The morning of the concert, my husband tried to April fool me! When I woke up in the morning, he said, “I’ve got some bad news. Did you hear?
OK Go broke up. Yea, they were doing the Million Ways dance and Damian poked Tim in the eye and it was all over!” HA HA HA! I didn’t believe him for a second!
Here’s my concert review of the show I saw at the State Theater in Detroit, MI. A friend from the boards, sureeyesawake, drove up from Cincinnati and went straight to the theater to get in line. Another friend and I drove down and met her at about 3:30. The weather was excellent and Detroit looked really beautiful. There was a HUGE event going on downtown at the same time right across the street – Wrestlemania 23, which was apparently a mecca for 75, 000 people from around the world!
There were tents set up for it and, after we asked the Snow Patrol fans around us to save our place in line, we walked around and took it all in. In fact, I bought a Wrestlemania poster for the guys to sign! Here's Damian's concert banter with Tim about Wrestlemania.
EDIT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM9l2QJGnzsI've looked on the Channel 4 news video archives for Tim's clip, but I haven't been able to find it. Get on it, ih7*s!
Man, I wanted to get a picture with a Wrestling Federation belt! (Even though I've never liked wrestling - does that make any sense?) We saw one humongous guy walking around with one, but I felt a little dumb approaching him because no one else was bothering him. Anyway, back to the story.
So we wandered behind the venue and the first person we saw was Dan talking to Mike Kent. We kind of casually walked up and welcomed him to Detroit. We talked about their rising success, non-stop touring, the Grammy celebration ("What was the best thing about the Grammys?" "Winning!") and starting the new album. I asked if they would be recording in Sweden again and he joked and said he would prefer somewhere warmer, like Jamaica.
Somehow the conversation got to music he likes and he recommended a band called Mastadon, a heavy metal band similar to old Metallica. He met them at the Grammys, but has been a fan for a while.
I asked him to sign my Wrestlemania poster, which he did, but then said he didn't like the overt sexuality and graphic violence in wrestling. I had brought a big bag with boxes of Girl Scout cookies (because everyone likes GS cookies!
) He got to pick his favorite box of Girl Scout cookies (Thin Mints) and we took some pictures.
Then, I reminded him about a MySpace group I’m in called OK Go for Grownups. A couple months ago, he had talked to some other members at a concert in Germany and had suggested that we should change the name to People Who Know How to Have Really Great Sex. (Practice makes perfect?) He laughed when I told him we had unmarried women members and it wouldn't be right!
I also told him that we’re not that discriminating – we’ll accept anyone, but I draw the line at spelling words incorrectly on purpose! Suzanne saw the OK Go drum set nearby and asked if we could take a look at it. He said “Sure.” We all got to sit behind it and pretend to drum and take pictures.
That was pretty cool. We also took pictures of Jordan, their guitar tech(?) on the drums. He did actually drum and he was good. Well, our time with Dan seemed to be coming to an end, so we said "Goodbye and thanks! Have a good show!"
After we left Dan, we spent a little time talking to Jordan. He is really nice and he said he's been touring with the guys for about 10 months. I told him I have pictures that he is in from the Ann Arbor show with the footballs and he remembered that the concert was fun. He went back to work and we walked around and looked at all the weirdo wrestling people some more. This was probably about the time Tim made his uncredited TV appearance. We got back in line and talked to some of the Snow Patrol fans who were also waiting. After a little while, we took another walk behind the theater and there was just a lot of backstage work going on. As we were walking out, we saw the purple OK Go van! Yay! I wanted to get a picture of it. So we walked down the driveway toward it and who did we see but Tim, walking away from the van toward us. We stopped and talked to him for a short time. He told us that he had some friends who lived in Detroit and he had been hanging around with them. Even though he's from Kalamazoo, he said he knew Detroit a little. I know I mentioned that Suzanne and I would see him tomorrow night in Chicago because a bunch of 'boardies' planned to meet there. I told him we'd wave at the Kalamazoo exit on I-94 and he seemed to like that! The one thing I could not take my eyes off of while he was talking was his skin! He has beautiful, clear, smooth skin. (Seabreeze?) He also signed the wrestling poster by The Undertaker, one of the few wrestlers I've heard of.
Their tour manager came up and said he needed Tim, so he left us before we had a chance to take any pictures. This was the most I've talked to Tim and he was very personable. I also forgot to offer him a box of cookies. Darn!
The two guys who work for Capitol driving the OK Go van are Sebastian and Jordan and they were so nice! This is Sebastian by the back of the bus – make sure you say “Hi!” if you see him!
They gave us posters and stickers and told us a little bit about their job. The inside of the van is a MESS. It's like a bachelor's apartment on wheels. They also signed the wrestling poster, because there were so many wrestlers, I figured I could get everyone associated with OK Go to sign it. (Mike Kent signed it too, right before Dan. We only met him and shook his hand and had him sign the poster before he had to get back to work.) The funny thing about the OK Go purple van guys signing the poster is that I pointed to one specific picture of a wrestler and said "Don't sign here because that's the one I think Damian will sign." (This will come up later....) We said "Bye" to the van guys and went back to the line.
More later.....
Comments
hehe, this pic is too cool...
this link isn't working for me, it's just taking me to photobucket?.. i had every intention of coming on the boards after i got home from the show and posting that tim won wrestlemania and then writing april fools, but i didn't get home til monday, so i woulda been a day late, haha... here's the only pic i took that came out decent:
the couple sitting in front of me was laughing at me 'cause i was the only one in our section singing and dancing to ok go... they asked me who ok go were after their set and said they really liked them, which of course made me
Try this link:
The original one worked on my MySpace group, but I am technotarded about these things!
lucky!.. i bought seats in the mezzanine, 'cause i get dizzy if i stand for too long, i had a wonderful view, and the seats were comfy, so i was happy...
Ha! I have a technotarded cousin, mind if I use that word from now on?
And that new link only takes me to photobucket, even if I'm logged in.
I can't wait to hear the rest of the story Theresa! You should've thrown the cookies at Tim during the show, haha. You'd be immortal like the guy from the "bag of chips" story! Oh, and you look like a total pro behind the awesome drum set. Did you feel the Dan power flow through your veins?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM9l2QJGnzs
Lety, I was actually quite respectful of the drum set. Could you imagine if I had put a hole in one of them!?! Yes, I know they're meant to be hit hard, but I just tapped them very gently.
that's sooo funny that the van was a mess!
After we left the OK Go van, we walked back to line and hung out some more. As you can see, there were some exciting times surrounded by a lot of waiting. A little later, we took another walk to the backstage area and finally saw Damian. Yay! He was already talking to two men and a woman, so we stood a respectful distance away. Apparently not respectful enough for this huge security guy, so we moved back 3 more feet and we were fine! Damian had already seen us and waved at Suzanne, so we knew he'd come over. And he did! I was holding the other 4 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that I had brought, but I got so flustered that I dropped one as I reached out to shake his hand. He picked it up and I joked that that box was his now! My friend saved the day by remembering that we all had squished pennies for him. She gave him one that said 'Motown' from a machine at Metro Airport.
I had a squished penny from the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, MI. It had a tamarin monkey on it. I told him that the best thing about that zoo is that you can feed the giraffes - there's a raised platform and they reach right up to you. You can pet them and feed them. Well, he answers "Oh, so you can see their big purple tongues?" I asked him how in the world he knew that and he said he'd fed a giraffe when he was on a safari in South Africa when he was about 15 years old. (Could this man be any more interesting?!) Their party was also was chased by an elephant, which he vividly told us about with a rearing of his head and the sound of an angry elephant! "But, we were in a Mercedes, so we won!" I'm sure I was staring at him in disbelief at this point! My friend then segued the angry elephant into talking about the angry wrestling fans.
So then we pulled out the Wrestlemania poster. I said, "I think I know which one you are going to pick to sign next to." But he said, "There's no way you could know. It's from a reference you don't know about." So, he signed and I looked and it was the same one I had picked! I sort of screamed a little (and I'm quite sure it scared him). There were 36 wrestlers pictured on the front, but I picked this one because he looked like he was all about the hair, just like Damian!
Damian's back story on this picture was that it looked very similar to his freshman Facebook picture at college. (This is not to be confused with facebook.com) He sent in a picture of Capt. Lou Albano, another former wrestler, with his name under it so all the upperclassmen would wonder who he was. (See! He's been confusing and amazing people for years!)
We didn't forget about Suzanne's squished penny. It was of the Cincinnati Riverboat. Just then, the tour manager walked up and we wanted to get our pictures in before he had to leave so:
I just gave him the rest of the cookies that I had. We said, "Remember one of those is for Tim and one is for Andy!" But he said, "No they're not!" and grabbed them to him chest. So adorable!
After we left Damian, we were so happy and relaxed. We walked back to the line and quickly wrote down everything we had just said and done. It wasn't long before we got let into the venue. It was easy, peasy to run right up to the front and stand against the barrier. There was about 4 feet between us and the stage and the stage was about 3 ft high. It was just perfect! We were right between Damian and Tim. I was pleased to see they had the screen up because, in my other two concerts, they didn't use it. More waiting.
There was a Snow Patrol girl leaning into me from my left, trying to get more centered (even after I told her we weren't staying for Snow Patrol!), and that mildly pissed me off, but overall the crowd was very tame. We talked to a girl from Univ. of Mich. with a press pass. When the show started, she was able to stand in the 4 foot area between us and the stage and take pics. Suzanne gave the girl her business card so hopefully we will be getting some more professional pictures from her. She took a picture of the set list for me while she was in the photography area (this is the set list that I got after the show!)
It was a great show and I loved every minute of it. I sang along with every song! It seemed like the crowd was really loving them too. And during the part of Oh Lately It's So Quiet when Damian asked people to shine their cell phones, the whole theater was so beautiful! I tried to take a picture but it didn't turn out.
After the OK Go portion of the show, we left. When we got outside, the purple OK Go van was still there. And lo and behold! There was the OK Go head! It was just propped up next to the van. I walked right up and asked Sebastian if I could try it on. "Sure!" It's very lightweight with a mesh rectangle you can see through. That was so much fun!
After we told the van guys we'd see them tomorrow, we looked over and there was Dan! I was carrying my new beige coat, but it was starting to get chilly. When I walked up, I was just putting my coat on and Dan said, "Hey, where did you get that?" For a split second, I thought he meant my coat! I almost said, “I got it at Kohl’s for 40% off!” Hahaha! Luckily, I figured out that he meant my OK Go button! I told him I got it on eBay from A Fine Tooth and that the ties were too expensive. We told him it was a great show and my friend (who said that Dan has now replaced Damian as her favorite) told him, "You have such beautiful eyelashes! I'm so jealous!" He said "Yeah, they're just like a giraffe's." I thought that it was weird that we'd talked about giraffes twice in one night(but I had the good sense not to mention it!) I added, "Or a cow's - but that's not much of a compliment, to be called a cow!" He laughed and said he kind of wanted to lose a little weight. I told him Damian is too skinny and that he was just the right size for a man. "Well, I *am* a man!" he said very proudly.
So, that was the end of the first night of my excellent adventure. Story to be continued on the Chicago 4/2/06 thread!
(Also, when Passover is finished, can I have some Peanut Butter Patties? Pwetty Pwease? )
i wish i coulda hung out with you guys...
I think I've thought that talking to him, too!
How the heck did I miss the back of the van in Chicago? I don't remember seeing this at all!! That's great!!
Told you this already, but I still love this picture.
Sweet!
Nice live pics.
OK Go head = hilarious.
Again, I'm so glad you guys had a good time And again, I'm so glad we got to meet in Chicago!
(I'd post more commenting on your adventures, but I am truly speechless. I tell a lot of people that they rock, but compared to you, they only rock by 25%. You are awesome!)
Dynamite. Would be. Amazing.
Damn, you girls are all speaking my language. !
that would truely be the experience of a life time!
I'd also like to hear tem play T's song. Such a sad song
Dan playing with Silversun Pickups
And, for the truly obsessed/silly, I took a picture of the exit for Napoleon, Ohio, on my way from Cincinnati to Detroit.