CRASH KINGS ROADTRIP WEEK OF AWESOME!!!

SO. I'm back in Lebanon now, after my Week of Awesome. It's always hard to get through the first evening of NOT being at a Crash Kings show, after three nights in a row.

But! I was greeted by a very excited kitty. She's sleeping next to me on the couch right now. I think she missed me so much!! I held her for such a long time after I got back. I missed her too!




Aww!

Anyways, let's get to "the goods."


ROCKIN' TUESDAY:

Tuesday was going to be a GREAT day! I went to bed really late, and woke up really early - my specialty. I packed my things and left my house around 9:20am. I stopped for coffee at the exit 13 Dunkin because I was very sleepy and needed sustenance.

I was driving to Malden! To Ryan's new apartment!! Traffic was fine, and her apartment was super easy to find. It helped too, because I have driven and parked to the Malden Center T station a few times before, so I recognized the area. I couldn't find the parking for her building, so I found other parking.

So, I was meeting up with Emily, David, Jenny and Jenny's boyfriend Chris in Central Square, which meant that I needed to get from Malden Center to Central Square.

My first order of business was to find the T station. So, I figured if I hadn't turned onto Ryan's street, I would have passed the station on my left. So, I walked back down the road and voila! There it was.

FINDING T STATION = check!

then, I needed to purchase a Charlie Card. i wasn't sure what was happening today, as well as the rest of the week, as well as Sunday, so I got one for $10.

BUYING CHARLIE CARD = check!

Then, I looked at a T map and figured out I needed to go towards Forest Hills, in order to switch over at Downtown Crossing to the Red Line. So, I did!

SWITCH FROM ORANGE TO RED LINE = check!

And, I headed towards Alewife and got off a Central Square!

GET TO CENTRAL SQUARE = check!!

and then I called David and we managed to find each other pretty easily. YES.

FRIENDS FOUND = CHECK!

So fun!!!! I remembered Central Square from when I had been here for the Rooney/Tally Hall/Crash Kings show in December. We walked around a bit trying to find a place to eat, and then ended up walking to Harvard Square. We were going to eat at a Crepe place, but there wasn't adequate seating for 5 people. So, we ended up at B.Good and had delicious burgers/veggie burgers/salads/coconut water.

IT WAS SO NICE to see my friends again!! I hadn't seen Jenny since David's birthday party dinner last October!! That's too crazy. And Emily and David since March, I think. And Chris is super nice and it was really great to meet him.

After burgers, we walked to this totally great frozen yogurt place, Berry Line. I enjoyed rose flavored fro yo with strawberries and white chocolate mixed in. UM, DELISH. Yeah, a lot. Sooooo good.

We sat on the curb and ate :)

Then, we walked to Emily and David's new apartment! In Inman Square! SUPER NICE! Reminded me A LOT of where my grandmother used to live. It's a great apartment. Lots of rooms. Grape vines in the garden. Enthusiastic neighbors!

Oh, it was so much fun seeing them. Then sadly, Jenny and Chris had to leave and drive back to Gardener. I stayed with Emily and David while they packed to leave for California the next day. I wasn't meeting up with my Crash Kings friends until later, so, I had time to kill.

Emily and David finally had to leave around 5:45 or so. Sad :( But what a great day!! Everyone has such great lives. Ohhh I love them so much.

So, I found my way back to Central Square with 'Eat Pray Love,' which Emily had let me borrow, since I still had time to kill. I went to Starbucks and got a coffee, which took a while since it was busy and I like my drinks fancy.

Then, I walked around outside until I found a nice place to sit, and I relaxed and read and drank coffee before my super awesome night. It was a nice time. The day so far had been busy, and I knew the night would be busy, so it was nice just to sit.

And then! Jo texted me saying her and Jess (who I had met at the Paradise back in March) were the first in line at the Middle East!!! So I said I would be right over!!! YAY!! CRASH KINGS AWESOME NIGHT WAS STARTING!!!

So, I walked over and stood got to the line around 7pm ish. The doors weren't opening until 8pm, so we had lots of time to stand around and chat and be really excited.

And then around 7:15 or so - Ryan arrived!!! So great to see her!! And then we were all excited together.

One of the best things was seeing the line up for the evening...

The last time I was at the Middle East it read this:

ROONEY - 10pm
Tally Hall - 9pm
Crash Kings - 8pm

THIS TIME IT SAID THIS:

CRASH KINGS - 10:30pm
Gold Star Morning - 9:30pm
Richard James Band - 8:30pm

How great is that?!?! Crash Kings go from being the first opening band, to headlining in 8 months! It was very exciting for us all.

So we get in there and immediately make camp at the front of the stage.

Richard James Band comes on. They are awesome!! So great! Very danceable, fun music. And they have a trombone and saxophone. Turns out the lead singer, Richard James, went to school with Mike and Tony (of Crash Kings), so they are friends! How great?! Also funny - I was up at their merch table with Ryan because she was buying their CD and I saw the cover and said,

JULIE: Oh my God, I HAVE this CD!
RYAN: What?! Really?!
JULIE: Yes!! OMG. He was walking around Great Scott after the show handing them out! I never listened to it! It's still sitting on my coffee table with the plastic on.

TRUE STORY. Anyways, they are great. Definitely more great live than they are on the CD. But! You should check out their song, 'I Tried,' which is me and Ryan's fave.

Gold Star Morning comes on next. They are pretty good. Lead singer kind of seemed like a moron, which turned me off from the band as a whole. If I had a dollar for every time he said 'Gold Star Morning,' I would be freaking rich. When he wasn't singing, he would be air punching all over the place. Like, gearing up for a boxing match or something. It was really strange. But, their lead guitarist, Ben, was great. I also enjoyed watching Cory on bass, as he was a cutie.

I can't really remember any of their songs... but I didn't hate listening to them.

AND THEN, they broke down their set and Josh and Jimmy came out to set up the stage for Crash Kings. This was when Jo realized that Josh was the guy from Rooney. WHICH I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE.

IF YOU'D LIKE TO SEE JOSH APPEARING IN THE ROONEY TOUR VIDEO DIARY FROM 9 DECEMBER, 2009: Please click here.

I re-watched it today and really enjoyed it. I mean, I loved Josh when I first saw this video back in December. And I still CAN'T BELIEVE I never realized it was him on the Crash Kings tour. Embarrassing, really.

Anyways, finally it's 10:30pm and our boys come out. SO GREAT. The crowd is PACKED UP against the front of the stage. It's a completely sold out show, and EVERYBODY showed up.

OHHH IT WAS SO EXCITING TO BE THERE!!!!!!!!




It's Mike!!


And Jason!!! All the pictures of Jason came out really dark, which I was super bummed about. But, he's there! Lookin' good as always!!




HOTTIE ON THE BASS.




And, there's the third King, Tony. I seem to capture moments of Tony when his fingers look freakishly long. But, I like this picture because you can see his eyes.




And, there's his new tattoo!! The crown. Duh, because he's the King. He got it for the 'You Got Me' video. I like it.




I really like this picture of Mike. Mainly because (and I know I've expressed this a thousand times before), one of the sexiest things ever is to watch Mike sweat while playing the bass, and I love the arm glistening that's going on. Mixed with the red lights? Mmmm yes.

If the 'You Got Me' video had been nothing more but a single camera on Mike, in this lighting, with this glistening - I would have been FINE with that. Or, heck, if the whole video was simply a still frame of this picture - that would work too.




Actually, I just changed my mind. That above shot of Mike interchanged with this shot of Tony. Yeah, he's claving there.




YES. YES THIS SHOT OF MIKE IS THE BEST. My fave, I think.




What? Tony standing next to Mike?? Did that really happen?? YES. YES IT HAPPENED.

During '2nd Rate Citizen,' Tony came out from behind the piano to introduce the guys. Jason on drums!! And "my brother Mike on the bass guitar!" And while he was saying this, he put his arm around Mike! It was adorable. I tried hard to get a picture of that, but I wasn't quick enough. But, I got this shot, which is still a great Bro shot. Look how tiny Tony is! He's got such a huge presence and a huge voice, but he's just a little guy.


AND THEN,



He starts singing again STILL AT THE FRONT OF THE STAGE!!! In fact, RIGHT in front of me and Jo!! Like, yeah - THIS CLOSE. I was really hoping he would sing the lyric, "you got the shit that's gonna make my head spin" right to us. But, he had moved to the other side of the stage by then.




But yeah - then this happened. It was really strange to see him just holding the microphone and singing. But, so awesome at the same time. Because normally it's only Mike who can move around the stage. I mean, sure, Tony's throwing himself around behind the piano, but it was cool to see him out and about.





YEP. LOVE IT. The hair. The face. The whammying. The tattoo. LOVE IT.




Please note: Mike's sweat soaked shirt.




YEP. That too. Mike came right down in front for a nice photo op. Thanks, Mike. And YES, to my mom, who asked me if Mike had blue eyes. He does. You can see them in this picture.

When my mom was talking to Mike in Portsmouth when he was coming around looking for his parents, and my mom touched his arm and told him they had left, she asked me afterwards,

MOM: Does Mike have really blue eyes?!?!?
JULIE: Ummmmm......???

Settled!







So, Boston was INCREDIBLE. The crowd was AMAZING. These guys were like GODS. It was so great, and so exciting to be back with my new friends in the place we had all first seen Crash Kings play. And all of us back on that night, even though we didn't know each other then, thought, "HOLY CRAP THESE GUYS ROCK," and the rest, as they say, is history.

Everybody was drenched in sweat by then.

OH WAIT!!! I have to tell you about the surprise. OMG I'VE BEEN KEEPING THIS IN FOR SOOOO LONG.

So back in Portsmouth when I was talking with Mike and Tony's mom for an hour, she told me there might be a surprise in Boston, but she couldn't tell me what it was, or anything else about it....

MRS. BELIVEAU: ...Or else the boys won't tell me anything anymore!

It was very cute and GOT ME SUPER EXCITED. But, I didn't want to post anything about it in a public place like this blog. And she also told me, that if nothing happened, to come find her after the show and she would tell me what it would have been. So, that was super cool.

OH their mom is so nice.

Anyways - so, nothing had happened and the show was pretty "normal," if you can call a Crash Kings show normal. But then! Tony's comes back on for the encore and he's solo! And he sits at the piano and says,

TONY: You are beautiful and you are pretty! And you are pretty things! And I want to cover one of my favorite David Bowie songs for you right now.

AND THEN HE COVERED DAVID BOWIE'S, 'OH YOU PRETTY THINGS.'

That's a killer video that Ryan got. About 27 seconds in, someone yells, "I LOVE YOU!!" It's pretty funny. I noticed it when I was listening to it in the car and started laughing really hard. You should watch the video, because I think it's a great cover.

And before he starts singing, you can see him tape some post it notes with all the lyrics onto the Clav. He does this sometimes and it's very cute. He did it for all the times we saw them do 'Hey Bulldog,' but even then, he would still sometimes mess up the lyrics. So great.

ANYWAYS - great song. Great cover. Great band.

And then everything amazing and awesome happened afterwards. Jo confirmed with Josh that he was the Rooney roadie.

Ryan talked with Richard James for a loong time. I wanted to get up to hear what they were saying, but this other guy started talking to me. Apparently one of Richard James' friends. He said he knows him like, 8 different ways.

GUY: I know this guy like...8 different ways!!
JULIE: Oh yeah? (thinking... now you're going to tell me all the ways, right?)
GUY: Number 1...
JULIE: (yep...here we go....)

And he talked to me for like, 15 minutes. I think he was kind of drunk. His name was Tom Wilson. And he said that Richard James had written a song about him called, Tom Wilson.

Sooo, yep, I just looked it up on YouTube, and there is, in fact, a Richard James song called 'Tom Wilson.' And Richard James introduces it saying it's about some guy named Tom Wilson. And THAT'S the guy who was chatting me up post-show. Hahaha.

And he said to me that he wasn't at the show when they performed it, and afterwards he got a lot of angry texts. And in the beginning of the video Richard James is like,

RICHARD JAMES: Is Tom Wilson even here? This song is about him, and it'd be kind of weird if he wasn't here...

HA. Please enjoy the song here. It's actually pretty good. I find this amusing a lot. He was a really nice guy. And he's been in some Drop Kick Murphy's videos. Huge fan of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and also Sublime. He said he heard about Crash Kings just last week while he was in North Carolina with another friend, and then Richard James told him that they were opening for them. And he had never heard of them before, and didn't know that Richard James went to school with Tony and Mike.

So, that's cool. Also, I just read the liner notes for the Richard James CD, and they thank Tom Wilson. Ok, so now I think it's kind of awesome that he was talking to me for so long.

TOM WILSON, if you're reading this: nice talking to you. Love your song. Maybe see you at another Richard James show!

But then, someone stole Tom Wilson away from me. Another one of his friends came up and gave him a hug. And then I added my name to the Richard James email list. And then saw Jason walking around.

So, we went over to say hi to Jason. He immediately gave me a hug and said that it was so great to see us all at the show. What else did we talk about? Crap. I can't remember. CRAP. Anyways, I love Jason. He's so freaking nice and sweet.

But, while we were talking, Tony and Mike's parents came over, because Tony and Mike were also standing around us, and their mom came up and said some things to Jason and then gave him a hug. And that's when she saw me and got totally excited and gave me a hug! And remembered my name! And we talked about how great the show was. And then I had pretty much the same conversation (including hug and name remembering) with their dad, who also asked why my mom wasn't at the show.

MR. BELIVEAU: Where's your mom?!?
JULIE: She couldn't make it! She has to work in the morning... :/
MR. BELIVEAU: Well, she missed a great show!

and then they told me they were on their way out, they were just going to say goodbye to the boys. And then we parted, I said it was so great to see them again, and we'd probably see each other at another show, and they were excited about that.

SO GREAT. RIGHT?! SO GREAT. And then they went off to talk to Tony and Mike.

And then after they left, I could tell Tony was about to take off, so I caught him, gave him a super sweaty hug and said,

JULIE: Tony! Such a great show tonight!
TONY: Thank you so much for coming!
JULIE: It was awesome! So much less frustrating than Portsmouth!
TONY: Yeah, that was frustrating. It was like, we've worked so hard to consider ourselves a professional band, and the people working that venue just weren't being professional, and they couldn't get their shit together, and so it turned out bad.
JULIE: Yeah, what a bummer. But, tonight rocked, and we'll see you tomorrow in Providence!
TONY: You're coming tomorrow?
JULIE: Yeah!
TONY: (laughs) Awesome.

Jason had the same kind of reaction when we told him we'd see him in Providence. :)

Now, as I'm thinking back on this night, I wish I had hugged Mike too. I've forced hugs upon him in the past (well, not forced, but Mike is a shy guy, so rather, 'gave him unavoidable hugs.'), so WHY didn't I do it that night!? I don't know. I didn't say anything to Mike that night!

BUT, if I had hugged him, then I would have hugged THE WHOLE BELIVEAU FAMILY. In one night. And that would have been pretty awesome.

So then me and Ryan kind of realized that it was like, 12:23am or something like that, and the last train was at like, 12:30. so, we hustled and MADE IT just in time.

Arrived back in Malden and totally crashed. It was hotttt and we were exhausted.

CRASH KINGS NIGHT 1 = awesome.


ROCKIN' WEDNESDAY:


Woke up before noontime! Got to hang around a bit with Ryan's roommates, Brent and Tony, whom I knew from last year! Really cool to see them! And Brent's younger sister was visiting again! I had met her when she was visiting last Spring over Earthfest weekend. So, great to see her too!!

I was keeping in touch with Kara, who was planning on driving down to meet us to go to the Providence show! I was sooooo excited about this. Kara hadn't been to a Crash Kings show SINCE FEBRUARY!! I consider this unacceptable. She was leaving work early and driving down; I gave her directions to Ryan's apartment. YAY.

Basically, the afternoon was spent hanging around doing various internet things. Ryan was still working on the transcription to '1985.'

Finally Kara came!!! It was SO FUN to see her! She's kind of the best. Out of all my favorite sisters, she's definitely in the top 3. ;)

So then we left for Providence! At probably the absolute worst time ever! It was pretty much stop and go traffic the whole freaking way! And, I had learned via text that Jo wasn't going to make it, due to getting out of work late and being extremely tired. Super bummer.

Kara was driving, which was great because she of course knows Providence, since she lived there and went to school there for... 2 years? 1 year? ...A while... So, she got us right to Club Hell (fun fact: which was where they filmed the classic rom com, '27 Dresses.' The scene where she goes to her coworkers engagement party. It's like, all "goth.")

So, we're across the street from the club and Kara suddenly says,

KARA: It's Mike!!
JULIE AND RYAN: What?! Where?!?!
KARA: Down the road!
JULIE: OMG MIKE!

He was walking around with their tour manager, Jimmy. So, we start waving. We're stopped at a light, and they're standing on the street corner across the street. They stare blankly at us and wave back. Then, as we're passing through the intersection, Kara rolls down the drivers' side window and yells,

KARA: Woooo!! We're going to your show tonight!!!!!

It was pretty funny. They both started laughing and fist pumping. Those guys are nice.

After that, I was totally amped for the show. (I just said, 'amped.' Hmm. How do we feel about this?) Kara got us a great parking spot, and we walked over.

We were running kind of late, due to traffic, so we got there probably just after the first opening band started. There were two opening bands:

The Valar and Herra Terra.

Here's The Valar posing with Crash Kings:



I thought that pic was super cute. The Valar are the four guys who aren't Mike, Tony and Jason. I really hope you know who those three are by now. If they look super young, it's cause they are! Kara was talking to their guitar player (kid in the plaid shirt) and he said they had just graduated high school. HIGH SCHOOL. Yep.

And on their Facebook page the show at Club Hell was advertised as "maybe our last show before we go to college!" I thought that was pretty cute.

ALSO: JO! There's a kid named Rockwell in the band. I KNOW, RIGHT?!! I think he's second from the right, in the blue t-shirt. Bass player. Funny, eh?

They were actually pretty good. They had some really catchy songs. Their first CD was being sold for the first time ever at the show. It was pretty cute.

And, I liked The Valar much better than I liked Herra Terra.

These guys had WAY too many beats. It was like, an iPod with a beat, a synthesizer beat, a whole other machine with a beat, PLUS a drummer. OVERLOAD. And not that it all sounded the same, but it kind of all sounded the same. It was different beats, but just the same noise over and over and over and over. Like, stale electronica. I didn't like it.

The singer was cute and seemed to be a funny guy, but overall, UGH.

Also, I should mention: we were freaking RIGHT up at the stage, RIGHT next to the piano. Like, RIGHT NEXT TO THE PIANO.

AND THEN CRASH KINGS CAME OUT!!!!




Yeah, that's a pic without the zoom. I promise. THAT'S how close we were to Tony.








Can you guess which song this is taken from?!?! If you guessed '14 Arms' YOU'RE RIGHT!!!





Yeah, I kind of LOVE this one. A lot.




This was their set up for most of the time! Mike in a Tony and Jason sandwich. YUM, right? This was also taken without any zoom. Small stage = :) Also cool was that the stage was like, a foot high, so it was like being eye level with them.




I slowly was pushed further to the left, as these girls pushed their way next to me. The one next to me proceeded to say things directed at Tony such as,

GIRL NEXT TO ME: Heeyyyyy sexy....OoooOOoooo sexy!!

I just kept thinking, "Dear God I hope he doesn't think I'm saying these things to him."

Right?! I mean, there's no need to speak to him like that. I mean, in a blog format, SURE. But during the middle of a show? Come on. Um, did you also notice that he's playing piano kind of brilliantly? It reminded me of the time in Portland when the super drunk girl came up to Tony and started groping him on the couch, when he was hanging out with US. BEST.TONY.FACE.EVER. But, really, he doesn't need that.




Mike, on the other hand, would probs love it. :) Ha, no. But look at that sex kitten face! He's got a guitar pick hanging out of his mouth also.






So easy to take photos of him. I like those few because you can see the reflection of his hands in the piano.





GREAT SHOW!!! Their set was a little shorter because Club Hell turns into an actual dance club at night, so they didn't play '2nd Rate Citizen' or 'War Pigs.' They ended with 'Carry On.'

And, during 'Mountain Man' Mike GOT REALLY EXCITED that me and Ryan did the "Mt. Man Claps," which is a Crash Queen symbol. He yelled,

MIKE: YYEEAAHH!!!

And pointed right at us. That was fun. He also smiled really big.

After the show, they stayed onstage for a while helping to unplug and reload. Ryan had pages of what she had finished of '1985' to give to Tony, so she waited for him.

I waited for Jason. Why? This is why. Because in the texts that Jo was sending me, saying that she wasn't going to make it, she asked if I would call her after the show, so she could talk to Jason for a minute on the phone. YEP. Awesome.

So, I went up to Jason during a semi-lull in their merch line and said,

JULIE: So, my friend Jo, she's the one with short red hair and glasses, she couldn't make it tonight, but she really wanted to talk to you for a minute, so would it be alright if I called her so you could talk?
JASON: Sure, man! That's awesome.

And during this whole time, Mike is hysterically laughing as he's hearing this. So, I get out my phone and dial Jo. While I'm doing this, Jason says,

JASON: So, are you guys sticking around for 'fetish night?'

(Club Hell turns into 'fetish night' on Wednesdays. Some pretty interesting folk were walking in.)

JULIE: Haha...yeah...no, I don't think so. Are you guys?
JASON: Noo, we're driving to Burlington tonight.
JULIE: Ohhh, well, we'll be there tomorrow!
JASON: No way!
JULIE: Um, YES!

During all this, I was silently pray that Jo would pick up her phone, because she hadn't yet. And it was ringing and ringing and ringing, and then went to voicemail, but I couldn't hear what was happening because it was so loud in there. So I said,

JULIE: So, she's not picking up her phone!
JASON: Aww, man.
JULIE: Yeah, that's a bummer. But hopefully she'll be able to come tomorrow!
JASON: Alright, well you have a good night!
JULIE: Thanks Jason, you too!

Yep. It was pretty awesome/kind of awkward. But, not really awkward, because Jason is really approachable and easy to talk to. So, it was cool. I feel like we're a little closer after that interaction.

ANYWAYS, then it was kind of a general 'hello, great show, see you tomorrow' to Mike and Tony. It was getting crowded and kind of crazy, so we headed out.

Kara was trying to meet up with her friend from school, Kate, who was first going to drive to Prov to hang out, but then didn't want to, so we ended up meeting her at this restaurant in North Attleboro, MA. It was quick, but I'm glad Kara got to see her.

Good drive back into Boston. We were stuck in late-night construction traffic twice, for a little while. That was annoying.

Arrived back. Hung out for a minute in Ryan's apartment, and then walked Kara back to her car. I was sad she had to leave, but maybe will see her Sunday (tomorrow) again for RCE. (YES.)

Ryan and I hung out in her room for a bit listening to various awesome things she has recorded with friends from home, and then I took my spot on the couch and crashed, after another GREAT NIGHT.

CRASH KINGS NIGHT 2 = awesome.


ROCKIN' THURSDAY:


Woke up late-ish and started planning the day. Jo WAS COMING!! And we were picking her up at her place of work. Courtney was also coming!!! And we were picking her up and Hannah House that night. SO EXCITED.

We left a little later than we planned, and then hit traffic. It was pretty much stop and go from Malden to Derry, where we got off to get Jo. And then it was a bit of a hard time finding her. We found the meet up place, but couldn't find her. There was a Wendy's across the street, so we went through the drive-thru and got food and by the time we were through, Jo was out! Great!

Then we drove up to Lebanon to get Courtney! It was weird being at my house and work with my Crash Kings friends! And also weird being there, but not stopping up to see Ruby Tuesday. I'm sure it was better this way, rather than making her all excited that I was home, and then leaving again for a night.

Then we drove up to Burlington, which was a longer drive than I had anticipated. Doors were at 7:30, show started at 8, and there was only one opening band advertised. The drive was kind of like the time Ryan and I drove from Boston to West Chester. BOOKED IT. 80mph.

The opening band was Sidecar Radio, who we saw open for Crash Kings in Portland, Maine! They're a Portland band. None of us were totally crazy about them, but it was at least nice to know who they were and kind of recognize their stuff.



That's them. I really like one of their songs, 'Funeral for the Major Key,' which I actually downloaded and have been listening to since the Portland show. We remembered that the lead singer made funny faces while singing, that their drummer "was a beast," as Jo put it, and that their bassist was a hottie. All of which - were still true!!

For getting there really late, we all managed to get spots right up front again! It was awesome!

Anndd then.... Crash Kings!! THREE SHOWS IN THREE DAYS YEAAHHH!!!!





I tried to get some good pictures of Jason, since the previous two nights had been kind of fails. There were lights on him tonight! Jason is so much fun to watch. What a great drummer!! Like, seriously, actually. Jason is a great drummer.





Do you notice what I notice?? All three guys WEARING V-NECKS!!! Yep. It happened. LOVE IT.





I like this one.

Tony's sustain pedal kept coming unhooked from the piano, so that was a bummer. He kept having to get down on the ground and fix it. Josh had to come out and try and fix it too. Which meant, that Mike had to stall. Which, if anyone was at the Portland, ME show, or Earthfest, we all know that Mike is a bad staller.

First, the stalling consists of Mike yelling the name of whichever city we are currently in.

MIKE: WHAT'S UP BURLINGTON!!!!
BURLINGTON: WWOOOO YEAHHHH!!!
MIKE: (even if the crowd was really loud) Aw, you guys can do better than that! I SAID WHAT'S UP BURLINGTON!!!
BURLINGTON: WOOOWHOOOOO YEEAHHHHHHH!!!!

Then he will look over at Tony to check the progress of whatever is broken...

MIKE: This is the problem with traveling with a real piano, man.

Progress check again. Then comes something specific wherever we are.

MIKE: So, Tony and I are brothers and we used to come skiing in Vermont when we were kids.....Who here is a skier?? Or snowboarder??
BURLINGTON CROWD: (raises their hands)
MIKE: Alright, alright. Sorry you snowboards, but we just ski.

Checks Tony's piano fixing progress...

MIKE: This next song is about skiing...
TONY: Okay! Yeah, the problems of traveling with a real piano!

Then, again, before 'My Love' the pedal broke again, and Tony and Josh had to get on the ground to fix it.

MIKE: Soooo......who here's from Vermont?

By this time, Jo and I were just laughing. Mike is such a great person. This stall didn't last too long..

TONY: My God, all this piano fixing is making me sweat more.
BURLINGTON CROWD: WHOOOOO!!!!!
RYAN: (yes, my friend Ryan) At least you didn't break a piano string!
TONY: That's right, at least I didn't break a piano string, just ask Ryan!

UMMMM YEAH THAT HAPPENED, Ryan got it on video. Because remember in Portland, ME when Tony broke a piano string and then jumped off the stage to hand Ryan an extra one? YEP.








LOVE THIS ONE!!!







I like this shot of Tony a lot.





Correction: I like all shots of Tony.






KILLER SHOW. They were so awesome. Sooo awesome. The crowd wasn't totally into it, which was weird. Like, hardly anyone was singing and dancing. Me, Ryan and Jo were the only ones who held out our hands when Tony sings, "hold out your hands" during 'Raincoat.' So Tony had to say,

TONY: Everybody get 'em up!!

And then everybody got 'em up.

So, the last time Crash Kings were in Burlington, Jo was there and apparently not only were they really drunk, but they were having tons of sound problems. I've heard Tony apologize for this show many, many times. I guess during Mike's bass solo in 'It's Only Wednesday,' there was no sound coming from the bass. Tony said to Mike,

TONY: Wow, God must really hate you right now.

SO, they really needed to BRING IT tonight in order to make up for that show. Um, and they BROUGHT IT. They did their full set and it was sooooo awesome.

AHH I LOVE THIS BAND.

Afterwards, we spent a little while talking to other fans. Jo then suggested that we go say hello to Sidecar Radio, since we'd seen them twice now. So, we see the lead singer about to walk past us, so we catch up with him.

All of our expectations of this guy included him using the words "dawg" and "bitches" and generally being kind of a tool.

UM, WRONG. This guy, Christian, is the freaking nicest guy in the whole world. Seriously, he actually might be. Super smiley and enthusiastic and totally was IN LOVE with the fact that we had seen them in Portland.

LIKE, WOW. He was so nice, it was really unbelievable. And, he's the one in that picture with his tongue sticking out. He does that a lot on stage. He was super easy to talk to, really funny and I think he was excited that I was from Maine..

JULIE: I'm actually from Southern Maine...from Berwick.
CHRISTIAN: Berwick! No way!!

And then later on in the conversation he remembered that I was from Berwick. COOL. I love this guy. He talked a lot about his wife, which was sweet. Also, his father in law, and the time he went sky diving. Jo was trying to get him to go sky diving with her in Lebanon, ME.

He was totally into talking about these gravy fries that you can get in Burlington that are apparently the best thing in the whole world. He mentioned it a lot, gave us directions to the place. He was so funny! And, we talked about totally random things, and he was just loving it.

Okay, I kind of want him to be my new best friend.

And then I was on his Facebook page, and it turns out, he owns some restaurants in the Portland Public Market. Or, manages them or something. Big Sky Bread and Pie in the Sky Pizza. They're owned by the same company, and he manages both. So he like, works for a bread company. That's awesome! And then at night time he turns into this totally hardcore, tongue sticking out, punk rocker.

What a lovely man. What a lovely man. And, SURE, I would totally go see Sidecar Radio again, just because he was so nice. I'm still a little so-so on their music, but whatevs!! I'll support them because he was such a freaking nice person. GREAT STORY.

And then! We talked to Crash Kings for a while.

First though, I forgot to mention that we were talking to Josh after the show. Jo was talking to him for a long time about how to become a stage manager/roadie. And then I figured, 'ah, what the heck, I'll tell him how great he was in the Rooney video.'

JULIE: Hey Josh! I loved you in the Rooney video diary! When you and Robert are hanging out on the tour bus!
JOSH: Hahaha, I haven't seen it! But, I remember he was always filming stuff...
JULIE: Well, you should watch it. It's pretty great.
JO: Yeah, and you speak French? (we learn this in the tour video)
JOSH: Um, yeah a little. I used to live in Paris...

Then he talked about living in Paris. He's from Southern California, if I heard correctly. Nice guy. You should go back and watch the Rooney tour video diary.

SO THEN,

We're up talking to the guys and Jimmy. We ask what happened to their van, Ol' Blue, because we've noticed she hasn't been around. Mike, Jason and Jimmy explain that she had over 100,000 miles and they were too afraid she wouldn't make it anymore. So, now they've got a fancy new white van, The White Knight. Their white trailer used to be called The White Knight, but now it's their van too. It was kind of sad that Ol' Blue isn't around anymore.

We asked Jimmy about their gig at The Paradise, which was up online for a little while, but then was taken down. He said they decided to cancel because they needed to fly to Anaheim. LAME because we were all REALLY excited about it.

Jason gave me a hug and again said how great it was to see all of us and how much he appreciate us going to the shows.

Mike smiled and nodded. I'm still not convinced he knows who we are or remembers us. Whatevs.

Tony talked with us for a while. We told him we were loving the David Bowie cover, Jo showed him her awesome Bowie shirt that she was wearing, and he told us,

TONY: Yeah, we're trying to get David Bowie to produce our next record.

All our jaws must have dropped and all our eyes must have widened, because Tony started laughing. UM, that'd be so freaking awesome.

Him and Ryan talked music shop for a little. Whether or not she should put '1985' in Dflat or Csharp. Tony said probably Dflat because he likes flats better than sharps. He kind of geeked out for a minute, thinking about chords and trying to remember how to play the song, while not playing the song. It's always super great watching this. He gets really into it. He's awesome.

Then, he noticed my pink Crash Kings shirt and pointed at it, smiling, nodding his head and giving me thumbs up. Then, he kind of realized that it wasn't the normal shirt and said,

TONY: Wait, how did you do that?
JULIE: I dyed it!
TONY: That's awesome...
JULIE: Yeah, honestly, the gray color was kind of boring.
RYAN: People love color!
TONY: Yeah, we should do a line of those, I like it.

UM YEP. Loves my shirt. Wants to mass produce them. :)

Then, Jo explained how we all didn't know each other until the Crash Kings shows, and how many friends we've all made by coming to show after show. Tony actually seemed kind of touched to hear this. He was pretty happy.

It's nice talking to Tony. He's a really nice guy. The whole time I was staring at him, I kept trying to decide if I wanted to bring up the fact that I really like his mom. But, I decided that maybe that would be weird....?? I don't know. I was also kind of wondering if his parents had told him about me...?? I don't know, again.

Honestly, I was looking at him, imagining him as a toddler, dancing in the living room. Which was one of the adorable stories his mom told.

Anyways, we parted with him graciously (as always) thanking us for coming to the shows and saying he'll see us again soon.

We left, stopped for Dunkin Donuts, and drove back, dropping friends off at their various locations and listening to Crash Kings the whole way.


CRASH KINGS NIGHT 3 = so awesome.


Woke up late on Friday after not falling asleep until late. I was exhausted until I tucked myself into the couch, and then I started replaying the night. :)!

As soon as I woke up, Brent informed me that there were cinnamon rolls on the stove. This helped me get up a lot faster. DELISH!

Ryan and I hung around for the afternoon, I showered, and departed around 4:30. Again, the worst time to be driving. It took me 3 hours to get back instead of 2. Eh, no big deal really.

Although, my car was freaking me out majorly. While stuck in traffic, the electric battery starts to lose it's charge, which always happens and makes sense, since it charges the most when I brake. And since being stuck in traffic is light braking mixed with mostly coasting, it loses its charge. Normal.

But, for some reason, when it got down to only 2 battery bars, it would make this really strange noise. And, I couldn't figure out if it was just the sound of a normal engine... because normally when I go slow speeds, the car is silent. So, I was like, "is this what a normal car sounds like?"

At first, I seriously thought the car was dying or something. It really did not sound good. But then it got up to 3 battery bars, and sounded better. So, I convinced myself that it was only because it was losing its charge, and decided not to worry.

But, I was stuck in traffic for a long time, so it made the horrible noise for a while. Eventually though, when we were moving again, the charge went up, and the car sounded fine the rest of the way.

Did I tell you I named my car Morgan? Yep, I did. I have no idea why. I was trying to think of a great name for her, and then Morgan popped into my head first. ??? I kind of think it fits, actually. And, she's about to hit 11,000 miles.

11,000 miles in 5 months. Now, I'm not sure, but I'm assuming that's some kind of worldwide record. I only have 1,000 miles left to drive until March. HA.

Ah well, it's all worth it and I wouldn't trade any of those miles for anything. I've been new places, met wonderful new people and experienced some pretty great things.

ANYWAYS,

Wow, what a great week, right??

And so tomorrow (Sunday) River City Extension is in Boston, at the Middle East UPSTAIRS. And, I went online earlier in the week to get a ticket, but it's SOLD OUT. Maaajjjor bummer.

So, I immediately emailed Joe, the awesome lead singer, and asked him if there was anything he could do. And he emailed me back saying,

"I will see about a guest list. If we have it, you're on it."

That's a direct quote from the email. GREAT, RIGHT?!?! I will be super sad if there's no guest list, and we miss them in Boston. They're in Connecticut on Monday night, but I didn't take Monday off!! ARGH!

But, either way, I think we're all going to show up at the Middle East :) Maybe at least give them all a high five or something. And it'll just be fun to hang out with Ryan and Jo again. Because, they're awesome.

Sooo.... I think that about does it!

I arrived back at work to find we had another resident! That was a total surprise. Good surprise, though, because it's actually someone who had been here about a year ago and was discharged. But, she's back now, with her baby who's almost 2 years old!! It's funny to see him, because I remember when he was born. And now he's like, "hi!" "no!!" "what's that?"

And, I was really not wanting to go to work this afternoon, just because it felt so boring compared to this past week, but it was actually really nice seeing her and catching up with her. So, it wasn't a bad night.

And tomorrow I'm off again!!! REALLY happy about that. But sad that I'll have to leave Ruby Tuesday again.

Alright, this entry has taken me a freaking long time to finish. I started it Friday night, and I'm finishing it Saturday night.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, though. MAKE SURE to check out that Richard James song, 'I Tried.' It's really good and very catchy. I think you'll like it.

OKAY! Everyone have a lovely rest of their weekend!! I will!! I'm excited about mine. I miss talking to everyone.. I feel like I should blog more.

Alright! Have a great night! I'll talk to everyone again soon :)!!!!


LOVE,
Julie

"Wake up you sleepy head, put on some clothes, shake up your bed"

PROVIDENCE WAS AMAZING. yet another great show from Crash Kings.

JULIE'S CRASH KINGS SHOW COUNT = 14

yep! fourteen times!!! i can't believe it. tonight is #15.

ya know what? did i tell you about the guy at the Middle East who was chatting me up for a while? i can't remember. but, that's enough back story. well, that guy told me he had seen the Mighty Mighty Bosstones 42 times.

so, i've got a ways to go.

the stage in Club Hell last night was super small and tiny, so we were pretty much RIGHT next to Tony. like, he was arm's length away. i didn't even have to use 'zoom' on my camera, because he would automatically take up the whole frame. YEP. that's how close we were.

and during the beginning of the show, i think during 'Non Believer' he looked at me for a few seconds and gave me a big smile. it was wonderful.

AND MIKE!!! totally freaked out and got excited when we did the "Crash Queen Claps" during 'Mountain Man.' it was AWESOME.

and so, I told you that Kara came with us last night. or, that she was going to come with us last night. and, Kara sometimes gets a little crazy when she goes to concerts. this has happened before.

so, we're driving past the club last night looking for parking, and Kara obviously has her "Mike Radar" turned on (it was on ALL night), but she recognizes him walking down the street like, across the intersection and up the block from where we are.

and so we start waving. he's walking with Jimmy, their super cute tour manager. and then we get closer and Kara rolls down the window and shouts,

KARA: Whooo!! We're going to your show tonight!!!!!!


and then Mike and Jimmy start laughing and fist pumping. it was very amusing and awesome. and then Kara was also chatting up Jason at the bar, and also the guitarist from one of the opening bands. ohhhhh Kara. i just think she's great.

i talked to Jason for a while. Ryan gave Tony what she had transcribed of '1985' so far. He gave her a few pointers on where to put the synthesizer line.

it was a great night. Club Hell turns into "Fetish Night" on wednesdays, so there were some pretty interesting looking people walking in as we were getting ready to leave.

Jason asked me,

JASON: Are you guys sticking around for Fetish Night?
JULIE: Haha, noooo, I don't think so. Are you guys?!
JASON: No, we're driving to Burlington tonight.
JULIE: Ohhh! Well, we'll see you there tomorrow!
JASON: You're driving to Burlington too?!
JULIE: Of course!

And then he did that thing that people do that's like a 'handshake/high five/hand hold' thing. you know what i'm talking about. cool people do it. but, he did it to me.

we also told Josh, their roadie/former Rooney roadie that we'd see him in Burlington too. he seemed pretty happy. i like Josh. i saw him rocking out to Mountain Man and it made me happy.

so, if ya'll don't know - it's super hott in Boston right now. it actually just started raining, which made me think about how hott it is.

ANYWAYS. i'm probs gonna get ready for the show soon. i'm wearing my pink CK shirt tonight.

just had lunch with Ryan's roommate Brent and his sister Brittany. we made delish sandwiches. yumm.

OH! since i've been updating you on my horoscope lately, i'll let you in on today's:

"Something that offers a lot of beauty and romance will be given to you today."

are you asking me if i think that means another killer Crash Kings show? my answer is YES. i think that's exactly what it means.

also, this is my "love" horoscope:

"Talk it up! Take any chances you can when it comes to communication, whether face to face or over your phone. You'll have the persuasiveness and charisma to get your point across."

that sounds pretty good too.

ok. i'm going to get ready to go now. i think we're leaving boston between 3 and 3:30. picking up Jo and Courtney along the way! and then we all rock together!! soooo excited.


i would like to thank Crash Kings for being so awesome and incredible. i would also like to thank New England for making Crash Kings shows so accessible.


talk to everyone later!! have a great night!!!!


☂,
jULIE

hmmm moment

i decided i should read my horoscope before heading out to the show tonight, and here's what the "quick" version said:

"Flowery words and fanciful flattery may make you do things you will regret later."

HMMM. what could this mean?? what am i going to get into tonight??

ANYWAYS. omgi'msoexcitedfortonight. I'm even more excited because Kara is coming!! She's on her way to Malden RIGHT NOW! I haven't seen a Crash Kings show with Kara since 4 February in Providence! and that's where we're going tonight, too! I've been trying and trying to get her to come to ANY show with me.

AND TOMORROW - Courtney is coming!!! I'm super excited for that too.

this was what my horoscope for YESTERDAY said,

"Some inspiring and wonderful times lie just ahead, so keep smiling, even if you feel like Eeyore right now. Take a break from stressing out, no matter how big the stress is, and let yourself wallow in something you love."

YEP. basically, it's the universe telling me, "Julie, it's okay to be taking all this time off work to go to Crash Kings concerts."

thanks, universe. but, even if it had said something like, "should you really be indulging this much?" i still would've gone.

Wow, last night was so great. Like, soooo great. It's seriously like, when you're standing in the crowd for one of their shows, NOTHING else matters. a total escape.

i really hope Tony gets out in the middle of the stage and sings again. that was cool. it's weird, because Mike is the only member who can actually walk around. Jason is behind the drums and Tony is behind the piano. so to see Tony out with the mic belting at the front of the stage was pretty freaking awesome. and it was during 2nd Rate Citizen. i think i told you that last night. YEAH. SO AWESOME.


in other news, I had a dream about Jersey Shore. now, i have never seen that show and i couldn't care less about it, so i have no idea why i am dreaming of it.

all i remember is that Snooki worked at a big fancy furniture store, that was actually empty and full of no furniture, and she threw up a lot. and the whole show actually took place up the street from my house in Maine. at the top of East Pasture road.

ANYWAYS. i'm waiting for Kara to get here. it's actually not that hot if you don't move and are sitting directly next to a fan.

I just watched the video i got last night. OH MAN. so good. i got 'Carry On,' because it's my favorite song and also the song that FIRST HOOKED me to Crash Kings. back in December when they played the Middle East. so, last night, seeing them headline the Middle East, I thought it would be sentimental to get the song on video.


ALSO. ALSO. ALSO. I don't know if I've ever talked about the roadie for Rooney, Josh. have i? hold on, i'll check.

YES. this excerpt is taken from the entry where we first saw Crash Kings when they were opening for Rooney,

"...and we're all just waiting and waiting and waiting. and the backstage door keeps opening and people keep walking in and out that are not Rooney. one of the stage managers, Josh, i recognized from a Rooney video diary. i love when that happens. like when Jenny and I saw Travis at a Phantom Planet show. that was really exciting."

so, Josh was featured in a few Rooney tour video diaries. maybe like, 2. and so last night, i'm standing next to Jo and she says,

JO: What's the name of the Crash Kings roadie?
JULIE: There's Josh, and there's Jimmy.
JO: And Josh is the one with the long hair?
JULIE: Yeah.
JO: He kind of looks like the roadie from Rooney, also named Josh. And if it's him, all I know is that he speaks French!
JULIE: (trying to think about this...trying to remember what she's talking about...) OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT. Yeah, he does speak French!!

we learned this in a Rooney tour video diary! Josh was hanging out with Robert in the tour bus.

so, after the show, Jo went up to him and asked if he was the same Josh. UM, HE IS. he so totally is.

HOW FREAKING CRAZY IS THAT!?!? the same roadie!! who i FIRST saw at The Middle East!! i seriously CAN'T BELIEVE i haven't recognized him before. he's been the roadie at Crash Kings shows SINCE APRIL. SINCE WE SAW THEM IN PENNSYLVANIA. quite frankly, i'm embarrassed.

that's 6 Crash Kings shows i've seen him at (not including last night) and never recognized him.

Actually, 5 shows. because i didn't see him in Portsmouth a few weeks ago. i know this because i remember thinking, "i bet all these problems are because Josh isn't here."

anyways, so that's super cool. it makes me think that Rooney and Crash Kings really ARE besties.

OK. kara is here now! and we're probably going to leave soon! so, have a great night!!!

TAKE CARE!!!!!!


love!

JUST GOT BACK FROM CRASH KINGS AND....

BEST SHOW EVER. holy crap they brought the rock.

Tony walked out from behind the piano with the microphone during 2nd Rate Citizen and introduced the band/put his arm around Mike and said something like, "this is my brother Mike on the bass guitar!" it was a sweet bro moment. i may have gotten photo proof. oh, and then he came right up to the front of the stage about 5 inches from me and Jo and sang right in our faces. yep. that happened too.

Jason gave me a hug as soon as he saw me! and in this night of complete awesome, I I I I I initiated a Tony hug. his hair was all sweaty against my neck.

um, also, remember how their parents loved me in Portsmouth?

YEAH. THEIR PARENTS STILL LOVE ME. Jason was standing, talking to us and their parents came over and gave him a hug and then saw me and their mom seriously got SO EXCITED. she was like,

MRS. BELIVEAU: Ohh, HI!! Julie!
JULIE: Yes!! Hi!!
MRS. BELIVEAU: I was looking for you in the crowd!!

UM AND THEN SHE GAVE ME A HUG.

and then we talked mostly about how awesome the show was, how awesome the crowd was, she said she thought it was the best show they had ever played.

and then she got the attention of their dad and said something like,

MRS. BELIVEAU: Look who it is!

and gestured to me. and then their dad saw me, his face totally LIT UP, HE GAVE ME A HUG TOO AND SAID,

MR. BELIVEAU: Julie, right?!
JULIE: Yeah!!

i CAN'T BELIEVE THEY REMEMBERED MY NAME! and then he immediately said,

MR. BELIVEAU: Where's your mom?!?!

and i explained that my mom had to work in the morning :/ lame.

but ohhhhh it was great. and then:

MRS. BELIVEAU: Well, we're on our way out, just going to say goodbye to the boys...
JULIE: It was so nice to see you again!
MR. AND MRS. BELIVEAU: Yeah! You too!!
MR. BELIVEAU: And I'm sure we'll see you again soon!
JULIE: Absolutely!!


let me just say, that if there was an award for Best Future Daughter-in-Law, I WOULD WIN IT. they are so nice. and i'm so happy that it wasn't like, weird for me to be talking to them again. because i was worried that even though their mom told me to come over and say hi, she didn't really mean it... ya know? but she did! obvi!

WOW.

what a great freaking day this was.

i'll explain more in detail and with pictures.

OH, ALSO: Tony was wearing a v-neck. yep. that happened too.

OK. i don't know how i'm still writing because i'm so totally dead tired and exhausted. and actually really hungry, but i don't think i can manage to eat anything. my feet are killing me, i just noticed.

man, it's hard work rocking out to Crash Kings.

so tomorrow (wednesday) we drive to Providence for another show! Kara is coming!!! i'm SO EXCITED about that! still kind of confused as to whether she's meeting us in boston, or we're meeting her in prov. but, we'll figure that out tomorrow i suppose.


ok i must sleep now. MUST.

goodnight loved ones. talk to you again tomorrow! hopefully another day of epic awesome.


♥,
Julie

excitement BEGIN!!!!!

yep. it's official. Crash Kings Week: August Edition has started!!!!!

my horoscope on sunday said that i should expect an excellent week. no doubt! oh boy i'm so freaking excited.

and - let's just recap how much TUESDAY (today) IS GONNA ROCK:

1. i'm meeting up with EMILY, JENNY, DAVID and JENNY'S BOYFRIEND WHO I HAVEN'T MET YET for lunch!!!!!! i'm so excited to see everybody!!!! Emily and Jenny were my orientation leaders in college and my very first friends! we're meeting up in Central Square.
2. then once everyone departs, i'm hanging out in the square until i meet up with RYAN and JO!!! my totally awesome Crash Kings friends!!!!!
3. AND THEN WE'RE SEEING CRASH KINGS!!!!! In the very spot where we all FIRST saw them. and nobody had any idea who they were. and now what a huge part of all of our lives they are.

wow. i have an awesome day in store. i just have to go to sleep and then wake up and it will start!!!! it's like CHRISTMAS!!!!

and then the awesome just won't stop for nothing, because WEDNESDAY we're in PROVIDENCE and THURSDAY we're in BURLINGTON.

i painted my toenails purple and my fingernails green - so i'm all set. i did some laundry, so i've got clothes, including my pink CK shirt.

OK, can i just say something: I just watched the movie 'Dear John,' and i didn't really like it. um, it was so gross how she married that guy! and from there on out, i just didn't like it. did they end up together? ya know what - i don't even care. i didn't like it. it didn't even make me cry because i felt hardly any emotion for the characters.

ok that's it.

i actually should get to bed now. it's almost 2am. i'm planning on leaving here by 9. PLANNING.

i watched this Crash Kings video on youtube the other night and was totally impressed with Mike, who was KILLING the harmonies on Non Believer.

one thing that was AWESOME about the Portsmouth show, was that since Tony's microphone was never working, you could mainly only hear Mike singing the harmony. and AGAIN - he rocked it. and he got the days of the week right! yeah, he's awesome.

i hope the big surprise at the Boston show tonight is that he sings the harmony on Saving Grace!!!!

whoops... i wasn't supposed to say anything about the surprise. don't tell anyone i said that.

(but how awesome would that harmony be?!!?!?!?)

anyways, here's the video of a really beautiful version of Non Believer from when they were in Columbus, OH last week. the audio is so-so, but you can still hear it pretty well. and also - Tony is wearing a hat.


take care, friends!! i'm sure i'll do nonsensical post-concert updates for you all! have a great week!!

love, Julie!

got a feelin' 21 is gonna be a good year...

KARA TURNED 21!!!!!! my little sister. can i believe it? NO. no, i can't believe it. and she's out with her friends this very minute bar-hopping in Portsmouth. as i sit here, sick with worry.

anyways. we had a lot of fun yesterday, the 29th, which was her birthday. i came home early and there were donuts and iced coffee waiting for me! very good donuts. from Congdon's, in Wells, Maine. um, they were delish! actually, i had an apple fritter. as those are one of my favorite things ever invented.

we hung around the house some. Kara opened up a few presents. here's what i got Kara for her birthday:

- Rooney ticket. (Rooney tickets make great presents, as the concert we went to in December was also Kara's Christmas present!!)

- i put this picture in a frame:




that's one of my favorite pictures of Kara and I. here's the story behind it:

my mom was getting mad because the huge container of all my old dance costumes was getting in the way and she asked me to clear it out. what happened instead? kara and i ended up playing dress up all night and taking pictures. yep, the night ended with drawn on eyeliner moustaches. i was a french painter and kara was a cowboy. every time we see that picture we both burst out laughing. OMG it was SUCH a fun night.

- i made her an anklet and a pair of earrings

- bought her Hannah Montana nail polish set which included nail decals and a guitar-shaped nail polish carry case. YEP - nail polish carry case.

- i made her an eye mask. like, to wear to sleep. YEP! i MADE IT! i went to the fabric store, picked out some great silk fabric. traced a pattern. and constructed one! and um, it came out totally great. like, really really great. every time i looked at it i couldn't believe i pulled it off.


i think kara made out pretty well. i was so excited to give her all my presents.

ANYWAYS. we saw Inception. i REALLY liked it. Leonardo was so super smokin hottt. holy man it was hard to breathe.

OVERALL - i had absolutely no idea what the movie was about going into it, but i had it figured out pretty early on. and i was right! but, i still thought it was really good.

OMG I LOOVVEEDDD LOVED LOVED the fight scene between Joseph Gordon Leavitt and the other guy in the hallway when they were fighting up the walls and it was like there was no gravity. ohhhh i loved that scene so much. i actually wanted to clap after. for realz.

i thought the whole movie, especially that scene, was like a ballet. it was very fluid and sharp.

i thought it was a very well done film. excellent sound. excellent score as always, by Hans Zimmer. excellent Leo, also as always. ohhh Leo. i just can't figure out why we're not married yet.

after the movie we went for dinner at Margarita's. had some delish mexican food. i only had one margarita. my mom had two. and kara had three. now, i have no idea how kara had three margaritas and was still able to stand up afterwards.

now, Margarita's is a kind of special place, because it is where i first remembered my dream about Tony where we were doing tequila shots. my FIRST Crash Kings dream. it was really when i realized my love for Tony AND the red plaid shirt. i was with Andrew and i saw the tequila list and was looking at it and said,

JUILE: Wait a sec... I think I just had a dream where I was doing tequila shots...
ANDREW: Oh yeah?
JULIE: Yeah..... I was doing tequila shots with..... Tony....
ANDREW: Tony??
JULIE: The lead singer of Crash Kings!
ANDREW: Crash Kings???
JULIE: The band I saw open for Rooney in December!!

momentous.

anyways, after that we came home and had cake and opened more presents. i felt really sick, actually. i think from the one margarita. so, i actually can't imagine doing tequila shots because i would probably vom instantly.

but, it was a fun night. i love birthdays a lot.

TODAY!! was fun, although i still felt sick most of the day. i was also REALLY REALLY SUPER SUPER bumming because i checked my bank account and realized that i absolutely do not have enough money to go see River City Extension. or, i guess the real part is that i don't have money to drive to New Jersey. it'd be like a total of 11.5 hours of driving. and in really, really, thinking very hard about it, it's probably not totally smart to drive there and back again in one night.

and i'll definitely see them in Boston next week, so it's not like it'll be a while.

ALSO - it's not like they haven't stood me up before. because, i paid $5 to see them in Portland, and they were a no show. although they have long since made up for it just by being awesome. and the tweets from james, the blog comment from nick, and the emails, facebook friend request and facebook wall note from joe.

MAN that band is so awesome. AWWWWWWW i can't wait to see them!!

crap. i just checked my bank account again to 1) really, really make sure that i can't go and 2) see if any money had magically appeared. not yet.

DAMN. why doesn't money just magically appear in my bank account when i wish it??? it doesn't make sense. also - i just got paid on tuesday and again, i have no money. what's the deal?? i guess i spent money for Kara's birthday. phone bill was due. wasn't expecting to have to take Ruby Tuesday to the vet. and i needed to buy the new Solobob song on iTunes. although, that was only 99 cents. YOU should buy it! it's called Fantastic 15. and it's by Solobob. aka: Robert Schwartzman.

so, moving on:

i never saw the bat again!! nope. tuesday night was pretty scary, though. when i went to bed, i shut off allll the lights in my living room and kitchen and then shut my bedroom door with me and Ruby inside. and i opened three windows and screens so the bat could fly out if he was still inside. maybe he left on his own, i don't know.

wednesday night wasn't as scary, but i was still on edge. and i didn't see the bat again.

OH! but one more thing about River City Extension! i had a DREAM about them last night!! the dream was that i was at Starland Ballroom, but it was on a rooftop. like, an open air venue on a rooftop. still in New Jersey, though. and i had gotten there like, 2 days early. it was a good dream.

but back to the bat: so, i took Ruby Tuesday to the vet on wednesday morning. she howled the whole ride in the car, but she was such a good girl in the vet!!! she was purring and exploring the room! she was so cute!!! omg i love her so much. and she got a rabies booster and they said she looked perfectly healthy!!! and even though her last rabies shot had expired a few months ago, since she had had the shot before, she was still covered.

so THAT was the biggest relief ever. then we came home, i gave her some turkey and treats. and then called my mom to let her know that everything was okay. and then i was supposed to call the doctor about ME. and my possible exposure to rabies.

BUT FIRST: i bought my non-refundable Crash Kings ticket for next week. there was only one night that i hadn't bought the ticket for yet, and i figured, "i better do it before i call the doctor, that way, if i have to go get crazy shots, i can say, 'but these tickets are non-refundable! i have to go!!'"

great plan, eh?!?

and then i called the doctor, explained the sitch, and she said that as long as the vet said that Ruby was still covered, and i had no contact with the bat - i was fine :)

and that's the story about how i maybe was exposed to rabies, but was fine in the end.

and now watch, 6 months later, i'll die from rabies. because turns out, the bat actually did bite me in my sleep. whatever. as long as Ruby is fine.

anyways. so, still in maine. not sure what the plan is for saturday. MAN. okay i'm really sad about not going to see RCE today. i was so, so, sososo, so, sooo, soo, so excited.

BUT - i'm seeing them FOR SURE next week. like - for sure. there's no way i'm missing them when they are in Boston. because really, the experience of seeing River City Extension outweighs the cost of everything. because they're so incredible.

i kind of can't believe i've only seen then once. it feels like more. and it was when they were the opener of three bands.

the LAST time i fell in love with an opener of three bands was with Crash Kings!

anyways. i just have to accept that i have no money. and i can't drive to new jersey today. and really, WHO can ever afford all the tolls on the Garden State Parkway?? i mean, come on!

i should really go to bed. although, i slept like, 12 hours last night. and then had to take an hour nap today because i was so tired. i've had a hard week. between being so excited from events last weekend, being so excited for kara's birthday, and being so scared about that bat - i haven't gotten much sleep this week.


ya know what? i want to get married. maybe not today. maybe not tomorrow. maybe not this year or next, or next or next or next year, but i want it. maybe i won't get married to you. although, maybe i will, who knows. but, i want it. and i feel like everyone is getting married. and we're getting 'save the date' everything. and i want it too. i want to plan a wedding. and i want it to be mine. and so there. that's that.


(really that stemmed from my not being able to stop thinking about how gorgeous Leo was in Inception. and then thinking for serious about why we're not married.)

hm. and i was going to talk about something else... and now i can't remember what it was.

also - i want that tattoo.

also - does anyone else think that 'Saving Grace' and '1985' sound alike? i admit - sometimes, if i miss the very beginning of the intro, i can't tell which is which. that's for real.

ok. i think maybe it's time for me to go to bed.

i'm hoping that someone will take me to see The Kids Are Alright. because i really want to see that. i think Kara maybe mentioned it.

OKAY. i'm going to bed now for real. have a great night! a great day!!

IF YOU'RE going to New Jersey for the River City Extension show, make sure you say hello to the band for me. And make sure to rock. And have fun.

GOODNIGHT!


<3

a few more things to talk about because i'm too scared to go to sleep!!!

➠ ha, look at that funny arrow

➠ guess what?!!? COURTNEY is coming to see Crash Kings with us in Burlington next week!! Courtney rules! She said she finally listened to Crash Kings and could understand what all the fuss was about :)! I'm so excited! CK lovin' spreads like the SARS virus.

➠ so, it's nighttime, and i'm in my apartment. and i'm practically falling asleep. but i'm too scared to actually close my eyes. Ruby is having no problem with it:




that was taken just a few moments ago. Poor little girl, she has no idea she's going to the vet in the morning!! awww you have no idea how bad i feel!! and today I had to take a baby to the doctor's and he got shots. He only cried for a few seconds and then got over it. I'm more worried about Ruby, though. I guess it's different when it's your own baby :) She's been very cuddly tonight and I like it.

➠ anyways. no bat sighting yet. i haven't fully barricaded myself in my bedroom yet. i've been slowly turning off lights. i just keep picturing the very first second i opened my eyes this morning and saw a bat flying around. MAN talk about being caught off guard.

➠ i'm also creating fake symptoms of rabies to psych me up. great, huh? yep. i was trying to swallow one of my vitamins tonight and it took a few tries and i was like, "OH MY GOD I CAN'T SWALLOW I'VE GOT RABIES!!!!"

➠ and then my mom got really mad at me on the phone for being so concerned about missing my concerts if i have rabies. if i die of rabies, i'm going to be SUCH a drama queen about it.

➠ also, if i miss these concerts - Crash Kings are playing my funeral. YEP. because maybe Tony would like to be outside sippin' on sunshine in the afterlife, but i would like to be at a Crash Kings concert. best heaven ever.

➠ also, i was thinking about this. because i am always thinking of you guys. BUT - i predict that if i have to get all the rabies shots - it will make for the best blogging ever!!!!! i'll call it, BLOG SHOTS. brillz! because, i was reading about it, and first you have to take these pills, and then have a shot, then go back on like, the 3rd, 5th, and 2 week mark after for shots. basically like a shot a day for like two weeks. that's great material.

➠ BLOG SHOTS. i love it.

➠ so, we all know that i love Tony, but i think he kind of ruined 'Come Away' for me. because every time i've heard it since, all i can think of is him being angry and stopping in the middle of the song. he was ready to walk off stage. maybe i'll tell him my troubles and he'll dedicate a special version to me.

➠ OK, here's the real important thing. the rest of this was just filler. the celery portion of the blog.


✮ WHAT SHOULD WE DO FOR BLOG READER APPRECIATION WEEK?!!? It was around this time, last year. Blog Reader Appreciation Week. And every day we had a different event! But this year - I want to hear FROM YOU!!!! What would YOU like to do for Blog Reader Appreciation Week? I'm thinking it could be in a few weeks. Or, maybe just one day? Or maybe a whole week - whatever! YOU DECIDE!!!

✮ Do you want a party? Prizes? An online toast? Hmm, let's get creative with this. What could be awesome?? ANYTHING you want! Just tell me, and I'll do my blog best to make it happen.

✮ YOU read this blog, how do YOU want to be appreciated?? I feel appreciated whenever I get comments. And when I can see on my blog tracking that a lot of people have viewed the blog.

✮ So, start brainstorming. Maybe think about it for a little while. And then let me know! Either by commenting, or by email!!

✮ Ok great. Notice how this portion was bullet pointed with stars and not arrows. Stars make it seem more fancy, because it was the most important part! Duh!


Well. Folks, I'm exhausted. Like, so tired. I think I have to go to sleep.

Ok. I'm forcing myself.


✮ Goodnight!!!!

the dark night

um, okay, let me tell you about my night last night.

- i was SO proud of myself for going to bed early. i was in bed by 2:30am!!!
- (i tried to watch A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but the DVD was too scratched, so instead i watched 2012 on instant netflix. umm...pretty lame movie. although, the natural disasters were great. i was bummed it was so hopeful at the end. although, i did shed a tear during the big tsunami in india part.)
- so, i fall asleep around 2:30. i had my alarm set for 9:10am. i definitely needed to be at work by 11am, but it might change to 10:30am, depending on circumstances. so - i wanted to be responsible and prepared.

- i am suddenly awakened at 4am by Ruby Tuesday jumping on my bed.
- i open my eyes and the first thing i see is something huge flying above my head
- OH MY GOD
- i quickly scramble out of bed and barricade myself in the bathroom
- i think, "holy crap there is a bat in my apartment right now."
- so, i have a freak out sesh.
- i hear all the commotion has now moved to the kitchen, so i sloowwllyy walk out.
- then, forgetting that my dad isn't there, i start calling out for him.
- and then, i remember that he went to maine earlier in the day. CRAP. now i really have no idea what to do.
- so, i get dressed. why? i don't know. i suppose in case the bat turns into a hottie vampire, i won't be in my pajamas.
- then i hear the bat start screeching and squealing in the kitchen
- so, i creep out and start calling for Ruby. i don't want her to be near it
- she sees me in the kitchen doorway and starts meowing and walks about halfway to me, but then turns around to go see the bat on the floor again.
- i think she wants me to follow her. but, hell no, i stay put.
- then i remember that my boss is staying over tonight, so i call her on the phone.
- she says that she is deathly afraid of bats, but that she knows it's just as scared as i am

- basically, it was just nice to have someone to talk to and help me calm down through it all
- while we were on the phone, Ruby came running out of the kitchen, slid across the floor, the bat was LOOSE.

- THEN, in a quick turn of events, there was lots of screeching from the bat and then SILENCE.

- i hung up the phone and slowly walked into the kitchen, expecting to see a torn up bat on my floor.

- but, no. there was no bat anywhere. and Ruby Tuesday was on the floor in front of the fridge.

- SOOOOO, i think the bat escaped under or behind the fridge. but when my boss boss went to look for it today, he moved the fridge and found nothing.

- so, where's the bat? i don't know.

- am i dreading going upstairs in the dark tonight? YOU FREAKING BET I AM.

- unless however, by then the bat has turned into a hottie vampire. a nice Alexander Skarsgard or Robert Pattinson, perhaps?


so, i was awake with the bat frenzy from 4am until 5:20am and by then, it was starting to get light outside. so, i turned on all the lights in my apartment and hoped the bat would get sleepy. because i was sleepy too.

and i was so worried because Ruby had been playing/maybe torturing the bat while it was under the table. and she was really, really hot when i finally picked her up. so, i was worried she had a fever because she had been bitten and was now infected with rabies.

and then i thought back to the past few days, and she's been kind of throwing up a lot. so then i was like, OH MY GOD RUBY HAS HAD RABIES ALL THESE DAYS AND I DON'T KNOW IT!!!!!!

but then i looked up the symptoms of cat rabies, and it didn't really sound like it.

BECAUSE, i don't know how long the bat has been living in my apartment. maybe just last night, but maybe also other nights. i hadn't been there for a few nights, maybe my dad slept through other bat incidents? and Ruby had been bitten?

OH MAN, all these things were running through my head. and i was really nervous to get back into bed.

BUT I DID. because i knew i had a busy day today and was working alllll day.

i managed to get Ruby to sleep right next to me and we both fell asleep around 6:30, i think.

and she was still sleeping when i woke up at 9:10. and she slept right through all my "snoozes" until 10am.

i think she was just hot from all the excitement. but, maybe she has a little stomach bug? i don't know.

anyways, so i wasn't too worried about getting ready for work because it was daylight.

and i went to work from 10:15am and i'm working until 10pm tonight.

i called the local vet this afternoon and told her the sitch....

JULIE: Hi, I had a bat in my apartment last night and my cat was playing with it. She's a little overdue on her rabies shot...
VET: Okay, so she needs her rabies vaccine.
JULIE: Yep.
VET: Can you come in tomorrow morning?
JULIE: Yep.
VET: 8:45?
JULIE: Yep!

and i hung up that phone and almost burst into relief tears. i was so worried that they wouldn't be able to see her for a few days, or something.

people at work are telling me that i should call the doctor and tell them that the bat was in my bedroom. apparently sometimes you don't even know if you get bit by a bat, because their teeth are so small.

but, they're also telling me that although bats are a major rabies carrier, the fact that my bat was a carrier is pretty rare.

AS LONG AS RUBY IS OKAY, i'll be okay. (but i might still call a doctor, i don't know.)

I SWEAR TO GOD, if i can't go see Crash Kings next week because i have rabies - i will be so pissed off.

because a) that severely limits my chances of making out with any of the guys, as rabies is transmitted by saliva, and i wouldn't do that to a Crash King.

but, i don't think i was bitten by a rabid bat.

UGH. all day that's all i can think about. the stupid bat.

everyone's like, 'just throw a towel over it and carry it outside.'

UM, YEAH RIGHT. like i'm actually going to pick up the bat and carry it outside? and then people were like, 'well, then trap it under a pot and leave it there until Randy comes in.' Randy is the executive director. he was totally fine with this idea, as apparently he's had a lot of experience with bats. but even the pot idea involves going close to the bat.

so then finally, Randy was like, 'well, shut off all your lights, open your windows and screens, and hopefully the bat will fly out.'

PLAN FOR TONIGHT:
- barricade me and Ruby in my bedroom, sealing up all the cracks.
- only exit when absolutely needed.

YEP! that's the stellar plan!


anyways. i'm dreading it to the max. i think it's worse than when we had bed bugs. and lice.

and i have absolutely no idea how the bat got in. NO IDEA. apparently they can fit through holes 1/4 inch in diameter. LAME. that's really lame, bats. you should stay outside.

i mean, i was sleeping when it came in, so there were no lights on in the house. why else would it come in, unless it had already gotten in?

ah well. i'll be more at ease after Ruby's vet appointment tomorrow.

in other news?

i'm still beaming over my exciting weekend. can't stop thinking about the awesome.


OK, so sometimes (like right now) i think that my life is a huge coincidence. or, maybe fate. i don't know. but like, i was just reading my horoscope for today, and it includes the phrase,"rabidly jealous." really? really, horocope? today of all days to use the word 'rabidly?' you chose to use it the day after a bat was loose in my apartment?

and then another horoscope for today reads:

It's your day to flirt with danger and successfully manage to come out ahead. If there's anything you've been waiting to act on because at first it seemed too risky, take a new lease on your adventurous side and remain confident while meeting obstacles head on. Look for friends to come to your aid in troubling times.

do i think they're talking about the bat? yep.

is it coincidence that they used the word 'rabidly?' or is it fate because i'll get rabies?

i don't know. ok let's stop talking about bats.

i'm really excited to eat food tonight. i'm super hungry. i thought i was working at 11, but instead i worked at 10:15, so i didn't have time to eat before. and then we had cake and ice cream in staff meeting. but that's it. and some coffee.

i'm going to have leftover chicken parm tonight. i'm happy because 1) it was good and 2) i can just reheat it up, which means less time in the open, more time barracaded in my bedroom.


so, the other day i super burnt my ear on my hair straightener. like, it hurt really bad. and then it alllll scabbed over and today, the scab got caught on my earring and pulled off, which hurt a lot. BUT THEN, you should have seen all the blood!! holy crap! i couldn't believe it! it bled for so long.

good, story? right?!

in better news than that: i've found my new house!!! yep, $12,000 a month. 4 bedrooms. 3.5 baths. rooftop gazebo. overlooking the Venice canals in Los Angeles!! on Via Dolce. sound good? good! who wants to live with me?!

ok. i guess i have some work to do before i go home. maybe i should do that.

awww i can't believe i have to take Ruby Tuesday to the vet!! she's gonna HATE it!! awww she hates being in the car soo much! i'll give her turkey when we get home. and treats. awww i love her soo much!!!!!

OK. now i guess i should go do work.

hope everyone has a great night. wish me luck with all my batty endeavors.


goodnight!

'cause i would never leave you high and dry...

OHHHHHH MAN. The new Crash Kings video has PREMIERED!!!!!!

It's their new single, 'You Got Me.'


If you want to see some freaking hotties, please click here to watch the video.


This is the video that took Tony allll the way to Ann Arbor, when we were there together :)

Um. Okay. So the theme of this video is, "girls, girls, naked girls, girls who are obsessed with us, BUT THEN, all the hott girls turn into monsters." Tony says he wrote this song after all the times he's been played and used by girls whilst living in Los Angeles.

REALLY love the black and white part of Tony on the little piano.

There are some great bro shots, especially at the beginning. Mike and Tony, just chillin together with some strippers. If it weren't for the strippers, it might actually be a good photo. I would post a screencap...but, ya know, the strippers....

Video was directed by David Arquette!! very cool.

I definitely like this video a lot better than the Mountain Man one. the real one. the blue one. not the one where they're skiing and there's nudity. LOOOOVEE THAT ONE.

anyways, just wanted to post this for everyone because i am really excited about it.

my dad and i are going out for italian food tonight! i'm excited.


you may now continue having a great day!!!!


<3

Julie Dyes Things Hott Pink and Other Adventures (including, Rooney, Hanson, Crash Kings, and the Mysterious Case of the Double Clavinet.)

HI FRIENDS!!!

I'm back! With pictures! Great ones!

I was finally able to sleep last night after my day of epic awesome. All the excitement finally wore me out.

Back in Lebanon now. At work. So lame compared to my weekend. It's kind of strange coming back to work after having so much fun. It's like, I have to switch back to a responsible person.

Like, Friday night at the Rooney concert I was dancing and clapping and singing and having such a freaking blast, and I thought for a moment, 'Hey, just this morning I was dealing with babies and teenagers and doctors appointments and all this important boring work stuff. I TOTALLY DESERVE THIS.'

ANYWAYS - let's get to the goods.

I'm taking you back to when Kerianne and I saw Crash Kings in Chicago. Remember I pointed out Tony's shirt and said it reminded me of the one I had just bought? That I was going to dye hott pink?

Yeah. Here's the shirt:




And remember I don't like that above photo because he looks like a classically trained clavinetist.

And, here is the shirt I bought at Earthfest on 22 May:



Don't they kind of have the same idea going on? I don't know. They remind me of each other.

SO, I planned to dye my shirt hott pink because I wasn't crazy about white/gray color. And you can never have too many hott pink things - that's a fact. So, I bought the dye, but was nervous to do it because I was afraid I would ruin the screenprinted design on the front. Or, the white lines would immediately turn hott pink and be faded.

BUT - I was attempting it anyways, in hopes that it would turn out awesome enough to wear to the show in Portsmouth on Saturday. Here is the process:






In my efforts to dye as many things as I could find, I came up with some elastic and a facecloth.


AAANNNDDDDDDD..........





ROCKED IT!!!!!! Ohhhh it came out so super awesome. I was so amazed. I think it looks 100% better. And Jason and Mike really liked it, so that was great. Jason especially. Love that man.


Great dyeing adventure. So happy with the way it came out. And I wore it with a gray skirt and black leggings. If you're thinking, "wow, Julie must have looked incredibly cute," YOU'RE RIGHT. :)


So now, let's go back to Friday, when Kara and I drove to Cape Cod, MA to see Rooney and Hanson.

Let's skip the part where it took us 4 hours to get there because of traffic, but we had a totally hott dance party in the tunnel on 93 south. YEP. that part rocked.

So, we get to the place and pick up our tickets. Get to our seats. It's a weird place. A round theater. And we actually have SEATS. And the stage is in the center of the whole place, but, it revolves. Yep. It was weird.

And apparently they have a really strict camera policy. Which I didn't know about. IT WAS SO LAME. They would go around telling people to put their cameras away. And this happened A LOT. Did it happen to me? Nope! I was super stealth :)




ROONEY!!!!

Take THAT no camera policy! I did keep the flash off, which is why it's blurry a little. And that's the only Rooney pic I got!! There were HARDLY ANY Rooney fans there, so we really had to represent. They started off not-facing us, but when the stage revolved to our section, I stood up and danced, and then more people followed.

Um, and they ROCKED. Like, a lot. They always do! Robert was just wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, which I thought was awesome. Probably because it was super down pouring and kind of chilly. Which was weird because the last time we saw Rooney it was also down pouring. That was the night I first saw Crash Kings! And before they played 'Raincoat' Tony said, "this song is appropriate for tonight!" or something like that.

Anyways, so, you'll notice that there is no Matt Winter. Who played bass in Rooney right from the beginning up until last February. Instead - there is Brandon. Or, Brando. He's on the far left.

Taylor Locke got a haircut, which I DEFINITELY approved of. He was smokin. They played some old favorites and some new ones. Not my fave off the new record, but it was okay. I was just so excited to see them at all.

So then Robert says to come find them out at the merch table to say hi. So, we go outside to find them! There's already 1 million people there and lots of obnoxious security guards. So, we decide to wait a little bit and see if it clears out. In the meantime, we checked out the merch, went to the ATM, and bought things! I got a GREAT new t-shirt. Navy blue with a yellow lighthouse design and just under the lighthouse beam of light it says ROONEY. It's great, especially for an aspiring lighthouse keeper as myself. Kara got a nice and cozy black hoodie. It's great.

AND THEN, probably the best thing that could have happened, happened. It started to rain really, really hard. Like, out of the blue, torrential downpour. And the people SCATTERED to find shelter. The line to meet the band shrunk by a lot and it was now super easy to get to them.

Kara was super interested in meeting Brando, because he kind of sounded like the perfect boyfriend... 21, 6' 4", bass player, and totally cute. So, we went over to see him. First we both told him how great it was to meet him, congratulations on being an awesome new Rooney bassist, and just generally how much he rocked. He was pretty excited about this.

Then! Kara told him that she had just started playing bass and was really loving it. And he seemed SUPER excited about this! They talked bass player shop for a minute and then Kara asked to take a picture....




I REALLY hope she's not mad at me for posting this, but I think it's a totally great picture.

So then, we walk over to see Robert. I tell Kara,

JULIE: I think I might go in for a Robert hug.
KARA: Whoa, really?
JULIE: Yep. I've had a lot of practice with Mike, and I think I'm gonna do it.


We go up to him and some girl hands him her cell phone. He takes it and says,

ROBERT: Hi, this is Robert from Rooney. Um, why aren't you here at the show?! We missed you, but hope to see you next time we're around...

Things like that. Yep. He was leaving a fan a voicemail. LOVED IT.

Anyways, so then that girl leaves and he turns to us!

ROBERT: Hey!
JULIE AND KARA: HEY!!
ROBERT: (holds out his hand for a handshake) Great to see you!
JULIE: (opens arms for a hug) Can I get a hug instead?
ROBERT: Definitely, bring it in!!

And then I hugged Robert Schwartzman. Yes, the Robert Schwartzman. I've loved him for a long time. I've loved Rooney for a long time. And I was finally getting the hug. And it was great.

Then we told him how great they were, how excited we were to see them, how much we loved the new record, etc. He seemed SO happy and gracious to hear all this, and especially to know that there were people who came just to see them play.

So then we're departing and Kara asks for a picture. I have three words to describe this picture:


NEW COUPLE ALERT!!!!!




Kara and Roberto.

Then, we were saying our goodbyes, and Robert holds up his hand for a goodbye high-five. So, um, duh, I reach out and we high five, but then, he grabs my hand and holds it for a minute afterwards. I mean, not a real minute. But maybe like, 4 seconds. SO GREAT. A hug and hand hold from Rob. Ohhhhh yeah I loved it a lot. I don't really remember what happened next. It was kind of daze-worthy.

Oh yeah, but eventually we made it back to our seats for HANSON!!!!! My middle school girl personal came through and I got totally into it. And yes, I did the "round and around and around and around" hand motions for 'Where's the Love' and I was not ashamed. They rocked!




Zac on drums, Issac on guitar.




Issac, Zac and Taylor. HOTTIES. Like, super hotties.



Acoustic-trio portion of the show. Ohhhh they were soo good. And the screaming!!! OH MAN. You should have heard the girls screaming for them. INSANE. And it's insane that they've been doing this for about 12 years and they still have so many superfans. I love it! I think it's so great. They're so much more than your typical "boy band." They can actually play their instruments really well. They can all sing. They write great songs. GO HANSON!!!

I was actually happy that they didn't play my favorite song, 'Georgia,' because I wouldn't have been able to get it on video with all the camera policing. Even I'm not that stealth.

After the show, Kara had to go to work in the bakery. She slept in the car, while I drove from Hyannis, MA to Wells, ME. Vacation spot to vacation spot. We arrived around 2am and worked until about 6am. LOOONNGGGGGGG AND TIRING NIGHT. But, that Schwartzman Hug got me through. For realz. That, plus the fact that I was seeing Crash Kings the next day. I can stay awake forever on excitement.

Finally got to bed around 6:45am Saturday morning, making my total awake time exactly 24 hours. :)


AND THEN SATURDAY HAPPENED. Did it? I still can't believe it happened. But no, it was for real.


And now.... for the Mysterious Case of the Double Clavinet...




If you look to the left of this picture, on top of the wooden box partially hidden behind the speaker, you'll see a clavinet. Then, if you look to the right side of the photo, you'll see Tony's clavinet with the whammy bar. It's on top of a bright red keyboard, which I hadn't seen before. I was excited about the red keyboard, until it never worked. Ever. Then it became lame.

Anyways - I was so excited that Tony had finally gotten a new clavinet! I was dying to hear the story.

And then as I'm talking with his mom and glancing up at the stage every now and then, I see that they are setting up the other clavinet with Blues Travelers set. And I thought, 'really? Blues Traveler has a clavinet in their band too??' I mean, anyone can buy a clavinet, it's not like they're some rare instrument (unless it's the whammy bar infused version). But seeing two clavinets in one day?!?! After never having even heard of it a few months ago??!! Really?!

YEP!!! It belonged to Blues Traveler. What are the odds?!?!? I mean, seriously! Two bands playing in Portsmouth, NH would both have a clav?? I thought it was weird. Even weirder that the clav for Blues Traveler worked just fine. For some reason the sound guys made it work for them, but not for Tony. Ohhhh bummer.

So, the clav belonged to Blues Traveler - CASE CLOSED!!!!


Here are the pictures from the Crash Kings show. Or rather, the time when they were on stage trying to get their instruments to work...

They still rocked it, duh. Because they just rock everything...




ALSO - PLEASE NOTE THE LACK OF MIKE'S ORANGE AMP. Why didn't he have it!?! Where was it!?!? He had it in Missouri the day before! This made me think that maybe they weren't using their normal equipment?? Besides their instruments?

Tony and Mike's mom told us that their flight from Missouri to Boston had been canceled, so they had to take a later flight, which kind of messed up their travel plans and everything. Maybe everything couldn't come?

Well now, Jason's not even playing on his normal drum set. Usually his is white. Hm. I don't know, but now I'm thinking this maybe has something to do with all the sound problems.





Oh, hi Michael.







When they were actually PLAYING music, oh, it was awesome.




Yep, and then I talked to their mom for almost an hour.

So, it was still super exciting to see Crash Kings. I OMGCAN'TWAIT to see them three times next week!!!!!

But I'm really excited for Kerianne to see them ON TUESDAY!!!! IN CHICAGO!!!!!! Because seeing them once just is never enough. My mom even said that if she didn't have such a busy week at work next week, she'd come to the show in Boston. She also said that if the show in Burlington wasn't on a Thursday, she'd go to that one. YEP. Mom's converted. Superfan. Loves it!

So, my friend in Kansas City went to see them on Friday and took a TON of great pictures. Even Crash Kings themselves commented on how great her pictures were. YEP. They sure did! So, there's just one picture that is totally my favorite and I have to show you.

PLEASE enjoy!



Who knew Tony was a great dancer?! And LOOK at that smile. WHAT A GREAT PICTURE!!!!! Although I'd take any kind of Tony, happy Tony is better to watch than angry Tony.

AHHH that smile! It's so great.


Ok. It's almost 1am. Monday morning. I'm working tonight, Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday night before I have Thursday, Friday and Saturday OFF!!!!! For Kara's 21st Birthday/River City Extension in NJ!!!! Ohhhh I'm super excited about that too!

Alright friends, hope everyone is having a great start to their week!

HEEEYYYY!!!! Happy 26th of July!!! The 26th of July Movement started back in 1953 and is named after the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. It was the start of the Cuban Revolution.

AND WITH THAT, goodnight :)

sweetsweet dreams.


J.

PS:

RE: ENTRY BELOW THIS ONE:

I never finished the story about the two clavinets. You'll have to come back to find out WHY THERE WERE TWO!!!!!!

oooooo cliffhanger!!!!!!



i love you guys.

it happens only in the daytime

SO. I just had an epic day of Crash Kings madness.

Here's the deal:

I'm exhausted. BUT, I'm going to briefly tell you about it because I'm so excited I just need to tell people. Briefly! And, I don't have my camera cord with me, so there'll be no pictures. (But I got a really good one from the looks of it on my camera!)

SO.

The scene was PORTSMOUTH, NH. REDHOOK FEST. At the Redhook Brewery. My mom is wearing my gray Crash Kings shirt and I'm wearing my newly dyed hott pink Crash Kings shirt. WHICH CAME OUT FREAKING AWESOME.

We get there and walk to the ticket holders line. Immediately one of the event workers says to me,

EVENT WORKER: Crash Kings! Awesome! I'm excited to see them. Right before Blues Traveler.

So great! Blues Traveler was the main attraction.

So we get in there and walk to the stage. It's pretty crowded. The whole event is sold out. But, there's like, one spot of grass in the front on the lawn that is perfectly sized for my mom and I. Like, it was perfect.

We put our stuff there. Sit there for a minute, and then decide to get up and walk around. And we walk around for a while. Check out the vendors. Get some food. Then, we head back to our seats.

Listening to the band, 'Rustic Overtones' play. They're kind of, eh. I thought they sounded too much like every other band that plays radio festivals.

And then I start to people watch. Just kind of stare at people around me, because I was bored. And I like to look at people a lot.

There's a couple sitting directly in front of us. They're older. Maybe around the age of my parents. And for some reason, the man looks familiar to me. And I'm thinking very hard about this because WHAT I'M THINKING, is that he looks what I remember Tony and Mike's dad to look like.

BUT NO, I would not have such luck to sit behind their parents.

So, I keep thinking. And keep thinking. And while I'm trying to figure out who he is, I'm also telling myself that it would just be so freaking awesome to sit behind their parents that I'm creating this man who looks like I remember their father to look like.

And so finally, they start to change the set for Crash Kings. And he stands up to watch. And this is when I turn to my mom and whisper,

JULIE: Okay, I kind of think that's Mike and Tony's dad...
MOM: I've noticed he seems very interested in what's going on with Crash Kings.

And then Mike comes out on stage to do bass player things. And this guy in front of us starts waving.

JULIE: (thinking to herself) HOLY CRAP OMG NO WAY I'M SITTING BEHIND THEIR PARENTS.

Finally he gets Mike's attention as if to say, "this is where we're sitting." Mike smiles and head nods back.

He sits back down. My mom immediately reaches over and taps him on the shoulder to ask if he's their father.

YEP. Yep.

This place was really big. It was super crowded when we got there. THE ONLY spot of available grass that fit us perfectly was directly behind Mike and Tony's parents.

No matter WHAT happened for the rest of the day, IT WAS A GOOD DAY.

AND THEN, my mom has a tiny conversation with their dad. And then he takes out his camera and starts taking pictures of the guys setting up. And he goes up to the stage to take more pictures. I imagine these will go somewhere in their living room.

I really don't know how much time passed. I was in such a daze. SUCH A DAZE. A daze of wonderment.

I told their dad that this was my 12th show and he laughed and said he had stopped counting.

And then he leaves for a little bit and my mom initiates conversation with their mom. It was basically mom talk. Like, normal mom talk. For realz.

And then I decide I'm going to go up and stand in the standing area so I can get a good spot.

So I go up and stand. Moving closer and closer every few seconds. Until I'm in the second row. And then the guy in front of me says,

GUY: You want a spot on the rail?
JULIE: Really?! You don't mind?
GUY: Not at all! I thought I was going to be the only fan here!!
JULIE: You're not!!

Turns out he was a super fan. We actually talked for a while. TURNS OUT he lived (or lives, i can't remember) in Amherst, MA, which was where I went to college. Hampshire College. SO THAT was really weird. And I told him I was going to the Crash Kings show in Boston and he seemed like he would go too.

So, I'm watching things happening on the stage and keep looking at the clavinet and wondering, 'why aren't they setting it up?' It was just sitting over in the corner on top of a big wooden box.

And then I look directly in front of me on the stage, and Tony is setting up his clavinet. And I think,

JULIE (thinking) HOLY CRAP Tony got another clavinet!?!? How did he make that happen?!?!

Because, as we all know, the modified clavinet with the whammy bar that Tony owns is only 1 of 12 in the whole world. So I was PRETTY excited for him.

ANYWAYS, so then Jason notices me from the stage and smiles and waves. And I smile and wave back. And he makes gestures like, "your shirt is awesome!" And I make, "I know! Thank you!" gestures back.

And the guy next to me is seeing all this and says,

GUY: OHhhhhh... so that's how it is??
JULIE: (laughs) Umm...nooo...
GUY: (laughs) Wow.... okay.
JULIE: If I see them, I might get a hug. But that's it.

it was funny and really awesome.

ANYWAYS. Then their set starts and they open with '1985.' Immediately the SOUND SYSTEM GOES TO CRAP. Which was the theme of the performance. A version of 1985 without vocals or piano, was what we heard. A drums and bass version! They keep going right into 'Nonbeliever,' still with no piano, and now with very, very low vocals. Tony ran off stage during the beginning for a minute to talk to sound people, but made it back just in time for the beginning.

So then after they finish 'Nonbeliever' Tony stops and says something like,

TONY: Okay, we're not gonna start again until this gets fixed... TELL ME WHAT YOU NEED!!!!

And people start shouting PIANO PIANO and making "piano motions" with their hands.

So then, the piano gets fixed. But there's now no vocals. So, they take a long time figuring that out. The crowd kept shouting LOUDER LOUDER LOUDER and making upwards motions.

Then, the vocals come back in, but they're still very low. People keep shouting louder. Tony looks down at me and I mouth, "louder."

TONY: (looks to the sound booth, points to his microphone.)

YEP. He looked at me, and then did what I said. Even though everyone else was also saying it. It was like he trusted me more. YEP. That was it - he trusted me more.

ANYWAYS. Then everything was worked out. They played 'It's Only Wednesday.' ROCKED IT. But halfway through the piano went out again.

So, they stopped again at the end of the song and worked out the piano. FIXED.

Then Tony starts 'Come Away' and almost immediately the piano goes out again. By this time - he looks pretty pissed. Like, really, REALLY annoyed with this whole thing.

and Tony stops the song and says,

TONY: Okay, I'm not going to play this one anymore. It's just not working.

And Mike stalls and goes into this whole speech about people came here to hear music, and why isn't the MUSIC working.

So, they try and fix the sound some more. A lot more. Tony finally says,

TONY: We're gonna play 2 more songs for you. This one you might recognize.

And they played 'Mountain Man.' WHICH ROCKED. I did the claps. No sound on the piano, but the clavinet sounded GREAT. After that was finished, Tony mouthed to Mike and Jason, "Carry On."

And they played 'Carry On,' which was a TOTAL SUCCESS because there's no piano in that song, only clav action. It sounded great. Ohhhh and I rocked. Because I freaking love that song.

And things are finally sounding pretty good. So, they tackle 'War Pigs' another clav-only song. Almost immediately the clavinet sound goes. Then, something happens and Jason's kick drum breaks. Tony announces that Jason is now playing with a broken kick-drum.

So, now the song is crazy sounding drums, vocal and tons of bass. It's insane. BUT - the crowd is totally rocking and getting really into it.

I, however, am now so used the 'War Pigs' melody in lullaby version, that I started to get sleepy.

No, I'm kidding. I didn't get sleepy. But, I did think about the lullaby version and how it has a ton of bird noises in it.

ANYWAYS. So, they end the show. Tony says,

TONY: Thanks for coming to our sound check!!

Mike says,

MIKE: I would like to invite every one of you to come see us in Boston at The Middle East on August 3rd. We'd really love to give you a real Crash Kings show.

And the crowd is going wild. Like, really cheering them on. And Tony! He's just unplugging his stuff so fast it's crazy. You can tell he's really, really upset. I felt super bad. And then Jason looks at me and just shakes his head. I shake my head back and shrug.

Then, I head back to our seats, where I find my mom laughing, chatting it up with Mrs. Beliveau.

JULIE: (thinking) OMG this cannot really be happening!

So, I go over. Kind of join in the conversation about what a bummer it was about the sound.


JULIE: I think Tony was pretty mad...
MRS. BELIVEAU: I've never seen Tony that angry before! Well, during a performance. I mean, I've definitely seen him that angry before (we all laugh), just not during a show.

And then I think it really hit me that OMG I WAS TALKING TO THEIR MOM.

And then my mom, Tony and Mike's mom, and myself proceeded to have a conversation for like, 45 minutes. It was on and off for about an hour, because then Blues Traveler started playing.

And it was like, the perfect conversation, because all we talked about were Mike and Tony! Who needs to talk about anything else, ever, really? She told us about the time when Tony was 6 and he came to her and said he wanted to start taking piano lessons and then took lessons from the same woman for 12 years. About the time when Michael (she kept calling him Michael) was in 3rd grade and wanted to learn piano, but then stopped because he didn't think he could be as good as Tony. So he picked up the guitar. And then the bass. And then the upright bass, which he played in the school band. And also that Tony played violin in the school band.

She told us about how when Tony was really little and they would all dance around in their living room, but Mike was just a baby, so she had to hold him. (and then she made a motion of holding Baby Mike.)

I think my favorite was the story about when JET came over. First she went on and on about how nice and how funny JET was, and we talked about how the show at the Paradise JUST SO TOTALLY ROCKED EVERYONE'S WORLD.

And she said,

MRS. BELIVEAU: I got a call from Tony at 11 the morning before, it was their day off, and he asked if it would be alright if all of them came over for dinner, it would be about 12 people. So, I said 'okay.' And Steve was outside doing yard work and I went out and said, 'stop whatever you're doing, the boys are coming over tonight with 12 people!'

it was a great story. And I had heard Crash Kings talk about this event to some degree, making it seem like things got pretty crazy, and they all had a blast.

And that's just exactly what their mom said too! It was just really fun hearing it from their mom.


OOHHHHHH IT WAS AWESOME. We talked about lots of stuff. She told me twice that I should come find her at The Middle East. My mom asked her if she was from Massachusetts and she said,

MRS. BELIVEAU: No, I'm from Michigan.

Which, I thought was weird, since Michigan has played such a strange part in my Twitter life recently... Tony was in Ann Arbor and "so was i."

um, so the whole thing was great. like, great. and she was just a normal mom. like, just really proud of her sons.

so, by this point i had missed the guys at the merch booth. they never announced that they would be there, but their dad said they were for a little bit. he went to go look for them, but couldn't find them.


ANYWAYS. this didn't end up being a brief version at all! So, their parents left a little while after Blues Traveler went on.

Shortly after that, Mike walked over looking for them. He saw me,

MIKE: Heeyyy!! Nice shirt!!
JULIE: Thanks!

This was at least the 6th time talking to Mike and I still don't think he knew who I was. 2 hugs, 6 conversations later, no progress. Sorry, at least 7 conversations.

So, he's walking around looking very confused, obviously looking for his parents. I was thinking I should go over and tell him they left. But, my mom acts upon this before I do.

MOM: Are you looking for your folks?
MIKE: Yeah...
MOM: They left just a little while ago.
MIKE: They left?
MOM: Yeah, I think the crowd was getting too rowdy.
MIKE: They left? Oh, okay... Thanks.

My mom said he seemed very sad. BUT, she touched his arm during this conversation, which she mentioned a few times throughout the rest of the night. Also, how cute he is. And also, the prettiness of his eye color.


So, even though the actual performance part of the day was kind of a bummer fail, the overall day was SUCH A MAJOR WIN.

yeah, it was kind of a dream. like, i'm writing this now and thinking, 'really? all this really happened?' because, how often do you get to talk to the parents of rockstars?

OMG IT WAS SO GREAT. i'm just really thinking about it now.

and i actually didn't get to talk to Crash Kings in person at all. but it totally feels like i did!


and i'm just going to mention it real quick:

but all this comes THE DAY AFTER i got a hug from Robert Schwartzman. ♥ believe me, i'll talk about that more in detail. also, he held my hand. MORE LATER.

MORE WITH PICTURES LATER. which is amazing in itself, because the NO CAMERA POLICY at the Cape Cod venue was soooo super strict it was insane. like, INSANE.

but, yours truly, is a super stealth picture taker - AND I GOT SOME GREAT PHOTOS. of Hanson, mainly.

ANYWAYS. i've had a great weekend so far. nay - A GREAT WEEK. between this and all the personal contact with River City Extension - i am exhausted. it's known as GREAT WEEK EXCITEMENT EXHAUSTION. it affects 4 out of 5 Crash Kings fans. very serious, as it may involve driving long distances, staying up for long periods of time, and rocking out really freaking hard.

it's currently 2:30am. i'm going to go to bed. but hey,

I'VE SEEN CRASH KINGS 12 TIMES NOW!!!!!

that's pretty awesome.

ok! i love you all. Schwartzman hugs all around! *does circular finger motion in the air*


have a super great sunday.


✭✭✭,
Julie