Wallflower
When I was 18 or so, I unofficially made a list of things I wanted to do before I die. I didn't write these things down (thus, the unofficialness) and, so, I have no record other than my vague memory of making the list to go on. I don't recall how many items there were on the list, but they ranged from really ridiculous things (like: learn to rollerblade backwards) to things that are really totally, super-ridiculous and probably wouldn't ever happen anyway (like: marry Winona Ryder). My 18 year old self was a much different person than my current self, but we share many similarities (like: ridiculous sense of humour and slight inability to take life too seriously).
Yesterday, I accomplished one of the items on my list.
In the late 90s (when I was 18 -- yes, you can do the math), I was a huge fan of the Wallflowers. 6th Avenue Heartache hit a note the first time I heard the intro. My dad gave me their CD (wait, I think it was a cassette first...), because he worked for the company that manufactured them, and I steadily became entranced by their songs. Little by little I became obsessed and -- like any teenage girl -- began putting posters and pictures up all over my room. I built a shrine to Jakob Dylan, which included photographs I had bought and magazine pictures that I had cut out. I bought a black fedora (which I still wear). I also grew a small goatee, like Jakob's and started to cut my own hair because I read that Jakob cut his.
I have sense grown out of my obsession, but continue to love the band and Jakob's songs, collecting all of their CDs and watching videos of their live performances on YouTube.
I have been dying to see the Wallflowers play live again, but they haven't toured very extensively and always missed upstate NY. There were some times when I contemplated making a trip to the city to see them or to Buffalo or other nearby cities, such as Boston, but the dates never matched up well with my schedule of family gatherings or holidays or work.
Which is why I was incredibly excited to see that they were coming to Northern Lights.
I bought tickets.
Stephanie and I saw them play last night.
In the past ten years or so, I have made it a point to attempt to meet the band after the show. No matter what band I was seeing, I would hang around afterwards. I have been successful on many attempts, usually tagging along with slutty looking girls who want to have their breasts signed, or by just trying to appear non-threatening to the security guards so they wouldn't yell at me and make me go away. I have met two of my favorite musician's recently: Aimee Mann and Shawn Mullins. I wrote about them on the blog after it happened.
Meeting bands has been really cool. Some of them have even asked, "Do you play?" Adding that they "thought so" or "could tell." But, none of the bands or musicians that I have met were the Wallflowers. And -- because I was obsessed with them at age 18 and arbitrarily decided to make an unofficial list of things I wanted to do before I died -- I had to meet them, or risk not achieving all of the things on my ridiculous 18-year-old-self's list of things to do before I die.
The doors to Northern Lights opened an hour before the show. We got there a half an hour before that and waited in line. Once we were let in, Stephanie and I walked straight up to the stage where we stood behind the first line of people who already took up the leaning-against-the-stage position.
The opener was a solo acoustic musician who had a laptop back him up with all of the excitement and talent of a karaoke machine. He got way into his songs and walked back from the mic jamming his head and strumming really hard. Stephanie said that she wasn't impressed by him. I didn't like his voice or the karaoke back up, but I appreciated the fact that he wrote original stuff.
After an hour long intermission (still not sure why it needed to take an hour), the Wallflowers came out. Jakob was the last one to take the stage and the moment I saw him, I began to smile and even laughed a little out loud. It was a little like my first time to Yankee Stadium. I watched so much baseball on TV and when I went to my first game and walked out onto the mezzanine and saw the field and the scoreboard and everything, I was awed. It looked familiar and yet surreal.
I still have some Wallflowers posters up around the house and some pictures of Jakob. Seeing him in real life was awesome. Familiar and surreal. And a little bit of my 18-year-old-self's obsession came back.
I took some pictures. They came out blurry. Here are the best ones:
They opened with Angel on my Bike, which was pretty cool. (I just realized I could probably go song by song here and talk about each one, but that would be incredibly long-winded and unnecessary). Some of the songs they played were 6th Avenue Heartache, One Headlight, God Says Nothing Back, Three Marlenas, Nearly Beloved, Empire in My Mind, Shy of the Moon, etc. I sang along with each song and it was excellent.
At the end of the show and the place began to clear out, I talked to one of the security guys. I asked him if we could walk out the back way and stand near the tour bus. He said, "no." I said, "we'll stay out of the way, we just want to wait and see if the band will come out." He said, "no." I asked if we could walk around the building from the front. He said, "no."
We walked out the front doors and proceeded to walk around the back.
Along the way, we ran into to three women who had just driven their car back by the tour bus. They said they had been yelled at by security guards and told to leave. The five of us walked together around the back of the building toward the bus. We got yelled at and walked back. I stood in the shadows and watched as two sluttily-dressed women casually walked over to the tour bus smoked cigarettes by near it. I started to get pissed that the slutty girls were allowed to hang out while I was not.
Soon, two more girls joined our little group and proceeded to tell us that strength in numbers could over power the security guards. One of the girls made a point to say that I was at a disadvantage because I don't have boobs. I agreed. They walked toward the tour bus and were allowed to hang out. I said, "let's go."
Stephanie and I walked to the bus and hung out with the slutty girls. We talked about the show and singing along and being fans, when I noticed that the entire band, sans Jakob, was outside of the tour bus talking in small groups with other people who had gathered. I approached Greg Richling -- the bass player who had been with the band since the beginning -- and talked to him about seeing the band in '98 with Sheryl Crow. He asked if I played and I said "yes." He said, "Yeah, I kinda thought so." I told him about my solo acoustic thing and he talked about how difficult it is to be on the same page with your band mates, which is why he and Jakob are the only original members. He talked about how life gets in the way and you aren't always able to keep the same commitment that you once were. We then talked to Fred, the drummer, and Bill Appleberry, who is their keyboardist. Bill was cool, and also asked me if I played. We talked about performing and baking (his last name is Appleberry -- how can you talk to him about baking?).
Then we met Jakob. We didn't quite talk to him; it was more like goofing around. He was very silly and quite witty. I told him that Stephanie wanted to get her picture first, but I didn't think it was fair. He said that there aren't many things he's willing to fight over, but that this was one of them. I took their picture:
I told them to make funny faces. Jakob lowered his eye lids. It was silly, but makes it look like he is winking. Stephanie will tell you that he is winking at her. I will tell you that I was holding the camera and so he was definitely winking at me.
I asked him to sign my CD cover and asked him where he buys his hats. He explained that you have to go to the "gentleman's stores" in downtown areas. I explained that we were in the middle of nowhere and there is really is no downtown in Clifton Park. Stephanie took our picture:
I told him that he wasn't supposed to make a silly face in my picture and that he had to do a serious-Jakob-Dylan look for another one:
I, of course, blinked... urg.
In the end, we met all of the members of the band (Stuart Mathis, the guitarist was the last who we talked to) and got all of their autographs. After Jakob went back to the tour bus, we talked with Bill Appleberry again. He wished me luck on my music thing and I wished him luck on his.
We walked past the security guards that had yelled at us and said we couldn't wait by the tour bus and proceeded to head to the car. Some of the slutty girls were showing off the places on their bodies where the band had signed them to each other. I wondered allowed if they knew that the marker was going to wash off, and if they cared.
On the way to the car Stephanie told me that she thought Jakob Dylan was hot. This was a surprise because I had been making the statement to her for many years and she has always disagreed with me. In fact, she has made it a point to say that he is ugly and has asked me to take pictures down. I'm glad she changed her mind, so I can keep the pictures up. Stephanie will also tell you that Jakob flirted with her and that I am jealous. Maybe I am. Either way, at least I say that I fulfilled one of the pieces of my ridiculous 18-year-old-self's list of things to do before I die. I met Jakob Dylan and shook his hand.
Yesterday, I accomplished one of the items on my list.
In the late 90s (when I was 18 -- yes, you can do the math), I was a huge fan of the Wallflowers. 6th Avenue Heartache hit a note the first time I heard the intro. My dad gave me their CD (wait, I think it was a cassette first...), because he worked for the company that manufactured them, and I steadily became entranced by their songs. Little by little I became obsessed and -- like any teenage girl -- began putting posters and pictures up all over my room. I built a shrine to Jakob Dylan, which included photographs I had bought and magazine pictures that I had cut out. I bought a black fedora (which I still wear). I also grew a small goatee, like Jakob's and started to cut my own hair because I read that Jakob cut his.
I have sense grown out of my obsession, but continue to love the band and Jakob's songs, collecting all of their CDs and watching videos of their live performances on YouTube.
I have been dying to see the Wallflowers play live again, but they haven't toured very extensively and always missed upstate NY. There were some times when I contemplated making a trip to the city to see them or to Buffalo or other nearby cities, such as Boston, but the dates never matched up well with my schedule of family gatherings or holidays or work.
Which is why I was incredibly excited to see that they were coming to Northern Lights.
I bought tickets.
Stephanie and I saw them play last night.
In the past ten years or so, I have made it a point to attempt to meet the band after the show. No matter what band I was seeing, I would hang around afterwards. I have been successful on many attempts, usually tagging along with slutty looking girls who want to have their breasts signed, or by just trying to appear non-threatening to the security guards so they wouldn't yell at me and make me go away. I have met two of my favorite musician's recently: Aimee Mann and Shawn Mullins. I wrote about them on the blog after it happened.
Meeting bands has been really cool. Some of them have even asked, "Do you play?" Adding that they "thought so" or "could tell." But, none of the bands or musicians that I have met were the Wallflowers. And -- because I was obsessed with them at age 18 and arbitrarily decided to make an unofficial list of things I wanted to do before I died -- I had to meet them, or risk not achieving all of the things on my ridiculous 18-year-old-self's list of things to do before I die.
The doors to Northern Lights opened an hour before the show. We got there a half an hour before that and waited in line. Once we were let in, Stephanie and I walked straight up to the stage where we stood behind the first line of people who already took up the leaning-against-the-stage position.
The opener was a solo acoustic musician who had a laptop back him up with all of the excitement and talent of a karaoke machine. He got way into his songs and walked back from the mic jamming his head and strumming really hard. Stephanie said that she wasn't impressed by him. I didn't like his voice or the karaoke back up, but I appreciated the fact that he wrote original stuff.
After an hour long intermission (still not sure why it needed to take an hour), the Wallflowers came out. Jakob was the last one to take the stage and the moment I saw him, I began to smile and even laughed a little out loud. It was a little like my first time to Yankee Stadium. I watched so much baseball on TV and when I went to my first game and walked out onto the mezzanine and saw the field and the scoreboard and everything, I was awed. It looked familiar and yet surreal.
I still have some Wallflowers posters up around the house and some pictures of Jakob. Seeing him in real life was awesome. Familiar and surreal. And a little bit of my 18-year-old-self's obsession came back.
I took some pictures. They came out blurry. Here are the best ones:
They opened with Angel on my Bike, which was pretty cool. (I just realized I could probably go song by song here and talk about each one, but that would be incredibly long-winded and unnecessary). Some of the songs they played were 6th Avenue Heartache, One Headlight, God Says Nothing Back, Three Marlenas, Nearly Beloved, Empire in My Mind, Shy of the Moon, etc. I sang along with each song and it was excellent.
At the end of the show and the place began to clear out, I talked to one of the security guys. I asked him if we could walk out the back way and stand near the tour bus. He said, "no." I said, "we'll stay out of the way, we just want to wait and see if the band will come out." He said, "no." I asked if we could walk around the building from the front. He said, "no."
We walked out the front doors and proceeded to walk around the back.
Along the way, we ran into to three women who had just driven their car back by the tour bus. They said they had been yelled at by security guards and told to leave. The five of us walked together around the back of the building toward the bus. We got yelled at and walked back. I stood in the shadows and watched as two sluttily-dressed women casually walked over to the tour bus smoked cigarettes by near it. I started to get pissed that the slutty girls were allowed to hang out while I was not.
Soon, two more girls joined our little group and proceeded to tell us that strength in numbers could over power the security guards. One of the girls made a point to say that I was at a disadvantage because I don't have boobs. I agreed. They walked toward the tour bus and were allowed to hang out. I said, "let's go."
Stephanie and I walked to the bus and hung out with the slutty girls. We talked about the show and singing along and being fans, when I noticed that the entire band, sans Jakob, was outside of the tour bus talking in small groups with other people who had gathered. I approached Greg Richling -- the bass player who had been with the band since the beginning -- and talked to him about seeing the band in '98 with Sheryl Crow. He asked if I played and I said "yes." He said, "Yeah, I kinda thought so." I told him about my solo acoustic thing and he talked about how difficult it is to be on the same page with your band mates, which is why he and Jakob are the only original members. He talked about how life gets in the way and you aren't always able to keep the same commitment that you once were. We then talked to Fred, the drummer, and Bill Appleberry, who is their keyboardist. Bill was cool, and also asked me if I played. We talked about performing and baking (his last name is Appleberry -- how can you talk to him about baking?).
Then we met Jakob. We didn't quite talk to him; it was more like goofing around. He was very silly and quite witty. I told him that Stephanie wanted to get her picture first, but I didn't think it was fair. He said that there aren't many things he's willing to fight over, but that this was one of them. I took their picture:
I told them to make funny faces. Jakob lowered his eye lids. It was silly, but makes it look like he is winking. Stephanie will tell you that he is winking at her. I will tell you that I was holding the camera and so he was definitely winking at me.
I asked him to sign my CD cover and asked him where he buys his hats. He explained that you have to go to the "gentleman's stores" in downtown areas. I explained that we were in the middle of nowhere and there is really is no downtown in Clifton Park. Stephanie took our picture:
I told him that he wasn't supposed to make a silly face in my picture and that he had to do a serious-Jakob-Dylan look for another one:
I, of course, blinked... urg.
In the end, we met all of the members of the band (Stuart Mathis, the guitarist was the last who we talked to) and got all of their autographs. After Jakob went back to the tour bus, we talked with Bill Appleberry again. He wished me luck on my music thing and I wished him luck on his.
We walked past the security guards that had yelled at us and said we couldn't wait by the tour bus and proceeded to head to the car. Some of the slutty girls were showing off the places on their bodies where the band had signed them to each other. I wondered allowed if they knew that the marker was going to wash off, and if they cared.
On the way to the car Stephanie told me that she thought Jakob Dylan was hot. This was a surprise because I had been making the statement to her for many years and she has always disagreed with me. In fact, she has made it a point to say that he is ugly and has asked me to take pictures down. I'm glad she changed her mind, so I can keep the pictures up. Stephanie will also tell you that Jakob flirted with her and that I am jealous. Maybe I am. Either way, at least I say that I fulfilled one of the pieces of my ridiculous 18-year-old-self's list of things to do before I die. I met Jakob Dylan and shook his hand.