The Wilkinson's
St. Catharines, Ontario Canada
11/20/00

by Tracey

It all started early afternoon when me, Vanessa, and her friend Lauren arrived at Brock University. We walked around checking out the school and got some food. We went to the box office and asked about tickets for the second show (we had tickets to the first already) and the best ones the lady had were like 9th row so we waited (figuring someone might cancel). Sure enough we went back later and she had front row on Tyler's side! We were psyched!

After that we got ready for the show and put on glowsticks and these police guys asked if we were going to the show and we talked to them about it (the one was telling the others I'd come all the way from Minnesota hehe). They started letting people in and I went and bought a shirt. Then me, Vanessa, and Lauren handed out cards for the Word while we waited for Scott (the university's publicity coordinator). We met him and he told us to come back after the first show and he'd get us backstage (he's such a nice guy and no he wasn't fat and old like in my dream LOL quite the opposite).

We went in to our 8th row seats which were actually pretty good but we were all excited for the 2nd show's seats LOL). Amanda Stott came out and sang a few songs (she was good). Then there was an intermission in which we just hung out. After that the Wilkinson's rushed out onstage and started singing (I forget which song they opened with). After awhile some lady came out onstage and was talking to them (I don't know what that was about, Vanessa do you remember?). Anywho they sang a lot of songs off of their two albums, a few I'd heard over the summer, and a few new one's (yea!) Amanda sang Bonnie Rait's "I Can't Make You Love Me" (she was soooooo good!) and Tyler sang Bryan Adam's "Cuts Like a Knife" & "Back To You" (both were really good! I'd been wanting to hear Back to You for months so I was psyched!) They sang a song called "Lightly"and another one where they say a** in it (well that's what Tyler said he wanted to call it). Amanda was sick with strep (poor girl) so Tyler and Steve did a lot of talking and Tyler did a lot of leads.

After the show we gathered up our stuff and looked down by the meet and greet door...for some reason the lady kept turning everyone away (what's up with that, they'd said they were going to do a meet and greet for fan club members during the show but that due to lack of time before the 2nd show they couldn't sign anything). Anywho, we were standing above the door and DT came out and pointed to us and told the lady to let us in and she started to argue but he got us in (we were the only 3 backstage! it was sweet! thanks dt! Love that guy!) We didn't go back and find Scott, because well we really didn't need to since we'd just been backstage just the 3 of us :0)

We followed DT in and sat on some couches and waited. A few minutes later Steve, Amanda, and Tyler walked in (I don't even remember them walking in, cuz I was looking for my dads gold pen and I just looked up and there they were). I do remember that Steve was like "are you girls from Ontario" and they were like "yeah" and he looked at me and goes "you're not" and I was like "sure I am" to Vanessa (hehe). By that time Lauren was talking to them (Amanda wasn't allowed to talk, I felt so bad). They signed an autograph for her and Vanessa so I asked them to sign this picture I'd blown up of them and asked Tyler if he'd personalize it for my Birthday, which he did :0) I asked if the record guy had told them I was coming (cuz Scott told me the record dude and everyone knew I was there) and Steve says "No you did." and Tyler goes "Yeah you did awhile ago." (they remembered from august!).

After that Vanessa was asking Tyler what he was drinking in 1999 and he was all saying how he wasn't drinking it "You notice there was no steam? I was told not to drink it because it was 6 hours old. We shot that scene at 5 am." Then her and Lauren gave him Hershey Kisses and Amanda a purple teddy bear and get well card. And Vanessa told them it was my Birthday so Steve asked how old I was and stuff :0) She also was saying how I had an accent and was telling Tyler that he's gotta hear me say cute but I wouldn't say it so :P LOL!

Then I handed Tyler a song me and Lauren had wrote entitled "Tyler is a Jedi" (to the tune of JGAGF) and Tyler started reading it and says "Tyler is a Jedi?!" with the hugest smile on his face all amused and I say "yep you are" and he asked if it was for him and I said "yeah". I asked Tyler if I could show him the star wars book my friend made me cuz I'd told her I would (Hi Lauren!). He looked through it and got interrupted in the middle for the pic so you can see it in that (which I'm sure Lauren just loves). After that he finished looking at it (I think he liked it!) I told him the Jar Jar page was because me and Vanessa r Jar Jar Girls and he said "cool!" (yes I know I'm weird but it's a Binks trait right guys?) After that they had to go get ready for the 2nd show so we left.

OMG we didn't know if we'd ever get to the show because we had to walk down all these stairs and we almost got lost, and one door was like locked or something wasn't it guys? But anywho we got back to the lobby and the coat check lady was like "weren't you guys at the first show" and we had this guy get my camera battery open but realized I didn't have the right battery with so I wouldn't be able to take any pics with it (Oh man was I sad but Vanessa's sending me some of her pics so I'm ok plus I got some good one's from the first show so it's okay). We got to our front row seats and talked to some people around us (this lady behind us was really nice, she thought it was cool I came all the way from MN for my birthday).

These girls like way across the theater were looking at my sign so I held it up (LOL yeah it had big letters so they could read it). Amanda Stott came back out and Vanessa and Lauren kept yelling things again, interacting with her...she loved it! After that The Wilkinson's rushed out and sang lots of great tunes. They got out a Persian rug and put it in the front and some chairs and sat down and did an acoustic set. Lauren and Vanessa went over to an aisle in front row center (the stage was like 3d and we were on the one side) and I joined them a song and a half later. Then we went back to our seats and watched the rest of the show there. It was really cool because Steve sang lead on "Shame On Me"! It sounded awesome! Something really weird tho...they were like in the middle of singing and all of a sudden Steve said they had to go and people were yelling Jimmy's Got a Girlfriend so they sang that and left. Then they came back for a short encore. After that they did a fan club meet and greet and a public one but since the show had run late we had to go and meet Lauren's dad.

It was so weird seeing them in Canada. I thought there would be a much bigger audience, but there wasn't. It was so cool knowing some of the songs from the summer that most of the audience had probably never heard before and to hear all the new tunes. Thanks Vanessa, for inviting me! I had fun! Now, you gotta come down to Minnesota for a show! How about this summer?