2007年 Jun 21日 Thursday, 23:02
Wed 5 Jul – AFI, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Nightmare of You
Easily the best night of my entire lifetime.
The following was taken from my MySpace blog, written the day after the show. Right click on the pictures and hit "view image" to see them correctly :]
My story starts at 7:30 AM on July 5th, 2006. I come out of a light sleep all jumpy and excited… Why? BECAUSE I WOULD BE SEEING AFI THAT NIGHT. FOR THE FIRST TIME. I paint my nails, try on my outfit, run around the house like a crazy person, clean my room, listen to all of my AFI discs, call Jay something like 75 times because he needs to know when to pick me up and is not answering, call Lauren because I need to talk to somebody, go on the message board, get my stuff together, talk on AIM, cry, get my flowers for the boys set up and write notes to them, etc. until about 6:15 when Jay FINALLY calls me and tells me to meet him on State Line.
So I get in the car with my mom and brother and the gas tank is basically empty. Did I mention the show starts at 7, doors open at 6? Yeah. I'm a wreck. And my mom has no money to give me like she planned, AND I realize I left my roses/notes for them at home!! We run back, I grab them, and we zoom off. I meet Jay at Rockhurst at 6:45. Trying not to panic, we talk about wonderful 4th of July things (not like I did anything for the 4th besides spaz out and watch a few fireworks shows from down the street) and listen to Decemberunderground.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI010.jpg
We get to the Uptown at 7:15 and run around looking for a parking spot, finally finding one a 3-minute walk away, and I realize I have to pee like nobody's business. So Jay and I go into this random coffee shop place and they have a sign on the bathroom screaming "only paying costumers" so I bought a cookie because I was too lazy to go in anywhere else. That bathroom was interesting…
Then we went across the street where the real fun began. I decided I'd buy my hoodie before going in because I didn't want them running out of smalls. I wanted to say something to Fritch but I didnt want to sound stupid and the line was long Then we ran into a guy from our school -Luke- who's cool. Said hey then called John to ask where he and Spencer were. We looked around for a while but I gave up and decided I'd rather just head on down to the front. Nightmare of You were just finishing up… Didn't sound good but not bad either. And Dillinger was about to come on. There was this group of 3 college-aged guys in front of us, asking about the flowers. I was like "they're for AFI." And they said that they'd crowd surf me up to the stage so I could give them to them. I was like "NOO Davey hates crowdsurfers" and afraid I'd lose my purse with camera, phone, GNG vinyl, and other things in it.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI006.jpg
After Dillinger finished, my ears were ringing and we tried to make our way up to the stage. Somehow we ended up about 6 or 7 rows of people back in the dead center. I look behind me and who's there but John and a few of his friends from school! We talk for a while and I get all jumpy. More people look at me weird because I was holding on to 5 green roses with notes attached to them with a deathgrip… And the set finally starts to come up. Damn, I've NEVER been that hot and bothered in my life. John poured his water bottle over my head and it felt amazing. I tried to get a pic of RJ. People were seriously pushing way before AFI even came on. I wouldn't have minded much if I wasn't carrying flowers. Rawr.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI044.jpg
Then suddenly the opening part to Prelude comes on and people FREAK THE FUCK OUT. Within one song, 3 crowd surfers landed on my head, I fell down, my roses got smushed into all oblivion (and all the notes fell off) and I got seperated from Jay.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI038.jpg
Knowing what's best for me and thinking I was going to pass out, I followed a guy who was going over to the side by Hunter. I instantly felt a lot better and safer.. Less like I was going to puke and more like I was going to have fun. The crowd around me was pretty decent.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI043.jpg
There were some hella annoying people though. They didn't know the words to ANY of the songs so that just fuled my fire more and I sang into their ears the whole time. And then there was this guy behind me that kept complaining about his hair… But he had pretty grey eyes, and knew A Single Second so I didn't wanna yell at him.
The show was great!!! I got totally lost in the music. There were times I would think to myself "now where am I again? oh yeah, AFI!" but for the most part I remained semi-sane… That is until Hunter made eye contact with me.
Then my last shreds of dignity were pulled from my hands and I went uberfangirl. Yeah, the screaming, jumping up and down, basically falling over onto the tall guy next to me… But I regained composure until they played This Time Imperfect in which I TOTALLY lost it. I bawled my eyes out. I'd needed a good cry since camp, and that was the spot.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI027.jpg
I just got to thinking how much they've gotten me through and how much they mean to me. Just being there with those people that felt the same as me.. Had the same feelings.. The same passion inside of them.. GOSH I'm too emotional.
Anywho. After the show (which Davey ended oooh so cutely by fixing his hair, posing, and saying goodnight) I called and found Jay after trying unsuccessfully to buy a bottle of water for my poor damaged vocal chords (actually, I surprisingly didn't lose my voice. It's getting used to screaming, I suppose) We just followed the small number of people who stayed to meet them and sat down on the sidewalk. Chatted for a while with Jay and a few cool fellow DFers around us.
At something like 11:15 my mom called and told me if we didn't see them in another 20 minutes to leave because I was supposed to be home at midnight. My heart was crushed, and I wasn't about to let this opportunity get away from me, so Jay and I decided we'd walk behind the building to see if we could get a look at the bus. The group that we were talking to joined us, so we had something like 10 people ranging from the ages of 13 to 35 going to stalk the AFI tour bus. We felt like such groupies!!
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI026.jpg
Going up to one corner of the building we see Smith. We yell and wave at Smith. Smith looks very confused and waves back at me. I wasn't about to give up on those damn flowers after holding them through 3 bands, so I was just about ready to chuck them at the bus we saw Jade get in and a security guy comes out and is all "if you want to meet him go around!" Well, we were about 40 feet off the ground and being blocked by another building, so we all practically sprinted around the theater where Jade was just starting to sign autographs and take pictures and stuff. I got so nervous. I grabbed out my shoe that I'd had As I Lay Dying sign the other one at Taste of Chaos and showed Jay how to work my camera.
Soon it was my turn to say something. Jay had to push me in front of him because my motor skills had kind of dissipated at that moment in time. I got him to sign my shoe and we took a picture.. Then I decided to give him my roses. I tried to explain what had happened but I think it came out "Well, these are for you guys, they were pretty, but got destroyed in the pit, sorry, they did have notes and stuff." And he said thanks and that they'd make the bus smell nice or something. I then proceeded to skip down the street in happiness, call my mom and tell her that I'd just met Jade and that we were basically on our way, and turn the corner to see if anybody else had come to sign stuff.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI007.jpg
I see a very familiar-looking back with a few people around it and I think to myself… "Adam?" but instead it ended up coming out loud and he turned around and said "Hi, I'm Adam." I stuck my hand out, kind of shocked, and shook his. I told him it was an amazing show and would he mind if we took a picture? He said of course not so we did. I just kind of sat there smiling like a loony for a minute and he was like "did I blink" so I said "Sorry my camera is kind of a spaz" and he laughed and we looked at the picture. By then another guy was wanting to talk to him so we headed over to the crowd that had formed by Hunter and I saw Smith. Keep in mind that I'm wearing a shirt with his face on it that I made to match Roxie and Caroline, which at that time I see in line. I said hey and waved at them, then Seb saw me and we hugged. It was wonderful. He told me I looked very happy.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/evern1ght/AFI/KC%20July%205%2006/AFI008.jpg
And how could I not be? heh. By then I was rather tired and wanting to head home, so I gave up waiting in Hunter's mob and went over by Smith. He said he really liked my shirt. After realizing that I lost my Sharpie, I got him to sign my shoe as well. I said thanks and Jay and I were walking off when we hear "You guys are the best!" from Smith and I turn around and wave. We walked back to the car and got home in one piece, even after going down a one-way street the wrong way for something like 5 blocks, resulting in me laughing so hard I swore I was either going to pee myself or get a knot in my stomach, and going 25 down State Line.
http://photos-380.facebook.com/ip006/v34/226/26/1191420402/n1191420402_30129380_3621.jpg
Amazing.
Oh, on a side note, that picture of Jade and I is on the I Heard a Voice fan photos!! And to view all of my pictures from this, please click here!