In this Discussion
- beat32calf December 2006
- ezorvera December 2006
- firexpert6 December 2006
- sherib February 2007
- sureeyesawake December 2006
- ytel82 February 2007
Washington DC show, 9:30 Club 12/9/06
We got down to DC about 6:30 on Saturday for 8 PM doors, and were able to get right in to poster. A Switchfoot rep had already come through and put up their posters, so we just filled in the blanks putting up our posters. While postering, I saw Dan walk into the main hall out of the corner of my eye, but decided to let him be. We also saw Tim and the guitarist for Bowling for Soup - Chris - and his dog. I only spoke to Chris, to compliment him on the dog (who is super cute). We finished fairly quickly and tried to hang out inside because it was COLD out there, but the rules were that we had to wait outside, so out we went. Doors were due to open at around 8 and it was now 7. I stood outside by the ticket window while Adam went off in search of McDonald's. While waiting, I struck up conversation with this very nice man who was the limo driver for Switchfoot. He kept an eye on me and made sure I was okay, you know he's from a generation where gentlemen don't let ladies wait by themselves. So he'd keep an eye on me. In fact, there was a guy from one of the sponsor radio stations outside cursing up a storm, and he walked over to the guy and asked him to watch his language because "there are ladies present." It was very sweet. He was a nice guy.
Adam came back having eaten his fries, and Tim and Andy walked out with one of the guys I'd seen in Philadelphia and at my last DC show. We smiled and waved, they smiled back and went, presumably, to go get food. We didn't want to deter them from where they were off to, so we didn't bother them. Andy and Tim came back by themselves a little later. We said hi to Tim as he walked by and he said "Hi Guys, I've gotta go see my brother." So off he went. When the other guy from Philly and DC came by, we said hello to him and he recognized us, and we chatted for a few minutes. His name is Ed. Really cool guy.
The doors finally opened a little after 8. We walked straight up to the front, and because we weren't the first through the doors we ended up pretty much in the same place we were last time - against the front barrier between where Andy and Damian stand. While waiting for the show to start, Adam noticed that he could read the setlists on the floor, so he told me what was on them. I kept waiting for the guys to put out the tambourines that the guys throw into the crowd for "Don't Ask Me" but they never did.
But then finally at 8:55 one of the radio station's personalities came out dressed as Santa with a few, erm, helpers (ie; women in skimpy elf costumes), made a few jokes, and introduced OK Go! Adam and I went NUTS. The rest of the crowd vaguely cheered. They opened with Television Television, which I think was a great choice. It's very high energy and the crowd reacted well to it. All I could think of was "Have to get pictures for everyone on the fan communities!" and I snapped away. When TV TV ended they went right into Don't Ask Me. No fun Damian banter. It was kind of disappointing, to tell the truth. Damian barely spoke between songs, and I really think that his commentary brings a fun element to the show. However he did let the crowd vote for what cover they would play - our choices were "Don't Bring Me Down", "Prove My Love", and "Neat Neat Neat." Adam and I voted for "Prove My Love" and it was the overwhelming winner. Damian couldn't jump into the crowd from the stage because of where the barrier was, so he ran off through the backstage area and then ran to the back of the club and up through the audience. The crowd REALLY seemed to like the boys. They put on a great show, there's no doubt about that. I've just seen them do MUCH better.
I'll note at this time that I was wearing my A Fine Tooth Tie as a headband in my hair. By the time the boys played "Get Over It", I had taken the tie out of my hair and started waving it around while singing and dancing. Well, not so much dancing as bouncing on my tiptoes (and my calf muscles still hurt yesterday, for the record). I continued to wave the tie through "Do What You Want", and then when the song ended and they began to clear space for the A Million Ways dance, I saw Dan come out from behind the drumkit and walk Directly Towards Us.
And then Dan handed me the drumstick. And Smiled. And I died. Thank Goodness Adam was there because he shouted "Thanks Dan!" for me.
The AMW dance was great - I made sure to get LOADS of pictures for you guys. They have all been posted here: http://www.rachel-and-adam.com/gallery/Non...-Christmas-Show .
I found out later that the guys pretty much bolted after their set, so even though we poked around and tried to figure out where they'd be hanging out, we couldn't find them.
Bowling for Soup and Switchfoot didn't really interest us, so we wandered around the club killing time until the end of the show. However, Switchfoot played Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" and that was funny.
After the end of the night we went out to do our sticker distribution and we met Amy/Azulaco/Acoberst (depending on which board you're reading). It was SO nice to meet you, Amy! She told us that she was planning on hanging out in the downstairs bar after the show because some people she'd met said the Bowling for Soup would be there, so we decided to join her. Then Jaret and Chris from BfS came to hang out. They are both very nice guys. Jaret complimented Adam on his coat and made his night. Chris's dog, Sherman, is just too cute for words. Adam, Amy and I played with Sherman and chatted a little with Chris, who just LOVES Sherman. It's very cute how devoted he is to that little guy. Finally at around 2 am, we decided to head home.
Adam came back having eaten his fries, and Tim and Andy walked out with one of the guys I'd seen in Philadelphia and at my last DC show. We smiled and waved, they smiled back and went, presumably, to go get food. We didn't want to deter them from where they were off to, so we didn't bother them. Andy and Tim came back by themselves a little later. We said hi to Tim as he walked by and he said "Hi Guys, I've gotta go see my brother." So off he went. When the other guy from Philly and DC came by, we said hello to him and he recognized us, and we chatted for a few minutes. His name is Ed. Really cool guy.
The doors finally opened a little after 8. We walked straight up to the front, and because we weren't the first through the doors we ended up pretty much in the same place we were last time - against the front barrier between where Andy and Damian stand. While waiting for the show to start, Adam noticed that he could read the setlists on the floor, so he told me what was on them. I kept waiting for the guys to put out the tambourines that the guys throw into the crowd for "Don't Ask Me" but they never did.
But then finally at 8:55 one of the radio station's personalities came out dressed as Santa with a few, erm, helpers (ie; women in skimpy elf costumes), made a few jokes, and introduced OK Go! Adam and I went NUTS. The rest of the crowd vaguely cheered. They opened with Television Television, which I think was a great choice. It's very high energy and the crowd reacted well to it. All I could think of was "Have to get pictures for everyone on the fan communities!" and I snapped away. When TV TV ended they went right into Don't Ask Me. No fun Damian banter. It was kind of disappointing, to tell the truth. Damian barely spoke between songs, and I really think that his commentary brings a fun element to the show. However he did let the crowd vote for what cover they would play - our choices were "Don't Bring Me Down", "Prove My Love", and "Neat Neat Neat." Adam and I voted for "Prove My Love" and it was the overwhelming winner. Damian couldn't jump into the crowd from the stage because of where the barrier was, so he ran off through the backstage area and then ran to the back of the club and up through the audience. The crowd REALLY seemed to like the boys. They put on a great show, there's no doubt about that. I've just seen them do MUCH better.
I'll note at this time that I was wearing my A Fine Tooth Tie as a headband in my hair. By the time the boys played "Get Over It", I had taken the tie out of my hair and started waving it around while singing and dancing. Well, not so much dancing as bouncing on my tiptoes (and my calf muscles still hurt yesterday, for the record). I continued to wave the tie through "Do What You Want", and then when the song ended and they began to clear space for the A Million Ways dance, I saw Dan come out from behind the drumkit and walk Directly Towards Us.
And then Dan handed me the drumstick. And Smiled. And I died. Thank Goodness Adam was there because he shouted "Thanks Dan!" for me.
The AMW dance was great - I made sure to get LOADS of pictures for you guys. They have all been posted here: http://www.rachel-and-adam.com/gallery/Non...-Christmas-Show .
I found out later that the guys pretty much bolted after their set, so even though we poked around and tried to figure out where they'd be hanging out, we couldn't find them.
Bowling for Soup and Switchfoot didn't really interest us, so we wandered around the club killing time until the end of the show. However, Switchfoot played Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" and that was funny.
After the end of the night we went out to do our sticker distribution and we met Amy/Azulaco/Acoberst (depending on which board you're reading). It was SO nice to meet you, Amy! She told us that she was planning on hanging out in the downstairs bar after the show because some people she'd met said the Bowling for Soup would be there, so we decided to join her. Then Jaret and Chris from BfS came to hang out. They are both very nice guys. Jaret complimented Adam on his coat and made his night. Chris's dog, Sherman, is just too cute for words. Adam, Amy and I played with Sherman and chatted a little with Chris, who just LOVES Sherman. It's very cute how devoted he is to that little guy. Finally at around 2 am, we decided to head home.
Comments
You beat me to this post, so I am just going to add my own review of the show right here. Such a long post already...but you know you all want to hear about it. So here is my addition to DJRose's review.
The boys played an all-too-short but awesome set at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC. It was DC101's Non-Denominational Christmas show, and two other bands played - Bowling for Soup and Switchfoot. OK Go was the opening band.
Let me just say, I got there SO early (about 6:15 p.m.) that OK Go was actually performing their sound check as I walked up to the club. ("Oh Lately It's So Quiet," my favorite) Doors weren't set to open for, oh, an hour and forty-five minutes at this point, there was no line yet, and it was really. freaking. cold, so I went for coffee, then got back in line about 45 minutes before doors opened. My persistence was rewarded - we got spots in the front row right against the barrier, right between Tim and Damian. FANTASTIC view of everything! I was so mesmerized that I kind of forgot to take pictures until the very last song, but the few pictures I got were really good. I met up with the lovely DJRose and her dashing escort after the show, and she got a lot of really incredible pictures, which I see she has linked to. Go view them, they're swoony. Edit: That's me in the black hoodie and blue scarf, sitting next to Sherman the dog, or at least that's my butt. That scarf is a dead ringer for one Damian wears in the "Making of Oh No" video - I thought that was funny when I finally saw that video.
There was a lot less crowd banter at this show, I think because Damian was trying to get through the set with enough time to do the AMW dance at the end. Which they did, to perfection, of course. They did poll the audience about which cover song to play, and my cousin screamed so loud in favor of the Damned that Damian turned around and smiled at her and said, "You really like the Damned, don't you?" but the vote went to the Violent Femmes, "Prove My Love." I also love the Violent Femmes, so that was cool. Damian came out into the audience during the VF song, and he climbed back onstage right next to me, which was just...surreal. Also, Damian, I am sorry I patted you on the butt. I swear to God I wasn't going for that, I just put out my hand automatically to steady you while you were climbing back onstage, and it just happened. I'm not that kind of fangirl, really. :embarrassed:
So anyway, after all that coolness, the guys did the dance and left the stage, and the roadies who packed up the equipment just handed me the set list after they pulled it up. I didn't even ask for it. Perhaps they were watching the show from backstage and noticed that I was one of three major OK Go fans in the front row (DJRose + Adam being the others), or perhaps it was the push-up bra I was wearing. Whatever, it was just the cherry on top of the whole experience to get the set list! And they handed me all the copies, so I was able to give one to DJRose, too! So here is the order of songs from Saturday:
Television
Don't Ask Me
A Good Idea At The Time
Prove My Love - Violent Femmes cover
Get Over It
Invincible
Here It Goes Again
Do What You Want
A Million Ways (dance)
No encore, because they were on a pretty strict schedule re: set length.
I would have loved to tell the band how much I liked their set, but they slipped away so sneaky! I saw Dan and Andy watching the first few songs of Bowling for Soup's set from the band room balcony, but then they disappeared and that was it. No more OK Go.
So yeah, great night. I can't wait to see OK Go again in Troy next weekend! As for the other two bands...I have to give a plug for Bowling for Soup. They were terrific - energetic and fun! Switchfoot also surprised me with how good their live show was, even though their music is not really my style. Their cover of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" really won me over. Props are due to both these bands.
Oh, and DJRose, you know that bartender that was wearing the OK Go hoodie in the basement bar? I thought he looked familiar...That was Justin Jones, and I wish I'd realized it earlier. I met him after you guys left. He's an incredible local DC musician and anyone who likes acoustic/country rock should go to his MySpace and listen. Sounds like M.Ward or Bright Eyes. And now I think he's even cooler b/c of the OK Go hoodie.
I thought it was a fluke after Sheri got a picture of him doing it, but now I am POSITIVE Damian is lifting his shirt on purpose just to mess with our mushy, girly minds. Stop toying with us, dammit! My poor little heart can only take so much.
Oh, and I would've helped Damian get up the stage as well, I'm sure he needed that extra push. I just think I would've used both of my hands
Oh you bet Damian knows what he's doing! He did the same thing when they were in Sacramento. I never thought I'd see that in person, but dreams do come true!
Thanks for the reviews!
Oh, he's totally doing it on purpose. He knows. But we love it anyway.
I think these are some really great pictures of Andy and Dan.
If you look around on the DC101 site, there are also some backstage photos and a brief interview with Damian and Tim.
Lame, perhaps.