March 1st 2002
New Orleans Louisiana "House of Blues"

My husband and I arrived at "The House of Blues" in New Orleans at 8:00 p.m. where the concert was being held at 10:30 p.m. The weather was horrible! It was windy and rained most of the day! I tried to not let the weather ruin my chance at having a good time. I really wanted to see "The Calling" live! When we got there their tour bus was parked out front, at least the guys from "The Calling" made it there safe and sound! We were surprised to find only a few people in line. The bad weather kept the fans away at first! Most of the crowd showed up soon after that and filled up the "House of Blues". I met a couple of nice girls in line and got to know them. One was named April and I feel bad because I forgot the other ones name! While standing in line some fans that belong to "The Calling Street Team" passed around a small banner for us to sign. They plan to sew all of the small banners together to form a large one that will be given to the guys at the end of the tour. They will have a momento of every tour stop they made with the names of their loyal fans on it!

We didn't have to stand in the rain, because a tent was set up over the Patio area so the fans couldn't get wet! Thanks, House of Blues Staff for thinking about us!

After a short stay in line we were allowed to go inside. I was second row and center! Wow, I was so excited to be that close to the stage! I knew I was in for a good time! While waiting I met more nice people! I would like to give a shout out to Jennifer and Ski from Baton Rouge! Also Nikki, her Mom and her group of friends! Nikki you ROCK!!!! Nikki told everyone she was gonna stage drive! Well, later in the show she jumped on stage, but froze when she got up there and didn't get a chance to do it! One of "The Callings" stage hands escorted her off stage, but she showed up right back in her spot shortly after that! She wasn't gonna harm any of the guys, she just wanted to have fun! She wasn't gonna let anything get in her way of having a good time!

10:30 arrived and the opening band took the stage! "Laura Dawn" was the opening band for "The Calling". Laura was full on energy and had a great stage presence and her band rocked hard! Laura reminded me of Gwen Stefani of "No Doubt"! Long blonde hair, a strong voice with a lot of Gwen's style thrown in and plenty of energy! The band was tight! Their music was really good and my husband said he enjoyed them! They played for a half hour and cleared their instruments from the stage and the curtains were drawn closed!

I could see through the crack in the curtain that a lot of activity was going on behind them! A microphone with a leopard print scarf on it was set up center stage near the front and a small circular leopard print rug was set out! No doubt Alex is into Leopard! Finally the curtains opened to reveal Alex standing at the mic anxiously waiting to woo us with his oh so awesome voice, Aaron and Sean ready to roll off some awesome guitar riffs, Billy ready to lay down some heavy base lines, and Nate at the drums ready to do what they all do best! Pinch me please! It's hard to describe the feeling you have when someone you consider to be famous is standing less that 2 feet away from you. The feeling is intoxicating to say the least. Your excited and relieved to finally see them in person. Its like they are right there in your living room, but in someone else's house! They played all of their 11 songs from their CD and put everything they had into it and did it quite well I must add! I really enjoy all of the songs, but loved my favorites like "Adrienne", (which was their last song) "Stigmatized", and "Where ever you will go"! With the combination of Alex's outstandingly deep voice, Aaron's and Sean's know how on the guitar, Billy on the Base and shirtless Nate on drums....well what more can I say, you can't ask for any better! These guys are gonna go far and give the music industry a run for their money! They seem to be a tight knit group, the best of friends along with having fun writing, creating, playing music and have fun doing it! All of the fans had no complaints taking part in the fun!

Sean got a special surprise! After their break they came back on stage then Alex pulled a girl from the audience and asked her to do something for him! She looked a little puzzled and said "What do you want me to do"? He wanted her to sing "Happy 21st Birthday" to Sean of course! She seemed somewhat embarrassed and Alex said it's alright and took her hand and petted Sean on the chest with it and said "Good Sean good"! The audience joined in singing and they surprised Sean with a Chocolate Birthday Cake! Alex had a small video camera with him and captured it on film. He turned the camera to the audience and everyone waved at the camera!

I noticed how the crowd really got into their music! "The Calling" have so many different types of fans, whether young or old, male or female. We come in different races and nationalities, it doesn't matter who you are ...you like what you like and that's all that matters! Music holds no boundaries, it's a universal language!

All I can say is that I had a blast! I couldn't wait for the day of the concert and I wished it lasted longer than it did! I met some awesome people, listened to music that rocks the soul, got the best pictures and gained many memories of that night to boot!

After the guys left the stage you just sort of stand there and say to yourself, "Wow, that was a great time...I just saw a band I never thought I would have the opportunity to see live"! I know some people who would of loved to have had that opportunity but couldn't for what ever reason! A great number of fans under the age of 18 would of loved to have been there to enjoy the concert, but because of the 18 and over age limit they had to miss out! So I consider myself fortunate to have been there to experience it!

I said my good byes to my new found friends I met, but wished I would have gotten all of their address, but failed to do so. All in all I left content with my adrenaline going full strength! after spending a few minutes inside we headed out to see if we could catch a glimpse of them leaving. We stood there for a few minutes, it was 1:00 in the morning now, but they didn't come out. The bus was still there, so I guess the guys were still inside the building. A small crowd of fans were waiting to see them leave which I really would of liked to have seen, but I figured I took plenty of awesome pics inside and it wouldn't hurt if I missed them leaving. I took a few pics of their tour bus and then left. I had a couple hours of driving ahead of me so we headed for home!

A few interesting notes from the concert, not like you give a hoot! But here goes anyway! And please I'm not making fun of the guys, just making some observations!:

Alex had on a bright yellow T-shirt that read "Sexy Grandma"! Maybe he's saying his Grandma is sexy or he likes older women or maybe it was the only thing he had that was clean! Darn! maybe he just likes the shirt! He had on the same pants that he wore in the "Where ever you will go" video! And a jean jacket along with a bright red belt and sneakers!

Aaron had on a wedding band! If he's married I didn't know! DUH!! But so did Alex, but I think he wears it only because that's the finger he chose to put it on, and he isn't married as far as I know! He sported a blue T-shirt with a camouflaged long sleeve shirt underneath! He later took off the camouflaged one and just wore the outer T-shirt after returning from the break. And you gotta love that curly hair of his!

Billy had on a red, white and blue hat with USA written on it (very patriotic) and sleeveless insulated vest! And he all encouraged us to vote for (Mason as Mayor) as so stated on his T-Shirt!

Sean seemed really into his quitar and kinda quite! He wore a dark blue sweatshirt with Notre Dame written on the front and later took it off and had a red T-shirt underneath with something on it which I couldn't make out along with his favorite fadded jeans!

Nate wore a redish colored shirt and went shirtless for the second half of the concert, but I really couldn't see him behind his drums!

*Note: My concert pics are finally up! Go HERE to see them! My pics are also avaliable for sale!

Visit "The Calling" original web site!