In this Discussion
- Astronazi July 2011
- BeckiWitte July 2011
- beckysioux July 2011
- hyannah77 July 2011
- jamdkoff July 2011
- laeticia July 2011
- Lucy Isadora Kaplan July 2011
- magnoliamaggiemag July 2011
- pemi_blue July 2011
- Totalgeek42 July 2011
O'Fallon Heritage and Freedom Festival 7-4-11
The boys played a free show in O'Fallon, MO on July 4, 2011. I was able to go to the show and had a fantastic time. I met up with two Boardies, Jamie and Kristin, the night before for some dinner and to discuss our plans for the next day. We decided that we'd get there early as we didn't know how many people would be planning on seeing the show and we wanted to be sure to be at the rail.
The night before, there was a torrential downpour that cancelled that night's festivities. So, we were crossing our fingers that the weather would cooperate and we'd be able to see OK Go.
I was the first of our group to get to the site. It was muddy in front of the stage the boys would be performing on, but that was okay. The rail had some metal plates attached to it, so if you were close, you weren't standing in mud. I walked around for a while as there was a cover band playing and there were only a few people watching from lawn chairs in the back of the house.
Jamie was the next to arrive with her family. Then Kristin showed up with her family. We decided to set up camp at the rail. This was around 3pm. The boys weren't scheduled to play until 8:15. Thankfully, or unthankfully depending on how you look at it, there were three bands on before the boys. The first two bands were cover bands, the other band was Tonic. I was sad that I only knew the one song by Tonic as they put on a great show.
Then it was time for OK Go. The crowd seemed to get closer to the stage and were a little more hushed than they were for Tonic. Lights come on, Damian says hi, the music starts, the crowd screams and then the confetti flies.
They opened with Do What You Want. Since I didn't get a setlist, I'm going from memory and a previous show as to what they played.
DWYW
Good Idea
AMW
Needing/Getting
BFK
Invincible
Return
Last Leaf
Don't Ask Me
HIGA
IWYSBICB
Skyscrapers
White Knux
GOI
WTF?
In The Glass
TTSP
Since this was a family show, Damian had to keep his potty mouth in check. Here are a few alternate lyrics:
"Don't waste my bleeding time."
"Ain't it just a stitch"
"I've been trying to get my head around what the heck is happening?"
They were going to play The Greatest Song I Ever Heard, but Tim's keyboard wasn't working properly. The new stuff we were supposed to do had to do with Tim being half naked on the white screen from the projector, but the mayor of O'Fallon said "no". I guess I'll have to wait for another show to see that.
Before Needing/Getting, Damian asked all the women to scream, then the men. Then he told us that Tim had written Needing/Getting about a lady that treated him wrong. You can hear the full story in the vid above.
Before Return, my sun and heat rattled brain decided it would be a good idea to let Andy know that I disliked the Red Sox. When there was no acknowledgement from him, Damian asked if he heard me. Andy said no, so I decided to say it a little louder. You can hear it on the video I posted above. I'm just happy that I could make Dan smile. Also in the video, you'll notice the boys smiling and looking to their left. There were fireworks popping in the background.
There were also fireworks happening during Last Leaf. It actually looked really pretty.
During HIGA, Damian asked if there were any guitar players in the crowd. One guy put his hand up, he was invited on stage, but it took him a while to get there. While waiting, Damian decided to bring the toddler that was next to me up on stage to dance. It was cute until the little boy got scared. It ended up well because the boy was happy once he was back by his mom.
Then it was pretty much time for the encore. Watching Damian try to figure out non-swear words to sing was pretty awesome. Especially when he figured it out just in the nick of time and then would smile immediately afterward. While they were goading the audience to sing louder for TTSP, Damian went so far as to call the audience small kitty cats. Yes, he used those words. Then he asked if we ever heard the phrase, "Grow a pair." While he didn't actually swear, he kinda still was for the adults who understood what he was tiptoeing around.
Finally, one of the things I had yet to do in my illustrious career as an OK Go fan was to support Damian while he was standing on the rail to get the crowd to sing along. I actually thought that he wasn't going to come back to the middle of the crowd like he did during Last Leaf. Plus, in all the shows I've seen, he would always go to the opposite side of the crowd I was on. But this time. He put one leg up on the rail and was singing. Then he looked at me, thrust his hand out for me to grab it, and then he was up on the rail. This is an experience I haven't had before. It was kind of scary, but completely wonderful. He's a little heavier than you would expect. Plus, while he's trying to keep his balance, you're in a tug of war with him. He pulls up and then pushes down, all the while squeezing your hand. For a second I thought that I would lose him and he'd topple into the crowd. But I maintained what little arm strength I do have and he remained on the rail with no difficulty.
And then the best thing happened. He put the microphone in front of me and I got to sing along. Granted, it was only for the word "Too", but I got to sing along. All the while he was staring at me and I at him. It was magic.
Then the show ended and Damian told us all to turn around and watch the fireworks.
I had a permasmile on my face. I was completely amazed that he chose me to keep his balance while on the rail. And then he let me sing into the microphone. *sigh* I still can't believe that happened.
Jamie and Kristin and I immediately started talking about the show. Fireworks, schmireworks. The boys were watching the fireworks for a while. Then Damian jumped down to the ground on the stage side of the rail. He was talking with fans and eventually made his way to where we were. I asked if I could remove confetti from him, he said sure. He had had a piece of orange confetti on his neck for most of the show, but when he got to us, he only had a piece of blue stuck on him. I delivered messages from San Francisco, the UK, Hong Kong and Brazil. I also got a hug. A very sweaty hug. I didn't mind in the least because of the reason behind the hug. This all leads back to an interview and Q&A he did with Midem earlier this year. I won't post the details, but if you do enough digging and googling, you might figure out why this hug meant a lot and why Needing/Getting is very significant for me.
Anyway, I took video and pictures. Videos are already posted above. I have yet to get to the pix as I have to like work and stuff. Once I get them uploaded and re-sized and whatnot, I'll post them here.
I'm so happy I decided to make the journey to St. Louis to see the boys and meet up with Jamie and Kristin. Girls, please fill in anything I may have missed.
The night before, there was a torrential downpour that cancelled that night's festivities. So, we were crossing our fingers that the weather would cooperate and we'd be able to see OK Go.
I was the first of our group to get to the site. It was muddy in front of the stage the boys would be performing on, but that was okay. The rail had some metal plates attached to it, so if you were close, you weren't standing in mud. I walked around for a while as there was a cover band playing and there were only a few people watching from lawn chairs in the back of the house.
Jamie was the next to arrive with her family. Then Kristin showed up with her family. We decided to set up camp at the rail. This was around 3pm. The boys weren't scheduled to play until 8:15. Thankfully, or unthankfully depending on how you look at it, there were three bands on before the boys. The first two bands were cover bands, the other band was Tonic. I was sad that I only knew the one song by Tonic as they put on a great show.
Then it was time for OK Go. The crowd seemed to get closer to the stage and were a little more hushed than they were for Tonic. Lights come on, Damian says hi, the music starts, the crowd screams and then the confetti flies.
They opened with Do What You Want. Since I didn't get a setlist, I'm going from memory and a previous show as to what they played.
DWYW
Good Idea
AMW
Needing/Getting
BFK
Invincible
Return
Last Leaf
Don't Ask Me
HIGA
IWYSBICB
Skyscrapers
White Knux
GOI
WTF?
In The Glass
TTSP
Since this was a family show, Damian had to keep his potty mouth in check. Here are a few alternate lyrics:
"Don't waste my bleeding time."
"Ain't it just a stitch"
"I've been trying to get my head around what the heck is happening?"
They were going to play The Greatest Song I Ever Heard, but Tim's keyboard wasn't working properly. The new stuff we were supposed to do had to do with Tim being half naked on the white screen from the projector, but the mayor of O'Fallon said "no". I guess I'll have to wait for another show to see that.
Before Needing/Getting, Damian asked all the women to scream, then the men. Then he told us that Tim had written Needing/Getting about a lady that treated him wrong. You can hear the full story in the vid above.
Before Return, my sun and heat rattled brain decided it would be a good idea to let Andy know that I disliked the Red Sox. When there was no acknowledgement from him, Damian asked if he heard me. Andy said no, so I decided to say it a little louder. You can hear it on the video I posted above. I'm just happy that I could make Dan smile. Also in the video, you'll notice the boys smiling and looking to their left. There were fireworks popping in the background.
There were also fireworks happening during Last Leaf. It actually looked really pretty.
During HIGA, Damian asked if there were any guitar players in the crowd. One guy put his hand up, he was invited on stage, but it took him a while to get there. While waiting, Damian decided to bring the toddler that was next to me up on stage to dance. It was cute until the little boy got scared. It ended up well because the boy was happy once he was back by his mom.
Then it was pretty much time for the encore. Watching Damian try to figure out non-swear words to sing was pretty awesome. Especially when he figured it out just in the nick of time and then would smile immediately afterward. While they were goading the audience to sing louder for TTSP, Damian went so far as to call the audience small kitty cats. Yes, he used those words. Then he asked if we ever heard the phrase, "Grow a pair." While he didn't actually swear, he kinda still was for the adults who understood what he was tiptoeing around.
Finally, one of the things I had yet to do in my illustrious career as an OK Go fan was to support Damian while he was standing on the rail to get the crowd to sing along. I actually thought that he wasn't going to come back to the middle of the crowd like he did during Last Leaf. Plus, in all the shows I've seen, he would always go to the opposite side of the crowd I was on. But this time. He put one leg up on the rail and was singing. Then he looked at me, thrust his hand out for me to grab it, and then he was up on the rail. This is an experience I haven't had before. It was kind of scary, but completely wonderful. He's a little heavier than you would expect. Plus, while he's trying to keep his balance, you're in a tug of war with him. He pulls up and then pushes down, all the while squeezing your hand. For a second I thought that I would lose him and he'd topple into the crowd. But I maintained what little arm strength I do have and he remained on the rail with no difficulty.
And then the best thing happened. He put the microphone in front of me and I got to sing along. Granted, it was only for the word "Too", but I got to sing along. All the while he was staring at me and I at him. It was magic.
Then the show ended and Damian told us all to turn around and watch the fireworks.
I had a permasmile on my face. I was completely amazed that he chose me to keep his balance while on the rail. And then he let me sing into the microphone. *sigh* I still can't believe that happened.
Jamie and Kristin and I immediately started talking about the show. Fireworks, schmireworks. The boys were watching the fireworks for a while. Then Damian jumped down to the ground on the stage side of the rail. He was talking with fans and eventually made his way to where we were. I asked if I could remove confetti from him, he said sure. He had had a piece of orange confetti on his neck for most of the show, but when he got to us, he only had a piece of blue stuck on him. I delivered messages from San Francisco, the UK, Hong Kong and Brazil. I also got a hug. A very sweaty hug. I didn't mind in the least because of the reason behind the hug. This all leads back to an interview and Q&A he did with Midem earlier this year. I won't post the details, but if you do enough digging and googling, you might figure out why this hug meant a lot and why Needing/Getting is very significant for me.
Anyway, I took video and pictures. Videos are already posted above. I have yet to get to the pix as I have to like work and stuff. Once I get them uploaded and re-sized and whatnot, I'll post them here.
I'm so happy I decided to make the journey to St. Louis to see the boys and meet up with Jamie and Kristin. Girls, please fill in anything I may have missed.
Comments
Heritage and Freedom Festival Attracts Families and Live Music Lovers
If you watch the video, you'll get to hear Damian almost swear.
OK Go Rocks The Fourth of July
The whole article is about the show. There are also some pics and a video.
That's me he's holding onto.
OK GO @ O’Fallon Heritage & Freedom Festival 7.4.2011
There are really great pictures from the show on this blog.
I knew that that guy was cool as soon as I saw his "Partridge Family" tee shirt, and lo0 and bebhod, he's an OK Go fan.
And I love Ethan, I wish he was me kid. Darn it.
I was also wondering, why no one bothers to TELL security that Damian will be going into the crowd. I saw the reaction of the security guys at Letterman or Kimmel, or one of those late night shows (I can't which remember now) and they were freaking out when Damian went over the barrier. It seems a bit mean the security never gets warned. I am not blaming the band here, mind, I think that they have enough on their minds right before a concert, but one would think that whoever booked them would clue in their own men. I watched a documentary on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and HE took the time to warn his security about what they would have on their hands with the Beatles. Not that that is the situation with OK Go, quite the opposite, in fact. We love them and manage not to rip them to pieces and Damian can safely come out into the crowd. It is one of the things I love most about the band, the fact that they trust us and we rise to the occasion.
Wow that sounds pretentious. Well, read it as though I were speaking in a light and breezy tone (can't really convey that in text alone).
And grats on getting to hold Damian's hand.
As for telling security, I'm pretty sure that they were informed this night. But that doesn't always mean that they know what to do when a performer comes out into the audience. If they've never handled a live show like this before, they will have no clue what it is that they will need to do. And I'm only saying that they were most likely informed because the tour manager gave the photographer a cheat sheet on when Damian would be venturing into the audience.
And thanks! I'm quite happy Damian chose me to hold onto. :o)
i just sang those out loud to myself and loughed for about a million years.
D & D
BAMF
Damian
The Boys
aross
Dan
Looks like he got into the spirit once he got over his stage fright.
That's a good question, but apparently confetti can be made of other things, like pvc film. Actually, the Flufferfetti site (their supplier) is pretty amusing.
And congrats! I would've been super-excited too!
Thanks for videos, pictures, everything!
Hey, hyannah77, since you were there, did I miss anything? Other than you of course.
Doesn't really seem like this happened a week ago. Time sure does fly when one is happy.
I'm a little mad at twitter for that one. Tweets are theoretically sent to my phone, but I got everyone's foursquare tweets and didn't see yours until the next day when I checked my email.
Yeah, that week did go by SUUUUUPER fast. Then again, I had a three and a half day week, so that's probably part of it. I'm hoping this week will go by fast too because I can't wait for the HP midnight showing!
Click here to view it.