the Providence show

Well, it happened! And this is probly not the place for it, but I'm so incredibly excited that I just have to post the whole storyof my first Ok Go concert. And maybe someday the band will see my silly post and I want them to know how grateful my sister and I are- Ok Go, you're the best band ever and we really appreciate all you do for the world. Your art, your performances, the memories you make- you're the best!

Well, my sister and I snuck out. I'm 20 years old but I have really strict, stringent, over-protective, sheltering, serious, conservative parents- and well, my sister is 16 so yeah, she's not allowed anywhere. But it was so so worth it. It was the most wonderful night in all my life.

We're from Massachusetts. The commuter rail stopped at 5:35, but I was confused- I had never taken the commuter rail before. I asked a man there, "Excuse me, are we in Providence?" and he said, "Yes." And then my sister and I got off, and I checked that I hadn't forgotten my ipod, and then- up the stairs we went. I asked the lady behind the desk where the Biltmore hotel was and she said to go out the front door, take a right and walk 2 blocks. And so, as we stepped out the door, I looked at my sister and breathed, "We're really here!" And she looked at me and we both knew something magical was to happen tonight.

We walked down a street but I couldn't see the hotel sign, and the Lupo's people had told me you could see it from the station, so I was nervous. It was the first time my sister and I had ever snuck out, and of course first time we had ever been in Providence. When my parents came home, they would discover that we had snuck out but oh, Lordy, they had no idea that we were in not Boston, Mass anymore but Providence, Rhode Island. There was a pair of college boys walking down the street and they hesitated, a little confounded when I asked where Biltmore was, but when I said, "well, actually, we were told that Lupo's was a block from Biltmore. We're really looking for Lupo's"- when I said that, their faces lit up. "The club! The old theatre that was converted to a club. Who's playing tonight?" "Ok Go." And they replied "oh! We didn't know they'd be here tonight!" and I told them they could still buy tickets, as it wasn't sold out yet. But they were going somewhere, but still, where they were going was right by Lupo's so we walked with them almost the whole way. And they asked me which college I go, and they were awfully nice, except then I fell down in the street (I'm clumsy and fall down a lot) and that kind of made things embarrassing, but they didn't mind. I'm awfully grateful to them

Cuz then we were able to get there nice and early; we were the second ones in the line. And we started to talk to a girl and her father and they were so so so nice and funny and kind and wonderful. Her name is Tasia and she's awesome. And they were from Mass! Although, we ended up telling them that yeah, we had snuck out and our parents had no idea where we were, and Tasia's father got all worried. He was sooo kind-hearted!

And they told us that they got here at 5:30 (it was 6 now) and there was a group of 4 girls ahead of them. But the people with VIP passes to meet the band hadn't shown up, so the band asked for people to come in. So the lady at the door let the 4 girls in, plus 1 of the girl's dad. But she wouldn't let Tasia and her dad in. And mind you, there was nobody behind Tasia and her dad. But they let the 4 girls in because they were there since 4 o'clock. I thought that was sooo unfair!!!!

But the thing is, when the 4 girls came back out, 2 of them didn't even know the bandmember's names. And here my sister and I are ridiculously in love with Ok Go, have all their songs (even unreleased ones, thx to Sheri), all their tv and internet interviews, etc, etc. So it hardly seemed poetically just. And I wish so much that we could've got there earlier, but we couldn't; we had to take the commuter rail as soon as her school bell rang. But oh, well, one has to get, get, get over it.

So Tasia, her dad, my sister and I are standing there waiting. And there's an older gentleman talking to the ticketmaster and Tasia's dad says, "That's one of the bandmember's fathers." And then he asks him whose father he is and in response he points to a face on a poster of Ok Go on the wall. "Rusty!" I cried out. "You're Rusty's dad!!" And then I pull out the present we had brought for Rusty. It was so pretty- I had wrapped it in bright, balloon-printed paper and then put this pretty ribbon-bow on top, and even a blue construction paper card I had made with his photo and an acronym of his name. "We brought him a present!!" I gushed excitedly. And his father smiled. And he was so proud of his son and he was such a sweet man! He was so funny too! He talked about his young, wonderful, rock-star son and he then he said, "He's single, you know!" and we laughed and then he added "He has a girlfriend, but still, try, try!" and he was just the friendliest, funniest, sweetest guy ever. And then he had to go, and I just kept smiling and smiling in total anticipation of the awesomeness of this night.

And then, oh, God, I can't even type it without my stomach fluttering. Guess who suddenly walked out the door? "RUSTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!" I screamed. Tasia's dad later told me that I scared the heck out of Rusty and he jumped a foot in the air when I screamed. But I didn't notice a thing- I was in total awe that Andy "Rusty" Ross was standing right in front of me. In the photos, he looks so cute and adorable, but let me tell you, he didn't look like that at all in real life. No, instead he was incredibly handsome. He looked like a storybook prince come to life. I was so shocked at how tall and lean and dashing and just so princely he looked. Tasia's dad took a picture of him with Tasia with their cell phone and then I said, "We got you a present!" in my gushy, squealy, excited-beyond-words voice and I handed it to him. The acronym was Rock for R, Unique for U, Sox for S (because he's from Mass, like us oooooo and he's a Sox fan), Technique for T (because he's an amazing guitarist, amazing) and Yang for Y. My sister and I actually read all the Y words in the dictionary (which is a surprisingly short list) and I even googled "words that start with Y" before we settled on Yang. There really just aren't very many good words that start with Y. Well, I was in a total daze so I didn't even hear this, and it was my sister who told me afterward that when he read the card, he says, "Yang???????" and it so funny And then we took a picture with him and I guess we left a lot of space between us (Bostonians do that by habit) and then he pulled us closer to him for the photo. And I was just, in a total daze- Rusty, Rusty, Rusty, Rusty was not only right here with us, taking a picture, but he was letting us come close to him-- oh, God! we were hugging him!! Thank you, Rusty, thank you so much- it was the best moment of our entire lives.

And then he had to go, and we continued to wait, more excited than ever. The line got longer and longer and longer. So at 7:30 the doors opened and we rushed in with a huge line shoving in after us. Literally, people were wildly shoving and pushing in the most absurdly brutal way. And I had to go back and grab my sister cuz she got pushed aside and she's too shy to do say anything.

So then we rushed in and I held my sister's hand (and she normally would never allow any gesture that would seem at all mushy, hehe) and we ran to the front and there we were- smack in front of the stage. There were no seats; it was all just a stage and then a wide floor for the concert-goers to fill up. And fill up it did. Tasia and her friend Jocelyn warned us that the crowd would be painfully packed; they said people would be aggressive and merciless. They would pinch and grope. They would tell lies to get you to move aside and let them have your place up front- Tasia and Jocelyn were full of advice. And they told us about the other concerts they had seen here, including The Killers. They had the coolest stories! And I just can't even describe how excited we were! And they pointed to the stairs above the stage. "That's where the dressing rooms are," Jocelyn explained, "so they often come out from there and watch while the opening act goes on."

After an hour of restless excitement, the opening act came on, "Apollo's Sunshine." We had no idea who this band was, neither did Tasia and Jocelyn and neither did anybody in the audience, it seemed. They were an ok band, but they stayed on way way way waaaaay too long. I later, after the show, asked "aren't opening acts only supposed to play for half an hour?" and Tasia's dad said "If even! If even!" And so gah, this band played for an entire hour, gaaaaaah! Here's the thing, guys: in addition to the fact that we paid for tickets to see not Apollo's Sunshine but the best band in the world Ok Go, we had to get back to Boston, seeing as we snuck out and our parents were at home waiting to kill us. If we missed the last train, we would be stranded in Providence. So yeah, I kept muttering in my head, "Please, please, please let this be your last song, Apollo people." And that was a tribute to Ok Go's song "Please, Please, Please"... ( I have a double standard though- when Ok Go tours with Snow Patrol, I hope they play longer than Snow Patrol does, hehe)

But still, some wonderful, wonderful things! Just as Jocelyn said, Damian and Tim came out of the dressing rooms and stood at the top of the stairs. And of course we screamed. And then I started waving and then so did a bunch of other girls, and I'd like to think that there at the top of the stairs in the dark, Dami was smiling well, if he even saw us, loooool!

And then, while the Apollo guys were between songs, Damian ran on stage to adjust a drumhead or something, AND HE WAS WEARING THAT SCARF! THE HARRY POTTER SCARF HE ALWAYS WEARS WHEN HE'S OUTSIDE THAT I'VE ONLY SEEN IN PHOTOS AND NOW OOOOOOOOOOO MMMMMMMM GGGGGGGGGGGG THE SCARF WAS ALIVE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!!!

And then, when the Apollo people finally got off the stage, up went the background projections Ok Go uses during concerts, like paisley designs and flying treadmills and stuff- a different theme for each song. And then, oh Lordy, and then and then! Onto the stage walked DAMIAN, TIM, RUSTY AND DAN. I need a moment to gasp and catch my breath as I relive the feeling I got when I saw them. Ah, ah, ah, ah.

Tim looked so striking- just fabulous. He was wearing a black suit jacket with big white stripes; he was just so Timothy Charming. He's exactly like Oscar Wilde in ever way, except that he is also a rock star. And that's why we got him an Oscar Wilde action-figure And Dan was wearing that cap- uuugh, I don't know what the name of that design is. But you know--- brimless...I'll have to google this at some point. And Rusty I've already described. And Damian- oh, Damian, oh Damian oh Damian oh Damian--- he was so beautiful. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. Yes, I have a million photos of him already, but none of the photos were at all like how he beautiful he is in real life- he looked like he belonged in the clouds, but somehow, somehow he was here, a rock star.

He was less than 3 feet away from me. Because you see, my sister and I were seriously in the best spot imaginable: exactly, directly, immediately in front of the band. This band that I listen to non-stop all day, whose interviews I watch on my computer, whose dvd I play over and over-- suddenly, there they were, right in front of me. It was so unreal.

We screamed and screamed when they came out. They started with "The House Always Wins" and it was pure enthrallment. We screamed and screamed and screamed some more; I lost my voice that night from screaing so much. And Tasia and Jocelyn were right about everything: the crowd pushed further and further in the most shockingly animalistic way- I swear, I'm not exaggerating. It's been 2 days and my pelvis is still aching from being pressed so fiercely into the stage by the deluge of people behind me. When I got home, I would suddenly notice a big red, bleeding gash across the front of my ankle; I still have no idea how I got that. But it was so worth it. This was the best night of my life.

There he was, Damian Kulash, singing like 2 feet in front of me, a million times more beautiful than any of his beautiful photos even. And his voice! It was so incredible! Ok Go works way too hard: they have a concert almost every other night and even when they don't have public ones, they have private ones at music business conventions and stuff. And they've been doing this for more than a year and half now, because they're on tour. And while Europeans lip-synch (or at least in Eastern Europe, according my Eastern European friends), Americans never ever do (which is why Ashley Simpson got in so much trouble and got so much ridicule when she tried to). So people have been saying that Damian's voice might be getting hoarse and he should rest it. And he really does deserve to rest. But! his voice this night was...so incredibly, stunningly gorgeous.

And he was his usual quirky, witty, wise-cracking, boyish awesome self. He started talking about lint in the air and he said "MY NOSE WON'T STOP FUCKING ITCHING!" And I shouted out, "DAMIAN! WE BROUGHT YOU PRESENTS!" and I held them up so pretty with colored pretty wrapping paper and so much ribbons and the blue construction paper cards. He looked at me for a second and then he said, "It's not present time yet!" And then I think I died.

His voice was indescribably amazing. I sang along a lot, but when I did, I would only sing the first part of each line so I could hear him sing the rest of it. See, the music is so wonderful it just makes you jump and sing along, but at the same time I needed to resist that urge cuz I wanted to hear him. Some songs I didn't sing along: I just watched him, in a total daze. I felt like I was looking up into the sky and seeing something pure and magical. And everything I had lost inside of me since I was born- it all seemed to come back.

And when they sang "Get Over It" and they all jumped at the same time at the rest, it was so awesome- like they were frozen in the air for a second, all together. Though Damian jumped the entire time, awesome rock-star that he is. And there he was- 2 feet in front of me. It was so unreal.

And then he said when he was getting dressed this morning his shirt looked ok but now he realized that "My shirt smells like shit" and apologized and kept repeating "like shit!!" And they played every single song on the new album but one and and they played a bunch from the first album too, plus 2 covers. And he said, "This is practice for the presidential election" and had us vote for which cover. And then he started talking about primaries. And I voted for both cuz I just wanted to scream, hehe.

but whoah, whoah, rock concerts are crazy things- people were so pushed in that you were literally pressed against people on all sides, though for us, we were pushed on three sides and on the fourth side we were pressed against the stage. But people were so tightly packed that when we danced, we were dancing pressed against people. And I was jumping the whole time cuz I can't dance, and it just looked totally wrong to jump when you're pressed up against somebody- but well, everybody was doing it and this was not the time to be concerned about that kind of thing. And people were crowd surfing- getting carried and passed from hand to hand while lying down, moving from the back to the front. And as soon as they reached the stage, the security gaurds would get them and push them off. I really hated those security gaurds.

And then Damian ran off the stage and went to the back and I though he was going to crowd-surf too, but instead he just walked thru, against this solid mass of ppl who were pressed against each other, going "Excuse me, I'm with the band" and it was so funny! it's so unreal- this guy you listen to, and read his articles and blogs, and watch him online, and then suddenly BAM! his butt is one inch away from you. And he had the hardest time climbing back on stage cuz he was trying not to step on all my giftboxes, and that just made his butt stay an inch away for even longer, hehe. I touched his arm!!! My sister touched his butt, his arm and his leg, but I was too shy and in a daze to do anything but touch his arm. I wonder what it's like to be a rock star and have people touch you as you move by- I hope he doesn't feel violated.
As for the gifts, he didn't open them in front of us- I wonder if he'll like them. I hope he does In the end, I was totally afraid we'd never be able to give them to them, so at the behest of the boys behind us shouting, "THROW IT LIKE FUCKIN CHRISTMAS!" we throw the 3 gifts remaining onto the stage. Rusty was looking at them on the floor near his feet, and he was smiling. And then, after the song, Damian picked them all up and put them by the drums to take later. I really hope they don't get lost in the cleaning process and I really hope they like them- Rusty, having degrees in electric engineering and computer programming must like to take things apart and put them together, we thought, so we got him a Lego pen that can be taken apart and rebuilt over and over. For Tim, an Oscar Wilde action figure. For Dan, a teddy bear. Damian we couldn't decide, so we gave him both a book called "1000 Funniest Things Ever Said" and a thing that shoots little chickens across the room.

And the boys behind us kept telling my sister to jump on stage and say something in the microphone, but I told her not to, mainly cuz 1) that was rude to Ok Go who were trying to sing and 2) I didn't want us to lose our front spots because of the security guards. But, hehehe, a girl and two boys asked us to move so they could get on the stage and when they got up there, another girl told my sister, "go up so that I can go up." So she did, and then my sister and the 3 people already up there started to dance. So there they were, dancing 1 foot away from Damian, and he had the biggest smile on his face. I wish I took a picture- his smile was just so so so- it was huge! He loved it! But then the security guard came and they had to get down.

And it was so awesome- the whole crowd started singing along as soon as he said "we do have a song only for sexy people." And then, we were all going, "YOU'RE SO DAMN HOT! YEAH, YOU'RE SO DAMN HOT!" eeeeven my sister, who has never said the word "damn" in her life!

And Tim did this awesome jump in the middle of a song! And in "Lately It's So Quiet Here," I intently watched him do the "ooo!" part. It was just...so amazing to watch!

And at the end, they left and so we all started chanting, "ONE MORE SONG! ONE MORE SONG!" and then they came out and Damian said, "You asked for one more, but we're gonna give you two!" And then, it was the most incredible moment ever- they played "Return." "Return" is one of the most moving songs ever written and when they played it, I felt the deepest thrill in my soul. And then, ooooh yeaaaaaaaah baaaaaby, they dropped their instruments and did the Million Ways dance. And of course, that just blew us all away. and Damian did that thing at the end of the song where he raises his shirt up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And at the end, when ppl were filtering out, Rusty's mom, his dad and his sister came to greet him (cuz he's from Mass, so they could come down) and I met them and got all their autographs! His mom signed it "Rusty's mom " with a little happy face! And his mother twice said that I was cute It may be because I was gushing and squealing like a 3 year old. But seriously, they were soooo sweet!!! His mother was so sweet and his father was so awesome and his sister was soooooo pretty! And I asked her about Umass, cuz Rusty posted on his blog that she went there and one of my other sisters goes there so I wondered if they ever ran into each other. But she said she had graduated now so she had probly never seen my sister. And she was just sooo sweet!!!! But then, uuuugh, then the security gaurd tried to kick me out before I could get Rusty's autograph to complete the family autographs (I had been too shy to ask for his autograph when I gave him the gift before the show). So I asked Rusty's sister to help me and she did- she was sooo nice and kind!!!!!! and she asked me for one of my pictures of her brother, which I thought was funny, cuz she must have a million family photos of him, but she actually wanted it so he could sign it for her friend. And at first the security guy stopped her and I wanted to whack him and say YOU DON'T ASK RUSTY'S SISTER IF SHE HAS A PURPLE BAND, YOU BANANA!!!! IT'S RUSTY'S SISTER! but amid my screeching at the security guy, she was so calm and just said, "yes, I have a purple band" and went to her brother. She. was. awesome.

And then I said to Rusty, "Thank you! You're awesome!" I hope I didn't annoy him with all my shouting, eek.

And oh! Tasia's dad closed his phone to take our pictures with our camera earlier that night waiting for the doors to open, so the picture he took of his own daughter with Rusty was unsaved. But when he saw Rusty during the concert (Ok Go had gone to the back of the crowds to sing 2 songs) he told Rusty about it and Rusty said he'd take another photo with Tasia after the show. And he did! Plus, Tasia's dad got to talking with Rusty's dad and they had a long conversation- and it was just so awesome!- while I was screeching at the security guard for being so rude as to ask Rusty's sister if she had a purple band.


And I wished we could've stayed longer (all the members but Rusty were off backstage) and I had really wanted to tell Damian that he's one of the greatest writers, the most brilliant mind, of our era; the symbolism and allegory he uses is breathtaking- I sincerely think that he is the culmination of the masterwriters through history. Faulkner, Joyce, Dostoyevsky, Woolf- they were all leading up to him. But then again, maybe I would've scared him with my excessive intensity...

But we had already missed the last train back, and well, yeah, now we were stranded in Providence, Rhode Island at midnight while our parents were in Massachusetts waiting to kill us for sneaking off and...under the impression that we were in Boston. So we had to ask Tasia's dad for a ride home with them, and he had to work cuz he works at night, so we couldn't stay any longer, sadly.

The only other thing I regret is that I kept my digital camera in my purse, and when I went to put the tickets in my purse, I took the camera out- and I forgot to put it back in. So we had to buy a disposable one on our way there, and I just got them developed and that cheap disposable camera was such bad quality; only about 5 photos actually came out- unfortunately not including the one of us with Rusty (cries). So the only good ones are the ones I took with my phone and I don't have a connection cord from my phone to the computer- I'll have to buy one.
So I'm really kicking myself that I forgot my good camera.

but still, it was the most wonderful night ever. I am so thankful to Damian, Rusty, Tim and Dan- they gave us the best memories imaginable.


PS- Jackie just told me that she was there! Jackie, you're awesome!!!!! next time, we should definitely meet up