my american heart, 05/12/08

Line-up: Artist vs. Poet, The Morning Of, DANGER RADIO, My American Heart.

We were pretty scared to show up to this show at the Marquis, to be honest, due to the fact we weren't sure how Andrew was going to react to our presence, especially because of what happened last time, but we got in line about two or three hours before doors were supposed to open and Andrew was nowhere to be seen!

Every other member of Danger Radio passed by here and there, along with everyone else from all the other bands (I saw the guitarist of the Morning Of and totally swooned. It was terrible. Plus the entire band was in a UHaul truck, which I found absolutely hilarious.) We overhear the band talking about Andrew's whereabouts, and... it turns out he's at the bar. This, more than irks me because I absolutely HATE hanging around people when they're drunk. They bother the shit out of me, and I really don't like dealing with their crap whatsoever. I'm a little worried that Andrew might act like this when he returns from his whereabouts, but hope his drinking won't affect his personality that much.

Andrew does appear, not too long afterward, and he sees us! Hooray! I don't remember exactly what he said, exactly, but something along the lines of how we actually decided to show up this time. He tells the girls standing in front of us in line that Nora and I are dead to him. They don't really react, but we make a big deal out of it. And yes, he's a little beyond tipsy; we can tell. I try not to let it get to me, but drunk people piss me off. I stated that earlier. Nora shows him her "I'm a Turd. Danger Radio" shirt, and Andrew freaks out! "I can't believe you actually did that! What was I supposed to give you for that?" he asks. "Nothing," Nora answers. It's actually freakin' hilarious, if I do say so myself. Andrew asks us where our mom and brother are, and we tell them that they're here, waiting in the car. Then, he says he loves our mom and *insert derogatory comment here*, and I will not repeat what he said. He didn't mean it in an offensive way, but I had no idea why he said. That's when I get really, really mad, but I try not to let it show. He talks to us for a little longer, then leaves, which I am glad for because I didn't want to deal with his crap anymore.

Meanwhile, Danger Radio's drummer, Nico, appears beside me, and randomly asks me if I've seen their new hoodie yet. Why he asks me this, I'm not sure, but I tell him yes, I've seen it. I saw it in the box they pulled out of their van, and I had seen a drawn picture of it online. (It is freakin' sweet, by the way!) He asks if they had it at their last show (which he should know, not me!), and I say no, not that I know of. (I didn't go into the show that time, and he thinks I did. My bad!) This confuses him, and then confuses me. We have no idea what's going on! But he goes and grabs the hoodie and shows it to me, and only me. He points out the fur on the hood and iPod pocket, and I tell him I'm going to buy it. He leaves, and Nora and I just look at each other weird; we have no idea why he just did that, but... okay.

When Mom and Daniel come back, Nora and I decide to go to the car to warm up, and for me, to cool down and rip Andrew's head off. Yes, I'm mad, I don't know why, and Nora knows it because she feels slightly the same way. We go back after a little bit, and Andrew reappears. Luckily, though, within that half hour or so, he had sobered up a teeny tiny bit, and he was the Andrew I love dearly. He talks to us for awhile, about what I can't really remember, dragging other people into the conversation, but mainly just talking to us. I do remember him asking us about talents we had, or something like, and says, "Well, you're an artist right?" I nod, thinking nothing of it, but when I thought about it, I thought it was weird. How did he figure that out? He must freakin' pay attention to detail. So weird. Andrew asks Nora her talents, and I laugh. We joke that she has no talents, but she finally says that she likes photography. What a sweet kid Andrew is! He points out to another girl that Nora and I know that he loves the Jonas Brothers, which we agree to. It's true. A 23-year-old boy loves the Jonas Brothers; yes, it's actually possible. He talks about his love for Britney Spears and N*SYNC, and the documentary she was featured in. After you watch it, he says, you just feel so bad for her! "No, she's the victim!" Well, all right.

At one point, he's dragging me down with Nora's bitterness with him, even though I've been nothing but nice to him. (You have no idea how mean Nora is to him! Ha ha.) Nora points out my Camp Rock necklace, which I show to him and earn a high-five. Sweet! Then Nora says that he shouldn't be mean to me because I didn't do anything to him. He realizes this is right and gives my little brother and I a group hug while telling us that we are cool. Near opening time, Andrew tells Daniel he likes his Zelda hoodie, and Daniel just nods. He asks him what kind of video games he plays, and Daniel points to his hoodie. Halo? *Nod* Andrew's kind of guy! World of Warcraft? Hell, no! The doors to the venue are opening as he's talking, but he tells me, "You wore that hoodie last time. But you're still awesome," and walks away. I'm wearing my Rocket Summer hoodie, and it's freaking weird that he remembered that I wore it the time before also. What a creeper!

Artist vs. Poet, the first band playing with the guitarist with the pretty smile, does really well. Then the Morning Of is next, and they did well, also, aside from the fact that I can't stand the girl singer's voice for the life of me. The guy singer reminded me of Kevin from 1997, which became even more hilarious when he bent down to sing in Nora's face. I couldn't stop laughing. Haaaaaa. Danger Radio is up next, hooray! Andrew comes to stoop on the step in front of Nora and I, pulls out his phone, and explains to us that he's looking up the words to his own songs because sometimes, he forgets. Haaaa. Then Nora, being the bitch that she is tells Andrew that she could push him off right then and there. He thinks she said that she could piss him off, but she's like, no, idiot. And he tells us that he's a pretty easy going guy, so there aren't many things that could offend him. Odd child. Danger Radio performs really, really well, and I can honestly say that they're one of my favorite bands to see live. Plus, they had a new bassist who was really, freakin' pretty. For some reason, I was really bummed out that Andrew wasn't singing to me, like he did last time, but then, they decide to perform Alive for the First Time (WHICH IS THE ONLY SONG ON THE ALBUM I DON'T KNOW) and that's when he decides to sing directly to Nora and I's faces. Jerk. He jumps into the crowd behind us, and gets back up on stage using MY shoulder. Even more of a jerk, sheesh.

After Danger Radio finishes playing, I leave Nora to watch My American Heart by herself because I don't like them that much. I want to go find Andrew, buy the hoodie, and talk to him, but he's being hounded by a bunch of girl. Why, even I'm not sure; he's not THAT great. I wait around, watching as people interact with him. And even as he's occupied with someone else, he still, for some odd reason, will look at me and make a weird motion, or something along the lines of that. He's taking a picture with a girl, turns to me, and pretends to flick snot in my direction. (Real, mature, right?) I shake my head, and walk back to my mom. When I come, he's still with a group of girls, but as My American Heart plays, he starts dancing.... directed towards me. It's quite humorous, actually, but I walk away again, and wait for the show to end.

It finally does, and we meet back up with Nora. We go to the merch area, to, (you guessed it!) find Andrew. (The rest of this is going to be really bad because I have pretty much forgotten everything that happened.) We do, finally, get to talk to Andrew and get to take pictures with him. When I go to buy the hoodie from Elan, Andrew jumps right in, even though he was talking to someone else, to sell my the hoodie, himself. He gives me an obnoxious wink after I buy it, and it totally creeps me out. Later, I tell him that Danger Radio is honestly one of my favorite bands to see live, in close second to the Audition, but he still gives me a hug for it and tells me he thought I should have said the Rocket Summer because of my hoodie. Uh, no. I'm wearing the new Danger Radio hoodie and complaining how the pocket is big enough to fit multiple iPods, not just one. "iPods's pocket," he says and you know what what else he does? He sticks his hand directly into that pocket while I'm wearing the actual jacket and don't even realize it. How weird, right?

Molly and Blackie, are standing a little ways away when they decide to interrupt our conversation. Blackie motions for Andrew to come over, even though we're obviously still talking to him, but instead, he calls her over. She tells him, "I think we should be friends." I mean, seriously? Who says crap like that outloud? You shouldn't have to ask to be someone's friend. It should just happen. What's funny, though, is that Andrew turns to me and asks ME if it's that they become friends. I think him asking him is absolutely weird, but jokingly, I say, "No," then add quietly, "just kidding." "I'm a good friend, right?" he jokes. One, I shake my head, and two, I didn't know we were friends. He is super sad because of my answer and puts on his winning pouty face, which causes my entire family and I to yelp, earning us very evil glares from Molly and the pack. Nora and I head off to meet the new bass player and eventually venture back when Molly and Blackie finally leave.

Andrew is, also, leaving, and this entire time, my family had been urging me to get Andrew's phone number. I want to, but don't want to make it awkward because I'm only 16. But at this moment, I do it. I say, "You know what I think? I think we should exchange phone numbers." It takes him aback for a second, but I hand him my phone (which has Christofer Drew as the wallpaper, and he laughs. How embarassing!) and he types it in, telling me to text him my name and number later. I felt so bad after he left! I couldn't tell whether or not he was just shocked that I asked him, or disappointed in me that I would that. Even so, I felt as though I shouldn't have asked him and should have just let it happen naturally. But oh well.

We meet the pretty guitarist of the Morning Of, and he convinces us to buy the CD. I COULDN'T SAY NO, IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! We meet the singer, also, and he asks Nora how she liked him singing in her face. She tells him it was awkward, but she dealt with it. He says that he had do it... Well, alright. We deliberately avoid the girl singer even though it seemed like she wanted us to go up to her. Poor girl. But I just don't like her.

Outside, we head around the back to find the rest of Danger Radio because we can't leave without seeing Nico! Behind the venue, they are loading, so we ask Nico if we can have a picture, and he says yes, but runs to put something away really quickly. Nora talks to Spencer who is undoubtedly depressed but has a very good way of hiding it because he says his girlfriend just broke up with him. Nora offers him a hug, which he greatly accepts and adds, "Don't let go!" laughing. I'm a little jealous, I'll be honest, but I let it go. We find Elan and take a picture with him also, and he tells me he likes my scarf and that I have a good sense of fashion! (We were wearing matching prints, yay!)

The new bassist, is hilarious by the way. It's freezing cold outside, and he's complaining to us about how much he hates it because he just flew out from Texas, which was absolutely warm and beautiful, whereas here in Colorado, it totally sucked. Nora and I tell him that Colorado weather fluxuates a lot, and you can't really predict how the weather is going to be, especially in the winter. We suggest he come back in the spring and summer, where the weather is a lot nicer. He says no, that he's never coming back here, not in the summer, not in the fall, never! It makes us laugh.

We finally get a picture with Nico and says afterward, "See you next time?" "Of course!" I say. He gives Nora and I a high-five, and I really just wanted to hug him, but didn't know where the line was set. Nora said he wanted to hug me, too, and I believed it. Andrew appears and we tell him that we're leaving, and he hugs us all, telling me, "Oh, that was a good hug!" Yes, I give good hugs. We say goodbye, and we are on our way home. Overall, it was an excellent show, and I enjoyed myself a lot both during the set and after.

Danger Radio is by far one of my favourite bands! Yaaaaay!

cute is what we aim for, 25/11/08

If there's one person I actually hate, it's Shaant, but this unfortunately is also not true, no matter how angry I've gotten in the past. I still love him to death, and it's truly quite unfortunate.

None of us, and that includes my whole family, were in the mood to go to the Cute is What We Aim For show on Tuesday. Automatic Loveletter and A Rocket to the Moon, some of the bands I love the most, were playing, but there was some weird tension in the air - foreshadowing, if you will - that caused us all to be disinterested, even though there were actually good bands playing, despite Secondhand Serenade and Cute.

We didn't want to pay, either, honestly. $20 to see Shaant isn't exactly worth it, especially after he promised us that we wouldn't have to pay the last time. Because of that, we got there an hour before shows opened, which is frankly quite late for us, and decided to just wait outside the buses in hopes of seeing Shaant so we wouldn't have to pay. It wasn't exactly the best plan, obviously, but what else can you expect from a bunch of dumbasses? Exactly.

It's five minutes before door opening, and we're not really sure what to do. I finally decided that I actually DO want to go, so I buy a ticket and go in for myself. Everyone else planned on staying behind while I waited for Cute is What We Aim For to play, then inform them of his whereabouts. Sounds totally creepy, right? It was. It really was. But I didn't really give a shit.

Halfway during A Rocket to the Moon's set, Nora texts me asking where I am, which I think is weird because she's outside, not inside like me. Then suddenly she shows up besides me with a pass stickered to her pants! I'm totally lost, but she tells me that the merch guy had asked what they were waiting for, so Nora explained to him the dillema, and apparently, something clicked in his head. He went to talk to Shaant, who then - allegedly - told the merch guy to give them passes and they got in the show. It was as simple as that. Plus, I even got a free tote bag because of him, which was sweet, even though I wasn't even the one freezing my ass of outside in the cold. Still cool, though.

Well, A Rocket to the Moon played wonderfully, as did Automatic Loveletter. (I LOVE JULIET SIMMS!) Then, Cute is What We Aim For played, and they did surprisingly well also. We ditch the front to go find Juliet, whom I meet, and she truly is lovely, by the way. We go outside afterward, to pursure Shaant, park outside the bus, and sit and wait. Nora and I leave to wander around to the back every once in awhile, but come short of nothing (EXCEPT GINGER WHIBLEY - "Your turn!" No.)

Stalkerish enough, we stay out there for over an hour. One of Cute's new crew was a total asshole, too. Some girls come up to him and ask if Shaant is going to come out, and he tells them that they can wait, or be creepy like us waiting in our car in front of him. Throughout the entire night, he was being a complete asshole to us. I'm sorry that we don't know who he is, but he didn't know who we were either, thank you. AND SORRY THAT WE'RE BETTER FRIENDS WITH SHAANT THAN HE WAS. God. He was just really pissing me off, especially after the show when Nora asked the merch guy if she could get Shaant, and he says that it's probably not going to be possible because Shaant had been feeling really ill and was probably sleeping. The other butts in and says, yeah, I don't want to feel his wrath. I thought of saying, YOU DON'T WANT TO FEEL MY WRATH, but I wasn't near him at the time. Douche.

Then, the merch guy offers for Nora to write something to him, but she says no. And the other guys says - nastily, I might add - oh you want to give him something? Nora just pretty much glares at him. Ha. Lovely for her, though. the merch guy defended her and told the other guys that no, these were the people that Shaant asked to get in for free, DUH! At that point, I'm pretty sure the other guy doesn't know what to say, but he's still a douchebag.

It's pretty pointless by this point. There's nothing we can do, and the merch guy did everything he could for us. He was really nice, so none of it was his fault at all. Plus, I got a free tote bag from him, so that was awesome. It was pretty good show, overall, even though we all left pretty pissed off. Next time, Nora's just gonna beat the crap out of Shaant. Sorry, ladies, but he's going down.

hellogoodbye, 18/11/08

There are a lot of other shows that I really wanted to write about, but I guess we'll start here.

My sister and I were undecided about going to see Hellogoodbye or not, but one day, while browsing on Purevolume, I came across nevershoutnever!, the opening band, and instantly fell in love! Christofer Drew is SO freaking cute, I couldn't pass the show up, and decided we would go so I could steal him! Har har har.

The line wasn't too bad when we got there, about an hour before the show, and miraculously, my sister's friend, Liz and her mom, Janine (sp?) are up front. They offer for us to stand with them, and we accept. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been up front for nevershoutnever! My deepest gratitude goes toward them. That's where the real story begins.

As soon as he walks onto stage with his guitarist, Casey (sp?), the crowd pretty much swoons. And frankly, I do too. Kids sing his songs along with him, but even though I don't know shit, Christofer Drew still, for some reason, decides to point at me during one of his songs, which really kind of freaked me out. Then, he did it again during yet another song with an added wink. He only did that twice and BOTH TIMES WERE FOR ME!!! I totally went crazy inside; I won't lie. And unfortunately, his set came to a close, but he promised he would be out afterward. Heh.

Playradioplay! played some sweet tunes, then Ace Enders totally blew me away like they did last time. I love him/them so much. They encompass such a positive message in a non-preachy way. It's wonderful. The world really needs more people like Ace Enders. No joke.

So Nora and I leave after this, in search of little Christofer Drew so I can steal him meet him, BUT HE IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN. We wait and wait and wait, meet Ace Enders, watch a couple Hellogoodbye songs, but he still does not appear anywhere.

The show, unfortunately comes to a close and we still can't find him. We were debating whether or not we should stay inside and wait or risk going outside in hopes of find him by his little band. We chose the latter. It was HUGE mistake.

About three minutes later, Christofer Drew shows up INSIDE the venue, but obviously, we can't go back in. A couple girls take pictures with him while everyone else is outside wailing for him, but he disapears to the back of the venue again. So I decided to go around the venue to the back to find him while Nora keeps an eye out for him up front. I went back and forth about four times, and I finally spot him inside, sitting on a stool doing nothing. I freak out and don't know what to do. I go back to Nora, then to the back of the venue. He walks by and spots me out of the corner of his eye, but God was his expression priceless. You've gotta be fucking kidding me, it almost seemed like he wanted to say.

According to his knowledge, he was bombarded by not only the front but the BACK now, too. he thinks there's no escape. If he had just taken the time to notice, he would have realized it was JUST ME. No one else, just one, poor, innocent girl his age that not going to do anything to him. I must have looked completely creepy and stalkerish to him, though.

I see him talking on his phone, and I run back to Nora to tell her this. At this point, neither one of us know what to do. We know that he won't be coming toward the front for fear of getting mobbed, but we don't want to look totally creepy by going to the back to meet him, but that really shouldn't have mattered because he had already spotted me and I had scared him shitless.

So then, all of a sudden, his van drives by the front and goes toward the back. All the girls think Christofer Drew is in there, but I know better. I run back to follow the van, but by the time I actually reach the back of the venue, a car door slams and the van takes off. I'm confused by what has just happened, especially as I see the van go back around the venue. And then I spot him: little Christofer Drew sitting in the passenger seat of the car as it drives away without any acknowledgement.

Rage seeps into every one of my limbs as I run back to Nora to tell her what's just happened. She's in as much bewilderment as I am. I could not believe that A SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD could pull that kind of crap off! We'd always joked how band members might consider pulling off a stunt like that in order to get away from all the girls, but we NEVER thought it would actually happen. And we definitely didn't think that a little kid would do that, either.

I'm really mad, by this point, as we are forced to give up and go back to the car, but I can't get over the fact that Christofer Drew actually did that!! It was SO incredulous; I just could not get over that.

I'm STILL really fucking mad at him for doing that. He's not even that popular yet, and people like ALEX GASKARTH still come out to meet people. I mean, WHAT THE FUCK?! I am pissed out of my mind at him. But finally, the other day, I gained enough sense in myself to go and find the two lines in those songs that he sang to me. As soon as I found the first one, my heart pretty much ceased hating him.

Oh my God, I pray for another, chance to drive down back highways 'til I stumble upon your beautiful face.

I'm calling all the time, you know I interrupt, and it hurts when all I hear is you were hanging up.

Needless to say, I could never hate Christofer Drew....

BUT IF HE PLAYS ON THE FUCKING AP TOUR, AND I DON'T MEET HIM;
I REALLY WILL HATE HIM.

But not really.

Life is Looking Up

Obviously, I don't have any readers on here - go figure- but I decided that I wanted to document the shows that I got to somewhere, and this is the place that I have chosen to do that. If I do ever get any readers, I am not trying to brag; I'm just bored, and I don't want to forget. This blog serves as an area where I can let out everything I am feeling and everything that has happened. And it's going to be freaking awesome!

SO LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD.