Just You Wait

I was supposed to post this earlier but here

I missed The Maine’s in store signing because I had to stay home and help out with things. HOW FRUSTRATING!
I ended up getting to the venue around 5:30 and found Jenny about 4 or 5 groups from the front of the line. She went off to get food so I waited. While waiting I saw Masketta Fall arrive at the venue and they were all hanging outside talking to their fans. Sean from This Century walked past but it was too quick and no one stopped him so he went into the venue. Ruyi or Alex I should say but I’m so used to calling her Ruyi so I forget arrived at the venue around 6 with her friend Pearl. I recognised the girl standing in front of us as the girl from the arttm/tss/trs/tds show (we talked in line while waiting for the show). Jenny came back and I saw Bill Beckett so I started dying internally, a group of people went up to him to take photos and Jenny kept pushing me to go up to him until I finally stood near him but he told people around him that he had to go inside so he left and there was my missed opportunity. Julia then got there and then Jenny and I started talking to the girl in front of us. I then saw all the Maine guys walk out and Alex was telling me to go up to them so I went I will and next thing I know, she pushed me and I tripped over Julia’s bag but luckily did not fall. She then yelled at me to go talk to them so Jenny and I started following them. It got to the point where it would have been weird to stop them so we followed them into Nandos and ordered the cheapest thing off the menu even though we weren’t hungry. 

They were all sitting on a table with their tech people and Sean and FANS. There were 5 of them and I have no idea how those fans got to sit at a table with them but I was crazy jealous. Pat actually retweeted a photo of them all together so I went on the girls twitter and she sounded like a fangirl so I really don’t understand how it happened. Jenny and I sat on a table on the same side and ate our chips while casually glancing at them from time to time.  It was nearing 7:30 so we left and stood back in line, now more people joined our group, there was Stephanie, Maria and Jean (I think that was all), then Susan came and she was only going to come in for Anberlin so she stood in line until we went inside. It was cool because it was like a reunion from the Anberlin show two years ago.
Jenny and I got barrier on the right hand side, and then Stephanie and Jean joined us. The others were all behind.

Masketta Fall were up first and I hadn’t seen them perform before but I liked them. They played a few songs and did a cover of Teenage Dirtbag. I liked their song Parachute, it was really catchy. The lead singer said they had one last song to play but then realised their time was up so they left.
BILL BECKETT WAS UP NEXT. He started setting up his stuff which was just two guitars and his laptop and I started taking photos but got told off by security which was annoying because everyone else was doing it too. I swear I always get told off.

The one photo I took

He started with Hanging on a Honeymoon (I think), then talked about how all these bands have cool intros and that he wanted an intro so could we all pretend that he hasn’t come on stage yet. The stage went dark and the final countdown started playing while he walked on and everyone started cheering. He played a couple more songs and would talk in between the songs and he’s just so great with the crowd. The way he interacts with everyone and how he jokes about things, if you didn’t like him before that night, I’m pretty sure you would have fallen for him after seeing him on stage. He’s such a lovely person; I could gush about him for ages. He sang the line “there was a barber and his wife” from Sweeney Todd which made me laugh and he talked about getting a song stuck in your head and how he had one currently stuck in his head, for the love of me I can’t remember the song but everyone sang the chorus to it and he talked about how no one knows the words to the verse. Before playing the next song, he said that he wrote it about his sister Courtney and he talked about how she used to get bullied a lot in school and the song is about how even if things seem terrible right now, it’ll eventually get better (I’m paraphrasing here but that was the general idea). It was my first time hearing the song because it’s a B-side on the new album and god I can’t explain how wonderful it was. Everyone was quiet while he played and it was just him and it was beautiful. Now I’ve been to a few shows right and I’ve seen a few bands but this was the first time I ever cried while watching someone perform. I don’t know what it was but I couldn’t hold it in. I guess it was a mix of what the song was about, everything I’ve been going through lately and getting to see Bill Beckett perform again.

Between the end of year 12 and the start of first year uni, I went through a really rough patch and it was the first time things had gotten so bad. One of the biggest thing that helped me get through this was TAI. Their music and even their stupid (but awesome) tai tv episodes helped me more than I can say and I just can’t be thankful enough. I know I’ve probably said this a hundred times but TAI and their music mean so much to me and I just have so many feelings and emotions about them that I can’t express properly because I’m terrible with words.

Back to the show, so yes seeing Bill signing brought out everything including the tears. Bill finished his set with Benny & Joon which got the crowd going again and then it was over. Even though all the songs he played were from his new album (I was really hoping he would play Scarlett because he played it in the other cities) I just feel so incredibly lucky to have seen him perform again. I can’t believe the last time I saw him was four years ago. He was always my favourite performer to see on stage because when he was with TAI, he wouldn’t play any instruments on stage so he would move around a lot and use the mic stand and I just loved the way he moved. Now even though it was just him on stage with a guitar, he’s still got one of the greatest stage presences I’ve seen.

The Maine were up next and it was so good seeing them play again. I always seem to have Kennedy in front of me no matter what side I stand on but I’m not complaining. He’s so adorable to watch because he’s smiling the entire time. Garrett was wearing a polka dot shirt which was cute. John had a grungy look going on and it was really cool getting to see Sean on stage for the first time. They played a good mix of songs from all their albums and it was great getting to hear the new songs. They played Kennedy Curse which is such a downer of a song (still a great song) but it’s got great instrumentals in it so it sounded great live. Happy and Love and Drugs sounded really good too but John’s vocals weren’t that loud at times because the instruments would be louder. He didn’t talk much because he said something about talking too much the night before and getting told off but he kept asking if everyone was okay and if we needed anything. He was talking to this guy from stage and asked him if the girl next to him was his girlfriend (she was) so he went “Nice”. He did this to a few other people then went “I wish I had a girlfriend or boyfriend”. Garrett made strange sounds into the microphone at one point, I can’t remember if they talked about anything else. They finished off with Like We Did then it was time for Anberlin.

At this point people moved in closer but it was still really comfortable compared to other shows, there was hardly any pushing which was wonderful.
Anberlin started with The Resistance and had a pretty great setlist. They played some of my favourites like Never Take Friendship Personal and hearing the new songs was great too. Although the album has been out for over a year now, I only recently started listening to it because I’m terrible with listening to new stuff and it’s such a great album. I was so happy they played Little Tyrants which is probably my favourite off the latest album. Anberlin as such an amazing live band, they get the crowd all pumped up and they sound so great live. Christian was directly in front of us and he did the intense looks which I remember from last time where he’ll just look into your eyes while you sing and it’s so great. I love seeing their faces when they get to crowd to sign because they just look so happy. Stephen didn’t do a lot of talking but he talked about how they’ve been here so many times and he remembers their first tour and playing in a backwards city, they went on to play Adelaide. I love how Stephen makes fun of Adelaide all the time.

They went off stage then Stephen came back alone and sat at the keyboard. He played an acoustic version of Dismantle Repair and oh my god I can’t explain how beautiful it was. He was mesmerising, the crowd were completely into it and it was just such a beautiful moment. As I didn’t take any photos or videos at the show, I felt like I took in a lot more. The rest of the band then came out and they played Fin to end the night. I love that song so much and it’s always such a great song to end the set with.

We walked towards the merch table and saw Susan who then left. We then saw Garrett so we went over to him and said hi. I told him they were awesome and he thanked us. He recognised Jenny from the signing earlier because of her cat jumper and he started calling her cat lady which was funny. He said he would remember her now because of the jumper. He looked at me and said “you weren’t at the signing were you?” “No, I couldn’t come” “Yeah I would have recognised you”. That’s nice to think, he recognised me last time which was cool. Jenny told him she was also at the Gold Coast and Brisbane shows but he couldn’t remember so he apologised for that. I told him I liked his shirt that he wore on stage and he went “really?”. He told us he took it off because it was all sweaty. We got photos with him then left to talk to Pat.

When we got to Pat, security started kicking us out so we followed Pat out. While walking behind him, I pretended to stroke his hair and jacket which we found really funny for some reason (and we wonder why we don’t get invited to dinner with them). We were near the entrance so we talked to Pat and we got photos then got kicked out of the building.

We walked up to Jared but then security made us move completely away from the building. Jenny asked Jared if they had any plans for the next day because they had a day off so he asked if we had any suggestions and we had a total mind blank and couldn’t think of anything.  We talked to him for a bit and got photos

Went up to John and asked if he could write ‘’we all have been degraded, we all will be the greatest” and he said yes. While he was writing
Jenny: “woah your writing is so small”
Me: “yeah but it’s nice/pretty” (I don’t remember which I said
        “...I’m sorry, that was really weird of us”
Because we were both basically on our toes looking at him writing
He did this smirk/smile/laugh which was unbelievably attractive.

It was my first time being so close to him while he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses and oh lord his eyes are so nice and his whole face is so nice and he’s so tall. Also he was wearing different clothes to what he wore on stage so he looked really nice.

I thanked him for signing my birthday card (Jenny got me a card signed by all the guys and bill beckett) so he said happy birthday to me (even though my birthday was almost a month ago, it was still awesome). I can’t remember what else we said; I may have been too distracted by the way he looked. When I went to take a photo with him and I put my arm around him and just, that's all? Where's the rest of his body? He's so skinny!

We went over to Kennedy and I stole Jenny’s question of what their plans were the next day (again I’m sorry Jenny), he said sleeping in and he talked about how little sleep they’ve had on the tour because the shows all end late and they’ve had shows on every night. I don’t remember what else was said. Again, may have been distracted by his face.

We stood around for a bit then Jenny said to try and see if Garrett would recognise her without the cat jumper, so she took it off. He was about to leave but then Jenny went up to him and said awesome show; he looked confused and said thanks. She asked if he recognised her and he said yeah cat lady. Jenny said we were trying a social experiment. He told her she should have come back with a wig and different clothes. Jenny then said you looked like you were about to leave so we’ll let you go and he moon walked away from us.

The rest of the time we stood around and I half listened to other people’s conversations. After a while all the guys left. We waited around for a while, there were only a few people left at this point. After quite a bit of waiting Nate and Joey came out. Nate looked funny because he had his shoes on him and a bag full of groceries and coles milk. We got photos with them then they left. 

Damn the photo came out blurry

We waited a while longer but then it was obvious everyone else had already left. I was majorly bummed I didn’t get to meet Bill but hey there’s always a next time right?

Overall it was an amazing show and I’m so happy I got to go. Getting to see two of my favourite bands and one of my favourite signers on the same night was incredible. I always forget how good it feels to go to concerts.