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The Darkest Space, Mraz |
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There's this guy across the street who plays the drums in his basement. Like us, this is his second year in the dirty Villas, so I've grown accustomed to his racket. Last year at this time I would curse aloud and roll my eyes for his off-tempo, sloppy beats -- sometimes to the point of my having to leave the house. A year later, he blasts music and improvises to it, and is actually pretty good.
He's been playing for what seems like hours now. But I don't mind so much.
Ahhh...I'm in a really weird state right now. I'm running on a cumulative 6 hours of sleep for the past two "nights", and the marijuana/liquor/caffeine intake has turned me into this apathetic flesh pod that just kind of wanders around and makes sarcastic comments on various things. (Apathetic Flesh Pod -- that would make a GREAT band name. Copyright Jenn, 2003)
The irony of my updating this with last night's events is that the journal itself was an inside joke throughout the night. "Put THAT in your web journal." Let me explain.
Last night, I went to Indianapolis to see Z99.5's "Jingle Jam"...Hands down, one of the top five BEST nights of my life. I was just incredibly giddy with happiness, and it's one of those random nights I'll always remember . . .
I went with my concert-going partner in crime, Emily Potempa. We get to the Murat Centre, get PRINCESS PARKING right in front, and the venue is classy as hell. Em and I had second-row center balcony seats - but it was one of those things where it's a curved theatre seating, and so you still feel rather close in the balcony.
First act was Howie Day, who was fucking awesome. He comes out solo, and did his own backup! I've never seen anyone do this - but he'll do an intro, and play a bunch of different parts while he records them, and then loops it. It's all attached to these pedals - so it's technically *live*, because you see him do it -- but he'll even record different vocal arrangements of his own voice and then loop them and sing to harmonize with himself. I was astounded. Another great thing about the Murat, is the fact that they serve alcohol - it's weird to see people drinking out of Bud Light cans and cocktail cups in such an expensive-looking theatre. But, as Em and I are underage - we had coffee.
So we're sippin' our cups o' joe, chillin' to the second act, Guster. How fuckiing cool is that? I never got into Guster like every other college kid seemed to - but they had a great set. The bongo player is a frickin' monkey the way he smacks those skins. (how dirty did that sound?!)
Maroon5 was my favorite act. I was introduced to them a year ago by my friend Lauren, and got the cd not so long ago. But live? Oh. My. God. Adam Levine, the lead singer is like this sexy little rock god, performs beautifully. Plus, the seats vibrated when they played. Award for Most Sex-Charged Set.
By Jason Mraz's turn to take the stage, Em and I moved to the front row balcony seats, and I jammed with my leg over the side. It was chill. A great set - but very radio-song friendly, which makes sense, sadly - because it's a frickin' radio show, and most of the people there just wanted to hear his singles. No Zero-Percent Interest (my favorite song), but he did play "Winter Wonderland" and "Rainbow Connection".
Concert-wise, it was one of the best I've ever experienced. It was fucking awesome. I'd definitely pay to see any of those guys in a concert all on their own - especially Maroon 5. GOD that was a great show.
So afterwards, Em and I call Micah, the audio engineer for Mraz that we had met in Ball State on Halloween. He invites us over to their hotel, to the VIP After-show party. We got temporarily lost as we drove around Christmas-y decorated Indy, giggling about what the night would entail.
We had no idea.
Micah invites us up and we go to the Presidential Suite, and just about everyone who's everyone that night was there.
I'm gonna be honest here, and say that normally- in any social situation in college, I feel like I can just bust into any scene and stir up conversation with someone, somewhere. But I walked in to that room and was like,WHOOOOOAAAA. Overwhelmed. We just stood in the doorway for the first ten minutes.
Micah brings over some shots of Jack Daniels, he leans over and says, "Look who's in the corner." I peer behind him, and see that it's Jerad Fogle (the Subway guy). I downed the shot and announced, "I didn't come here to be a wallflower. I can't leave here without having spoken to Jared." Luckily, he had his IU hat on, so I had a conversation starter. (Just for the people who don't know a little IU gem story -- Subway's Jerad was a business student here at IU, and his famous Subway is the one right by the Optometry School.) So I introduce myself and we get to talking about IU, and I bring up the fact that my managment prof, Keith Dayton, mentioned having him in class, and we gushed about how sweet Dayton is..."Does he still give out candy?" "Every day!" "I should e-mail him!" "Yeah, you totally should, he'd love that."
I was glad Dayton had mentioned something about him, because what else would I have to talk to the subway guy about? (Micah later said I could have tried, seductively, "So...what's your favorite Subway sub?")
And people were coming up left and right to get pictures, and I'm thinkin, "EXCUSE ME, me and JARED are TALKING here."
So I backed off from Jerad's greedy fan base, and was approached by an attractive man who joked to me something about how the subway guy was the biggest celebrity in here. It was Adam from Guster. (I didn't know this until a couple mintues into the conversation, when he was like, "So...did you come to see anyone in particular? Did you see the WHOLE SHOW?" and I was thinkin', "You're in a band, aren't you, who ARE you?" And then I had to apologize and explain that I was in the balcony and couldn't see him up close, and then gush over his performance before I could be normal) Very nice. Very flirtatious - I learned that he was a psych major, and we bantered about his analyzing me and he was like,"oh, I'll get you figured out. I'll give you an analysis by the end of the night" and all I could think about was the fact that he seemed like he was married. I don't know if he is, but he just seeeeemed like he should be married, or something. But I dunno. Guster Adam always made sure my cup was full. That was nice.
I also met the other two guys from Guster, who were equally nice, and the monkey-armed drummer, who had been so lightning quick hours earlier, reminded me of a drunken frat boy at the afterparty. Later in my inebriation I had bumped into him, and giggled and said, "I'm just fuckin' with ya, man," and he was soooo far gone, he took my hands and laughed, "THANK YOU, thank you for fucking with me." He then grabbed a deck of cards, and tried to do a magic trick where he guessed my card, and was totally wrong, and I was literally rolling on the floor.
But that was later.
I guess I had missed Jason by like, five minutes, or something. I mean, Em says that she saw him when we arrived at the party, but he must have left soon after. I met the rest of his band members and crew, some of which I had met earlier. I also talked for a while with Marco, the drummer for Liz Phair, who was performing a couple days later.
I did meet the lead singer for Maroon 5, who was pretty cool, but toward the end seemed pretty bored/tired by the whole party thing. Transitioning into my tipsy stage by this point, we talked about how this wasn't a true party because there was no music and how I was pissed because there was no dancing. (I'm sure Adam Levine was impressed by this. God I am such a dork. I'm surprised I didn't tell him how horny his set made me feel)
Then Howie Day walks in, and everyone's like, "EEEEEY! HOWIEEEE!" Throughout the night, you could always tell where Howie was by that frickin' hair. Outta control.
But you wanna know something funny? I arrogantly played hard-to-get with Howie Day. I'm not quite sure why. Everyone who's met him tells me he's dirty. Maybe the rum and cokes numbed the star-struckedness, but when I caught his gaze, I smiled and looked away, thinking,"Howie Day, if you wanna talk to me, you need to come to ME." I know. This is stupid. But this is my web journal, and dammit, my thought process at this moment cracks me up when I think about it.
As I explained to Matt when I was telling him this story this morning, it was like high school - you see someone looking at you, smile, then ignore them and look like you're having an outrageously fun time. Maybe I'm totally off, I just caught him looking at me a couple times - maybe I was just doing something stupid, or had something on my face, or maybe he just zoned out or was blazed and his eyes were focused in my direction. , nonetheless. I even went up to get drinks and brushed past him a few times. I finally did get kind of introduced to him, but didn't really get to say anything because I got swept away to smoke pot in another room. When I came back, some girl was on his lap with her fingers in that goddamned hair. I glanced over at him about ten minutes later and they were both gone.
(Everything you've heard about Howie Day being shady is true.)
Mraz's crew had to leave for New York City at 5:30 in the morning (they play in Madison Square Garden tonight with like, Beyonce and Jay-Z, haha). So we tried to sober up with coffee and I talked to Micah for hoooouuuurrrsss about everything. Sure, we were drunk/high and it was philosophical banter, but I've definitely made a new friend...he's just one of those people with whom you immediately settle into conversation like you've known each other forever. You can tell he's been on the road far too long, and is starved for affection. That's the thing. You'd think all of this is incredible, but a bunch of the guys I met yesterday were just so damn tired from being on tour for so long.
Anyways, from Mica's room I stole (he was aware):
~ his backstage pass
~ The Jason Mraz Tour Call Sheet
~ The Room Number assignment sheet (Jason was in 414. I had to resist every urge to skip down the hall and pay him an early morning visit)
~ The standard: Hotel Paper, pens, lotion
~ An Eddie Bauer duffel bag (long story)
We walked downstairs and said our goodbyes, promising we'd meet again, and that was it. Em and I got back into Bloomington at 7:00 am. I had a hangover until about 7:00 pm. Seriously, it was the longest hangover I've ever had. I think that pot was chronic. Mind you, the severity wasn't terrible - just retchid dehydration, headaches, and general fatigue, but yeah...
So, in sum:
~ I shot the shit with the Subway Guy
~ I partied like a rock star
~ You know how Billy Holliday is called "Lady Day"? I am calling Howie Day, "Shady Day"
~ I have a new friend to drunk call
(I wish I could have taken pictures for you guys. But I was at that point where I wanted to be Jenn, cool music-loving chick, and not Jenn, obsessive picture-taking fan.)
Good story, nonetheless....
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thirsty