Wendy's Sugar Ray Concert Review
7/24/99
Vancouver, B.C.
I saw Sugar Ray in Vancouver, B.C. with my friend Marisa (who is a fanatic) and my sister Peggy (who is not). I was worried for most of the day cause I thought they would cancel the show because of Mark's voice... luckily I called the ticket place before and they said the show was still on! What a relief. Anyway, we got out to General Motors Place where the concert was and we saw Sugar Ray's tour busses parked right across the street from it. I wanted to say hi to the guys so we waited out there for a while and finally we saw Murf come out of the bus and run across the street. We talked to him and he was really nice of course, but we didn't get to see him very long since he had to get ready for the show. After that we went into the venue where Fastaball was just finishing threir set and waited for them to begin. This was my 8th show, but every time I just get so excited!! (If you've seen them live then you'll understand.) One of the first things Mark said when he got on stage was sorry his voice sounded like shit. It was a little scratchy, but still I thought they sounded great, for Mark being sick and all. Most of the songs they played that night were from 14:59 but I was so glad they played Mean Machine and RPM because the crowd always goes nuts, and everyone is just bouncing off the walls. Marisa and I kept on watching Murf sing his one line in Mean Machine: "AND SLICK!" Murf rules. Fly was cool too, the whole crowd was singing really loud and dancing...The entire concert was great, but way too short since they were an opening band.
They ended around 9:30 and we didn't want to watch the Goo Goo Dolls so we walked around downtown Vancouver, which is a really cool city by the way. We came back an hour later and saw a crowd across the street so we knew somebody from the band had to be there... It turned out to be Mark signing autographs. He was completely surrounded by girls as usual, but then he said to everyone that "Markie is sickie-poo" so they would let him get back on his bus and sleep. Murphy came out too, for a really long time, and he just hung out with the crowd. He was so cool... I love him to death. I asked him if he was still gonna write the book about the band and he said yeah, but that it would take him a while to do it. I was so glad to hear that. I also asked him about Sugar Ray Online. Then he went back on the bus for a little while, but before he did I hurried to hand him my present. He kind of peeked inside the bag and then he said to the crowd, "I love presents!" Then he gave me a hug, looked at me and said "I love you." I know it sounds like I am writing my fantasy here, but I'm not making it up! He came out of the bus again later this time and I asked him how Bowie was doing. He said "He's so fresh, I love my dog." I'll never forget it.
We saw Rodney hanging out too, so we went up to talk to him. He was super nice. I told him how we had driven 8 hours just to see them and he sounded pretty surprised. We told him where we were from and he was like "Eugene, Oregon? Oh yeah, I know where that is." He asked why we just didn't go to the show tomorrow at the Gorge in Washington, and I explained to him it was because they announced that show after we had already bought the tickets to the concert in Vancouver. Then he did the most unbelivable thing... He offered us free tickets to the next concert!!! He said he would put our names on the guest list for the next day. I could not believe how lucky we were!
It was the craziest night, but it wasn't over yet... My sister started talking to a guy on the crew, I think he's like their bodyguard or something, and he mentioned that he was hungry and felt like eating McDonalds. So we ended up driving down the street and getting him some cheeseburgers and fries! He was really grateful and Peggy told him that we couldn't just watch him starve. It was funny. We went back to our hotel after that and I only got 4 measly hours of sleep because I had too much excitement for one day.
To be continued...
7/25/99
The next day we left Vancouver earlier than planned since it was another long drive to the Gorge. We dropped Peggy off at her apartment in Seattle though since she had to work. Marisa and I had never been out to the Gorge before and we had no idea it was out in the middle of nowhere. It was an outdoor venue and it was such a nice day. Once we got there we talked to the ticket office but guess what... The guy said our names weren't on any list. He even called the production people backstage or whatever and he said that if our names weren't on there then there was nothing we could do. I was so disappointed... We didn't even have the 30 bucks each for the tickets! Pretty stupid I know, but we had just spent most of our $ in Canada and this trip had been so unexpected. Just the thought of turning around now and driving all the way back made me wanna cry. We started walking back to our car and then this freaky guy walked up to us and asked if we wanted to buy tickets. He said he'd sell them to us for 20 bucks each. I wouldn't normally deal with scalpers but we were sooo desperate. The guy was so scary though, he was acting like since we bought tickets from him, we were supposed to go to the concert with him! Whatever!! He went to his car to get something though and we ran inside the venue. Good thing we didn't run into him again in there.
I was really glad that we didn't have to turn around and go home. Fastball was over when we got in. Then Sugar Ray came out and it was so cool to see them perform again! Craig came out onstage on a bike and Rodney was riding on a little motorized scooter! It looked like fun, I wish I had one of those! I had just been so sad like 20 mins ago but seeing them again automatically cheered me up... Soon Marisa and I were jumping up and down again like last night and nothing else really mattered anymore. The show was pretty much the same as the night before, but still it was incredible.
This time we stayed and watched the Goo Goo Dolls play. Marisa went to the bathroom or something, and I was sitting on the lawn waiting when I noticed a bicycle wheel behind the fence backstage. Hey! I jumped up and looked over the fence... It was Craig! I waved to him. I couldn't go up to him because there was a lower metal fence in front of there plus a bunch of mean security guards.Then I peeked over the big fence again and there was Rodney! I stood up on the bars of the metal fence to say hi. He actually remembered me from last night and asked if we got in okay. I told him that they wouldn't let us in and he said that he had really put our names on the list. I knew it wasn't his fault, but I felt better after talking to him. Just then the security people started getting really mad at people standing on the fence and yelled at us to get off. They threatened to spray one girl with a hose! I thought that was really rude. Marisa came back later and I told her everything then we sat and watched the Goo Goo Dolls.
Later on we were walking up the big sloping sidewalk together when we noticed a group of about 15 girls standing by an entrance to the backstage area. We had no clue what was going on but then all of a sudden they opened up the fence and let the girls in! Marisa and I decided to stand in the exact middle of the group. A guard lady stopped us though and asked who we were with and we pointed to the people in front of us!! She was like, "NO, I DON'T THINK SO!!" but then this other guy didn't care and he let us through. Once we got in Marisa and I just looked at each other like what the hell are we doing here?! It was crazy. We were so scared that lady would kick us out, but she didn't.
We followed the other girls to this grassy area with picnic tables. We found out that it was for people who had won backstage passes through the radio station! I think the contest was to meet Fastball though cause everyone was talking to them and getting their autographs and stuff. Stan was there too though and they had moved a part of a fence and he was hitting golf balls into the huge canyon thing behind it. The sun was setting then and the view was so pretty. Marisa and I chatted with Stan for a little bit. He was very sweet and thanked us for driving out there. (Anytime!)
Rodney was sitting at a picnic table so we went to talk to him again. He apologized to us for the ticket thing, but I had had a great time so it was okay. I remember being so weirded out at this point from so little sleep and the shock of being backstage that I didn't really know what to say to him. It didn't matter though because then the mean security lady told us that we had to leave. I spotted the guy we had gotten McDonalds for yesterday but we didn't get the chance to talk to him since they kicked us out.
We drove home after that... Our adventure was over! The whole weekend was unforgettable though, and I'm glad I got to share it with my best friend cause she's leaving the country and we won't be able to go to any concerts together for a long time. I figure that we drove a total of about 21 hours this weekend but I would so it all over again in a second. Thank you Sugar Ray.
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