Blue October Approaching Normal Tour
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BLUE OCTOBER
San Antonio, TX
June 12th, 2009
I got to the venue at about 5:30 pm. There were between 30-40 people in line – most of the line was in the shade from the building across the street, but the rest of it was in the sun. It was BRUTALLY hot – probably around mid 90’s, with humidity on top of that. I’d worn my black “It’s a Blue October thing, bitch” shirt and my jeans, so I was basically melting. We stood in line that way for a good hour before we saw them start letting people in. They let probably 15 – 20 people in and then stopped again…but it was enough so that we were finally standing in the shade!! Made it feel about 10 degrees cooler. I had my corset with me, over my arm. I wasn’t about to put that damn thing on and suffocate myself!
After about another half hour they started letting the rest of us in. They’d had a venue employee come up and down the line yelling out the rules, making sure everyone knew what was and wasn’t allowed in the venue. Everyone got scanned with a metal detector to make sure we weren’t carrying knives or whatever. Once we got past the first gate we stood around for about another half hour – 45 minutes behind another gate until they finally decided to let us go down to the stage. They removed the bars of the gate and people rushed the fucking stage like so many cattle! It was kind of funny, to see how crazy people went trying to get spots on the rail. I ended up about 3rd row, behind Penny and Ursula who were at the rail. I was basically between Justin’s and CB’s mics (to begin with).
Although by this time I was out of the sun, because the pavilion was covered, it was still hotter than hell. I was still sweating like a sweaty piggy – my glasses kept sliding down my nose, it was driving me insane! We waited another 30 – 45 minutes for the first gig, Dead Beat Darlings, to take the stage. They played 5 or 6 songs, I can’t remember for sure. They actually sounded really good. I had fun watching the lead guitar play – he had this look of intense bliss on his face the whole time. Plus he was hot! He kind of looked like M. Night Shyamalan.
After Dead Beat Darlings finished, it was another 30 minutes until Blue October took the stage. I’d seen, from where I was standing, CB and Alski and Ryan coming and going, checking their equipment and stuff and watching DBD. I’d also seen the people who’d won Meet & Greets line up and get taken backstage. Anyway, everything was FINALLY in place, and they were FINALLY ready to have Blue take the stage. They were playing the intro music, and flashing the lights, and I saw (in the same place I’d seen the other guys earlier) Justin getting himself psyched up for the show. He had one of the crew massaging his shoulders – made me think of Rocky, lol. CB, Matt, and Ryan took the stage first; Ryan came to the front of the stage and bowed to us with this huge grin on his face. The crowed was cheering pretty loudly – I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Jer came on from the opposite side and took up his position at the drums. Then Justin came jogging on and the screaming was deafening! He had his sunglasses on, black tee and black jeans, and white shoes. He looked really good. Come to think of it, they all looked really good!
They seemed at ease and excited at the same time. They slammed right into Weight of the World and made their way through Approaching Normal – in chronological order, weirdly enough. Never seen a band do that. In any case, I was still having a hell of a time. I co
uldn’t stop moving or singing along! Before they’d come up on stage I’d definitely been battling my claustrophobia and trying not the faint because it was so hot. Once they hit the stage it was like…I just completely zoned everything out but them and rocked out. Listening to them, watching them, was…indescribably fulfilling. It was simultaneously relaxing and invigorating. It was like the best meal I’d ever tasted, multiplied a hundred-fold. Their sound poured into my ears, my brain, my soul. That place that Blue already had in my heart was carved out bigger to make room for such an awesome experience.
They were all so electric, so 100% focused on what they were doing that it was a naturally seamless performance. They have such a great chemistry together – nobody tried to outperform anyone else – Justin was only the most eye-catching because of how constantly he was moving, back and forth across the front of the stage. There was a point during “Been Down” that he made eye contact with me for about 7 seconds – that was pretty intense.
Seeing Blue perform “The End” live was, in a word, intoxicating. That song is such a powerful piece of music in the first place, but to see the expressions on Justin’s face as he sang the words he’d written, to see him act out the phrases he’d put together was incredibly moving. Ryan’s violin was staggeringly beautiful – it was perfectly melancholy. The only thing I wish had been different was for Justin to say the last line: “and all I saw was black”. I think I heard him say “black”, but I wanted to hear the whole thing! Anyway, I’m over it…
After they’d finished going through AN they played Congratulations, She’s My Ride Home, Into The Ocean, X Amount of Words (Extended version…it was fantastic to watch Matt do his bass solo!! it’s so kick ass!), Chameleon Boy, You Make Me Smile, Italian Radio, and Hate Me. They ended with Come In Closer (so awesome live!!!) which segued into Justin’s a cappella song about the reasons why he makes his music. It sent chills up my spine, and brought tears to my eyes.
After the band left the stage, the crew came on and was tossing stuff out to the crowd. I managed to catch a water bottle – it’d been opened and a few swallows drunk but I don’t know by who, lol. I’m thinking Ryan, because that’s the direction the crew member came from before he tossed it to me. Not that it really matters. It was kind of a lucky catch, too, I hadn’t been sure I was going to get it until I had both hands on it in front of my face, lol. We left the venue area and went around back to see if we’d get a chance to meet the guys. We’d been standing back there for probably 20-30 minutes when I noticed Jer walking towards us. He was just kind of sauntering toward us, so I said “Hey Jer! You guys had a great show tonight!” or something to that effect. He came up and I was like “Dammit! I wore the wrong fucking shirt!!” and laughed – he looked a little confused (obviously) so I explained that I had made a shirt that said “More <3 for Jer” because he doesn’t get enough face time with the cameras. He looked a little embarrassed by that, lol, but he talked to us for a bit and he took a picture with me and the others. He looked absolutely BEAT…he’d been working hard at rocking during the whole show!! But he was still kind enough to come out and talk to us all. Jer spent about 10 minutes talking and signing things for people and then some of his friends showed up so he went took them back to the bus.
After about 5 minutes, CB came out and came around to talk with everyone. There were probably 20-30 of us back there. He made it a special point to talk to all of the kids he saw back there – there were probably 5 or 6. He asked one little girl her name, she said it was Elizabeth, and he said, “That’s my fiancée’s name! But everyone calls her Betsy. We’re getting married in January.” I was floored by how comfortable he was with revealing that information. I mean, that’s pretty personal, I think. Anyway, he moved on and talked to us, I told him they’d played a kick ass show, and he took pictures with each of us. While he was talking with us we saw Matt come out – he saw CB at one end of the line and decided to start at the other, lol. He too made it a point to spend time talking with each of the kids there. When he made it to us we got pictures and talked for a minute or two before he moved on to the people next to us. It was funny, I asked him if he knew for sure what time they were going on tomorrow in the festival, because I’d heard it was 10:30, and his eyebrows shot up and he was like “Seriously?? 10:30!? That’s so late!! I’ve got my kid tomorrow! I knew we were last but I didn’t think it was going to be that late!” Haha, the poor guy!
I looked down the line and Ryan had come out, and had started at the same end of the line that Matt had, so we waited as he made his way over. While he was still working his way down the line one of the security guys came over and told us that nobody else would be coming out and that after Ryan was done we would all need to leave. I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t going to get to meet all the guys, but I was mostly still ecstatic that I’d gotten to meet 4 out of the 5, and at my very first show, too!
Anyway, while we were waiting for Ryan to get to us, I noticed that he spent about 5-7 minutes giving one of the older kids some advice – what about, I don’t really know, but he was giving him some great tips!! I thought that was really cool, since it seems to me that most music artists would say something generic like “Just keep working” or “Keep hanging in there you’ll make it someday, I