So, I went to the No Doubt/Paramore show last night. Russyl and Jen had told us about it weeks ago, and I really wanted to go, but James wasn't as thrilled. Yesterday, however, we both decided spur-of-the-moment that we were going to go. After all, No Doubt isn't together anymore and this could be our last opportunity to see them, ever. So we searched and searched online to find tickets that were less than $65-90 each, because those same tickets retailed for $10. $65 for a lawn seat? Come on. Well, we had no such luck. We were really disappointed and at that point didn't think we were going to be able to go. I started frantically asking everyone at work if they had any type of hook up, and had no such luck there either. I finally told James to call Russyl and Jen to see if their friend had bailed so we could go, and
luckily about 5 minutes after James called them and they said no, their friend called and said he couldn't go. So it was decided. We were going to go with 3 out of 4 tickets and scalp the 4th. James left work an hour early, we picked up Gavyn, and headed home. About 5 minutes after we got there, Russyl and Jen showed up. We all hurried to get ready since it was 4 by this time. The show didn't start until 7:30 pm but we had to withdraw money from our bank account, eat at Subway, drop Gavyn off at Grandma's, and other various tasks. I asked James or Russyl to check Weather.com to see what the weather was going to be like since it was raining in Spring Hill. Neither of them bothered to, because they said it didn't matter either way. Then we were finally on our way. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there and on the way in we asked three different people holding "I NEED TICKETS" signs on the side of the road if they had tickets. The first has $190 VIP tickets. No thanks, we only need one lawn seat. He pointed us down towards the second guy. The second didn't have lawn tickets either, so he pointed us down to the third. The third
still didn't have lawn tickets, he had one seated ticket for $40 that we could use to sit on the lawn, also. Thinking back, I wish we would've just all grabbed one of those $40 seated tickets. You'll find out why. Russyl didn't print out his tickets online because he likes to have the stubs and didn't want to pay $6 for UPS to ship the tickets to him, as he had already paid $45 for the tickets with service fees. So when we got to the Ford Amphitheatre we got in the back of this HUGE line. It didn't start moving until about 6:30, thirty minutes after we got there. As we were walking in the line, we saw an old man trying to sell rain ponchos. We kind of snickered and made a snide comment like, "Well, if it doesn't rain he's going to look kind of stupid." We advanced more in the line, by this time we switched from the entrance line to the will-call line to get the three additional tickets. This was about two minutes after we passed the poncho man. Raindrops. Oh, it started so slow. Jen was singing the 'raindrops keep falling on my head' song, everyone put their hoods up and the select few who bought the whack jobs' ponchos put those on. The rain started to get a little harder. The line for the will-call tickets wasn't moving. Rain is getting harder and the sky is dark gray. Wow, it really didn't look like it was going to get any better. The rain got harder and harder and rained for at least an hour or two. We were all soaked from head to toe. My camera got wet (but surived), our blanket to sit on weighed about 100 pounds by the end of the night, and we were all wearing jeans. It was thundering. It was lightning. And here we were, bundled up on a drenched blanket on the drenched grass in our drenched clothes. When we got settled in our spot, we all immediately took our shoes off. They kept filling with water, so we had to empty them. I literally sat there, hood up, sitting down in the fetal position for about 30 minutes waiting for the music to start. It started off with a shitty band called
The Sounds. Sorry, but they were not good at all - at least live, so I'm not going to waste my time talking about them. Next was Paramore. They played some of their hit singles like Pressure, Misery Business, That's What You Get, etc. Russyl had said that he's seen them before live and she just sounded like a little screaming emo girl, but I thought they were actually good. They sound just like they do on their CD. And finally... No Doubt. Gwen looked amazing, as usual, and the band was amaaazing. She dedicated the song Different People to everyone who was soaked on the lawn. She kept referring to us as "her slushies" because she had asked us what it was like back there, and how slushy the grass was. She said it was one of her favorite shows because she couldn't believe we were all still there. Some of my favorites that they played were I'm Just A Girl, It's My Life, Running, Don't Speak, and - of course - Spiderwebs (which was the first one they started off with). I love Gwen. She took pictures with at least two of the fans that were in front of her, and did push-ups for another one. She likes to pick her favorite fans each time. She also pulled three people up on the stage. I have pictures, but I brought my little point and shoot and they're not very impressive. I do also have videos that I took with it. Again, you really can't see anything, but you can hear it. All in all, it was an awesome night. I feel like I was drinking heavily last night (I didn't drink a drop, the drinks were $13 a piece for canned beer) because of the rain and staying up so late, but it was all worth it to see No Doubt for (possibly) the last time. The reason they want on tour was for inspiration, I don't think they're getting back together at all. Unfortunately. I liked Gwen a lot better in No Doubt than as a solo artist. Anyway, I have eBay items to ship out today, a roast to cook, some boys of mine to smooch, and some relaxing after all of that to do. So that's all for now!
I just added over 300 pictures to my Facebook, dating back to 2004. I got up to the beginning of 2007 and then Matt and Amber came over, so I quit (for now). Just a quick side note: I have over 10,000 pictures on my computer, I have never deleted any pictures that I take (except for the bloopers or the blurry ones that didn't make the cut)... So let's just say that our 320 GB external harddrive is about 90% full between photos and music. There is nothing like sitting back and looking at old pictures. Last night we played Rockband, Scene It!, and watched I Am Legend with Matt and Amber. I never really get sick (the bad kind) of that movie. It's pretty sick (the good kind). I hadn't seen Matt and Amber since James' 21st birthday, so it's been over a year. It was awesome hanging out, I love them because they share my twisted, sarcastic sense of humor. Plus, Matt and I go way back to the 9th grade at Central High School where we listened to "emo" songs by The Postal Service and Dashboard all the time. Our new HOOKAH STUFF is going to be delivered to our doorstep via UPS today and I am SO EXCITED. We haven't had any shisha in literally 4-5 months. That, my friend, was very hard. We ordered more natural coals, a new bowl, foils, and the following flavors (all Starbuzz): Kiwi-Strawberry, Watermelon, Black Grape, Jasmine, Vanilla, Blue Myst, and Tangerine Dream. This is our (other) baby, in black.
