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Hello Everyone
This is my journal entry solely dedicated to our night out at the Reel Big Fish gig. Not quite as brilliant as my gig with Lady Sovereign, as that night was simply a dream come true. Although this night was pretty spectacular as I blagged my way backstage again. This time the camera had full batteries and back up batteries just incase we did get backstage. So I managed to grab photos with all the members of the band and autographs. So sit tight while I take you through the adventure. Please do not panic as this isn’t going to be anywhere near the length of the Lady Sovereign one.
7.30 Departure from the Nunnery
We originally departed the Nunnery with 3 bottles of beer each, in the hope if we drank them quickly enough we would finish them before we made it to the Billboard Venue on Russell street, just a 10 minute walk from where we are staying. Due to Luke having to be carried home the night before, he had one taste of his beer and decided it wasn’t going to happen tonight, and took just the one he had already opened. Then decided to throw it in the bin as he couldn’t even bare to drink that one either. We walked to the venue, and we were massively shocked to find when we got there an extremely long line going all the way round the corner and half way up the next street to China Town. Eventually we got to the back of the line and waited and waited and waited. In all fairness the queue moved quite quickly, probably quicker if some people with no shame, guilt or morale’s didn’t keep pushing in.
As we didn’t have tickets, we thought it would be a good idea to check with the doormen as to whether they would still be on sale. Luckily they were and once we got to the front of the line, our ID’s were checked and we made our way to the ticket office. They were $55 which is about £20 roughly, so not too bad, although it wasn’t as cheap as the Lady Sovereign night. We got inside, and it was already half full, so one can only imagine what is was going to be like once the rest of the queue got in. We waited a good 30 minutes before the first band came on, and they were the same sort of music, Ska Punk, and surprisingly quite good. If you are interested, the band name was Baxter. Then the second act came on, not quite as spectacular as I thought the lead singer was more interested in being k*** than he was in actually putting on a good performance. Luke liked them though and there name was Guttermouth.
9.45pm Billboard Venue
With only another 45 minutes until Reel Big Fish were on stage we decided to try and squeeze our way to the front, or as close as possible to the stage. Some people had gone to buy merchandise or drinks so it wasn’t too difficult and we got right near the front on the very right side of the stage. We passed the time with pleasant conversation and making fun of the weirdo’s in the crowd. Then finally 10.30pm rolled around and they come on playing their trumpets to the sound theme of Star Wars, the whole place was going nuts and already people were jostling us for our good positions we had. As soon as I saw them I immediately began to take pictures of them, knowing full well that as soon as the moshing began I was going to be hurled near the back. They were a fantastically entertaining band, and play really good bouncy music that everyone can enjoy, although they could be quite crude and swear. Definitely showmen though, as they had banter with the crown between songs, and put a lot of energy and excitement into the performance. We immediately began to be pushed around, and people were wasting no time in hoisting there friends up in the air to crowd surf. You had to be very careful and watch all around you as you could never tell when you were going to get some idiots foot in your mouth or eye.
Getting slightly warn out and tired from fighting for my good position I decided to make my way to the other side of the stage, where it looked a lot more peaceful and platonic. Once there, I had lost Ollie and Luke and was now stood in the middle of a bunch of randoms. I took my camera out and start taking pictures of some of the other band members, and more importantly Scott. He has been in the band the longest, playing trumpet, bass, guitar and vocals, he was fun to watch. Probably the funnier of the guys aswell. He was also an integral part of my blagging my way backstage as I had spent a lot of my time during the day doing research on him, hoping this would get me backstage. During the daytime I spent a lot of my time in the local museum computers, looking up information on the band. Such as where they were born, what part of America they were from, where they graduated, what college they went too and so forth. It sounds very stalkerish I know, but I have found this is the best way to get noticed by them, and get yourself backstage.
I read that the majority of the band are from Orange County California, and no not the type of Orange County you see on the television, just the normal suburban part of Orange County where normal people live. The main person I found information on was Scott, as he seems the longest standing member of the band. I searched his name on Wikipedia and noticed that he is from a place in Orange County called Garden Grove. This was my key to getting backstage, I decided to do some extensive research on the area and found out quite a bit about the community and the type of people they had living there. Eventually my ploy was to pretend that Luke and I had actually met at Garden Grove High school where we each spent 6 weeks studying as part of a exchange program with our schools in the UK. I also would throw into the mix we had to do a lot of extra curricular work with the local theatre, the Garden Grove Playhouse. Reading that it is a mainly Vietnamese-American population, I would pretend that I stayed with a Vietnamese-American family for the duration of my stay, and that I didn’t like it.
As unbelievable as this sounds and as far fetched it maybe, it actually worked. Come the end of the gig, the lights went up and they walked off stage, after getting lots of pictures and videos of their songs, everyone started leaving the stage area. Step up Cristoph of Oz, as this is now your time to shine by lying through your teeth to see where it would get you. We bided our time and I was waiting for the right face to ask, then suddenly one of the band members came out and started talking to one of the security guards. I yelled out his name and he happily came over, I got him to sign my Nunnery key card, and we had a bit of a chat. I mentioned to him that we had come from the UK and part of our trip to Melbourne was to see his band. I also mentioned that Luke and I were travelling, and had met through and exchange program with our schools where we went to Orange County near Garden Grove. His eyes lit up, and I was unsure whether he bought that or not, but he began to tell me how his parents live in Garden Grove and that we should talk to Scott as he was born and raised there. After a bit more of a chat I asked if we could get backstage to chat to Scott and he was more than happy to oblige. I had done it again, with telling a completely bold faced lie, I had blagged myself, Ollie and Luke backstage.
It seemed very rushed when we finally found where they all were, as this was a slightly bigger place than where Lady Sovereign had played. We sat down and everyone looked at us like who are they? We noticed that it was just the guys from the band and a few other people who, and none of them seemed to be drinking alcohol. Jonnie the guy who let us backstage who plays trumpet, asked if we wanted a drink, and they only had ginger ale because they none of them really drinked. So we sat down and waited for Scott, eventually we saw him and Jonnie talking and he pointed him out to us. He came over, we shook his hand and told him he was awesome tonight, and asked for a photograph and Autograph. When the picture was about to be taken I said, can you give us a big Garden Grove smile for our mums and he asked “What’s a Garden Grove smile?” I said I had just made it up and that we were talking to Jonnie and he mentioned you were from that area. I explained the same story that I told Jonnie, and he seemed quite bemused as to why Garden Grove High would have an exchange program as it was only a small school. He genuinely believed me after I told him about the ‘Chilli Peppers’ being the schools -sports teams names, and that I had to live with a Vietnamese family and it wasn’t the best. He began to bang on about how it was mainly a Vietnamese part of Orange County and that a lot of his friends growing up were Vietnamese. So he bought what I was saying.
After we spoke to Scott we started speaking to Aaron, lead singer and vocalist. A bit of a whacky character and didn’t really seem to be interested in meeting us, we still got his photo and his autograph. I asked if he wanted to come hang out with us and he said “where you guys going?” and jokingly I told him 7-11, to which his response was “oooooooo, hardcore” in a jokey reply. We didn’t want to push our luck as they all seemed to be showered and ready to go almost, as they were putting on their bags. So we don’t think they were having a backstage party, if they were, it wasn’t going to be at the venue. We circulated a bit more with our free ginger ales, talked to Jonnie a bit more, and got our picture with him, and more autographs, then just before we left, we bumped into the very quiet and quite unrecognisable Ryland (the drummer). We got a photo of us with him, and his autograph. I handed him one of my business cards I got made up before I left England and he thought I was giving it to him, and I said, no sorry, could you sign it, I have run out of paper. After that we felt a bit in the way. So being as sober as we were, and getting what we wanted, we made our way out.
Stopping at a 7-11 on the way home to buy lots of water, we made our back to the Nunnery, pleased as punch at getting backstage to meet the band. A really good bunch of down to earth guys, especially Jonnie, although they might be slightly gullible to believe what we told them. But hey it worked. So next gig I go to, I will see if I can make it 3 out of 3 for backstage blagging. Hope you enjoyed this little story, and that it didn’t bore you too much. Again Lady Sovereign is playing on the 14th of April the Anson Rooms, which is part of Bristol University. The offer is £50 to go for me, to get to the very front of the stage (so get there early) and get lots of pictures and video clips for me. It is a good night despite what you may originally think. You may want to drink a fair bit before you go though. Get in touch if you interested. (Warning this offer has now expired as no one wanted to go for me... gits)
Thanks for reading, Cristoph of Oz
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