Preston, the Shale girls, and I all took off in search of food. We walked down Newbury Street past Newbury Comics [just David and I] and didnt' find anything, then as a whole group, we walked down the other street, [I don't remember the name OK?] all the way to the bridge, where I took a picture of something dumb, and we turned around, still not able to find any food places open. Kitty Corner from the Tower we saw a breakfast cafe place that opened in 5 minutes so when the guy came to unlock the door, Jackie asked if they were opening soon, he completely ignored us, so we left toward the direction the line was forming. 3 blocks later, David, Jackie, the Shale girls, and I catch up with Preston and Sarah at Mc Donalds. We all ate and were merry. Preston and Sarah took off just about 10 seconds ahead of us, and when we left, they were already headed back looking for a glove. I don't think we ever found the glove but by the time we decided it wasn't at Mc Donalds and left for Tower, I decided to put my arm around one of the Shale girls. The one with pants on under her skirt [probably because of the cold] and I walked w/her like that for almost a block. People do crazy stuff when they're tired. I think David stopped and talked to Renee, who had arrived at this point, and was standing on the corner [I still had not met her by this point in time] Then David joined us back at the front of the line, by Tower. We got cold, and went back into Tower. This is where I did something that seemed meaningless at the time, and was a foreshadowing of future events in a sense. I bought Machina on tape, [yes, the fact that it's a tape IS important] so I could get the lithograph, because it's not the same as the one I got from Sam Goody. The tape version is neat, because the lyrics are all printed straight and stuff, [not that it's a big deal] the art is smaller [that's a bummer] but the story about Glass and the Machines of God is printed in a darker ink than in the CD booklet, making it 100% more legible. Radio vans were showing up, the rest of the time was a blur of just meaningless chatter and running in and out of Tower to warm up. We talked with everybody about tickets. We talked to BCN about pissing on the FNX van ON THE AIR to get tickets, we talked to FNX about vice versa, We talked to some Virgin Records guy named Howard, and he told us to wait up after the signing to talk to him. The guy from WBRU in Providence came by and talked to David and I. Coincidentally, he was the same guy I talked to on the phone before I left. We asked him about tix, and he said, "you should have called me, I said I'd hook you up"...too bad the lines were busy the whole day. =( This is when David, Preston, Sarah, and I launched the grand scheme...that eventually got us tickets. 4pm is fast approaching, and Linda, Shawna, and the freaky student kid all re-join the line. Finally, the asshole security guy herds us through. They pull Shawna's bass aside and make her leave it by the door. Oh well. There was the whole band, all lined up from L-R Melissa, James, Jimmy, and Billy. Yeah, everyone says they'll be cool, and they won't start crying or anything...but I really didn't. I handed my poster to Melissa. She didn't even acknowledge me, she just signed it, and passed it to James...she was caught up in a conversation with someone beside her. I introduced myself to James, told him how I flew from Iowa just to meet the band, and gave me a grin, and signed my poster. I introduced myself to Jimmy. He may look like a badass in the pictures, but I saw right through him...he's a big softy. ;) I shook his hand too, and then Billy took my poster. I introduced myself to him as well, and this is when David and I both started in on him about tickets. All I remember is Billy asking me to hold down my poster so he could sign it. [The poster itself had been rolled up in a tube for almost a year since I got it]. The security guy was telling me to get moving, I think I told him to get a grip, and then Billy said he'd try to get us into the show if we waited. Obviously, my Iowa story wasn't all THAT impressive to him, but it all turns out OK in the end. Sarah, Preston, David and I all congregate right outside the video store section of Tower, about 10 ft. from the signing area. A news reporter video tapes David's Adore Vinyl autographs, and then my poster. So the four of us are getting our poop in a group when Jackie comes through, almost in tears. Apparently the playlist she had, [a Mellon Collie one, I think] actually did have Billy's footprint on it, because he recognized it. She's such a cool girl. ;) Well, before you could say "Machina rocks" the Tower people tried pushing us out of there. David and I said, "Billy and Howard [the Virgin rep guy] told us to WAIT HERE." Of course, the Tower person said, "Well, in that case, just hold tight." Oh, but it didn't stop there. I guess the only Tower employee with 1/2 a soul was overridden by one of the Tower assholes. We got kicked out of the store. We tried waiting on the steps...but we got booted across the street from there. Things are looking pretty bad. I was in a rage of emotions pissed off because I was extremely let down at the suddenly limited chances of us getting tickets. Jackie left soon, and I expressed to her my pleasure of meeting her, and then Sarah and I burst into tears. Ahh...we were back where we started, sitting right past the Tower on the same side of the street in the gutter area. Preston was expressionless...that guy has it together, but not as much as David. David turned into SuperDavid and went all over the place trying to get tickets. Finally, a ray of hope. David came running back and told us we had to make a sign really fast! We used the back of a white flyer for the signing, and wrote something like, "Nic Carter and WBCN Rock 104.1" and decorated it with SP hearts and silver stars. The sign sucked. David took off w/it, and presented it to Nik. [We spelled his name wrong on the sign]. About 2 minutes later, David comes running back and tells us we have 20 minutes to make another sign, that's bigger and better, so that if he loses the contest we have a good chance of winning. Immediately, David and I run over to the art supply store [conveniently located across the street from the Tower building] and bought a huge posterboard, and 2 paint markers. It cost us well over $8 just to make this stupid sign that said the same thing as the other one only bigger. We gave the sign to Preston, and had him go over and compete in the contest too. Because Preston was with us, it doubled our odds of winning tix for our group. Meanwhile, David starts telling Nik and the crowd how HE is from Iowa and how HE flew 2000 miles and didn't have concert tickets. Naturally, this is MY story, but it wasn't far from the truth, because I was gonna get one of the tickets. Sarah and I were just sitting around, still devastated, and I sat down to pray. Yes, seriously pray. Yes I'm a Christian, and yes I'm a Pumpkins fan, and no it's not a contradiction of terms. Then I heard Preston's name announced really loudly, so Sarah and I grabbed all the stuff and ran around lookin' for David and Preston! No luck...then we realized that they were competing. We quickly joined the small crowd surrounding the sign competition. Sarah and I cheered at the top of our lungs for Preston, and we remained silent through all of them. Some guy named Anvil [or he called himself that] went right before David and he got more applause than Preston...but David got more applause than both of them. So Nik, being the diplomatic, dramatic, DJ that he is, narrowed it down to just David and Anvil. This is where Choly, the heaven-sent lifesaver, steps in and backs David up by convincing Nik that David really did come from Iowa and that she talks to him online all the time, and she met up w/him out here since he traveled so far. By the grace of God, a little help from Choly, and a lot of gullibility on Nik's part...David won the tickets! Sure, one guy was trying to say he went to a Mass. school the whole time, but he didn't even know David, he was just being a dickhead. Nik gave David the tix on the spot, right before some smartass said, "Hey Nik, ask him the zip code in Iowa." Thinking quickly, I said, "We gotta go" I don't think you could have made us any more excited. I know what you're wondering, you wanna know what happened to David's Arising Tour shirt...Well, Shawna is probably still wearing it for all we know. Well, we got into Sarah's boyfriend's car, and took off to Providence. Around 6:30, we're in Providence, and finally had found Lupo's...actually just decided to park and walk there. Our only dilemma is that we had just 2 tickets! I had only $80 left at this point and Sarah left her money in the car, but we did find a scalper. He said, "how much are you willing to pay?" good thing I didnt open my mouth, because we were willing to pay double what he was asking. $100 for 2 scalped tickets, plus 2 free tickets, divided by 4=$25 per ticket. Not bad for a $20 per ticket show with a $4 service charge from Ticketmaster. We were waiting in line outside Lupo's when the security guard told us if we went into the Met...we could be WARM [a good thing] and we'd get in 1/2 hour earlier than the people in line. We couldn't pass that up, so we took off running for the Met. Finally, I got to pee. Right as we were just standing around, and WBRU was mentioning that the Pumpkins would be BACK in 2 weeks somewhere besides Lupo's in Providence...we started talking to this guy, and he was recording the show in Mini-Disc! So we got his e-mail address, and due to the fantastic memory and a miracle, we remembered it, and he got 24 out of 26 songs recorded. The show was amazing. Less than 500 people in attendance. One small club. I'm just gonna give the show highlights, because this tale of my journey has dragged on far too long. Suffice it to say Drown was played acoustic, Disarm was played true to the album version, 2 sets were performed, and Billy apologized for playing extra long that nite. THE END