So. Last night. I don't know what to say, really.
Lib and I are both very, very suburned. Mine isn't that sore, because I have naturally dark skin, but my nose and shoulders are pretty horrific. I look like an alcoholic. We got there at about 9.45-9.50am, having been to breakfast, back to the hotel and then walked three miles to the venue. In the blazing sun.
There was drama with our tickets - we didn't get them until literally five or ten minutes before the gates opened, and it turns out some of the crew etc. are staying in our hotel. We haven't seen anyone.
We did see Charlie before the show, who kind of introduced us to his goddaughter which was adorable. I told him about the problem we were having with the tickets, asking if he knew whether Mike's rep was around yet and he said, "I have no idea, but it sucks to be you!" He's such a bitch. But a good one.
Cobra opened and they were typically awesome. Gabe kept coming down to our side and singing with us because we knew the words. I was really dancing along and stuff, and he definitely noticed that, which was pretty cool. He also saw us holding up the knickers and laughed, kind of. I think they were just glad to have fans. Ryland was having a lot of fun, too, actually.
Unfortunately, the mood kind of sank when Paul Wall came on. People seemed to be really trying to enjoy it and be supportive, but his set was too long and we all just ended up bored. He seemed like quite a nice dude, though. But if I hear teh phrase "What it do?" one more time, I might stab someone.
There was a guy in behind us, who was huge and wearing a t-shirt that said, "I WANT TO FUCK THE BUTCHER!" on it. He kept yelling it at their entourage and eventually the Butcher came out on stage to see it. He laughed. The guy was really obnoxous and kept on yelling it. I think they started to feel a bit unnerved. Also: their photographer is fucking adorable. We kept smiling at each other and when he came down into the security pit we shared this little grin. He was quite possibly the cutest person there. He reminded me of Patrick.
+44 were fun, I guess. Mark was having a laugh. At one point he laid down on the stage with his mic and sang a song into this huge black security guard's ear, and then stroked his head and kissed him. The guy looked stunned and then laughed and then just kind of went with it. But it was still, as Lib described it, (Blink-182)+2-Tom.
The boys themselves were fucking amazing. They played really well, Joe was really on form (and there were a couple of occasions where we kind of rocked out together because I was on the barrier right in front of his monitors and we kind of caught each others' eye and sang along and kind of headbanged together, which was really awesome), Andy's little bit down the front was absolutely brilliant - I love that guy, and watching the intense concentration was amazing; Pete completely blanked Ashlee, who was apparently very drunk and being obnoxious (she was clinging to one of the girls in the entourage and jumping all over her while Gabe and Dre stood on the side of the stage, trying to hide her from the crowd) and Patrick... well. Although he was running around and almost competing with Joe for the fierce rock-out action, which is certainly not the norm, he was really, really quiet. He was also a bit unresponsive, I thought, although he had a couple of moments with Pete when they got all cute, and a couple of moments when Joe decided to rip-off some of Pete's moves. Joe kneeling down beside him was really, really cute.
Pete seemed a bit off-colour, come to think of it. He had Charlie and Dre and a one of the roadies do some of his screaming parts, which was funny, but weird. Dirty also seemed to disappear after a couple of his band intros and we got the impression something had happened backstage, between Paul Wall and TAI, because they were late on and then just ambled on stage by themselves.
In the middle of the show, some local hip-hop act came out and everyone stood on the side of the stage to watch; Joe and Patrick were hidden behind an amp on my side, but Pete, Andy, Gabe and the others were on stage left. Pete made a point of singing and nodding along, Andy standing beside him and apparently enjoying it at first. Then, Andy seemed to realise the crowd were largely thinking, "What the shit is this? I paid to see Fall Out Boy." And then he just started looking worried, like maybe he thought they'd taken that one a bit too far. This was also when Ashlee scampered across the stage with her hood up, like she thought this would mean she wouldn't be recognised. If I was Vicky-T, I would have smacked her in the mouth for stealing my style. Seriously.
(My problem isn't with Ashlee generally, but the fact she's totally riffing someone else's fashion sense at their own party pisses me off.)
The end of the show was pretty amazing. The clouds of silver paper floating down was just... kind of like a spiritual experience, really. It was in my mouth, down my shirt, landing in my hands... everywhere. It was actually really beautiful.
We went outside and were going to head down to the back stage part, as we normally would after a show, but the security were horrible. Then Charlie came out and I tried to say to him that I'd made a point of not throwing the panties too hard so they wouldn't have to chase after them, and he a said, @I have no idea what you just said!" because of my accent and my croaky voice. It was kind of funny, but he was obviously busy, so we sat on the grass for a while to see if anything was going to happen, talked to a couple of other fans, and the eventually walked up to the top of the road and waited for Jesi's mum. We think we saw Pete driving out in the back of a people carrier, and we saw Charlie getting the shuttlebus to the car park, with some friends - oh, and Diaz, who I just waved at and got a wave back - but that was all.
To be perfectly honest, although the set itself was amazing, the day generally kind of sucked. I am already in SO MUCH PAIN that I've been on Tylenol all week, after falling over the first day (my leg is all swollen and bruised very deep under the skin), I'm now sunburned, which looks ridiculous, and there was so much stress about the tickets... I just couldn't really enjoy it.
The fact that we didn't get to meet the band, or get anything other than being, basically, dumped in Chicago, told which hotel to go to and then left to our own devices, kind of feels like a let down. I mean, yeah, they sent us to Chicago, but we could have arranged everything we did here by ourselves. Everything we did do, like meeting up with HRE (who are realy, really lovely) we arranged by ourselves. There were not extras or anything to make it feel special, and I'm really sad about that.
The girl at their PR has been awesome. She really went out of our way to make sure we made it into the gig, even working late into Sunday night UK time, to make sure we were okay. I'm going to send her cupcakes or flowers or something.
I mean, don't get me wrong - we do appreciate the chance we've been given to come here and see the city and meet up with friends, I just feel like it's been an anti-climax. They just didn't make the effort to make it special, really, and that feels kind of lame.
Anyway - have to go. Will report mroe when we're back in the UK.
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