Post by nmf on Nov 19, 2011 17:56:12 GMT -5
Okay, Utica. For real this time.
I wasn't planning to make this trip the second time as it was the longest trip for me and the rescheduled date had moved it into snow territory. But then I realized it beat the hell out of going to work instead so I went. I got a phone call and a text from my dad on the way there telling me the show was cancelled because he's a jerk but I arrived in one piece without any disasters. Downtown Utica is all sorts of sketchy so I parked in a garage next to a bunch of police cars and walked very quickly to the theatre. It was freezing so I was super happy that they had opened the lobby. (Between the personal phone call when the last show got cancelled and opening the lobby in the cold and everyone just being really pleasant, I am a huge fan of the Stanley. I wish it was closer.) I met up with some people who I've met at previous shows and we toured the beautiful theatre and talked for a bit while being followed by a very (friendly) sketchy drunk guy who wouldn't leave us alone. Then we went in for the show.
I had originally bought a ticket through Artist Arena that was far left front row. A day before the original show I had checked Ticketmaster because I like to make my life difficult and pulled up a ticket front row on the left end of the center section. Lacking restraint, I bought it. The cancellation of the first show allowed me to have my first ticket refunded but there's more to this whole explanation of my location later on...
Ryan Star was good. I've had a couple of his songs in my head since last night and I will probably end up buying his cd. I'm so used to not caring about openers at smaller shows but I think he did a really good job. His girl roadie was missing and that bummed me out but the replacement was hilarious. I am pretty sure they just called a local Ryan Star fan and asked him to come to do the roadie job for the night. He was crouched on the side of the stage for the whole set headbanging. And then when it was time to switch guitars, he would leap up and run on stage. He was super concerned with Ryan's in-ear monitors and double checking everything and that almost made up for girl roadie missing. I've seen them play 3 times now and they always bring up someone from the audience to play guitar during the last song. The first time, the person was okay. The second time, the person really did not want to go up and was actually pulled out of her seat. This third guy was a serious Ryan Star fan. He was so so so excited to be up there and it was adorable and it was a nice way to end their set.
We'll ignore GGDs for a little bit and talk about the crowd. Right next to me were three girls in their late teens or early 20s. They spent the intermission taking approximately 467,493 photos of themselves but they seemed pretty lively. Next to them, front and center, were some older couples. And the whole second row of the center section were older couples that were not the kind you would normally see at a GGD show. Presumably, these people had all gotten their tickets through some sort of membership with the theatre. All of the 'regulars' who were up close were on the sides.
Anyways.. The lights go down. Security is outside the pit, meaning that everyone in the pit is pretty free to go where they want. I step forward to the stage to prevent people from behind me from rushing in front of me. The people in the left section all move towards me to fill in the space on the rail. The people in the right section do the same. And the people perfectly front and center? They do not even stand up. Right before GGDs come on stage, one of the girls who was sitting beside me asked me to move over out of their way. I politely ignored the request seeing as they had an enormous wide open space in front of them that they could enjoy if they stood up so they were pretty unhappy with me (Note: I would absolutely try to accommodate anyone who wasn't able to stand or keep their spot clear but these girls were young and in heels and I wasn't in their way anyways). The people on my left were all asking me to move down closer to the center of the stage so they could all move down too but I really didn't think it was fair to stand in front of anyone's seat other than my own. It was nice not to have any heads in the way the whole time but I didn't enjoy being the dividing line.
So GGDs come out. The setlist is the setlist. They had both 'As I Am' and 'Sympathy' on the list but they didn't play either of them. Everyone sounded good. Nothing earth shattering to report on that.
Randomness:
There was a lot of talking early on. Some girl yelled about kissing John on a bus and getting sick and the whole room fell silent. John was amazed that she had somehow silenced everyone and asked if she was Jesus. (I have video of this and have to revisit it because I think she was talking about kissing him the day Utica got cancelled. She had she caught the flu from him and he said 'Yeah, the booze flu' and that sort of implies what he may have been 'suffering' from to have the first show cancelled. I will work on conspiracy theories later.)
I could see John eyeing this group of people sitting down front and center the whole time and I knew he was going to harass them. Finally, he was just like 'Are you guys all comfortable sitting there? Did you get dragged here?' Then he told one man in the second row that he had Herman Cain's hat on and then apologized a lot and said the band needed to get lessons on how to speak to people. He made a remark about wanting to just take questions from the audience for while but knew he had better just shut up and play instead.
Robby told us he had taken many station wagon trips to Utica as a kid and once got stitches there. John kept trying to get a comment in but Robby wouldn't pause to let him speak.
I don't encourage grabbing at band members and I hate when someone grabs one of John's hands and won't let go. Usually he just pulls until he gets free. Last night someone grabbed onto him with two hands, one around his wrist, and instead of pulling, he got down on his knees and sang to her instead. I still think it's ridiculous but it was actually really cute this time.
For those who care about such things, John was wearing an orange and blue/grey plaid shirt over a black tank top with green camo-ish pants and red shoes. I tried to buy my 2.5 month old nephew this outfit today and his mother said no.
I had decided to bootleg this show. Usually, I have to hold my camera so that the microphone stays in one direction but this time I had a little edge of the stage that was lined with cables that I could just sit my camera on, hands free. Now I have a lot of concert footage of John's feet and the bottom half of Brad to rip audio from. (This also means it will take forever to post videos.)
The setlist:
I got my first setlist at this show. I refuse to beg for things from roadies and I am not pushy so I've never had a chance to get a setlist from a show. But about halfway through the show, I realized John's setlist was so close to the edge that it was nearly hanging off the stage and the people directly in front of it couldn't even bother to stand up so they weren't going to be taking it. At that point, I decided it would be mine. Then, as we were waiting for the encore, a group of really obnoxious girls came out of nowhere, pushed past me and jumped in front of the sitting people at the stage for the encore (because I guess some people are just entitled assholes). I assumed my chances of getting the setlist were gone. But they cleared out right after the encore, the sitting people remained sitting, and I just stepped in front of them and took John's setlist. I promise I did it with more grace than the people who then climbed on the stage and ripped off other setlists. It came off in one nice full piece, I rolled the tape over so it didn't catch anything, and now I have my first setlist in 29 shows and 13.5 years.
I didn't stick around after the show with the people I knew because I had a long drive home. I walked very quickly in sketchy downtown Utica to the parking garage and found my entrance had been locked. So I walked around the corner and that entrance was locked too. Then I had a mild heart attack and nearly ran to the shared hotel entrance completely around the block. And then the level I parked on was 75% dark and I realized this is how people get murdered. But I got to my car and managed to find the way out and I think parking was free because no one was asking me to pay but it's very likely that I now have a parking ticket out for me in Utica.
I wasn't planning to make this trip the second time as it was the longest trip for me and the rescheduled date had moved it into snow territory. But then I realized it beat the hell out of going to work instead so I went. I got a phone call and a text from my dad on the way there telling me the show was cancelled because he's a jerk but I arrived in one piece without any disasters. Downtown Utica is all sorts of sketchy so I parked in a garage next to a bunch of police cars and walked very quickly to the theatre. It was freezing so I was super happy that they had opened the lobby. (Between the personal phone call when the last show got cancelled and opening the lobby in the cold and everyone just being really pleasant, I am a huge fan of the Stanley. I wish it was closer.) I met up with some people who I've met at previous shows and we toured the beautiful theatre and talked for a bit while being followed by a very (friendly) sketchy drunk guy who wouldn't leave us alone. Then we went in for the show.
I had originally bought a ticket through Artist Arena that was far left front row. A day before the original show I had checked Ticketmaster because I like to make my life difficult and pulled up a ticket front row on the left end of the center section. Lacking restraint, I bought it. The cancellation of the first show allowed me to have my first ticket refunded but there's more to this whole explanation of my location later on...
Ryan Star was good. I've had a couple of his songs in my head since last night and I will probably end up buying his cd. I'm so used to not caring about openers at smaller shows but I think he did a really good job. His girl roadie was missing and that bummed me out but the replacement was hilarious. I am pretty sure they just called a local Ryan Star fan and asked him to come to do the roadie job for the night. He was crouched on the side of the stage for the whole set headbanging. And then when it was time to switch guitars, he would leap up and run on stage. He was super concerned with Ryan's in-ear monitors and double checking everything and that almost made up for girl roadie missing. I've seen them play 3 times now and they always bring up someone from the audience to play guitar during the last song. The first time, the person was okay. The second time, the person really did not want to go up and was actually pulled out of her seat. This third guy was a serious Ryan Star fan. He was so so so excited to be up there and it was adorable and it was a nice way to end their set.
We'll ignore GGDs for a little bit and talk about the crowd. Right next to me were three girls in their late teens or early 20s. They spent the intermission taking approximately 467,493 photos of themselves but they seemed pretty lively. Next to them, front and center, were some older couples. And the whole second row of the center section were older couples that were not the kind you would normally see at a GGD show. Presumably, these people had all gotten their tickets through some sort of membership with the theatre. All of the 'regulars' who were up close were on the sides.
Anyways.. The lights go down. Security is outside the pit, meaning that everyone in the pit is pretty free to go where they want. I step forward to the stage to prevent people from behind me from rushing in front of me. The people in the left section all move towards me to fill in the space on the rail. The people in the right section do the same. And the people perfectly front and center? They do not even stand up. Right before GGDs come on stage, one of the girls who was sitting beside me asked me to move over out of their way. I politely ignored the request seeing as they had an enormous wide open space in front of them that they could enjoy if they stood up so they were pretty unhappy with me (Note: I would absolutely try to accommodate anyone who wasn't able to stand or keep their spot clear but these girls were young and in heels and I wasn't in their way anyways). The people on my left were all asking me to move down closer to the center of the stage so they could all move down too but I really didn't think it was fair to stand in front of anyone's seat other than my own. It was nice not to have any heads in the way the whole time but I didn't enjoy being the dividing line.
So GGDs come out. The setlist is the setlist. They had both 'As I Am' and 'Sympathy' on the list but they didn't play either of them. Everyone sounded good. Nothing earth shattering to report on that.
Randomness:
There was a lot of talking early on. Some girl yelled about kissing John on a bus and getting sick and the whole room fell silent. John was amazed that she had somehow silenced everyone and asked if she was Jesus. (I have video of this and have to revisit it because I think she was talking about kissing him the day Utica got cancelled. She had she caught the flu from him and he said 'Yeah, the booze flu' and that sort of implies what he may have been 'suffering' from to have the first show cancelled. I will work on conspiracy theories later.)
I could see John eyeing this group of people sitting down front and center the whole time and I knew he was going to harass them. Finally, he was just like 'Are you guys all comfortable sitting there? Did you get dragged here?' Then he told one man in the second row that he had Herman Cain's hat on and then apologized a lot and said the band needed to get lessons on how to speak to people. He made a remark about wanting to just take questions from the audience for while but knew he had better just shut up and play instead.
Robby told us he had taken many station wagon trips to Utica as a kid and once got stitches there. John kept trying to get a comment in but Robby wouldn't pause to let him speak.
I don't encourage grabbing at band members and I hate when someone grabs one of John's hands and won't let go. Usually he just pulls until he gets free. Last night someone grabbed onto him with two hands, one around his wrist, and instead of pulling, he got down on his knees and sang to her instead. I still think it's ridiculous but it was actually really cute this time.
For those who care about such things, John was wearing an orange and blue/grey plaid shirt over a black tank top with green camo-ish pants and red shoes. I tried to buy my 2.5 month old nephew this outfit today and his mother said no.
I had decided to bootleg this show. Usually, I have to hold my camera so that the microphone stays in one direction but this time I had a little edge of the stage that was lined with cables that I could just sit my camera on, hands free. Now I have a lot of concert footage of John's feet and the bottom half of Brad to rip audio from. (This also means it will take forever to post videos.)
The setlist:
I got my first setlist at this show. I refuse to beg for things from roadies and I am not pushy so I've never had a chance to get a setlist from a show. But about halfway through the show, I realized John's setlist was so close to the edge that it was nearly hanging off the stage and the people directly in front of it couldn't even bother to stand up so they weren't going to be taking it. At that point, I decided it would be mine. Then, as we were waiting for the encore, a group of really obnoxious girls came out of nowhere, pushed past me and jumped in front of the sitting people at the stage for the encore (because I guess some people are just entitled assholes). I assumed my chances of getting the setlist were gone. But they cleared out right after the encore, the sitting people remained sitting, and I just stepped in front of them and took John's setlist. I promise I did it with more grace than the people who then climbed on the stage and ripped off other setlists. It came off in one nice full piece, I rolled the tape over so it didn't catch anything, and now I have my first setlist in 29 shows and 13.5 years.
I didn't stick around after the show with the people I knew because I had a long drive home. I walked very quickly in sketchy downtown Utica to the parking garage and found my entrance had been locked. So I walked around the corner and that entrance was locked too. Then I had a mild heart attack and nearly ran to the shared hotel entrance completely around the block. And then the level I parked on was 75% dark and I realized this is how people get murdered. But I got to my car and managed to find the way out and I think parking was free because no one was asking me to pay but it's very likely that I now have a parking ticket out for me in Utica.
Loved the little random things that you noticed. Glad you had a great time and got home in one piece. 
