We walked across the street to the venue and I was really too excited to eat, but I did pretend to.  It's also a great excuse to have a great conversation with Keith.  From dinner we went up the escalator to the club and waiting in in line to get in for over an hour! UGH!   The monotony was broken by a call from NW Airlines to tell me that my ID had been found in Detroit and would be flown to Indy and set aside for me at the ticket counter.  YAY Northwest Airlines!  About 10 minutes before they opened the door I was told that due to dress code, I'd need to…..turn my  baseball cap around??  WTF?? - in protest I removed it and stuffed it into my jacket pocket.  Ok I was planning to do that anyway but the protest thing makes a better story.  We were one of the first in line therefore had a pretty choice spot to squat. We wound up in the second row (standing) directly in front of Dean Felber (the bassist).

What can I say… I'm sure you've already read the review of the show itself so I'll keep it short.  It rocked.  The support band…well, they won't be a support band for long if they stay on track.  They were THAT good.  I hope to be able to make some music available to you guys so you can see for yourself.  If you're interested, I'll let you know when that's done.  They're called Jonasay, btw and they're online at http://www.jonasay.com .   The Hootie guitarist, Mark Bryan played the final few songs with Jonasay and helped warm up the crowd.  Not that the crowd wasn't warmed up already with the great performance by Jonasay.  A quick break down of equipment and Hootie took the stage.. I'm sure you've seen set lists for both bands by now, so I won't bore you, but if you're interested in seeing them and the complete review, I'll have them on my site in short order.  Hootie rocked, as usual… what can I say?

After the show, we met up with a few other people that I know from the hootie.com bulletin boards:  Tia, Stacey, and Greg.  While I was chatting with them, Keith went to the merch table to pick up a Jonasay CD, and came back with one for me autographed by the entire band!  He'd told them I'd traveled from Seattle just to catch the show!  They signed the CD accordingly ;-)  Not long after, Darius, Dean, and Mark appeared in the club and signed autographs.  Darius and Dean were very nice to me and signed my ticket.  Mark did as well but he took the extra time to give me a hug and thank me for traveling so far to see them.  I was flattened by the humility.  Seriously, it was sincere and it meant a lot to me.  Keith and I took a lap around the club, looking for Tia so we could say our goodbyes and ran into the guys from Jonasay at one point in a quiet corner.  Michael and Justin were there, and I thanked them for signing my CD and told them I couldn't believe how cool they were!  Michael must have recognized me from my reputation?  He said, "Are you Debbi??" heh. We chatted a bit about Seattle, Hootie and pets (don't ask).  He told me that since they're still just starting out, they probably wouldn't be making it to Seattle anytime soon, but I let him know that that's ok with me; I'm willing to travel for good music.  He laughed, "yeah, I'm beginning to see that.  Speaking of which, are you going to the New Year's gig?"

WHAT DID I TELL YOU GUYS! (well, some of you..)  I asked if they were playing New Year's as well and of course they are because I hadn't planned on going!  GRRRRRRRR I might have to look into it now.  Of course, I'd have to look into a good divorce attorney, too, but the hootie/jonasay lineup might very well be worth it!  Before we said goodbye, Michael dubbed me the band's Seattle Ambassador.  I'm still not sure if that's an official title or not ;-)  So we're feeling pretty good about the evening except for not being able to find Tia to say goodbye, so we head out.  On our way out, we ran into Soni.  While he was doing the autographs, I told him about having come from Seattle, and he thanked me for coming.  Keith almost had to hold me up.  Literally.  The sincerity I felt coming from all the guys was completely overwhelming.  I didn't expect it, nor have I ever experienced anything like it.  It was a perfect ending to a wonderful day.

(to be continued..)