preface: This is Rochelle's story, it's very good. But I, Melanie, needed to add somethings!!! So the additions are in purple!
Tis a grand story, read it!
So, the day of the concert, John sent Melanie an e-mail telling her exactly what we would
need to do to have a chance of success at getting in to the show. He said that there was a
back door that led from outside the building to somewhat close to the stage. He also said
that the van would be parked there and that the door would be cracked open. John was
telling us how to sneak in! You know what that means? It means he wanted us there! ....
What is also quite interesting is that he knew that Natalie would be there with the rest of
us. Natalie, who happens to be thirteen years old and a friend of his son's. ....
pART one
We had a bit of trouble getting the entire group together, but all five of us eventually met
at Safeway in Fort Collins and rode up together. It was a fun trip, with lots of
conversation and a near heart attack for Donna (the other four of us clapped perfectly in
time and thunderously with the Styx song "Too Much Time on My Hands"). When we
eventually reached Cheyenne, we had some trouble locating Mingles.
We found the road that it was supposed to be on and drove until we were sure we passed
the place. Then we proceeded to drive in reverse until we could find it. That was fun as
well. Following the road back the other way, we again noticed a building that looked like
an extra-shiny Amtrack car adorned with neon lights. Across the road was a little liquor
store and, you guessed it, Mingles! There was the van! The baby blue, fake wood paneled
van! We were there about twenty minutes before the concert was supposed to begin, so
we decided to do some reconnaissance. But then, our super secret recon was thwarted by
the door opening...
But it was Sven! He saw us, looked a little bit surprised for a second, then proceeded to
talk to us. First he said that John had said "A little somethin' somethin'" about the concert
thing. He said that when we go in, the stage is right to the left, and maybe we should go in
one at a time. He suggested that it would probably be a good idea to wait until the music
started, and we told him that that's what we planned on doing. This trip was only for
recon. He just managed to catch us.
We ran across the way to the shining, glowing beacon and took advantage of the
restrooms, and Laurel and I shared a bowl of chicken noodle soup. Yummmm. After that,
Donna wanted to go to the ATM at the bank, so we walked over there (it took a while for us to figure out how to get the magic door oopen to actually get inside to se the ATM machine. i figured it out eventualy, you had to have the card a certian way. the real bank had this really cool founain topical thing inside that you could see from the ATM thingy. we joked about how we were on camera and the people who were probably watching it must have thought that we were nutty, because we are. i found this funny little envelope thing, and I had no idea what it was for or why it was there, but Laurel is clever and explained how it worked. i took the envelope...) and after that was
all done, we again headed for Mingles. (we linked ars and stumbled like psychos through te empty parking lots and then walked through the drive through liqour store that was behind mingles...)
We were talking about how everytime we tried to get ahold of the song "Gone Wrong,"
something manages to happen that foils our plot. The highlight: "It's not supposed to go
right, it's called Gone Wrong!"-Laurel.
So when we reached the marvelous back door, Sven and John were sitting in the van. We
got back in Melanie's car to avoid the wind and chatted. Pretty soon, we heard a little bit
of a funky drummer, then the boys went in.
We left the car and Donna proceeded to enter the acceptable way, because she is forty
something years old and has that privilege. The rest of us youngens hung out by the door
and waited for the music to begin... (laurel claimed that 'conclusions' was going to be the song they played first, and it was, she was very right. since we were outside, we were jamming while we waited for an acceptable time to sneak on in. and when sven said 'jump' we did. of course. we decided that if they did catch us we could totally stand outside and hear them well enough anyway...)
At this point in time, I think that Natalie stuck her head through the
door for a prolonged period of time, then refused to be the first to go in after that. That
upped the anxiety level of all of us, as we could foresee getting tossed out by the huge
bouncers that were no doubt standing by the front door. So Melanie announced that she
was going in, and she did. At the end of that song, I went in. I joined Donna and Melanie
at a table to the house left side of the stage. The John side.
pART II
The other two followed as well, and pretty soon, there were five very happy, very
underage girlies (with the exception of Donna) sitting by the stage. We got the classic
cheesy grin from John. I'm not talking just any little smile, but a seriously long, seriously
cheesy grin. (gotta love it...)Alright! Next, we got the "hi, glad to see you here, thanks for coming" head
nod and smile from Matt.(ya know we love the matt!!!!!) There was also some acknowledgment from Ben from behind
his drums. (you know that's what natalie was waiting for)What a moment of euphoria.
At first, we kept the jamming in the crowd to a cool minimum, so as to avoid sticking out
like underage people in a bar (oh wait...). But this behavior was doomed to failure.
They decided to play "Gone Wrong." Melanie, Laurel, and Natalie all immediately jumped
out of their chairs to stand right in the middle in front of the stage. I was a little more timid
that the rest of them, surprisingly, and managed to stay in my chair until the fast part
came. Since when did I become the wimp? I'm the one that coerced Melanie into trying
cream cheese! It was a grand time though. We returned to our chairs and limited the
movement to in-seat jamming. Unfortunately I missed seeing Natalie leap from her chair to
snatch the drum stick that Ben flung out onto the other side of the little tiled section in
front of the stage that was supposed to be a dance floor.
We got the privilege of hearing a whole bunch of great tunes, many of which we do not
usually get to hear. They even played the "Put it all Together" song, which is fun to hear. I
am really getting to the point where I favor "19 Reasons" with the sweet guitar solo. We
fortunately got to hear that one too, echo peddle and all.
AND we got to hear the debut of their new song! Or at least that's what they thought. We
had heard it a little bit when they warmed up in the radio station. It is a way cool song! If
we hadn't have gotten to hear their new song, it would be a sad occasion indeed.
So after the absolutely blissful experience of YCTA? playing had ended, some stuff kinda
started going down. Though I was oblivious to this at the time, I guess a bartender at
Mingles who was not working that night came up to Donna and asked her if she was the
mom who had called last week to see if her kids could get in to the concert. She said no,
that she hadn't called, and we weren't her kids, but we knew each other from other
concerts. So they were beginning to catch on. The insane girls dancing around with no
stamps on their hands probably weren't 21. Well aren't they brilliant?
So Natalie went up and got a set list from the band, then we decided to filter out in small
groups. So Donna left and we were a party of four. The next to leave were Melanie and
Natalie. Only Laurel and I remained. Yes, Laurel, in her big coat and gloves (to disguise
her hands that had a severe lack of stamp) and I. The band was packing up at this point in
time, and Laurel managed to snag the other set list from John. Then, John informed us that
this was an extra special set list because there were bonus lyrics to the new song on back.
Yay! I did manage to refrain from clubbing sweet Laurel down and running away with the
oh-so-valuable piece of paper. I did inform John that I was the only one who did not yet
have a set list yet. After I said that, he took the piece of paper from Laurel and pretended
to rip it in half.
Ben also talked to us. Actually, he didn't just talk to us, he walked up behind me, put his
hands on my shoulders (which I would later attempt to use to make Natalie jealous of me)
and sat down at the table. (i think it worked)He told Laurel and I that we were cool, which we denied and
said, "No Ben, you're cool." Well, unfortunately we had to run away and join the others.
So we were back at the Melanie car.
We all sat around talking, wondering if the boys were going to bring their packed up stuff
back out to the van. Of course, we wanted to say hey. We waited around and it looked
like no one was going to show up, but then, Matt and Ben walked out of the back door.
Ben then proceeded to slam his body up against the back right window of the car, right by
where Donna was sitting. She was way startled, as the yell that followed showed.
We got out of the car and talked to them for a while and thanked them and the like. We
took a picture together, us, the boys, and the chess board that they were holding. As the
conversation continued, one of our party mentioned that it was a good thing that he didn't
hit himself in the eye with a drum stick this time, as he did on a previous occasion. (actually, this was me. ben had asked us how hey sounded and when we told them that they sounded great he commented on how we probably wouldn't have told them had they now sounded good. i then told him that it was a good thing that he didn't hit himself this time. i think before this we had explained to him and everyone's favorite matt that we had one question and that was 'how.' ben said something that it was 17 years o playing and yadda yadda, and then I said that 17 years of practice and he still hit himself. i don't think he heard that part though...) We all
laughed and he said that he was going to kick the guy's [bum] that did that. Then Donna
asked him if his legs could reach that far *lol*
They had stuck a rock in the door that we had come to love so well to hold it open, and
someone kicked it out and slammed the door! Matt pounded, but to no avail. No one
would open it for him. We had managed to get Matt and Ben closed out of Mingles. That
was OK though, because they were over 21, so they could get in through the front. :) As
they were walking away, Ben said that we were cool (again) and said that if they made a
million dollars, we could have some. Sounds good Ben.
After those two went back inside, we wrote on bunches of sticky notes and stuck them on
the van. That's just what we do. I am all about sticky notes. (rochelle forgot to add about the part of the drunken guy who asked us for money even though the dog he had with him had on a coat. plus the guy had slurred speach and glazed over eyes. we wouldn't have been so unhelpful had the guy been able to talk straight and wasn't out side a bar and a liqour store. but natalie was afraid that he'd take the sticky notes...)
After we were all finished lolligagging we departed from the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
When in Fort Collins, we very briefly showed Donna where . Natalie lived, which she
thought was funny. Melanie and I eventually returned to Greeley, though the pull of
Lemay made it difficult. When we got to my house, I really didn't feel like leaving her car;
and I made the decision not to leave it. We sat around for almost two hours (i think it was more like 3&1/2...)in my
driveway being completely goofy. I can't even begin to describe that part. Really.
All I can say is that it was a super-concentrated dose of our collective personality,
Michelle. mr. muffin man
THE END
