Wednesday 23rd July.
Nancy and I arose early showered and went down for breakfast. It hadn't been possible to book a second night which meant we would have to drive back to Nancy's place after the show. Luckily they allowed us a late check out, so after we had put our bags in the car we still hung about in the bar and took a walk around the town.
Scranton has quite a few attractive buildings, mostly built in the 1900s, but in an older style based on "Victorian Gothic/Scottish Baronial. The venue for the gig was a 1928 Masonic Temple and it was a fascinating and beautiful building. We milled about in Scranton pretty aimlessly that day. It was a bummer about the hotel room to be honest as it condemned us to a day of lurking around the mall, being pretty bored. The weather was terrible too, so we were pretty glad as the concert drew nearer. We werte supposed to be meeting Austin who was due to do another piece of Rock Hall video, but the weather had other ideas and he didn't arrive until the doors were already open and the queue was safely indoors out of the rain.
My priority was to rectify my previous oversight, and to pay an immediate visit to the T-Shirt Lady. I bought a White & Nerdy hoodie and three other T-Shirts as well which made the bag I had brought pretty stuffed to bursting and unmanageable.
Went down to the rest rooms and bumped into Jeremy, who told us that Dave and Jacqui had seats directly behind him, so he would let us know when they arrived.
We went in to see our seats
Awesome. So close to the stage that I was entirely blocking the front gangway with my legs and my feet were actually on the speakers that Al was due to climb on and off the stage from. I had a feeling right there that it was actually TOO close for a repeat of my good luck in Columbus.
There was a mix up over tickets too. According to the ushers there should not have been a "row AA" sold at all, but I for one had no intention of moving, and as no-one disputed with me personally, I decided to stand my ground and stay put. It was stressful though, and put me in a less than great mood.
A great show. This one was about the kids.. particularly Austin and Amy,( a young woman, who like my nephew Alex, has Down's Syndrome) who were up the front giving it large. Amy got to hold the mic! Al just handed it to her eventually as she was shouting out so much. Pretty funny. You should have seen her parent's faces! Austin got to shout "Albuquerque Holiday Inn" and some other poor kid got the mic in his face on Yoda and he froze up.
Despite being too close in, there was some eye contact etc with Al, especially in Pentiums and I'll Sue Ya. I am always singing along to everything which is kinda hard for him to miss! LOL
Mostly it was Steve though, (now a real life friend), who was messing about and laughing with us. I couldn't see much of anyone else, as all the bits of kit were in the way. It was OK though, I had "my" show in Columbus and the whole experience has been mind-blowing, especially my mad excursion with Steve on Tuesday afternoon!
We had Storm Troopers and a very short Darth Vader, and some other Star wars Characters and uniforms I wasn't familiar with. Amongst VERY many others we had Wilkes-Barre Donuts, guacamole donuts, donut filled donuts, donut holes etc etc... and Albuquerque generally was messed about quite a lot. It was a fantastic show. The SLN dancers were awesomely good, graceful and both very pretty indeed (You should have been there Minnick!) We complimented them afterwards and they were thrilled to bits.. as was their dance teacher. I managed to see EVERYONE after the show (amazing really, considering how wildly busy it was) and have a full set of autographs. I'm not sure how I didn't end up with a pic of me with Ruben or Jon, but that is the case sadly. I think Nancy was looking after Amy (We had an extra pass somehow so Nancy took her to meet Al and she was quite a bit more than a handful!) and so wasn't ready there with the camera at the right moment I guess.
Sad. I got on very well with both of them though. I will HAVE to come back on a future tour, just to get the full set!
After the show there was a MASSIVE ticketed meet and greet owing to some contest that the venue had arranged. The whole event had a very heavily promoted feel to it, with named sponsors and everything.
Al looked as fragile and lovely as before, mmmm!
This time I did manage to get up close and personal with my idol and we had a really lovely pic taken by Al's security guy, as Nancy had had to return Amy to her family and had not been allowed back upstairs. This made me feel a bit panicked. I felt I was running out of time and the other band members were nowhere to be seen. I managed to grab Ruben as he peered through a doorway wanting to check out the pretty cheerleaders who were waiting in line to see Al. Bermuda appeared in the same doorway and said that he was soon heading to the bus anyway so there was no point trying to stay upstairs, and the security guy who took the pic said he would try to winkle the others off the bus if possible, so I went downstairs to relocate Nancy. Turns out that outside was the place to be. First person I saw was Steve who said "Jeez! It's Louise" and gave me a hug, then he signed my book (not the one he bought me, he had signed that the previous day). The security guy ( someone tell me his name please?, he was sweet- I don't mean Hammer either, I met him on Tuesday also) was as good as his word and pretty soon Jim was out amongst all of us. It was great to see him again and he was very happy to be presented with one of his own slack key cd's to sign. He said it was a shame I had to go,. and that "next time" I should come out to the West Coast. I got several nice hugs from him also, bless him. He's such a sweetie and not nearly as reserved as people told me he was. Then Steve came back over and we had a nice long chat and Nancy took several very cute pictures of us goofing around together.
Steve started taking to Dave and wanted to see his tattooed self and there was a bit of banter about how he had changed since then so Steve borrowed my Sharpie and decided to give Dave's Steve tattoo a make-over. He decided he had always wanted a goatee and a handlebar moustache, so that is what he drew on. Then Bermuda happened by and decided to give the Jon tattoo more hair. Everyone joked that we needed a silver Sharpie to do the Jim Tattoo, but Jim decided on just adding cool shades. Steve then dragged Dave off to the bus to get his Al tattoo altered as well, but I don't recall what Al did. It was hella funny anyway and we all had a lovely good laugh together.
It must have been around midnight by then and therefore must have been Dave's birthday so that was a very cool event to happen right on that occasion. I loved meeting Dave and Jacqui and Adrian and Anne and Jeremy and Austin and all the rest. My Sharpie even made it onto the tour bus and back to me again and so got used by all of the band. I won't ever throw that away, even when it's all dried up!
I feel sad that I must soon go home. Writing this, my last full day is already done and I have already checked into my homeward bound flight.
To everyone that made this trip possible for me, to everyone who welcomed me and made me feel so much a part of it all and to all you who have read my blog and left comments I want to thank all of you for helping make this the most incredible week I have ever lived through.
To my dearly beloved Nancy, a stranger only a week ago and now one of the closest friends I have ever had. Thank you. You took a big chance on me. It could have been a disaster… but it was a triumph
Most of all I want to thank dear sweet fabulous incredible Al, who through inspiring me to "Dare to be Stupid" set me free from being scared to live and take on new experiences. No regrets.
There are not enough words…………
Louise
xxxxxxxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment