Not only is Valencia one of the greatest bands to see live, they are also some of the nicest dudes I have ever met before in my life! I love seeing them! And thanks to Brendan, we decide, as soon as we get down to the Marquis, to go to Illegal Pete's for the first time and experience its greatness. It truly is fantastic, to say the least. It's about four hours before doors are supposed to open and there are still no people in line when Nora and I finally head back from our grand food adventure. We have to go back and get Caleigh from tennis practice, so we all leave, pick her up, get her Qdoba, and when we come back to the venue, it's still pretty much empty except for those two Saving Verona girl who are on the "buy tickets" side of the line. We only have about two hours now before doors open and Valencia has just barely arrived.
"Look who it is," George says when he sees us after walking out of the venue. Nora and I just giggle while he asks Caleigh what she has. "Chicken nachos. Do you want some?" "No," he answers, but it's like he can't stop staring at them. (I know, I know, he's really awkward.) Then Caleigh feels like an idiot for offering him that because we thought he was a vegan. (He's not, just a vegetarian, though.) Not much else goes on until Brendan walks out of the venue, says hi, and asks how we are. We're all pretty much speechless, but not in a starstruck way; we just don't know what to say. He tells us they're heading down to Illegal Pete's because we know how much he loves it. We sure do.
We get inside the venue soon after, sit around, and wait for the show to start while scoping out George and Brendan at the merch area and laughing about it. Regret Night performs a lot better than I remember, but they have so many clapping parts in their songs, it got a little annoying. And Saving Verona... they're just terrible. I'm sorry. They had good orchestration, but that was about it. We don't need two New Found Glory's, alright? Houston Calls, however, is always a blast to see live. I don't really listen to them, nor do I really like them, but they know how to put on a live show. Even I can admit that.
And finally, the moment we had all been waiting for... wait, Maris the Great? He appears out of nowhere, and despite having seen him a million times, he still scares the shit out of me. He comes on stage and introduces Valencia while advertising his own band alongside his drag queen. Ha. It is actually quite amusing, especially watching Max sitting at his drum set ready to destroy his band mates because they're taking so long and the lights have already been off for a good while. He cracks me up.
As usual, Valencia performs brilliantly. I even know some of the old songs! Just two, but that's good enough for me, really. George always comes to my side of the stage and stands right in front of me to sing to the crowd; not cool, man, not cool. At one point, even, I'm trying to take a picture of Brendan (who does look at me a few times while I'm ACTUALLY singing along) and George gets in the way. Realizing this, he jumps back and makes an apologetic face at me. Hilarious. And of course, just as I was expecting, he crowd surfs on MY side of the stage, which causes us to miss Brendan singing to Nora during the Space Between because we're all so afraid I'm gonna get a black eye again. Luckily, I don't, and George makes it back to the stage from the opposite side (with his shirt all the way unbuttoned; way to go crowd!). Still, I LIVE!
Afterward, we head on down to the merch area to find Valencia, but it's pretty crowded, so we wait around on the ramp. I end up buying a hoodie, Nora a t-shirt, and we get a free b-side, yay! George is sitting by himself on the merch stand thing, so I decide to go over - Caleigh trailing behind me - and attempt talk to him. I say hi, awkwardly, and he gives me a high-five. I try to talk to him about the show, but it doesn't really work, and eventually, he just hops off and walks away. Caleigh and I head back to Mom and Nora where we continue waiting until Brendan makes his way towards us. He asks us how we are and make small talk. (Again, if I had written this a lot sooner, I probably would have remembered more.) I do remember that he talks to EVERYONE; he always does, which is one of the many reasons as to why I love him so dearly. He points out the trash can right next to me, and I tell him it's placed very awkwardly and pretend to sit on it. He mockingly calls Caleigh "Qdoba girl" throughout the conversation and we all get pictures. I ask Brendan how he liked Australia, and he says it was one of his favourite places and he really wants to go back.
Nora decides to steal my topic starter and asks Brendan what kind of camera he uses for all his photoblogs because she really likes all his pictures. (One, that was my idea. Two, she's seen about one of his blogs. >|) He tells her the SLR type, and she says she think she has the same one. (Yay!) So then I tell him that I loved looking at his pictures because they were so awesome. He thanks me. =) My mom asks him when he's coming back, and he says they're playing the second half of Warped Tour, which included our date, and that was when we'd probably see him next, if not sooner. "April... 8th?" he asks. "April 9th," I answer, "It's a week before my birthday!" Really? he says, You should bring cakes, and I'll celebrate, "I like it." Ha ha. I think he was afraid to ask how old I was turning for George's sake. O_O
Security is trying to kick us out at this point, so we follow Brendan outside to continue our conversation. It's slightly chilly outside, which he points out. But I tell him I'm fine because I had bought this super awesome hoodie, but I had no idea what band it was. He goes along with it, and agrees, but I say that if they made such a great hoodie, then they had to be a great band. Again, he agrees, "I would assume so." Eventually, he says bye, gives us hugs, and he takes off while we stay around so we can talk to George.
It takes a little awhile, but he comes outside. I just barely walk up to him and he wraps his arms around me. I'm a little weirded out by this, but I hug him back. I really can't say no to a hug. He says he's going to the van, but he'll back right as I'm asking him for a picture. Oh, a picture? he says, and stays behind to take pictures with us all. Caleigh, for some reason is on the phone, so he's all, Let's go take the picture with her while she's on the phone! We got a pretty priceless picture out of that one. =)
George heads off across the street to retrieve the van, but I feel awkward if we were to just leave without saying goodbye. So we wait. And we wait. We meet JD, WHO LOOKED SO DAMN FINE. XD. And we still wait for George to come back. It got really awkward at one point, too, because Brendan had already said goodbye to us and he was standing just a few feet ahead of us loading the van as soon as George had returned. I try to approach him, but he just smiles at me, making a weird "bop" sounds as he points to my nose humorously, and goes back in the venue. I'm thinking, "What the eff is wrong with this kid?" but we keep on waiting until FINALLY he comes back out to the van, practically ignoring me, and I have to run up to him to tell him that I had wanted to say goodbye! "Oh!" IDIOT. He hugs me, goes to hug the rest of my family and says he'll see us at Warped Tour.
George is a freaking weird, socially awkward kid, but I, for some reason, I still love, and I love Brendan, too! He's probably one of the nicest kids I have ever met before in my life! Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet Shane or Max (who's my favourite!) but I'd say it was a pretty successful night.
xo.
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