The whole thing would have started on Saturday, where I picked up Monisha from the station and went for a bit of shopping to buy things for our care package for The Maine. First off was Highpoint, initially i was trying to find chocolate covered pretzels for John, but while in the centre we kept forgetting what we actually came there for. We hit target to find some but then got distracted by the easter egg sale where everything was 30% off, so we bought some mini Lindt bunnies. Then I showed Mon this really cool lolly store called Happy Lab, for those who haven't been, they sell lollies in lab equipment as containers, such as flasks and test-tubes. The lollies are grouped by colour and chocolate, this makes the whole store look very appealing and awesome. We wanted to buy the whole store for them! In the end, we settled on three jelly-bean-filled test tubes, it looked so cool! There were so many times when we were tempted to keep them for ourselves! Next we went to the ABC store because i wanted to get them a copy of Angry Boys, I thought it would have been $20, but to my pleasant surprise, it was only $10!! Such a bargain! It was very crowded at Highpoint, we were trying to weave our way through the crowd because we needed to go to our next stop before it closes. Next, I drove to a $2 store in Footscray to buy some souvenirs and hopefully find that pack of stick-on mustaches I bought for my 19th bday party. There was this car plate that read "Don't kiss me" and i thought it was very relevant to to John, and pushed for it to be bought. Others things that we bought were some kangeroos/koalas plushies, an Australian flag cape. Then we went to Coles/Safeway to buy Australian food, namely tim tams and vegemite. In the evening we went to Easter mass, which went on longer than i thought it would. By the time it finished, we were really hungry! Thanh came over as well, and amazingly she was able to sleepover too! We had dinner and i started to make my Raspberry and White Chocolate cookies. It was very fun having friends over, so many random/weird conversations and a bucketload of laughs! I only wanted to make the cookies to give as part of the care package, although I was doubtful they would actually eat it because you know it could be poisonous. I accidentally slighty burnt a batch of cookies, it baked so quickly in the oven, but i did have batch that turned out nicely. Afterwards, we played Disney Monopoly but the game was going nowhere because we couldn't build any properties. I had to finish off sewing the eyes on the beanies, and I'm semi proud of them, there is a lot of room for improvement. We assembled the care package into an awesome Australia bag we bought that we are so proud of. Unfortunately we forgot to take photos of the things we bought, so that was a bummer. The whole thing came together nicely and yes we were proud of it!
Sunday was the day of the concert, but i really wanted to go meet them at the airport beforehand, so we set off in the morning to the airport, I'm so glad that the airport is so close to home! Also i made some crepes with yogurt and peaches for breakfast, i still can't make perfectly circular crepes. Although it doesn't matter too much when i fold them in quarters. I knew that The Maine will probably not take a really early flight from Sydney, so we took our time getting to the airport. From twitter searching, I thought that they would arrive at 10.35, but after checking both Qantus and Virgin terminals, we didn't see any signs of them. It was a little disheartening but I still had hope, they had to come sometime. The next flight arrival was from Jetstar but they weren't on that flight either, but i didn't expect to be, they don't usually fly Jetstar. There was another group of girls who we remembered from last time. Mon spotted one of the girls running out of the terminal, so I ran after her to the Virgin Blue baggage claim. Sure enough, when i got there, it didn't take long to see that they were all standing there, being awesome (okay it was just normal standing waiting for their baggage but it's THE MAINE!). There were also Taking Back Sunday and New Found Glory on the same flight. I called Monisha, and i may have sounded a little aggressive and demanding on the phone. Waiting for Mon to come over was pretty agonizing, I was just standing there staring at them. Finally she ran over, and we got so so excited! It was a little awkward about how we would approach them, they seemed a little sleepy and out of it. Jared, Garrett and Kennedy were standing together so I quietly said hello, and gave Kennedy the car package, explaining all the things we had in them. I didn't want to keep them long so we asked for quick photos, and was quite apologetic. But they were super nice, and friendly despite being tired and everything. Then we went up to John to say hello and that we got a care package for them. I asked him a little about easter in America, and it was a very weird conversation not relating to their music at all, but a conversation nonetheless. Again we took some photos and let them be.
Not wanting to leave yet, we kinda just lingered behind them, in our defence they were going to the same place that we were getting picked up. We sat across the road from them and "subtly" taking photos, the group of girls before were actually with them on the other side, but they kinda awkwardly just stood on the outskirts of the group, not really knowing what to do. It was the best view of them, and we weren't interrupting them or anything or bothering them. I like to think that we are respectful fans, not like a lot of those crazy fan-girls (no offence). There were a lot of amazing photo opportunities, and Kennedy was actually looking through the bag! Yes, we felt so proud. Before when they were waiting outside the terminal, Kennedy actually pulled out one of the beanies, but I think he got a bit distracted to put it on, Mon tried to shout "Put it on" but it just came out as a slightly louder talking volume because of the nerves and it's a little embarrassing, so he didn't hear it. Kennedy gave one of the cookies to a tech guy, and he seemed think it was alright, he wasn't spitting it out or anything. The vans came to pick them up, and they slowly loaded all their equipment. When they were all done, we saw a hand reach over to our window on the side that we could see, and someone has actually put up the car plate!!!!! We started going so spastic and crazy, it took us a while to came down. That made so happy, and we didn't care about anything else! A lady standing near us, gave us weird looks, but we were beyond caring, that was such an amazing moment for us. Then just as they were leaving, my dad pulled up, it was such perfect timing. We we on such a high after that happened.
Not wanting to leave yet, we kinda just lingered behind them, in our defence they were going to the same place that we were getting picked up. We sat across the road from them and "subtly" taking photos, the group of girls before were actually with them on the other side, but they kinda awkwardly just stood on the outskirts of the group, not really knowing what to do. It was the best view of them, and we weren't interrupting them or anything or bothering them. I like to think that we are respectful fans, not like a lot of those crazy fan-girls (no offence). There were a lot of amazing photo opportunities, and Kennedy was actually looking through the bag! Yes, we felt so proud. Before when they were waiting outside the terminal, Kennedy actually pulled out one of the beanies, but I think he got a bit distracted to put it on, Mon tried to shout "Put it on" but it just came out as a slightly louder talking volume because of the nerves and it's a little embarrassing, so he didn't hear it. Kennedy gave one of the cookies to a tech guy, and he seemed think it was alright, he wasn't spitting it out or anything. The vans came to pick them up, and they slowly loaded all their equipment. When they were all done, we saw a hand reach over to our window on the side that we could see, and someone has actually put up the car plate!!!!! We started going so spastic and crazy, it took us a while to came down. That made so happy, and we didn't care about anything else! A lady standing near us, gave us weird looks, but we were beyond caring, that was such an amazing moment for us. Then just as they were leaving, my dad pulled up, it was such perfect timing. We we on such a high after that happened.
When we arrived the venue, it was surprising to see that not many people were in line. It was going to a long wait ahead of us and we were getting really hungry. It sucks that Festival Hall is not right in the city, it means access to food and toilets are limited and a lot more walking is involved. The whole wait wasn't too bad, but closer to the starting time, a lot of people starting forming lines on the other side, and some people pushed in, which made us really mad, because it was unfair. There were no security to control the lines, only near the door opening time, that they came out and pushed everyone to the wall, but of course they weren't there earlier to see that people had pushed in, arghh so frustrating! Finally made it into the venue, and they made us sit on the floor first, a random security guard chucked some lollies at us, and we thought that was really funny! When This Time Next Year came on, everyone ran to the barrier, i had no clue what was happening, Mon managed to secure a barrier spot but i was behind her, view wasn't too bad, but i couldn't see too much of the other side of the stage. I really enjoyed TTNY, their set was engaging, energetic and very fun! Although i felt a little sorry for them as I don't think many people would have known their music, but they seemed so appreciative and happy to be playing in Australia. They were very thankful towards New Found Glory who helped them a lot in their music producing process and getting them out to Australia. I wish I had knew their songs but i did my best to get into it and look interested, smiling and bopping along. The lead singer was super cool on stage, he did those epic high leg splitting air jumps, making them look so effortless in those tight skinny jeans. Later Monisha told me that the girl next to her was the girl who had photo-bombed my photo with Nick Santino from the sidewave concert. It's getting to a point where we are going to a lot of concerts and seeing the same people. Yeah i don't like her too much, I'm still annoyed that someone would purposely photobomb, just plain rude! People just seem to lose their basic social niceties at concerts, and that just pushes my buttons.
Anywho moving on, after TTNY it was The Maine's turn. It was really amazing because Pat, Kennedy and Garrett went out on stage to do their own sound check instead of just having their tech guys doing it for them. We got a little more viewing time of them and that is always a bonus. Garrett was so funny, making weird noises into the microphone, and generally just being quite random, but we all loved it. He was very cool and intriguing to watch. Then they were ready to perform and it got very exciting! They all came out on stage and started their set. I don't remember all the songs they sung but there were quite a few, more than I had expected them to play. Kennedy was very cute smiling at that crowd. Garrett was as usual moving around the stage and doing erratic movements. I didn't much of a view of Jared though, it would have been nice to see his epic guitar skills. The crowd was very disappointing because not many had moved around that much, even the people who were there for them, I don't mean to sound judgmental, but I wish the crowd moved around a lot more just so we actually looked interested in the songs they were playing. John was just breath-taking, he kept running his hand through his hair, because there was this little wasp of hair that would fly outwards when he moved his head. Overall he didn't talk too much, but then we found out later that he was sick and had vomited about 4 times before playing. Garrett was so funny when he caught someone out for texting during their set. It hurts me too see people like that because i want everyone to get into their set, so it means a higher chance of them coming back if they have a bigger fan base. I feel so embarrassed. Otherwise the songs they played were amazing, they changed a little of the guitar part in "we'll all be" and added little lyrics from a Taking Back Sunday song if I wasn't imagining that in head (That happened with ARTTM as well i think, they incorporated some other song lyrics into their own). It was sad when their set was over, I didn't want them to leave.
We moved out of the mosh for TBS and NFG. While going out i kept bumping into this guy-first i would bump into him and instead of changing directions i would just keep bumping into him, I apologized though, i wasn't sure at what i was actually doing. The people seemed a little annoyed that we were trying to get past. Finally we made it out, and decided to go down to the bar, it was very hot and crowded and smelly. We saw this guy who looked like he was from TTNY, and he was alone so we wanted to stand near him. Up close and after inspection of a photo from my camera, we saw that it wasn't actually him and it was a random, but they had similiar faces, hairstyles, clothes, glasses, it was uncanny.
We waited around for Taking Back Sunday to come. The venue was very crowded by this stage, a lot more crowded than for Counter Revolution! When they came on it was so good. I started listening to TBS back in high school but only recently gotten back into their music, they started off with El Paso, which had a bit of screamo vocal in them, but it is a really good and different sounding song. Adam, the lead singer, was amazing because his leg was broken and he was on crutches on stage. While he was pretty much immobile, I thought his stage presence was commanding and entertaining. His voice was awesome to listen to, and the things he would say were just funny and made us fall in love with his voice. With a lot of the songs, i didn't know the all the words but the chorus was pretty clear to me. It was pretty good to be at the back of the venue because then no one can hear my awful singing except maybe Monisha who was right next to me. I belted out the lines i knew and it felt very liberating. Their set was around an hour long.
After their set, we stood at the sides, where we could see one of the exits, we saw that the tech guys were packing up The Maine's equipment, and it made us really sad because we thought that they were going to leave then. But I kept my hopes up, while Monisha on the hand, oh typical Mon were getting upset that they most likely left. I said that we don't know what is happening, and suggested to move away from the door which may or may not confirm out fears.
Next up was New Found Glory, and they were one of the first pop puck bands I got into, so they reminded of my youthful days. Oh my, it was unbelievable to see them live and while i didn't know all the lyrics to their songs, i belted out the ones that i did know. They played some of my favourite NFG songs, so i was pretty happy with that. Right before their set, they played the Universal studios music which is played at the beginning of movies, and that made Mon and I laugh. Their set was around an hour as well, i was dancing and singing along, I was pretty happy. It brought some young memories, so that was nice. I loved how the lead singer would move across the entire width of the stage (granted Adam wasn't able to do that, and John doesn't move to the sides that much on stage) but he got the end "near" me and that me a little more excited. The end of their set was sad because it meant the concert was over.
We made our way ourselves, trying to find the back entrance to see if we could meet The Maine. We stood in the middle parking area, and saw a group of people at the corner of the road, before them there was a security guard who told the people to move the other way, of course some people had sneaked through the security guard and even the barriers that was blocking the back road from entry of the public. When i saw the tips of Jared's head, we bolted over there, and sure enough The Maine, except John because he was sick, was there hanging with the crowd. There was quite a bit of people hanging around, so it made it a little hard for us to reach them. Everytime that we could get closer to them, they would move to another spot. It was pretty funny, but i liked how close we were to them, their presence is very cool. I loved watching them interacting with the fans, they are very nice, engaging and friendly, trying to address everyone all the while incorporating their little character quirks that made me melt a little inside. Finally we got to Kennedy, we asked them about our care package, he said he didn't like cookies himself but had taken a bite and made sure the rest were eaten, We talked a little about vegemite, and how he stole the Australian flag cape which was meant for John; easter eggs which he had eaten the caramel egg, and various other things about the care package (it sucks that we didn't take a photo beforehand of the things in the care package). We actually got to talk for a while and it was such a casual and comfortable conversation, no awkwardness at all, and it was beautiful to be looking at his face. Then we asked for photos and he signed our CD booklets.
Next up was Garrett, I had previously given him the CD booklets to sign, and he was holding them up to see who they were. We said it was ours, and then talked with him. We also asked about the care package, and the koala beanies that I had knitted them. He said they all tried it on, and I was really happy. He asked if Pat had a beanie on him, by just yelling "Hey Pat! You have a beanie?" to which Pat responded with a clueless expression and "What?". I thought that interaction was very funny. Garrett was interesting to watch he would get pretty distracted by the fans all trying to talk to him. When I took a photo for Mon, he first got distracted by someone and he looked in their direction, then we had to take another photo. He was holding a shark puppet a fan had gotten him, and was making really funny expression or it could have just been his face. He said that John had thrown up 4 times before he went on and was surprised that he even came out, some girls behind us said that it was be awesome to throw up on stage. Garrett rebutted and said it's awful and proceeded to do a reenactment about the time it had happened to him. It was hilarious to witness.
Then we talked to Pat, who was so gorgeous, I think we also asked about the care package but my memory is a little fuzzy about that. We asked for photos, and my camera flashes 2 times for the photo, and Pat kept moving away after the first flash, it happened twice, it was so funny. Finally on the third time he stayed for the flashes and we finally got the photo.
Afterwards, we tried to look for Jared, but then we realized he had already went back inside. It was a little sad because Mon hadn't had a photo with him yet. The lead singer from New Found Glory and some other members of NFG and TBS came out, and did some signings and photos, i thought it was really nice for them to do that. They are pretty big in terms of the pop punk scene and yet they are such genuine and awesome dudes. The lead singer of NFG was pretty funny, he did a bad Australian accent, and sang a couple of lines from Friends over You, and boy did that sound amazing up close even though it was really short and he was joking around. Then we saw some of the band members and tech guys moving out and getting ready to leave inside their vans. We spotted Jared but was too scared to ask him to come over. I think eventually we got one of the TBS guys to pull him over. We got our booklets signed and took photos. It was very nice of him to come over when he was just getting into the van, I'm sure their manager would have been on them.
When the van pulled away, Garrett did a spark sign and it was pretty cool. We tried to run after the van and after 2 blocks we gave up.
We had noodles for dinner in the city, and chose the restaurant based on the fact that they had photos on their menu. When we got home, i thought it was weird that my Mum was still awake, it was nearly 2am. I later realized that she must have gotten up to prepare us food because we're usually hungry when we get home from concerts. I felt pretty bad. Oh i love my parents, gosh if i was a parent to a kid like me, he/she would have either get judged or abandoned or oppressed by me. Well needless to say, Sunday was a very incredible day indeed.
Love Squealer.
EDIT: We took photos with Pat then Garrett, my memory's a little fuzzy. I would change it in the actual post but meh.
Anywho moving on, after TTNY it was The Maine's turn. It was really amazing because Pat, Kennedy and Garrett went out on stage to do their own sound check instead of just having their tech guys doing it for them. We got a little more viewing time of them and that is always a bonus. Garrett was so funny, making weird noises into the microphone, and generally just being quite random, but we all loved it. He was very cool and intriguing to watch. Then they were ready to perform and it got very exciting! They all came out on stage and started their set. I don't remember all the songs they sung but there were quite a few, more than I had expected them to play. Kennedy was very cute smiling at that crowd. Garrett was as usual moving around the stage and doing erratic movements. I didn't much of a view of Jared though, it would have been nice to see his epic guitar skills. The crowd was very disappointing because not many had moved around that much, even the people who were there for them, I don't mean to sound judgmental, but I wish the crowd moved around a lot more just so we actually looked interested in the songs they were playing. John was just breath-taking, he kept running his hand through his hair, because there was this little wasp of hair that would fly outwards when he moved his head. Overall he didn't talk too much, but then we found out later that he was sick and had vomited about 4 times before playing. Garrett was so funny when he caught someone out for texting during their set. It hurts me too see people like that because i want everyone to get into their set, so it means a higher chance of them coming back if they have a bigger fan base. I feel so embarrassed. Otherwise the songs they played were amazing, they changed a little of the guitar part in "we'll all be" and added little lyrics from a Taking Back Sunday song if I wasn't imagining that in head (That happened with ARTTM as well i think, they incorporated some other song lyrics into their own). It was sad when their set was over, I didn't want them to leave.
We moved out of the mosh for TBS and NFG. While going out i kept bumping into this guy-first i would bump into him and instead of changing directions i would just keep bumping into him, I apologized though, i wasn't sure at what i was actually doing. The people seemed a little annoyed that we were trying to get past. Finally we made it out, and decided to go down to the bar, it was very hot and crowded and smelly. We saw this guy who looked like he was from TTNY, and he was alone so we wanted to stand near him. Up close and after inspection of a photo from my camera, we saw that it wasn't actually him and it was a random, but they had similiar faces, hairstyles, clothes, glasses, it was uncanny.
We waited around for Taking Back Sunday to come. The venue was very crowded by this stage, a lot more crowded than for Counter Revolution! When they came on it was so good. I started listening to TBS back in high school but only recently gotten back into their music, they started off with El Paso, which had a bit of screamo vocal in them, but it is a really good and different sounding song. Adam, the lead singer, was amazing because his leg was broken and he was on crutches on stage. While he was pretty much immobile, I thought his stage presence was commanding and entertaining. His voice was awesome to listen to, and the things he would say were just funny and made us fall in love with his voice. With a lot of the songs, i didn't know the all the words but the chorus was pretty clear to me. It was pretty good to be at the back of the venue because then no one can hear my awful singing except maybe Monisha who was right next to me. I belted out the lines i knew and it felt very liberating. Their set was around an hour long.
After their set, we stood at the sides, where we could see one of the exits, we saw that the tech guys were packing up The Maine's equipment, and it made us really sad because we thought that they were going to leave then. But I kept my hopes up, while Monisha on the hand, oh typical Mon were getting upset that they most likely left. I said that we don't know what is happening, and suggested to move away from the door which may or may not confirm out fears.
Next up was New Found Glory, and they were one of the first pop puck bands I got into, so they reminded of my youthful days. Oh my, it was unbelievable to see them live and while i didn't know all the lyrics to their songs, i belted out the ones that i did know. They played some of my favourite NFG songs, so i was pretty happy with that. Right before their set, they played the Universal studios music which is played at the beginning of movies, and that made Mon and I laugh. Their set was around an hour as well, i was dancing and singing along, I was pretty happy. It brought some young memories, so that was nice. I loved how the lead singer would move across the entire width of the stage (granted Adam wasn't able to do that, and John doesn't move to the sides that much on stage) but he got the end "near" me and that me a little more excited. The end of their set was sad because it meant the concert was over.
We made our way ourselves, trying to find the back entrance to see if we could meet The Maine. We stood in the middle parking area, and saw a group of people at the corner of the road, before them there was a security guard who told the people to move the other way, of course some people had sneaked through the security guard and even the barriers that was blocking the back road from entry of the public. When i saw the tips of Jared's head, we bolted over there, and sure enough The Maine, except John because he was sick, was there hanging with the crowd. There was quite a bit of people hanging around, so it made it a little hard for us to reach them. Everytime that we could get closer to them, they would move to another spot. It was pretty funny, but i liked how close we were to them, their presence is very cool. I loved watching them interacting with the fans, they are very nice, engaging and friendly, trying to address everyone all the while incorporating their little character quirks that made me melt a little inside. Finally we got to Kennedy, we asked them about our care package, he said he didn't like cookies himself but had taken a bite and made sure the rest were eaten, We talked a little about vegemite, and how he stole the Australian flag cape which was meant for John; easter eggs which he had eaten the caramel egg, and various other things about the care package (it sucks that we didn't take a photo beforehand of the things in the care package). We actually got to talk for a while and it was such a casual and comfortable conversation, no awkwardness at all, and it was beautiful to be looking at his face. Then we asked for photos and he signed our CD booklets.
We had noodles for dinner in the city, and chose the restaurant based on the fact that they had photos on their menu. When we got home, i thought it was weird that my Mum was still awake, it was nearly 2am. I later realized that she must have gotten up to prepare us food because we're usually hungry when we get home from concerts. I felt pretty bad. Oh i love my parents, gosh if i was a parent to a kid like me, he/she would have either get judged or abandoned or oppressed by me. Well needless to say, Sunday was a very incredible day indeed.
Love Squealer.
EDIT: We took photos with Pat then Garrett, my memory's a little fuzzy. I would change it in the actual post but meh.
1 comment:
what an awesome day! i stole your photos for my blog post
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