House of Blues, Chicago 10/98

Basically they were great as always but nothing special happened. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Barrymore Theatre, Madison 12/19/98

Well I have to say this was the absolute best night of my life and a long story so get comfortable. It starts of that my birthday is coming up. I ask my wonderful mother to take me and three friends 4 hours away to see them on my birthday.

So we have a hell of a time trying to find the place and when we finally do boy are we starved. So we go to the diner across the street. It’s a ½ hour before the show starts and it’ll take a ½ hour to get seated. BUT! If we sit at the counter there is no wait. So naturally we sit at the counter. My mother ended up next to a stagehand and the really seemed to hit it off. (just as friends of course) So we asked him how to meet the band. He said running around back and knocking on buses was our best shot.

So while I was running with my friends to get my camera from the car my mother talks to this stagehand. She tells him how in love with this band I am and how it’s my birthday and how we drove all the way from Chicago. So he gives her a backstage pass to give to me after the concert. Meanwhile me and my friends have run around back. I knew that their bus was purple from previous experience but there were three buses and two were purple. So we picked a bus and knocked on the door hoping it was RBF. And who comes out? Andrew and Matt. So we say hi and get pictures and stuff. Now I’m all excited and a little RBF high if you know how that is. So I ask Andrew where the rest of the guys are. He thinks they’re at the little Mexican restaurant next door. So we go there and they’ve left already. So we decide to forget about it.

The concert starts and I’m right behind a girl who is right in front. I’m in the second row basically. The first band was New Radicals. Everyone hated them and the people who tried to have fun got beat up. The second band was the Flys. I liked them OK but I was busy slowly getting my knee in between two people so I could push the girl in front of me out of the way. As soon as the started singing "Got you where I want you" the crowd went crazy and I managed to slip up front. You also have to understand how small this venue is. It is in reality a small movie theatre and not a concert hall. So there is nothing separating the crowd from the stage. Usually there is a fence but not at this place.

Everyone is waiting to see RBF now. The stagehand guy I’d met earlier spots me up front and comes over from the stage. He asks me if I’m the girl who’s birthday it is and makes sure I’m from Chicago. Then he asks my name, tells me happy birthday and slips me a guitar pick. He also tells me my mother has a surprise for me.

RBF come on. The very first song Aaron wasted a guitar pick and instead of throwing it into the crowd like he always does he threw it to the side to someone. (Turns out he was saving it for me) He used about three more that night which all of them were thrown into the crowd. So you can get a feeling for where I was you all know that Aaron is in the middle. And Scott is directly left of him. So I was right in front of Scott. I was closer to Scott than anyone in the whole room including Aaron. If my arm was two feet longer I could've touched him. So they have one last song left to play and I'm assuming that it will be Sell Out since they haven't played it yet. But first Scott has to make an announcement. And on his hand I read "Lindsay from Chicago". So he holds up his hand and asks, "Is there a Lindsay from Chicago here tonight with her friends?" Of course this is where me and my friends go ballistic and scream our heads off. So Scott looks directly down at me and eye contact is made. He wishes me a happy birthday from himself and the guys and dedicates the last song to me. So they play Sell Out and I cry like I've never cried so hard in my life even when people die. I was so happy.

But it was even better when I found my mother wearing a backstage pass and holding the guitar pick that Aaron had saved for me. So I hadn't got any actual presents for my birthday so I just bought one of everything they were selling at the RBF merchandise table. Some things I had already but now I have two. Aaron was out in the lobby signing stuff cuz the last band was playing (Love and Rockets, but almost everyone left after RBF had played). So I asked him to sign my 7" that I had just bought. He signs it and then says, " Wait you're Lindsay, it's your birthday right?" I say yeah and he proceeds to write happy birthday Lindsay and draw confetti and balloons all over. Then I have no idea what came over me at that moment but I felt I had to propose to him. He asked how old I was and I told him that when he was thirty if we weren't married we should get married. So he said," That's a nice maybe". I also got my picture with him. Then Tavis was out there too so I got his autograph and I got a picture with him and me and Aaron again.

I asked Aaron where Dan was (cuz at this point Dan was the only member I'd never actually touched) and he told me he was probably back on the bus. So we went back to the bus to find Dan. Instead we found Andrew and talked to him and got stuff signed. I asked him how old Chris was and he said 7 and showed us all a picture. He's a pretty cute little guy that Christopher. Then we asked him where Dan was and he told us on the back of the bus and if we knocked on the back we could find him. So we knocked but he didn't come out and we were cold in the middle of Dec. without jackets so we left. That was quite the happy birthday for me.

House of Blues, Chicago 2/99

Well this story isn't quite as good as last time but I'll tell you about it anyway. The tickets were on hold at the box office but we had already bought them. You know what I mean right? So we're in line getting them when I turn around and see Dan right in my face with his side to me. So I quick turn around and tell everyone but my stupid friends are too shy and don't want to talk to him. So I talk to him myself a little while and I must say he is simply the nicest guy in the world.

The only other out of the ordinary thing that happened at this concert was that I was in the second row and Aaron sort of saw and recognized me and stuck his tongue out at me. Also he was wearing flannel pajamas exactly the same as some that I have except for different buttons. So I guess I'm going to have to change the buttons now. Also Aaron sang all the songs cuz poor Scott was sick. If you saw this show live on your own computer at home you may have actually witnessed Aaron stick his tongue out at me. The fact that this show was broadcast live on the internet seemed pretty well know to my knowledge. If you didn't catch it you missed out on a great concert.

Oh yeah…. Carlos was there and he is now the only member I have never touched. I kinda miss Andrew but I'm sure he's moved on to a better life. I must say that I feel very sorry for Grant and his unfortunate departure.

House of Blues, Chicago 7/2/99

Well another great performance by the best band in the world. I got in the front row which was cool. Aaron was wearing lime green spandexy tight ass pants to compliment his British flag shirt. It was all completed by big black boots. I've also never seen his hair that short before. Scott needed a haircut badly.

The two girls to my left looked like they were about 8 and 12 years old. (Later I found out they were 17 but I still refuse to believe it) They wore earplugs (dorks) and made little signs. All the little signs had cute little animals on them. They said things like "Can we have a guitar pick?" and "Can we come up please?". Well Aaron took one of their signs and read it to everyone, "Scott's a Dweeb." (I think we all know who the real dweebs were) So Scott said, "I bet that some people here don't think I'm a dweeb. I bet that some people would even say that I'm… SEXY!!!" (every single girl in the whole place goes insane) Then Scott, looking very surprised says, "Boy that went over better than I thought."

Later on Scott was teaching the audience to sing the scat part in Hungry Like The Wolf… so Tavis sat down. I took off one of my necklaces and gave it to him so he wore it. It was really cool. Just a little metal ball type of choker thing with a tiny little fish charm on it. Unfortunately some gay copy cat person right behind me decided to do the same thing. Only her necklace was one of those girly little "tattoo" necklaces. It looked really stupid on poor Tavis but I suppose he couldn't wear just mine and not hers too.