November 28,2000
Dubuque, IA
Five Flags Center

Thanks to Britt!

have you been to this show also?
if so send in your review!

Okay, well the show last night *rocked* and that's relative to the other two Wallflowers shows I've seen. We were in the front row, just to Jakob's left. We waited and waited and when finally the lights went down, everybody screamed. Mike came out and everybody screamed again and he goes, "hi, my name's Mike...and I'm in a little band called the Wallflowers..." then I don't quite remember what he said but he was introducing John Doe and said something like "he's a good friend of mine, and not only is he (talented? not sure what he said) but he's also really hot." And John Doe played. He was okay, but honestly I just wanted to see the 'flowers. I think it was kind of the wrong venue and wrong crowd for him to play to. He did a funny song called "Too Many Goddamn Bands." Anyway, then they checked the instruments and everything...the band came out at probably 9:00 or something, I dunno...the first one I saw was Greg, everybody cheered for him and he gave his humble little Greg-smile. I honestly don't remember what song they played first, or what exact order they played in. But I have a feeling it was Sleepwalker that they played first. The rest of the songs were: Hand Me Down, Letters From the Wasteland, I've Been Delivered, Murder 101, Sixth Avenue Heartache, God Don't Make Lonely Girls, One Headlight, Three Marlenas, Some Flowers Bloom Dead, The Difference, and Heroes...and for the encore Greg and>Mike did "Song 2" (I got so excited when I saw *them* stepping up to the mike!) and they all did an extremely energetic "Won't Get Fooled Again" and Mario did this awesome solo where Rami was joining in. I was in such a happy daze that I couldn't keep track of all the details. At first I kept yelling for Greg and a few times he grinned at me. Then I beckoned to Rami, lol, and he kept grinning and pointing and being crazy. I think he may have been a bit tipsy...Though he's always pretty animated I guess. Anyway...After the first couple of songs my sister was bugging me to hold up the sign and I didn't want to do it so early but I did anyway because it was a good moment - Jakob was talking to the crowd. (Btw the sign said "Please Play Ashes to Ashes for Britt") So I held up this sign and he looked at it and smiled a little and he goes, "Huh," and paused for a second. Then he goes "We have a request from Britt." He shaded his eyes from the light to see me and I was pretty much paralyzed with shock. I try not to be a dumbass most of the time but I have these lapses...He's like, "Are you Britt, or is Britt your friend?" and I said "it's me!" and pointed at myself like a dorkass. And I can't remember if he gave a reason as to why they didn't want to play it but he goes "I'll tell you what Britt. Do you like the new album?" And I said yes of course. And he goes, "well, we'll play one now from the new album," and gave me a wink. And they went into Letters From the Wasteland. After that he kept looking at me the whole show, and I wasn't even imagining it this time. He kept singing right to me and I was mouthing the lyrics along with him. He sang most of the 1st verse of Three Marlenas, the second verse of The Difference, and a LOT of I've Been Delivered, I know it was at least two verses, to me...IBD was the absolute BEST because he was looking at me mouthing the lyrics and he would pause for a second to see if I knew the next line. On the verse "I have drawn blood..." he was looking at me and making these gestures - pointing at his neck for "neckline," his ear and his head for "I once heard that you've got to learn..." It was really awesome that he was singing directly to people. He winked at me a total of three times and I couldn't believe it. I'm not a teenybopper type, but I think *any* girl (or boy, even) would be thrilled with that. He looked over to the group of people to his right for part of the song too...I specifically remember him singing the part "I've been gone, I've been remembered, I've been alive, I've been a ghost" to the girl that I thought must've been MoonShy, but I dunno. And everybody on that side was screaming. I think most of the front row was cool except this guy near me kept breathing his beer/pot breath on my neck and it made me want to vomit. A lot of the crowd was obnoxious kids who were body-surfing in our direction...they pulled a bunch of them out of there but apparently they didn't kick them out of the concert because somehow this assmunch who kicked me in the ear was pulled out of the crowd reappeared and ended up pushing me out of my spot for a couple songs; he was big so I couldn't budge him. I eventually got my front row position back. We were being crushed so much - I've never seen a Wallflowers crowd so rowdy. (I actually have bruises on my ribs - but it was for a good cause :) There was this little kid, and I'm not sure if he was part of the problem or an innocent bystander but somehow he was crushed so much that he stopped breathing and they dragged him out of the crowd like a rag doll...his eyes were rolling back in his head, I couldn't believe it. People are such assholes sometimes. Anyway. Rami had this little camera and he was taking pictures of Greg and of the crowd and he took a couple of my twin and I. I know I'm leaving out a million awesome details. One thing I remember is that Jake was having us sing One Headlight, to see if we knew all the words, and he lead us into the second verse of the song but he accidentally sang the first verse over again...and when he realized it, he goes, "I BLEW it!" and laughed. It was nice to see him be human :) Oh yeah, and also Jakob's hair is getting bigger. I like. After the show we waited out in the freezing rain under this overhang by the bus. There was this absolutely annoying girl in a red vest ordering us around. One of the security guys told us she didn't work there, she was just someone who was at the concert or something. I wanted to put masking tape over that giant mouth of hers: "OK Everybody! GET IN LINE! Form a line! They'll be a few minutes!" I think she had tourettes. Anyway it must've been like half an hour at least and we were all huddling for warmth. They all (excluding Jakob) individually darted out to the bus a couple of times before stopping to talk, etc. Mike brought a bag of garbage off the bus. I know it's sick but I was tempted to find out what kinds of things you'd find in the Wallflowers' garbage. Well, so Mike came out first and kind of floated down the line, I had him sign my poster. He seemed less talkative than usual but that's understandable. Then Rami and Greg and Mario came out and drifted in and out of the mob. Mario was really friendly...I had never met him before. When he signed my poster he said, "yeah, hey, sorry we couldn't do that one for you - next time!" And wrote "Sorry!" on my poster. Rami was his usual perky self and when someone asked him how he liked Dubuque he was like, "well it's fall...not much you can do...I like this Diamond Joe Casino place though!" lol I told Greg that he ruled on "Hand Me Down" and he seemed a little surprised that I cited that individual song. Then my sister goes, "this is my sister, she has a shrine to you." Greg said "to the *Wallflowers*" and I was like, yeah, ha ha. I was so embarrassed -here I was trying to play it cool and make a good impression and she blows my cover. Eventually Jakob came out and he was SO nice. He was a lot more open and talkative than last time I met him. He and Rami are the most personable of the band, I think. When he got to me he took my poster to sign it and said "you knew all the words! I kept checking up on you and every time you knew it!" And I was a bit in shock, to say the least. The thing is, when I finally meet them, I really don't know what I can say that will not sound moronic. I just kind of laughed and said "well I'm a big fan." He said "it's great. We appreciate it - we appreciate this kind of support." He sounded amazingly genuine in everything he said; I was amazed at how down-to-earth he was. I was talking to him for quite a while but I could not possibly tell you what else was said. My sister came up to him and told him about this English report she did on him a couple years back (I gave her all the info of course) where she argued that he is a celebrity in his own right, etc. He was like, "Really? What did you say about me?" And he was holding on to her arm. She said how she played Bleeders for the class and how she interpreted it to be about his obstacles, etc. She mentioned this right after these two guys said "We saw your dad here a few years back - did he tell you about this place?" Jakob was polite to them but kind of dismissed the question which is the only way to deal I guess. Jakob told Annika it was really cool that she did a report on that subject...he actually sounded glad that we weren't fawning over him like a lot of the other girls were doing: "You're so hot Jakob, are you married?" Anyway, Annika pulls me in and goes, "This is my twin sister Britt." And he smiled at me and said "yeah, we met...you girls are twins?! I'm guessing that you're not identical, you're fraternal?" And we nodded and I said "she's adopted, of course." And Annika said, "and *she* was raised by a pack of wolves" At that Jakob threw his head back and laughed and said, "yeah, me too!" I couldn't believe we were in this situation. He was hugging all of these people and I wanted to get a hug so badly but I kept letting my window of opportunity pass. Anyway, we hung out a little while longer but then my sister's boyfriend said we had to go and I was sad about that but oh well, I guess. Jake told us thanks for coming and thanks for being so enthusiastic and we waved and ran to the car screaming. On the way out we passed them again and I was kicking myself for not staying longer but I was happy. I'm always *sad* when I leave the concert though. I feel the need to see them again, immediately.