(This recap will be mostly -NOT ALL- about GRO. Because that’s what I remember most. And that’s not really saying much. I have a bad memory as it is! So… GGD and SF fans, I apologize)
August 28th 2010. THAT is another one for the record books, ladies and gentlemen. I’m not even sure where to begin.
I wasn’t sure so much epicness could happen in one week, let alone one NIGHT.
I learned about GRO opening for Goo Goo Dolls and Switchfoot back in… May I believe. I was determined to go. Now I know what y’all are thinking. “Goo Goo Dolls? Switchfoot? Throw in GRO and that’s sure to be one HELL of a show!” Oh it was.
But, if I’m being completely honest, my first thought? “GRO in Phoenix? Hell yes!! Goo Goo Dolls and Switchfoot? Bonus!” Let’s be honest, I wouldn’t have known about this show had it not been for GRO. I knew about it long before our Mix station started talking about it :D.
Why was I so excited about GRO over Goo Goo Dolls and Switchfoot? Blasphemous, right? Well, it‘s all in the timing, kids. For a long while, I lost all interest in music. Goo Goo Dolls came out with amazing music. I didn’t keep up. Switchfoot? Same deal. Two years ago, things changed. You know where I’m going with this. I’ll spare you the details. If you don’t know where I’m going with this, two words: David Cook. Let’s face it, most of us can trace our current favorites back to David. Forget Kevin Bacon. It’s freakin Six Degrees of David Cook. :D
Ever since discovering GRO’s music, I had been dying to see them in concert. So when I heard they were coming to Phoenix, I said “Oh hell yes!”
There really isn’t much to talk about as far as the time up leading to it. Except that I’m glad it was announced so far in advanced. The plan was to buy tix as soon as they went on sale. That didn’t happen, for a few different reasons. Let me tell you, I was scared out of my mind. I thought I would end up on the freakin balcony. Although, after my first experience at the Dodge theater for this show, I now know that would not have been so bad. Anyway, when I called the box office, I was given a few options based on price, for wheelchair accessible seating. But as soon as the sales rep said “3rd row in the pit area”… well I don’t think the words “Yes I’ll take those” have ever come out of mouth so fast in my life. :D
Fast forward to the day of the show. The plan was to bake some cookies for the guys. I did not have time, so I opted for store bought. While I was at it, I decided to get Wilk a couple bags of Reese’s PB cups.
My friend and I left my house at about 4:30 and we headed over to Chipotle to have pre-concert dinner. On our way over, it started raining. While the sun was out. It was pretty cool! After dinner we headed to downtown Phoenix, to the venue. On our way over, it started raining harder. Not cool. And there was NO trace of sunshine. The clouds started getting scary dark. When we arrived downtown, we ended up having to park across the street from the venue. Because of the rain, they were letting people in, thank goodness. Well, *sigh* not everything went off without a glitch. This venue is a theatre. They sell concessions. Of course I should have put two and two together but I didn’t. When a place sells concessions, they don’t let you bring food inside…of course. We had the cookies and Wilk’s PB cups. Yep. They gave us the option of taking it back to the van or leaving them at the door, but warned us that they weren’t responsible for it. Well there was no way in hell we were going back out, so the (kind of) nice security lady said we could hide everything behind her bag.
We waited about half an hour before they started letting everyone take their seats. After getting caught in the rain, sitting in a cold lobby? I was NOT a happy camper at that moment.
But soon enough, they let us in. As we were making our way to our seats, we had to walk down a long corridor, we see this room labeled “Catering” and there were a bunch of people. We slowed down a bit to see if I recognized anyone. (Yes we’re creepers) but I didn’t. My friend asks me if that’s where the band was hanging out. I said “Probably not, I didn’t see anyone I recognize.“ So we finally find our seats, and my friend and I sat there trying to get my camera ready and I tried to explain to him who was who before they hit the stage. Which led to me getting a LITTLE confused as to whether it was Wilk Geoff and Josh (our left to right) or Geoff first then Wilk.
Then we see the guys come out. I may have lost it a little bit. It felt surreal to see them walking out. I’m gonna be honest, the only song I actually remember is “Goodbye L.A.” And that was mainly because Josh told everyone about the yellow pole Jamey had hit. Oh and actually now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure they sang “On Your Own” and “Come On.” :D I should also point out that Wilk and Geoff kept laughing at God knows what. It was actually really funny to watch. =P At one point, Josh told everyone that if they had a Twitter, they should follow them. And then said, “also if you have a twitter, tweet us right now at @GRO for a chance to win a signed guitar from us. It has a cool centipede or something drawn on it.” Poor Geoff ;) So I tweeted to them!
Right before they played the last song of the night, Josh told everyone that they’d be hanging out at the merch table after their set and to come out and talk.
Right before the song was over, my friend asked if I wanted to head out. I said “No, let’s wait until they actually walk off the stage.” Uhm….I probably should’ve listened to him. It took us FOREVER to get up to the lobby (we had to wait for the elevator). And because of that, when we got there, there was a HUGE line to talk to the guys. As we were getting closer, the girls in front of us (who were up next to talk to the guys) decided to stop the line to sign up for something at a table that was there. Some VIP thing or something. We waited for a minute, but then the security guy told us to go around them and then told everyone behind us that we were going to be the last two because the guys had to take off.
My friend said they were PISSED and said something about us “cutting” in front of them. Mkay. I should feel bad. I mean, I would’ve been pissed too. But…yeah.
Anyway, we get up to where the guys are and on one end were Jamey and Geoff. Waaay on the other end were Wilk Josh and Denton. I said hi to Jamey and Geoff. The following conversation took place:
Me: Hey guys! *I hand Jamey my CD*
Jamey: Hey guys, how are you? I’m Jamey *he shakes my hand*
Geoff: I’m Geoff! *he shakes my hand*
Me: I’m good Jamey, how are you? Hi Geoff.
Jamey: I’m good.
*Geoff just smiles and I proceed to die a little*
Jamey: *he looks down at the CD* HEY! You have the “Out of my Hands” CD.
Me: Sure do! Can I be totally honest with you?
Jamey: Sure! What’s up?
Me: I’m totally here just for you guys!
Jamey: No! REALLY?! No…way! :D
Me: Yep!
Jamey: That’s awesome!
Geoff: Yeah it is!
Then they both high-five me! :D
*They both sign the CD booklet then pass it down.*
*Jamey then looks over at my friend*
Jamey: Hey! *puts his hand out* what’s your name?
My friend: Hi, I’m Victor.
Jamey: That’s my middle name!
Jamey: *he stares at me* Have we met before? What’s your name?
Me: Nope, but…no. (I was going to tell him about my FB wall posts LOL) Um, I‘m Guadalupe.
When I got my CD back, I hear some music. Switchfoot had already started. My friend then asks if I can get a pic with Geoff and Jamey and they said yes. Then Jamey looks over at the other guys and says “Hey you guys wants in on this too?” lol So they all came over, said a quick hi and posed for the pic. I thank them, and suddenly my friend tells Jamey about the cookie dilemma. :D Jamey says “hmm, don’t worry. I’ll get them.” and smiles a HUGE amazing *coughMISCHIEVOUScough* smile. He says thank you, starts walking away and then suddenly I hear “Bye Guadalupe!“ OMG JAMEY SAID MY NAME!!!!! Ahem… So, I waved and they started heading back. Then, without even thinking about it, I blurted out “HEY JOSH!” He turns around and I say “Uh, can I get a hug?” so he walks back over to me and hugs me. <3 Like my buddy Laura says “All you gotta do is ask” :D
Then we start heading back to the elevator. When we got there, a security lady asked to see our tickets and said she’d escort us back. As we’re waiting (FOREVER) for the elevator to come back to our level, I hear “There she is!!” I turn around and there is AJ, my most favorite Mix DJ! :D He walks over and gives me a quick hug. Stupid elevator decides to show up right then, so he says “Good seeing you, enjoy the rest of the show!”
As we made our way to our seats, I hear music, I hear a kickass voice, but I look up at the stage and only see the other band members. No Jon. So I look over to where the other seats are and he is IN THE CROWD. Jon Foreman is in the freakin crowd!!! This man owns! He has amazing stage presence, energy. Ah-freakin-mazing.
Remember how I said I never really kept up with their music? OK well, I recognized a whopping TWO songs. I’m sure you can guess what they are.
Jon went back into the crowd one more time at another point in the show.
When introducing the last song, all he said was “Ladies and gentlemen, we are meant to live.” Perfect intro to the song, perfect end to their set. (OK at least I think that was the last song. That’s what my memory says :D)
Jon also announced that they’d be hanging out at the merch table, BUT after missing a bunch of their set, we didn’t want to risk doing the same with GGD.
A few minutes after they walked off stage, I took out my phone to tweet. Then I saw I had a few texts. Two from twitter and one from Vanessa. (hi V!) I read V’s first. It said “NO FREAKIN WAY!” I had NO clue what she was talking about. LOL Then I went and saw that GRO had tweeted. TO ME. It said “You win, go to the merch area after the goos.” Even then, it took me a second to figure out what was going on. When it clicked, I FREAKED OUT! I text V back. Then I checked my other message and it was a DM from Nicole (Hi Nicole!) asking me if I’d seen the tweet! I told her I had and we squee’d! lol I showed it to my friend and he… was a bit jealous. Lol Suddenly this girl comes up to and shows me her phone, it had my avi on it. She says “Did you just win the guitar?!” I said “Uhm…yeah I just saw the tweet!” She congratulates me and says “Who is this guy in the pic with you.” And I said “Oh that’s Ryan Star”. Then she says “Oh! He sings that song… Breathe right? OK yeah I like that song.” So I told her about the Sept 22nd show and she said she’d try to make it out there. :D After she went back to her seat, I heard her tell the guy next to her that I’d won the guitar. He got up and high-fived me. LOL
Soon, GGD took the stage! By this time, 3rd row wasn’t so glamorous for someone who is like 3 feet tall sitting down. LOL Then after about 4 songs, nice security lady asked me if I wanted to move up. Uh, duh! :D I moved up to 2nd row which gave me a better view of Robbie. Not a great view, but better then looking at people’s heads. :D And then… Robbie takes lead on a song. What song? IDK! But John took his place on Robbie’s mic. Ho-ly crap, I freakin died! That man, is…beautiful! And he kept smiling. GAH! And then, it happened. He looked right at me. He smiled, and I SWEAR to you, I saw him mouth “hi darlin’…” then smile again. I cannot even…just…wow!
I THINK Robbie took lead on 3 more songs throughout the rest of the set.
As for the songs I recognized (all singles of course) we got (not in this particular order): Iris, Slide, Broadway, Name, Black Balloon (yes, there were black balloons in the audience) and Home. I keep trying to remember whether or not we got Give a Little Bit. Ugh. I cannot remember.
At one point, John asked if there was anyone there from Buffalo, NY. Quite a few people cheered and John laughed and said “Yeah all the drunk people in the back.” :D He was throwing picks left and right. When he threw one in our general direction, it got lost XD
The boys came back for an encore. 3 songs? I think. Soon, this amazing night was pretty close to being over. When the guys walked off stage for good this time, I met up with my friend again. But before I left, a security guy came up to me and handed me a guitar pick he’d found next to my chair. So either, John threw one at me or the long lost pick bounced in my direction. Either way, I’m a proud owner of a Goo Goo Dolls guitar pick :D
We made our way to the lobby to retrieve my guitar at the merch table. Once we got it, we stopped at some steps to try to clear our heads a bit. Suddenly we see a security dude clearing the lobby and…yep you guessed it, he had our stuff. My friend went over to him and retrieved it. I was kind of sad at that point because I didn’t think I’d be able to get my boys their stuff. So we headed out to make our way to the parking garage. Right as soon as we made our way out the door, I stopped to rest a bit. By that time we got out of there I was in some serious pain. Suddenly I turn to look behind me and Jamey is standing there talking to some people. My mood lifted QUICK! We waited a bit until he was done talking to the person he was talking to when we came out. When we got his attention, we handed him the stuff and told him there were cookies and PB cups. He says “Oh you got the guitar! Sweet!“ I said “yes, thank you so much!” We didn’t say anything else, so soon his attention went to the people who were up next to talk to him. So we just waved, he waved back and said “Thank you so much!”
I hadn’t paid attention to anything else while we were talking to Jamey so I just told my friend, “Alright let’s go!” And then…I see Josh! I went up to him and said hi. OK I love Josh, I do. But dang, this whole exchange was REALLY awkward. I don’t know what it was. Maybe I got too used to Jamey’s enthusiasm and Josh isn’t like that. I mean, at least not then he wasn’t. He wasn’t being rude or anything, not at all. He was just laid back. I just felt awkward cause I was a bit hyper I guess. But he was REALLY sweet and congratulated me on winning the guitar and thanked us for coming to the show. He said something like “the guitar doesn’t really play”. Whatever that meant. LOL I just said, “Oh that’s ok. It’ll probably go on my wall anyway!” He said he liked that idea. We then said bye to him and he told us to have a great night.
Then…we see Geoff, Denton and Joshua. I’m thinking “OK really?” LOL Denton and Joshua along with…someone whose name I do not know, were putting together money from the CD’s they were selling. We went up to Geoff who didn’t seem to be doing anything :D When he saw us he says “HEY you got the guitar!! Nice!” Then he says:
"You like the caterpillar I drew? Josh said it was a centipede, earlier. It's NOT. It's a caterpillar!" I told him it was cute! He then mentioned how nice it was outside. It really was. The temp dropped a pretty substantial amount because of the rain. :D Suddenly we get interrupted by some dude who I’m PRETTY certain was….shall I say, drunk off his ass? LOL. He asked Geoff who the drummer for the band is. Geoff pointed to Denton. Then the dude says “Five greatest drummers of all time, GO!“ Denton was totally thrown off by this and names ONE person. Who? I don’t remember. The guy who was with Denton and Joshua started naming some people. The dude approved. Then he turns his attention towards Geoff and starts rambling. Geoff, God bless his soul carried on a conversation with this guy.
Meanwhile I got Denton’s attention. I said hi and got a sideways hug. :D My face touched Denton’s face. Yes it did. I’m not even going to lie. I have NO idea what I talked to Denton about. I just remember telling him that they were amazing! And the sideways hug. LOL
At that second, Geoff comes back and says “That guy was quite… eccentric.“ LOL He asked us if we had a good night and enjoyed the show. I said “Good doesn’t even BEGIN to cover it! It was AMAZING!” My friend then asked him if they could take a picture together. I said “OK let’s hope my camera cooperates. With my luck it’ll explode!” I then take the picture. Then I ask if I could get a picture with him too. Obviously he wasn’t done talking about the camera and says: “Now, watch it start smoking!” I laughed hard, and said “OK YOU are bad!“ and then he laughs. My friend takes the pic then Geoff says he has to go. We thank him for everything, he thanks us for coming.
Then…Wilk. All I told him was that Jamey had the bag with the cookies and there were also PB cups for him. He says “Really? Awesome! I LOVE PB cups. More than anyone here!” I said “Yeah I know. That’s why I brought them. Don’t let Jamey eat them. Make sure he gives them to you.” He says “OK I’ll beat him up if he doesn’t give them to me.” I said “Uh ok just don’t kill him. We need him.” He laughs and says “OK I’ll just threaten to beat him up. How’s that?” I said “OK”
We said goodbye to him and headed home.
I was asked if maybe THIS night was the best night ever now. Not sure. But it was pretty damn amazing!!
Until next time ladies and gentlemen.
Lyric of the Day: You've got to dig a little deeper, fight a little harder knowing there may be no second chance.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
The first time I met Ryan Star.
OK so since I changed my name, Twitlonger ate my recap of the first time I met Ryan. So I'll post it here in case anyone out there has not read it. Enjoy reading about the ecounter that started this crazy rollercoaster of awesomeness.
And this is my recap of a day that will go down in history… I must warn you though, it’s only been a couple of hours since I got home and my head is still spinning, for different reasons other than the obvious. And my memory isn’t the greatest, but I will try my hardest! But let’s get on with this thing. Let’s start from the top, shall we?
EDIT: *OK it has now been about 12 hours cause I didn’t post yesterday, but I didn't edit, so pretend this is still yesterday lol…moving on…*
So for the past few weeks I’d been hearing that Jason Castro was hitting Phoenix. He’s playing tonight at a place called The Rhythm Room. I won’t lie, I haven’t checked out his music. Loved him on Idol, voted for him and was sad to see him go. But like everything else, I’m really behind on his music. Well, all of a sudden I hear that he’s doing an Unplugged performance for Mix 969 along with Ryan Star. Who much like Jason, I was VERY behind on Ryan’s music. Unfortunately. *sigh* I’d been following him on Twitter, heard Breathe SO many times, watched the video a million times, watched performances on YouTube and I loved every single performance I came across. At first I was hesitant to even try and win tickets. I didn’t know Jason’s music, and BARELY knew Ryan’s. But the weird thing is, when I learned the date of the Unplugged performance, my heart sank! I DID want to go. But…on a Sunday? No, my bestest friend goes to church and works afterwards. This was not to happen. But …being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to go for it anyway. I’d figure something out. I’m becoming a concert addict, music is music and I LOVE IT!. I called a few times, and came SO close to winning. Coming that close every time was making me a nervous wreck. That panicky uneasy feeling of when I was trying to win tickets to David’s Unplugged show came back with a vengeance with every phone call.
Let’s fast forward to Saturday evening. Ryan RT’s someone who asked if he’d be doing a non-private show in Phoenix. He wasn’t, but said the station was giving away tickets or that maybe he could hook her up. Well *I* just about cried. This girl might possibly get hooked up and I get to sit at home wishing I was there. Minutes later he says that if we want to be hooked up with entrance to the show, to be among the first 10 people to respond back with the tag #rstarphoenix. Even after deciding that if I won tickets, I’d go come hell or water high, I still hesitated, I REALLY wanted my bestest friend with me. So I text her and asked if there was even a SLIGHT possibility that she’d be available. She said she wasn’t sure and asked why. So I told her. I didn’t get a response after that. (She was at work). So I had a slight freak out on Twitter. BTW, thanks to all those who tried to calm me down. It helped, even if it didn‘t seem like it. =) So then after waiting on my friend to text back, I said, screw it! And went right for it. I messed up the tag the first time. Yep! That’s Guadalupe for ya. Did it again. Waited…and waited. After about 20 mins I wondered why Ryan wasn’t saying anything. So I waited a little more, when all of a sudden I realized I’d put my profile back on Protected the night before! I’m not 100% sure of the ins and outs of Twitter so I PANICKED like nobody’s business. What if he didn’t get it? So I rushed to Unprotect my profile and sent the tag again….and proceeded to deleted the first one. More panic! I realized that because it was directed to him, he’d most likely be able to read it even if it my profile was protected. WTF had I done?! If my first one was among the 10, I’d royally messed up!! Surely the 2nd one wasn’t going to be in the first 10. I wanted to cry! But I waited anyway. I don’t know how much time had passed when I got a DM from Ryan or someone on his behalf. It said that if I lived in AZ and wanted to go to the show, to send an email. So I did. More time passed, then I get an email from someone named Trey, on behalf of Ryan. I was going to the show! Alone…they only had room for the 10 winners, no guests. Hesitated…again. Bestest friend texts me back and asked me if I’d got it. I said yes, but told her the unfortunate part…she was ECTSTATIC for me and told me to go! FTR…I LOVE HER! So I unleashed the news on Twitter. I cannot thank you all enough for being so excited for me! I mean that. I love you all! <3 Then came the task of finding a ride. Normally, bestest would drive to my house and we’d then take my dad’s van to wherever we plan on going. I panicked. Yes I did a lot of that. =P I told my mom that I’d be asking one of my sister’s and she said, “She goes to Sunday School, ask dad to drive you”. I didn’t think of my dad right away because he’s been battling a cold, and it’s been rainy and gross for a couple days. My mom said he was ok and willing to take me. That was that. Next came “WTH am I going to have Ryan sign?” So then came the bright idea of starting my collage. For those who don’t know, I re-arranged my room to make it look less like an office with a bed in and more like an actual bedroom. So the next step was to add my own touch. I decided on making a collage with all my favorite lines from various songs. I would print out my favorite line from Breathe, laminate it and ask him to sign THAT and make it the center piece of the collage. So I printed it out, laminated it and that was THAT. For one reason or another I decided to ask my mom if dad was working the next day. She responded with “Yes he’s leaving early in the morning…why?…oh!” You guessed it…Panicked. She says “OK call your other sis! So I woke her up …it was like 11pm at that point. She agreed to take me. I went to bed. Had a dream that I met Ryan and he signed my chair. LMAO…don’t ask. Woke up to ask my brother for my camera and card I’d let him borrow. He says his wife has it and to ask her for it before I leave. With that, I slept another couple hours. Got up around 9 and proceeded to get ready.
Now let’s fast forward to my getting to the “venue”. =D
This was held in a small restaurant type of place which is part of a hotel, I get to the main entrance of the hotel at about 11:40 and was told that the place was on the other side of the building. So my BIL and a nice valet dude walked me over. As I’m getting to the parking lot of the restaurant, I glance over and see a familiar face. I couldn’t place it until I saw two more familiar faces behind him unloading equipment from a vehicle. First familiar face: Bo Rinehart! (guitar) Other two faces: Seth Bolt (bass) and Joe Stillwell (drums) !!!!! Ladies and gentlemen, this was the exact moment I found out NeedtoBreathe were also performing. I was speechless, confused and beyond ecstatic. As I neared the door, I glanced over at Bo and said hi. He smiled and nodded! I went and checked in with the nice dude from the station. There were about 10 or so people already in the lobby. From where I was I could only see the stage area and not the sitting area. I was nervous so I wasn’t paying much attention to my surroundings except for a young lady standing next to me. I glanced over a few times and we smiled at each other, but didn‘t talk. Suddenly I glance back over to the stage area and see Jason sound checking. I was in awe of how good looking that boy is. Ahem, yeah I like looking at boys…so sue me. LOL I watched for a bit but again got distracted. Next thing I know, I look up and Jason’s crew is packing up his stuff, I glance to the people standing in front of Jason who was still in the stage area, and I see none other than Ryan Star chatting with someone. I was so focused on Ryan that I didn’t notice Jason wasn’t there anymore. I look over and he’s 2 feet away from me but as soon as I caught a glance, he had to go outside. That’s when I tweeted “Jason just walked right past me!”. Cue internal squee! It took me a second to refocus on Ryan who was still talking to someone. Next tweet: “I see Ryan!“ Next thing I know, he walks out of the stage area and starts to make his way to the door, THEN he glances down (I’m short!) and he SMILES RIGHT AT ME! A sincere, beautiful smile. *sigh* I was complete putty by then. Well, half putty actually. It took me longer to refocus than before. But when I did, I glance over to see Bear (lead singer for NeedtoBreathe) on stage, sound checking. BEEEYOOTIFUL! My memory is hazy about the next 10 mins. Then they announce that we can take our seats. Oh I should add that whilst I was tweeting, I was also exchanging squees with V via texts *waves at V*! That was fun! =D So I make my way to the area which like I said before was a restaurant, so the tables were reeeally close together. I thought “how the heck am I going to get back there?” My plan was to sit a few tables back. There were no bad seats, let me tell you. BUT, nice dude (who I think was from the station) had other plans. As I was attempting to squeeze by the front table, he asked me where I would be sitting, and I pointed before anything even came out of my mouth. Yes, feel free to laugh at me! The table I was right in front of was occupied by some other guests, but he asked them if they would be so kind as to make room for me. They said yes. So I hesitantly parked myself about foot in front of the table. I’m awkward, I didn’t want to sit TOO close to a group of people who already knew one another. So I look behind me to make sure I’m not gonna hit anyone as I’m attempting to park. When I feel comfy I turn back in front of me and suddenly, too suddenly realize that the mics are set up about 4 feet from me. I proceed to freak out a little! That’s when I tweeted about possibly being able to see up Ryan’s nose! Lol. Then the DJ from the station welcomed us and introduced Matt Hires. Or as I heard “Matt *mumble*” lol. Then V asked me if they’d already started so she can let me enjoy the music. Her words, not mine. Then I said they were just about to start with Matt…something. And she said “MATT HIRES!” …I think she likes him. =) What happened next made me panic…yes again! I take out my camera to set it up for pics, and when I turn it on, I realize there are 6 pics left!!! My bro had used up most of my card! Now, I wasn’t upset about this when I remembered I had let him borrow the card with the least amount of memory. So I quickly went through the pics and thankfully there were a bunch of repeats where he was just learning to use the camera and just failed to delete the bad ones. *semi-relieved sigh* Problem: I wasn’t able to delete all of them while the DJ was talking. So I quickly put it away when Matt walked on stage. Figured I would just wait between songs to take pics and delete un-needed ones. The DJ asks Matt a few questions and he begins his first song. Can’t remember the name though, but I CAN tell you this: the kid is AMAZING! I was blown away! His voice is just…beautiful! So soothing and pretty! =D He did a total of three songs and I smiled the entire time! Let me go back to the camera thing for a second. I cannot remember if I got any pics with my camera but I have one on my phone =D When I’m done with the recap I will upload pics. I managed to clear enough pics to get about 30 available. But I still didn’t take very many TBH.
Next came my boys: NeedtoBreathe! First, the mini interview with the DJ. At some point during the set they talked about a few of their songs being on various soundtracks. “PS I Love You” among others. He also said that a song (or a few) were also featured on The Hills. They got a kick out of it. And Bear said “We don’t watch the show” And I hear the lady behind whisper “Well no one admits to watching it!“ LOL! Whilst Bear was chatting it up with the DJ some more, I was looking at Seth. He glanced at me a few times. I think…lol. No smile, he was just skimming the room, I guess. Then they started playing The Outsiders! This is where it gets really funny. When I’m at a live show (haven’t been to very many) I tend to forget the words to songs, no matter how much I know the song. I get so focused on just taking it all in and listening that my mind kind of does what it wants and it usually wants to forget lyrics to a song that is being performed. Well, I’m sitting there trying to sing along to The Outsiders all the while I keep glancing over at Seth. (Shush!) Seth glances over at me and smiles slightly. I smile back, but totally screw up the words while he’s watching me. *face palm* It WAS partly because I was so focused on him and I quit paying attention to the actual song. He smiles. Not in a mocking/playful way, just a smile. I refocus momentarily but soon found myself looking at him, he looks at me again, I freak and avoid eye contact. (I PANICKED, shut…up lol) I turn back around and he’s shaking his head and trying not to laugh while singing. Tsk tsk tsk. This happened a few more times during the song. Damn front row seat! Lol. So then, more funny chatter with the DJ (Bear is a funny guy) and then Hurricane! I know this song a bit less, so I just sat back and listened. Chimed in at the little bits that I knew. This time, I focused on Joe, the drummer. He was playing the box…thing. OK y’all know what I’m talking about. IDK what it’s called. He was awesome! =D I stole a few more glances at Seth, who thank GOD was not looking at me those few times. Then toward the end of the song I focused on Bo. Unfortunately there was no dancing, but he was subtly grooving to the music! More chatter with the DJ then they said this was their last song *sad face* They didn’t introduce it. But as soon as Bear started playing the first few chords, I KNEW it was “Something Beautiful”. Cue shortness of breath and momentary lack of heart beat! I LOVE this song!!!! No no, let me rephrase: I absolutely f****** LOVE THIS SONG TO PIECES!!!! I regret to inform all NTB fans, at that moment, the only person I noticed on that stage was Bear. Oh the other boys were present, doing their thing…but Bear KILLED IT on “Something Beautiful” and I couldn’t look at anyone else. And boy am I glad! We made eye contact about 3 times and I got some smiles! Amazing…ah-ma-zing! His voice has this rawness to it, and at the same time a hint of…smoothness (if that makes any sense)… and it’s just…*sigh* I am in love with his voice. Sadly the song ends, they walk off stage, and the techs prepare for Jason. Jason comes out accompanied by another guitarist. The DJ has to ask him how long he’s been growing his hair. I BELIEVE he says 7 years! Lol He then begins his set. Or at least he tries…lol he was having some difficulty with the pedal board. He thought it wasn’t plugged in but it was. He messed with it for about 2 minutes. =D Then got it to work, and says “You can hear me now!“ lol! So he begins his first song. I don’t know what it’s called (boo!) but he sounded so awesome! I was really proud of him at that moment. At one point during his chat, they talked a little bit about his AI experience, the fact that he‘s from TX and where he went to college. Then he sang his current single. Let’s Just Fall in Love Again (I think it‘s called…?) Please correct me if I’m wrong. I recognized it a bit and it was fun to listen to. Again, sounded amazing! THEN, yes more chatter. He then ended his set with …yes, ladies and gentlemen…Hallelujah! I love this song. He did fantastic. I sang along! =) He finished the song and suddenly I look inside my purse and notice the backlight on my phone is on…hmm. As he’s walking off the stage, I take out my phone and notice I accidentally purse-dialed V! OMG! I think the call was like 10 minutes! LMAO! So I hang up…lol. Then I get a text from V thanking me! o_O Apparently I gave her a personal, albeit accidental cellcast of some of Jason’s set. I have no words…it was quite hilarious! I then tell her I would be calling her if Ryan sang Breathe.
Last but most certainly not least…Ryan Star!!! Now, I think at this point in my recap, the excitement has gotten to me all over again and I fail to remember two of the songs he sang (major FAIL!) one of the two was a cover which I didn‘t recognize. He sang Last Train Home. This ladies and gentlemen is where I continue turning into putty. For those who have seen him live, you don’t need me to tell you the intensity in which he performs! He threw EVERY SINGLE ounce of himself into this particular performance. You could FEEL it. It was almost too much for me to handle! Then more chatter…lol. He is so humble. He appreciates where he is in his career and he appreciates the people who helped him get there. He thanked the fans a few times during his set. (sound familiar?) He also thanked the station for giving him the opportunity to come in and play for us. He talked a bit about being on Rock Star Supernova. He talked briefly about being on tour with David. And he talked about the level of support his family has offered. He even told us about the time his grandpa (?…dang it!) was watching WWE (lol) and one of the wrestlers walked out to one of his songs, his grandpa called him CRYING, told him he was proud. It was sooo sweet! Then, the moment I had been waiting for HOURS: Breathe! My heart sped up. I thought I might pass out! I grab my phone, dialed V and then placed in on top of my purse hoping that she’d be able to hear. At some point before starting he says “Feel free to sing along if you know this one. But only on the soft parts, don’t upstage me!“ LMAO! Best thing ever!!. Then he starts. Just to give you an idea of this performance, it had the intensity of Last Train Home, times 100! Strong, emotional, heavy! I sang along to every word!!! Yay to my brain for not failing me! Then came: “Let go of the ones who try to put you down.” and we made eye contact! I think I died a little. End of the song…DJ thanks us, and everyone makes their way to the waiting area.
I took my place in the exact same spot where I was as I was waiting to go in. I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know who to try to talk to first. Ryan was to my left about 10 ft from me, but there was a HUGE crowd. Then I noticed that Jason was a few feet in front of me talking with people and taking pics. Remember the girl I mentioned earlier who was waiting next to me? Well she was standing next to me again, looks over and asks if I’m waiting for a pic. I really wasn’t sure what I was waiting on. But I said yes. LOL She then says, “I’ll get Jason over here for you”. And I say “well he’s talking to a bunch of people, I can wait”. She then smiles at me and says “I got him” So as soon as he’s done talking and taking pics with one group, before he can talk to the next group she says “JASON! Wanna come take a picture with her?” He looks at me, smiles and says “Oh yeah! Sure!” He walks over and I shake his hand and quickly tell him how amazing he was. He says “Aww thank you so much!” and poses for a pic. I thank him and he smiles at me. The girl then says, “who else do you want to take a pic with?” and I said “Uh everyone!” She laughs and says “How about Matt?” and I say yes! We debate as to whether we’ll go over to him together or if she’s going to go get him. It had only been a few minutes since we made our way to the waiting area so it was still crowded. She says she’ll be right back. Some of the people in front of me clear out and I spot NeedtoBreathe talking to a small group of people, then I see them posing for a pic. As soon as the group clears, I make my way over to them but by the time I get there someone was talking w/ them. Dang! So I wait. One of the ladies from the station asked me if I wanted a picture with them and I said yes. So she politely interrupts. (I COULD’VE waited LOL) They turn around and right smack in front of me, from right to left, they introduce themselves, and I shake hands with: Bear, Bo, Joe and Seth. I ask for a pic and tell them I‘ll be at the April 29th show. They pose for a pic and I thank them again. Before I know it, I hear myself saying “Uh…can you do me a favor? Uh…*sigh* OK never mind” I got nervous! And they all say (at almost the same time) “no no, what?” And I say “OK a friend of mine is a HUGE fan, if I called her could you say hi really quick?” they smile and say yes. Well, as I’m dialing V’s number someone grabs their attention and Bear looks at me and says “you’ll tell me when you got her on the phone?” and I nod and he politely turns around to the people who want to talk to him. I won’t go into the conversation V and I had before I actually gave Bear the phone lol but I wait until he’s done talking and looks at me and I say “OK she’s on the phone” he then asks me her name. They talk for a bit, he hands me the phone, I thank him, he smiles and points like saying “I gotta go”. I just nod. Then I hear “There she is!!” And Awesome Girl is walking towards me with Matt by her side. I tell him “You were AMAZING! OK that wasn’t the word I was looking for. It doesn’t even come close. But you get my point” And he says “Thank you so much!”, poses for a pic, shakes my hand, I thank him, he thanks ME again for coming and goes on his way. Such a sweetie!
Then…Ryan. There was still a pretty good sized crowd by him. Except, well it wasn’t much of crowd, it turned into a line. But there was still a lot of people waiting. It got more organized as I was taking pics w/ everyone else. Lol So I waited…and waited. I watched him a lot too. I stayed close enough to where I could be in plain sight but far enough to where I couldn’t hear his conversations with other people. I didn’t get in line though. There wasn’t anyone else out of the line who looked like they were going to take pics, so I assumed I could just be the last one, or close to the last one. One of the promoters was putting away the last of the posters and asked me if I’d gotten one. I hadn’t because I was just planning on getting my collage piece signed. But he handed one to me. At one point as a girl was standing next to Ryan waiting for her friend to fix the camera, he looked over, spotted me, smiled and waved. I waved back. The line got smaller until there were about 3 girls. But from what I understood, they were friends of radio station people, so one of the radio station people called Ryan over to me and told him I wanted a picture. He looked at her before looking to where she was pointing and then he glances over and smiles BIG. He walks over and says to no one in particular “She’s been waiting a long time” and I say “No worries, I was relaxing. Just hanging out.” I think he thanked me for coming, and said I had a good spot in the front. and I say “YEAH I DID! Thank YOU SO MUCH!! You were…just…amazing! I was one of the Twitter winners” and he says “OH!! OK! What’s your Twitter name?” And I tell him. He then points to the poster and the following conversation takes place:
Ryan: “Do you want me to sign that?”
Me: “Oh yeah!”
Ryan: “What’s your name?”
Me: “Guadalupe”
Ryan: *smile* “How do you spell that?”
Me: “G-U-A-D…” *I wait for him to write*
Ryan: “G…U…A…” *sounded like ‘T‘*
Me: “D…*I look over at the poster* wait did you write a T or a D?”
Ryan: “Um…T”
Me: *small voice* “It’s a D”
Ryan: “Aaah! *laugh* OK someone get me another one!”
Some Lady: “This is going to take 3 tries”
Me: “Yeah! Pay. Attention. Ryan. GAH!”
Ryan *laughing hard* “OK!”
*everyone laughs*
*Someone hands him a new poster*
The same guy who gave me the poster comes back with a new poster and something else but I didn’t notice what it was right away.
Ryan: “Oh I got one. Thanks! OK one more time! G-U-A….D! *laugh* What else?
Me: *whisper* G-U-A-D…damn it, I have no idea! I can’t spell my own name!
Ryan: *laughing harder* “Oh come on!” *more laughter*
Me: “Sorry! *laugh* OK it’s A-L-U-P-E…”
Ryan: “Sure?”
Me: “Shush! Yes!”
The poster dude hands him a what he had in his hand. I look and it’s a hard copy of Breathe. He says “Here give this to her” Ryan takes it, signs it and hands it to me and says “I saw you right up there singing along to every word. It just made me want to give it even more!” I was…in awe. I somehow managed to tell him he did an amazing job. I thanked him for the CD and tell him I NEED him to please sign one more thing. He says “of course!” and I hand him the collage piece and tell him it’s going in the center. He then turns to the guy and says “These are always the ones with more pressure, when someone tells you it’s going to be the the center of something” LOL! He reads it and says “Perfect! You got it right.” And I said “Well, I had some help. I HAD to make sure it was right!” He signs it and hands it back to me, he then gets ready to pose for the pic. BUT before I could take my camera out, one of his people says, “if you want I can take the pictures. I’ll email them to you later on” I said yeah. (I got them btw). She takes two pics, and then Ryan says “OK sexy pose, ready?” I said “Uh…suuuure.” That pic is coming up, shortly! It was weird. LOL! So she took 3 pics…that I was aware of. LOL! He then stands back up (yes he kneeled to my level) and the next 5 seconds were a blur, until I heard him ask someone (not me) jokingly “Was my butt showing?” and he did this weird turn towards where I was (completely unaware that he’d done it) and I said “What? Did you want ME to check or what?” And he laughs! Yes ladies and gentlemen, I asked Ryan Star if he wanted me to check whether or not his butt was showing. GO ME! He thanked me again, I thanked HIM…again. He says hopefully he’ll be back to AZ and I said “Schedule a show and I will be there!” And we hugged. And I was ready to leave. OK I wasn’t ready to leave. I wanted to stay there for freaking ever and ever. Ahem anyway, I lingered by the door, totally unaware that I had 2 missed calls from my sis wanting to tell me she was waiting for me. Ooops, so I took one last glance at Ryan who was chatting with the lady who took the pics. He looked over and noticed me looking. I wasn’t staring, I just glanced over and he happened to look in my direction at that very second. I waved and he puts his hand up as if he were to wave back, but puts it back down, runs over to me, stops, I put my hand out to shake his but he kneels down and hugs me again. We thank each other again! And I say “Hey do me a favor?” and he says “Yeah what is it?” And I say “Tell the SafetySuit boys to quit stealing your food” and he says “OH! I KNOW! God, I was f’ing hungry, I was like what?” and I said “Yeah I told Jeremy to quit being so mean and let you eat” and he laughs. And we said our last goodbyes. For real this time.
And with THAT ladies and gentlemen, ended my epic day. One of the most amazing days of my life. All made possible by some of the sweetest, most humble and talented men I have ever had the honor of meeting. Thank you for getting this far and sharing the epicness with me.
And this is my recap of a day that will go down in history… I must warn you though, it’s only been a couple of hours since I got home and my head is still spinning, for different reasons other than the obvious. And my memory isn’t the greatest, but I will try my hardest! But let’s get on with this thing. Let’s start from the top, shall we?
EDIT: *OK it has now been about 12 hours cause I didn’t post yesterday, but I didn't edit, so pretend this is still yesterday lol…moving on…*
So for the past few weeks I’d been hearing that Jason Castro was hitting Phoenix. He’s playing tonight at a place called The Rhythm Room. I won’t lie, I haven’t checked out his music. Loved him on Idol, voted for him and was sad to see him go. But like everything else, I’m really behind on his music. Well, all of a sudden I hear that he’s doing an Unplugged performance for Mix 969 along with Ryan Star. Who much like Jason, I was VERY behind on Ryan’s music. Unfortunately. *sigh* I’d been following him on Twitter, heard Breathe SO many times, watched the video a million times, watched performances on YouTube and I loved every single performance I came across. At first I was hesitant to even try and win tickets. I didn’t know Jason’s music, and BARELY knew Ryan’s. But the weird thing is, when I learned the date of the Unplugged performance, my heart sank! I DID want to go. But…on a Sunday? No, my bestest friend goes to church and works afterwards. This was not to happen. But …being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to go for it anyway. I’d figure something out. I’m becoming a concert addict, music is music and I LOVE IT!. I called a few times, and came SO close to winning. Coming that close every time was making me a nervous wreck. That panicky uneasy feeling of when I was trying to win tickets to David’s Unplugged show came back with a vengeance with every phone call.
Let’s fast forward to Saturday evening. Ryan RT’s someone who asked if he’d be doing a non-private show in Phoenix. He wasn’t, but said the station was giving away tickets or that maybe he could hook her up. Well *I* just about cried. This girl might possibly get hooked up and I get to sit at home wishing I was there. Minutes later he says that if we want to be hooked up with entrance to the show, to be among the first 10 people to respond back with the tag #rstarphoenix. Even after deciding that if I won tickets, I’d go come hell or water high, I still hesitated, I REALLY wanted my bestest friend with me. So I text her and asked if there was even a SLIGHT possibility that she’d be available. She said she wasn’t sure and asked why. So I told her. I didn’t get a response after that. (She was at work). So I had a slight freak out on Twitter. BTW, thanks to all those who tried to calm me down. It helped, even if it didn‘t seem like it. =) So then after waiting on my friend to text back, I said, screw it! And went right for it. I messed up the tag the first time. Yep! That’s Guadalupe for ya. Did it again. Waited…and waited. After about 20 mins I wondered why Ryan wasn’t saying anything. So I waited a little more, when all of a sudden I realized I’d put my profile back on Protected the night before! I’m not 100% sure of the ins and outs of Twitter so I PANICKED like nobody’s business. What if he didn’t get it? So I rushed to Unprotect my profile and sent the tag again….and proceeded to deleted the first one. More panic! I realized that because it was directed to him, he’d most likely be able to read it even if it my profile was protected. WTF had I done?! If my first one was among the 10, I’d royally messed up!! Surely the 2nd one wasn’t going to be in the first 10. I wanted to cry! But I waited anyway. I don’t know how much time had passed when I got a DM from Ryan or someone on his behalf. It said that if I lived in AZ and wanted to go to the show, to send an email. So I did. More time passed, then I get an email from someone named Trey, on behalf of Ryan. I was going to the show! Alone…they only had room for the 10 winners, no guests. Hesitated…again. Bestest friend texts me back and asked me if I’d got it. I said yes, but told her the unfortunate part…she was ECTSTATIC for me and told me to go! FTR…I LOVE HER! So I unleashed the news on Twitter. I cannot thank you all enough for being so excited for me! I mean that. I love you all! <3 Then came the task of finding a ride. Normally, bestest would drive to my house and we’d then take my dad’s van to wherever we plan on going. I panicked. Yes I did a lot of that. =P I told my mom that I’d be asking one of my sister’s and she said, “She goes to Sunday School, ask dad to drive you”. I didn’t think of my dad right away because he’s been battling a cold, and it’s been rainy and gross for a couple days. My mom said he was ok and willing to take me. That was that. Next came “WTH am I going to have Ryan sign?” So then came the bright idea of starting my collage. For those who don’t know, I re-arranged my room to make it look less like an office with a bed in and more like an actual bedroom. So the next step was to add my own touch. I decided on making a collage with all my favorite lines from various songs. I would print out my favorite line from Breathe, laminate it and ask him to sign THAT and make it the center piece of the collage. So I printed it out, laminated it and that was THAT. For one reason or another I decided to ask my mom if dad was working the next day. She responded with “Yes he’s leaving early in the morning…why?…oh!” You guessed it…Panicked. She says “OK call your other sis! So I woke her up …it was like 11pm at that point. She agreed to take me. I went to bed. Had a dream that I met Ryan and he signed my chair. LMAO…don’t ask. Woke up to ask my brother for my camera and card I’d let him borrow. He says his wife has it and to ask her for it before I leave. With that, I slept another couple hours. Got up around 9 and proceeded to get ready.
Now let’s fast forward to my getting to the “venue”. =D
This was held in a small restaurant type of place which is part of a hotel, I get to the main entrance of the hotel at about 11:40 and was told that the place was on the other side of the building. So my BIL and a nice valet dude walked me over. As I’m getting to the parking lot of the restaurant, I glance over and see a familiar face. I couldn’t place it until I saw two more familiar faces behind him unloading equipment from a vehicle. First familiar face: Bo Rinehart! (guitar) Other two faces: Seth Bolt (bass) and Joe Stillwell (drums) !!!!! Ladies and gentlemen, this was the exact moment I found out NeedtoBreathe were also performing. I was speechless, confused and beyond ecstatic. As I neared the door, I glanced over at Bo and said hi. He smiled and nodded! I went and checked in with the nice dude from the station. There were about 10 or so people already in the lobby. From where I was I could only see the stage area and not the sitting area. I was nervous so I wasn’t paying much attention to my surroundings except for a young lady standing next to me. I glanced over a few times and we smiled at each other, but didn‘t talk. Suddenly I glance back over to the stage area and see Jason sound checking. I was in awe of how good looking that boy is. Ahem, yeah I like looking at boys…so sue me. LOL I watched for a bit but again got distracted. Next thing I know, I look up and Jason’s crew is packing up his stuff, I glance to the people standing in front of Jason who was still in the stage area, and I see none other than Ryan Star chatting with someone. I was so focused on Ryan that I didn’t notice Jason wasn’t there anymore. I look over and he’s 2 feet away from me but as soon as I caught a glance, he had to go outside. That’s when I tweeted “Jason just walked right past me!”. Cue internal squee! It took me a second to refocus on Ryan who was still talking to someone. Next tweet: “I see Ryan!“ Next thing I know, he walks out of the stage area and starts to make his way to the door, THEN he glances down (I’m short!) and he SMILES RIGHT AT ME! A sincere, beautiful smile. *sigh* I was complete putty by then. Well, half putty actually. It took me longer to refocus than before. But when I did, I glance over to see Bear (lead singer for NeedtoBreathe) on stage, sound checking. BEEEYOOTIFUL! My memory is hazy about the next 10 mins. Then they announce that we can take our seats. Oh I should add that whilst I was tweeting, I was also exchanging squees with V via texts *waves at V*! That was fun! =D So I make my way to the area which like I said before was a restaurant, so the tables were reeeally close together. I thought “how the heck am I going to get back there?” My plan was to sit a few tables back. There were no bad seats, let me tell you. BUT, nice dude (who I think was from the station) had other plans. As I was attempting to squeeze by the front table, he asked me where I would be sitting, and I pointed before anything even came out of my mouth. Yes, feel free to laugh at me! The table I was right in front of was occupied by some other guests, but he asked them if they would be so kind as to make room for me. They said yes. So I hesitantly parked myself about foot in front of the table. I’m awkward, I didn’t want to sit TOO close to a group of people who already knew one another. So I look behind me to make sure I’m not gonna hit anyone as I’m attempting to park. When I feel comfy I turn back in front of me and suddenly, too suddenly realize that the mics are set up about 4 feet from me. I proceed to freak out a little! That’s when I tweeted about possibly being able to see up Ryan’s nose! Lol. Then the DJ from the station welcomed us and introduced Matt Hires. Or as I heard “Matt *mumble*” lol. Then V asked me if they’d already started so she can let me enjoy the music. Her words, not mine. Then I said they were just about to start with Matt…something. And she said “MATT HIRES!” …I think she likes him. =) What happened next made me panic…yes again! I take out my camera to set it up for pics, and when I turn it on, I realize there are 6 pics left!!! My bro had used up most of my card! Now, I wasn’t upset about this when I remembered I had let him borrow the card with the least amount of memory. So I quickly went through the pics and thankfully there were a bunch of repeats where he was just learning to use the camera and just failed to delete the bad ones. *semi-relieved sigh* Problem: I wasn’t able to delete all of them while the DJ was talking. So I quickly put it away when Matt walked on stage. Figured I would just wait between songs to take pics and delete un-needed ones. The DJ asks Matt a few questions and he begins his first song. Can’t remember the name though, but I CAN tell you this: the kid is AMAZING! I was blown away! His voice is just…beautiful! So soothing and pretty! =D He did a total of three songs and I smiled the entire time! Let me go back to the camera thing for a second. I cannot remember if I got any pics with my camera but I have one on my phone =D When I’m done with the recap I will upload pics. I managed to clear enough pics to get about 30 available. But I still didn’t take very many TBH.
Next came my boys: NeedtoBreathe! First, the mini interview with the DJ. At some point during the set they talked about a few of their songs being on various soundtracks. “PS I Love You” among others. He also said that a song (or a few) were also featured on The Hills. They got a kick out of it. And Bear said “We don’t watch the show” And I hear the lady behind whisper “Well no one admits to watching it!“ LOL! Whilst Bear was chatting it up with the DJ some more, I was looking at Seth. He glanced at me a few times. I think…lol. No smile, he was just skimming the room, I guess. Then they started playing The Outsiders! This is where it gets really funny. When I’m at a live show (haven’t been to very many) I tend to forget the words to songs, no matter how much I know the song. I get so focused on just taking it all in and listening that my mind kind of does what it wants and it usually wants to forget lyrics to a song that is being performed. Well, I’m sitting there trying to sing along to The Outsiders all the while I keep glancing over at Seth. (Shush!) Seth glances over at me and smiles slightly. I smile back, but totally screw up the words while he’s watching me. *face palm* It WAS partly because I was so focused on him and I quit paying attention to the actual song. He smiles. Not in a mocking/playful way, just a smile. I refocus momentarily but soon found myself looking at him, he looks at me again, I freak and avoid eye contact. (I PANICKED, shut…up lol) I turn back around and he’s shaking his head and trying not to laugh while singing. Tsk tsk tsk. This happened a few more times during the song. Damn front row seat! Lol. So then, more funny chatter with the DJ (Bear is a funny guy) and then Hurricane! I know this song a bit less, so I just sat back and listened. Chimed in at the little bits that I knew. This time, I focused on Joe, the drummer. He was playing the box…thing. OK y’all know what I’m talking about. IDK what it’s called. He was awesome! =D I stole a few more glances at Seth, who thank GOD was not looking at me those few times. Then toward the end of the song I focused on Bo. Unfortunately there was no dancing, but he was subtly grooving to the music! More chatter with the DJ then they said this was their last song *sad face* They didn’t introduce it. But as soon as Bear started playing the first few chords, I KNEW it was “Something Beautiful”. Cue shortness of breath and momentary lack of heart beat! I LOVE this song!!!! No no, let me rephrase: I absolutely f****** LOVE THIS SONG TO PIECES!!!! I regret to inform all NTB fans, at that moment, the only person I noticed on that stage was Bear. Oh the other boys were present, doing their thing…but Bear KILLED IT on “Something Beautiful” and I couldn’t look at anyone else. And boy am I glad! We made eye contact about 3 times and I got some smiles! Amazing…ah-ma-zing! His voice has this rawness to it, and at the same time a hint of…smoothness (if that makes any sense)… and it’s just…*sigh* I am in love with his voice. Sadly the song ends, they walk off stage, and the techs prepare for Jason. Jason comes out accompanied by another guitarist. The DJ has to ask him how long he’s been growing his hair. I BELIEVE he says 7 years! Lol He then begins his set. Or at least he tries…lol he was having some difficulty with the pedal board. He thought it wasn’t plugged in but it was. He messed with it for about 2 minutes. =D Then got it to work, and says “You can hear me now!“ lol! So he begins his first song. I don’t know what it’s called (boo!) but he sounded so awesome! I was really proud of him at that moment. At one point during his chat, they talked a little bit about his AI experience, the fact that he‘s from TX and where he went to college. Then he sang his current single. Let’s Just Fall in Love Again (I think it‘s called…?) Please correct me if I’m wrong. I recognized it a bit and it was fun to listen to. Again, sounded amazing! THEN, yes more chatter. He then ended his set with …yes, ladies and gentlemen…Hallelujah! I love this song. He did fantastic. I sang along! =) He finished the song and suddenly I look inside my purse and notice the backlight on my phone is on…hmm. As he’s walking off the stage, I take out my phone and notice I accidentally purse-dialed V! OMG! I think the call was like 10 minutes! LMAO! So I hang up…lol. Then I get a text from V thanking me! o_O Apparently I gave her a personal, albeit accidental cellcast of some of Jason’s set. I have no words…it was quite hilarious! I then tell her I would be calling her if Ryan sang Breathe.
Last but most certainly not least…Ryan Star!!! Now, I think at this point in my recap, the excitement has gotten to me all over again and I fail to remember two of the songs he sang (major FAIL!) one of the two was a cover which I didn‘t recognize. He sang Last Train Home. This ladies and gentlemen is where I continue turning into putty. For those who have seen him live, you don’t need me to tell you the intensity in which he performs! He threw EVERY SINGLE ounce of himself into this particular performance. You could FEEL it. It was almost too much for me to handle! Then more chatter…lol. He is so humble. He appreciates where he is in his career and he appreciates the people who helped him get there. He thanked the fans a few times during his set. (sound familiar?) He also thanked the station for giving him the opportunity to come in and play for us. He talked a bit about being on Rock Star Supernova. He talked briefly about being on tour with David. And he talked about the level of support his family has offered. He even told us about the time his grandpa (?…dang it!) was watching WWE (lol) and one of the wrestlers walked out to one of his songs, his grandpa called him CRYING, told him he was proud. It was sooo sweet! Then, the moment I had been waiting for HOURS: Breathe! My heart sped up. I thought I might pass out! I grab my phone, dialed V and then placed in on top of my purse hoping that she’d be able to hear. At some point before starting he says “Feel free to sing along if you know this one. But only on the soft parts, don’t upstage me!“ LMAO! Best thing ever!!. Then he starts. Just to give you an idea of this performance, it had the intensity of Last Train Home, times 100! Strong, emotional, heavy! I sang along to every word!!! Yay to my brain for not failing me! Then came: “Let go of the ones who try to put you down.” and we made eye contact! I think I died a little. End of the song…DJ thanks us, and everyone makes their way to the waiting area.
I took my place in the exact same spot where I was as I was waiting to go in. I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know who to try to talk to first. Ryan was to my left about 10 ft from me, but there was a HUGE crowd. Then I noticed that Jason was a few feet in front of me talking with people and taking pics. Remember the girl I mentioned earlier who was waiting next to me? Well she was standing next to me again, looks over and asks if I’m waiting for a pic. I really wasn’t sure what I was waiting on. But I said yes. LOL She then says, “I’ll get Jason over here for you”. And I say “well he’s talking to a bunch of people, I can wait”. She then smiles at me and says “I got him” So as soon as he’s done talking and taking pics with one group, before he can talk to the next group she says “JASON! Wanna come take a picture with her?” He looks at me, smiles and says “Oh yeah! Sure!” He walks over and I shake his hand and quickly tell him how amazing he was. He says “Aww thank you so much!” and poses for a pic. I thank him and he smiles at me. The girl then says, “who else do you want to take a pic with?” and I said “Uh everyone!” She laughs and says “How about Matt?” and I say yes! We debate as to whether we’ll go over to him together or if she’s going to go get him. It had only been a few minutes since we made our way to the waiting area so it was still crowded. She says she’ll be right back. Some of the people in front of me clear out and I spot NeedtoBreathe talking to a small group of people, then I see them posing for a pic. As soon as the group clears, I make my way over to them but by the time I get there someone was talking w/ them. Dang! So I wait. One of the ladies from the station asked me if I wanted a picture with them and I said yes. So she politely interrupts. (I COULD’VE waited LOL) They turn around and right smack in front of me, from right to left, they introduce themselves, and I shake hands with: Bear, Bo, Joe and Seth. I ask for a pic and tell them I‘ll be at the April 29th show. They pose for a pic and I thank them again. Before I know it, I hear myself saying “Uh…can you do me a favor? Uh…*sigh* OK never mind” I got nervous! And they all say (at almost the same time) “no no, what?” And I say “OK a friend of mine is a HUGE fan, if I called her could you say hi really quick?” they smile and say yes. Well, as I’m dialing V’s number someone grabs their attention and Bear looks at me and says “you’ll tell me when you got her on the phone?” and I nod and he politely turns around to the people who want to talk to him. I won’t go into the conversation V and I had before I actually gave Bear the phone lol but I wait until he’s done talking and looks at me and I say “OK she’s on the phone” he then asks me her name. They talk for a bit, he hands me the phone, I thank him, he smiles and points like saying “I gotta go”. I just nod. Then I hear “There she is!!” And Awesome Girl is walking towards me with Matt by her side. I tell him “You were AMAZING! OK that wasn’t the word I was looking for. It doesn’t even come close. But you get my point” And he says “Thank you so much!”, poses for a pic, shakes my hand, I thank him, he thanks ME again for coming and goes on his way. Such a sweetie!
Then…Ryan. There was still a pretty good sized crowd by him. Except, well it wasn’t much of crowd, it turned into a line. But there was still a lot of people waiting. It got more organized as I was taking pics w/ everyone else. Lol So I waited…and waited. I watched him a lot too. I stayed close enough to where I could be in plain sight but far enough to where I couldn’t hear his conversations with other people. I didn’t get in line though. There wasn’t anyone else out of the line who looked like they were going to take pics, so I assumed I could just be the last one, or close to the last one. One of the promoters was putting away the last of the posters and asked me if I’d gotten one. I hadn’t because I was just planning on getting my collage piece signed. But he handed one to me. At one point as a girl was standing next to Ryan waiting for her friend to fix the camera, he looked over, spotted me, smiled and waved. I waved back. The line got smaller until there were about 3 girls. But from what I understood, they were friends of radio station people, so one of the radio station people called Ryan over to me and told him I wanted a picture. He looked at her before looking to where she was pointing and then he glances over and smiles BIG. He walks over and says to no one in particular “She’s been waiting a long time” and I say “No worries, I was relaxing. Just hanging out.” I think he thanked me for coming, and said I had a good spot in the front. and I say “YEAH I DID! Thank YOU SO MUCH!! You were…just…amazing! I was one of the Twitter winners” and he says “OH!! OK! What’s your Twitter name?” And I tell him. He then points to the poster and the following conversation takes place:
Ryan: “Do you want me to sign that?”
Me: “Oh yeah!”
Ryan: “What’s your name?”
Me: “Guadalupe”
Ryan: *smile* “How do you spell that?”
Me: “G-U-A-D…” *I wait for him to write*
Ryan: “G…U…A…” *sounded like ‘T‘*
Me: “D…*I look over at the poster* wait did you write a T or a D?”
Ryan: “Um…T”
Me: *small voice* “It’s a D”
Ryan: “Aaah! *laugh* OK someone get me another one!”
Some Lady: “This is going to take 3 tries”
Me: “Yeah! Pay. Attention. Ryan. GAH!”
Ryan *laughing hard* “OK!”
*everyone laughs*
*Someone hands him a new poster*
The same guy who gave me the poster comes back with a new poster and something else but I didn’t notice what it was right away.
Ryan: “Oh I got one. Thanks! OK one more time! G-U-A….D! *laugh* What else?
Me: *whisper* G-U-A-D…damn it, I have no idea! I can’t spell my own name!
Ryan: *laughing harder* “Oh come on!” *more laughter*
Me: “Sorry! *laugh* OK it’s A-L-U-P-E…”
Ryan: “Sure?”
Me: “Shush! Yes!”
The poster dude hands him a what he had in his hand. I look and it’s a hard copy of Breathe. He says “Here give this to her” Ryan takes it, signs it and hands it to me and says “I saw you right up there singing along to every word. It just made me want to give it even more!” I was…in awe. I somehow managed to tell him he did an amazing job. I thanked him for the CD and tell him I NEED him to please sign one more thing. He says “of course!” and I hand him the collage piece and tell him it’s going in the center. He then turns to the guy and says “These are always the ones with more pressure, when someone tells you it’s going to be the the center of something” LOL! He reads it and says “Perfect! You got it right.” And I said “Well, I had some help. I HAD to make sure it was right!” He signs it and hands it back to me, he then gets ready to pose for the pic. BUT before I could take my camera out, one of his people says, “if you want I can take the pictures. I’ll email them to you later on” I said yeah. (I got them btw). She takes two pics, and then Ryan says “OK sexy pose, ready?” I said “Uh…suuuure.” That pic is coming up, shortly! It was weird. LOL! So she took 3 pics…that I was aware of. LOL! He then stands back up (yes he kneeled to my level) and the next 5 seconds were a blur, until I heard him ask someone (not me) jokingly “Was my butt showing?” and he did this weird turn towards where I was (completely unaware that he’d done it) and I said “What? Did you want ME to check or what?” And he laughs! Yes ladies and gentlemen, I asked Ryan Star if he wanted me to check whether or not his butt was showing. GO ME! He thanked me again, I thanked HIM…again. He says hopefully he’ll be back to AZ and I said “Schedule a show and I will be there!” And we hugged. And I was ready to leave. OK I wasn’t ready to leave. I wanted to stay there for freaking ever and ever. Ahem anyway, I lingered by the door, totally unaware that I had 2 missed calls from my sis wanting to tell me she was waiting for me. Ooops, so I took one last glance at Ryan who was chatting with the lady who took the pics. He looked over and noticed me looking. I wasn’t staring, I just glanced over and he happened to look in my direction at that very second. I waved and he puts his hand up as if he were to wave back, but puts it back down, runs over to me, stops, I put my hand out to shake his but he kneels down and hugs me again. We thank each other again! And I say “Hey do me a favor?” and he says “Yeah what is it?” And I say “Tell the SafetySuit boys to quit stealing your food” and he says “OH! I KNOW! God, I was f’ing hungry, I was like what?” and I said “Yeah I told Jeremy to quit being so mean and let you eat” and he laughs. And we said our last goodbyes. For real this time.
And with THAT ladies and gentlemen, ended my epic day. One of the most amazing days of my life. All made possible by some of the sweetest, most humble and talented men I have ever had the honor of meeting. Thank you for getting this far and sharing the epicness with me.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thank you Ryan Star!
Introduction:
Alright, so obviously I'm breaking my blog tradition by not using the title of a song. I was going to go with a Ryan Star song since this IS about the second most epic day of my life. The first of course, being the first time I met Ryan on February 21st, 2010. BUT I'm already going to use songs from 11:59 to continue my Lyrics/Video blogs. Yes I'm going to keep going. It was suppose to be completed by the night of the show, I KNOW! I've been lazy, and to be honest quite unmotivated. But, I digress. Disclaimer: You all should be used to the way I recap/blog. I’ll probably share random things that aren’t even relevant and I will paraphrase and probably recount things in the wrong order. But anyway, let's get to the point now, shall we?
Grateful:
As most of you may or may not know, I went to the Mix Unplugged performance. Not because I won them by calling. (I guesstimate that about 100 calls were made and I got through about, hmm 4 times in three days.) Also, not because Ryan invited me. Lord knows I tried harassing the boy. I should stop, it never works. :D But all because my buddy, the most awesome "Awesome Girl" on the planet, Laura got a chance to go (THANKS TO RYAN!) and she invited me to go with her. Words cannot even begin to express how grateful I am to this girl. Laura, if you're reading this: I fricking love you to pieces and I will never be able to thank you enough! :D
Let the epicness begin:
I got to the station at about 11:00. I wasn’t suppose to be there until 11:30 though so I waited outside the building until Laura got there. I stayed in the shade, pretty close to the door. But I quickly realized waiting outside was NOT the wisest idea. I started getting a massive headache and mildly nauseous. I should have known better.
Once Laura showed up we went inside and hung out by the elevators, waiting for someone from the station to check us in. A few people were already waiting. We were there for about 15 minutes when we look outside and see a van pull up. We see Ryan and his people walking in carrying a bunch of stuff. Ryan looked over at Laura and I, smiled and asked how we were doing. I responded with “Morning, big head.” Clearly my attempt at being playful was lame. And kind of mean. But he either ignored it or didn’t hear me because he didn’t react. He just smiled at us. Ryan if ever read this and you heard me, I apologize. Let’s blame my lack of sleep ok? If not…uhm, just kidding…? ;D
A few minutes after Ryan went upstairs, someone from the station came down and started checking people in. One of the girls recognized us from the Jason Castro Unplugged back in April. :D After Laura and I had checked in, we all just hung out by the elevators for a while longer. When it was time for us to go upstairs, Laura and I were escorted separately from everyone else. And it just so happened that my favorite Mix DJ was the one to do that. He doesn’t believe that he’s my favorite, but it’s true. His name is AJ. He’s freaking awesome!
AJ then escorted us to a conference room where they had pizza and drinks for us. Laura and I didn’t want to eat so we just sat there and talked. I did down an entire bottle of water faster than I ever have in my life. It helped with my nausea just a little. We spent a good amount of time cracking up at our own weird ass jokes. :D We (OK I) were also harassing AJ. That’s always fun. He fights back and I love that! We were there for quite a while. AJ kept coming in and giving us updates. Which mostly consisted of “Ryan is still sound checking. Thriving Ivory isn’t here yet.”
When it was FINALLY time for us to take our seats, we all walked over to another room. Thriving Ivory were up first. Lead singer Clayton, guitarist Drew and drummer Paul were there. They did three songs. When I first heard that Ryan was going on tour with them, I listened to their music. Eh, not my thing. BUT, I’m not going to lie, I liked their acoustic performances more than I thought I would.
A few points that I remember clearly during the performance/interview portion: 1) Clayton mentioned that he is getting married pretty soon. 2) While the DJ was talking to Clayton, I guess Drew needed to unplug his guitar, but he had to ask someone in the back, Clayton noticed that Drew was pointing to the cord and said “Are you breaking stuff already?!“ haha! 3) The DJ commented on them having a very unique sound. Clayton said “Thank you. It’s better than hearing I sound like a girl.“ The DJ said “What? You’ve been told that?“ Clayton says “Yeeeah a few times.“.I didn’t really think that was funny, but I just remember that. Oh well.
Afterwards we all got in line for pics and autographs. Yes, I had to spell my name for Clayton :D They’re really nice guys too, btw. So yeah, pretty good experience with Thriving Ivory. :D About that night, honestly, I would have stuck around for their show if I was feeling ok. But I wasn’t. I still felt sick from earlier. I made my way to the side of the stage before they hit the stage. The plan was to watch while waiting on my sister to pick me up. I felt kind of bad though, because Drew was standing by the side of the stage as I was making my way over, he saw me and he recognized me from earlier. He just smiled, said hi and asked how I was doing. Didn’t try to talk to me much. :D
Now back to the Unplugged thing. Shortly after Thriving Ivory walked out, the DJ introduced Ryan. He and Dallin took their places. He started out by doing Brand New Day.
I guess this is where I tell you the points I remember clearly during the performance/interview portion: 1) Ryan said he loves Phoenix, he credits Mix 969 for being one of the first stations to play Breathe. 2) He thanks Ron Price (Mix DJ, main music person …or something) in the liner notes of 11:59. 3) He’s going to appear on the Rachael Ray show pretty soon. :D
He then sang the following, in that order:
Right Now
Last Train Home
Breathe
Start a Fire
Star a Fire with Ryan on the keyboard and Dallin banging on the drums, was the most amazing thing I have ever heard. Ever! Watch. It. Here.
Afterwards Ryan started signing autographs and taking pics. When it was my turn, he just grabbed a chair and sat next to me. He looks at me and says “Did you sleep ok?‘ I said “No, not really.” I don’t think he said anything after that.
I should explain why he asked that. Although, if I’m being honest, it didn’t really hit me until after I got home. Anyway, a couple days prior I tweeted the following: “I got three hrs of sleep, and had a dream that I missed @RyanStar's show on Friday. Fanfuckingtastic night! Ugh” And apparently he remembered. I love him. That is all.
So we pose for a pic and then he just moved on to Laura. Suddenly, I remembered I had brought my CD with me so when he was done chatting with Laura, I asked him to sign it. For those who missed my tweet, the conversation went something like:
Me: Can you sign this, please?
Ryan: No!
Me: OK let me rephrase: Sign. This. Now!
Ryan: Haha! That’s what I’m talking about!
He takes my CD and before he signs it he looks be dead in the eyes and says: “You gave me the box, didn’t you?” I was so taken aback by that, that all I could do was nod. Then, “Thank you. That was the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me. I carry it all the time. It‘s always in the van with me. It means the world to me.”
My brain couldn’t process that. All I could do was say “OK” and give him a hug. He signs my CD and says, “We’ll talk later.”
I chatted a few minutes with Laura and a couple other people we met then I was off to go home and get ready for that night.
I’m sure you’re all aware that his show was canceled because he got sick. I was really bummed. More than I let on, to be honest. The only thing that kept me from crying is the fact that I was more worried about him getting better. He’ll be back soon enough and I’ll be there to watch him do what he does best.
Even knowing what I know now, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. Only for my Cookie Monster. :D
Until next time.
Oh wait, one more thing: I lied. THIS day was the most epic day of my life.
PS When he comes back around, I'll talk to him more about the project. Because it wasn't just me who made it possible. Everyone who participated made it all possible, and I am beyond grateful to you! <3
Alright, so obviously I'm breaking my blog tradition by not using the title of a song. I was going to go with a Ryan Star song since this IS about the second most epic day of my life. The first of course, being the first time I met Ryan on February 21st, 2010. BUT I'm already going to use songs from 11:59 to continue my Lyrics/Video blogs. Yes I'm going to keep going. It was suppose to be completed by the night of the show, I KNOW! I've been lazy, and to be honest quite unmotivated. But, I digress. Disclaimer: You all should be used to the way I recap/blog. I’ll probably share random things that aren’t even relevant and I will paraphrase and probably recount things in the wrong order. But anyway, let's get to the point now, shall we?
Grateful:
As most of you may or may not know, I went to the Mix Unplugged performance. Not because I won them by calling. (I guesstimate that about 100 calls were made and I got through about, hmm 4 times in three days.) Also, not because Ryan invited me. Lord knows I tried harassing the boy. I should stop, it never works. :D But all because my buddy, the most awesome "Awesome Girl" on the planet, Laura got a chance to go (THANKS TO RYAN!) and she invited me to go with her. Words cannot even begin to express how grateful I am to this girl. Laura, if you're reading this: I fricking love you to pieces and I will never be able to thank you enough! :D
Let the epicness begin:
I got to the station at about 11:00. I wasn’t suppose to be there until 11:30 though so I waited outside the building until Laura got there. I stayed in the shade, pretty close to the door. But I quickly realized waiting outside was NOT the wisest idea. I started getting a massive headache and mildly nauseous. I should have known better.
Once Laura showed up we went inside and hung out by the elevators, waiting for someone from the station to check us in. A few people were already waiting. We were there for about 15 minutes when we look outside and see a van pull up. We see Ryan and his people walking in carrying a bunch of stuff. Ryan looked over at Laura and I, smiled and asked how we were doing. I responded with “Morning, big head.” Clearly my attempt at being playful was lame. And kind of mean. But he either ignored it or didn’t hear me because he didn’t react. He just smiled at us. Ryan if ever read this and you heard me, I apologize. Let’s blame my lack of sleep ok? If not…uhm, just kidding…? ;D
A few minutes after Ryan went upstairs, someone from the station came down and started checking people in. One of the girls recognized us from the Jason Castro Unplugged back in April. :D After Laura and I had checked in, we all just hung out by the elevators for a while longer. When it was time for us to go upstairs, Laura and I were escorted separately from everyone else. And it just so happened that my favorite Mix DJ was the one to do that. He doesn’t believe that he’s my favorite, but it’s true. His name is AJ. He’s freaking awesome!
AJ then escorted us to a conference room where they had pizza and drinks for us. Laura and I didn’t want to eat so we just sat there and talked. I did down an entire bottle of water faster than I ever have in my life. It helped with my nausea just a little. We spent a good amount of time cracking up at our own weird ass jokes. :D We (OK I) were also harassing AJ. That’s always fun. He fights back and I love that! We were there for quite a while. AJ kept coming in and giving us updates. Which mostly consisted of “Ryan is still sound checking. Thriving Ivory isn’t here yet.”
When it was FINALLY time for us to take our seats, we all walked over to another room. Thriving Ivory were up first. Lead singer Clayton, guitarist Drew and drummer Paul were there. They did three songs. When I first heard that Ryan was going on tour with them, I listened to their music. Eh, not my thing. BUT, I’m not going to lie, I liked their acoustic performances more than I thought I would.
A few points that I remember clearly during the performance/interview portion: 1) Clayton mentioned that he is getting married pretty soon. 2) While the DJ was talking to Clayton, I guess Drew needed to unplug his guitar, but he had to ask someone in the back, Clayton noticed that Drew was pointing to the cord and said “Are you breaking stuff already?!“ haha! 3) The DJ commented on them having a very unique sound. Clayton said “Thank you. It’s better than hearing I sound like a girl.“ The DJ said “What? You’ve been told that?“ Clayton says “Yeeeah a few times.“.I didn’t really think that was funny, but I just remember that. Oh well.
Afterwards we all got in line for pics and autographs. Yes, I had to spell my name for Clayton :D They’re really nice guys too, btw. So yeah, pretty good experience with Thriving Ivory. :D About that night, honestly, I would have stuck around for their show if I was feeling ok. But I wasn’t. I still felt sick from earlier. I made my way to the side of the stage before they hit the stage. The plan was to watch while waiting on my sister to pick me up. I felt kind of bad though, because Drew was standing by the side of the stage as I was making my way over, he saw me and he recognized me from earlier. He just smiled, said hi and asked how I was doing. Didn’t try to talk to me much. :D
Now back to the Unplugged thing. Shortly after Thriving Ivory walked out, the DJ introduced Ryan. He and Dallin took their places. He started out by doing Brand New Day.
I guess this is where I tell you the points I remember clearly during the performance/interview portion: 1) Ryan said he loves Phoenix, he credits Mix 969 for being one of the first stations to play Breathe. 2) He thanks Ron Price (Mix DJ, main music person …or something) in the liner notes of 11:59. 3) He’s going to appear on the Rachael Ray show pretty soon. :D
He then sang the following, in that order:
Right Now
Last Train Home
Breathe
Start a Fire
Star a Fire with Ryan on the keyboard and Dallin banging on the drums, was the most amazing thing I have ever heard. Ever! Watch. It. Here.
Afterwards Ryan started signing autographs and taking pics. When it was my turn, he just grabbed a chair and sat next to me. He looks at me and says “Did you sleep ok?‘ I said “No, not really.” I don’t think he said anything after that.
I should explain why he asked that. Although, if I’m being honest, it didn’t really hit me until after I got home. Anyway, a couple days prior I tweeted the following: “I got three hrs of sleep, and had a dream that I missed @RyanStar's show on Friday. Fanfuckingtastic night! Ugh” And apparently he remembered. I love him. That is all.
So we pose for a pic and then he just moved on to Laura. Suddenly, I remembered I had brought my CD with me so when he was done chatting with Laura, I asked him to sign it. For those who missed my tweet, the conversation went something like:
Me: Can you sign this, please?
Ryan: No!
Me: OK let me rephrase: Sign. This. Now!
Ryan: Haha! That’s what I’m talking about!
He takes my CD and before he signs it he looks be dead in the eyes and says: “You gave me the box, didn’t you?” I was so taken aback by that, that all I could do was nod. Then, “Thank you. That was the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me. I carry it all the time. It‘s always in the van with me. It means the world to me.”
My brain couldn’t process that. All I could do was say “OK” and give him a hug. He signs my CD and says, “We’ll talk later.”
I chatted a few minutes with Laura and a couple other people we met then I was off to go home and get ready for that night.
I’m sure you’re all aware that his show was canceled because he got sick. I was really bummed. More than I let on, to be honest. The only thing that kept me from crying is the fact that I was more worried about him getting better. He’ll be back soon enough and I’ll be there to watch him do what he does best.
Even knowing what I know now, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. Only for my Cookie Monster. :D
Until next time.
Oh wait, one more thing: I lied. THIS day was the most epic day of my life.
PS When he comes back around, I'll talk to him more about the project. Because it wasn't just me who made it possible. Everyone who participated made it all possible, and I am beyond grateful to you! <3
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
We Might Fall
Favorite Lyrics: "Now that we are older I remember you, reaching out to show me all the things that I must do. Now that we are older I remember youth. Now that we are close to death and close to finding truth."
I JUST came across this AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL video of We Might Fall. As if I didn't love the song enough. Enjoy (Credit goes to: SweetwaterSound)
I JUST came across this AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL video of We Might Fall. As if I didn't love the song enough. Enjoy (Credit goes to: SweetwaterSound)
Breathe
Favorite Lyrics: "Let go of the fear, let go of the doubt. Let go of the ones who try to put you down. You're gonna be fine, don't hold it inside. If you hurt right now, then let it all come out."
I won't lie, the first time I saw this video I only cared about David. :D (Credit goes to: confidencegirl)
I won't lie, the first time I saw this video I only cared about David. :D (Credit goes to: confidencegirl)
Last Train Home
Favorite Lyrics: "I'll be your shelter, I'll be your fate. I'll be forever, wait for me. I'll be the last train, I'll be the last train. Hold on to love and wait for me."
(Credit goes to: getbender)
(Credit goes to: getbender)
Monday, August 9, 2010
Right Now
So the 2nd song on 11:59 is "Right Now". Enjoy, kids! :D
Favorite Lyrics: "I'm gonna lay on the ground, feel the rain that's coming down. And there's nothing anyone could do or say to bring me down, right now."
(Credit goes to 945PST)
Favorite Lyrics: "I'm gonna lay on the ground, feel the rain that's coming down. And there's nothing anyone could do or say to bring me down, right now."
(Credit goes to 945PST)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Brand New Day
So I have decided that starting today, I will blog 11:59. What does that mean? Well every day starting today, until August 20th, which is the day of the Scottsdale show (which I will be attending, thank you very much. Be jealous =P) I will post a blog with the title of a song from 11:59. (In the order in which they appear on the CD. Ex. First blog: Brand New Day, last blog: 11:59) And yes, I will do the deluxe version! :D In the blog I will share my favorite lyrics from the song, and a YouTube video of a live performance.
Today I present to you: Brand New Day. (In case you didn't see the title up there :D)
Favorite Lyrics: "They say we're dreaming too big, I say this town's too small."
The video above was taken at the Mix 969 event in February. I was there! :D (Credit goes to: xXDavidCookFanXx)
Today I present to you: Brand New Day. (In case you didn't see the title up there :D)
Favorite Lyrics: "They say we're dreaming too big, I say this town's too small."
The video above was taken at the Mix 969 event in February. I was there! :D (Credit goes to: xXDavidCookFanXx)
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