My time has come to write about my concert experience last night I have a lot to say, so this will be a long read. First some notes. I went to the Q104 Jingle Bell Ball featuring Jeffrey Gaines, The Calling, and The Cranberries in Cleveland, Ohio. I am going to be talking about The Calling in the post. FYI, the band members are Alex Band (vocals and guitar as well b/c their lead guitarist is "sick," but probably has left the band by now), Sean Woolstenhulme (guitar, his older brother, Rick, is the drummer for Lifehouse. He also dated Michelle Branch until she became a controlling and self-centered), Billy Mohler (bass), Nate Wood (drums) and Aaron Kamin (he had/has mono and left the tour in early September. He will not be on tour until The Calling's headliner tour in 2002. He may have already departed with the group by now however.) I also went with a friend of mine named Jilly.
Let me start from the near-beginning. The radio station who put together the show (Q104), said that the door would not open until 6:30, an hour before the show was to start. Jilly and I get to the Palace Theater about 6:20. As Jilly mentioned, we were wearing matching T-shirts that bluntly said THE CALLING on the front with its tour dates from the Lifehouse tour on the back. Instead of waiting right by the gates to the venue, we decided to walk over to the Q104 table. Before we were able to do that however, a young college-aged blond male, came up to us and asked "did you see them??" Our faces showed that we had met The Calling (at least at this show). The young man added that "Their tour bus is right around the corner." So, I turned toward the exit and only looked back to see if Jilly was any where near me. I get to stairs to the lobby and I miscalculate my pace and space in between each stair. I trip and fell down the set of stairs and land on my knees. I also ended up hitting my head on the stair's railing while I rolled down the stairs. I should take pictures of it for memory-sake. But, being that my bruises gone around 3/4 of my whole left leg, that would be 3 pictures to show. LOL!
So, then I start running toward the exit of the building while I am pretty sure I'm bleeding. And if you paid attention to Jilly's review-we turned toward the wrong corner. I put the fault on me for that. So, we run probably a half mile in total until we get to the right corner where the bus is. The young man that told us about it said they were signing stuff. At the time we arrived, they were not outside and no fans were there. Then there was the question of what to do now. We saw Sean playing his guitar in the front of the bus. Alex and Nate playing video games in the back. I have to say the game they were playing seemed a bit stupid. I don't play video games, so don't ask me what they were playing. It looked like Nate was the better player from my little observation looking through their window at the time. Billy was on his cell phone walking up and down the hall of the bus.
Jilly and I pace back and forth for a nice 20 minutes rehearsing what we will say and do and so on. Then a few crew guys walk passed us a few times. Then they go into the tour bus and come out. They meet up with two or three girls who know the crewmen. Jilly and I become one with this little tree near the curb. We were already walking billboards. We did not need more attention given to us. We were incredibly shy and yet polite. Sean comes out and greets Dan and Ronny, two of the crewmen. Dan introduces Sean to the girls. He was very nice and shook their hands and chatted with them. Meanwhile, Jilly and I are 10 feet away trying to be patient and let Sean come to us. Maybe Sean didn't understand why we did not come up to him and figure we did not know who he was or something. He could have also been rude or a relatively shy person. Soon after, Nate comes out to check on his drums in the departments under the bus. Then Billy comes out and he is still on his cell phone talking. Billy goes back on the bus with Nate. Quickly after, Sean goes back on the bus. Jilly and I are still in our same spot! We never moved.
So, there we are still without any communication with the band. We ask a crewmen what time it is and she says it is 7:15. Another 15 minutes pass. An older man with white hair and a white beard, flannel shirt and briefcase comes up to us and utters "I saw you girls out her before and you are still here." We told him our situation and he wished us luck on our little adventure.
By this time it is 7:35, the first opener, Jeffrey Gaines in on stage. Then comes our saving grace in the body of a mid-aged white man with a true 80s mullet. He asked what act the bus was for. He got out of CD booklet and talked to us about how he just wanted to get it signed. A crewman goes into the bus because The Calling was going to be having a meeting. Mulletman goes up to the window and points to his CD and expresses that he would like his CD signed. Jilly and I move more toward the window to show that there are 3 of us there. The crewman looked at the three of us and beyond us to see if there were any more people. After a few wondering minutes, Nate comes out and gives Jilly two big promo posters. She hands me the one. Isn't she nice? LOL! Mulletman announces that he would like his CD booklet signed. Jilly and I nudge our CD booklets to plain sight. Nate talks a bit as he takes Jilly's CD booklet from her. Then he looks at mine with a puzzling look and says "This one is already signed." I tell him that I saw the band in October and Alex and Sean autographed it then. Jill elaborates about the acoustic set where it happen at. Nate continues "Would you like the rest of the band to sign it for you?" I nod, give him my green sharpie and lift up a plastic bag. The things in the bag were: a bobbing-head turtle, a wooden frog, a sterling silver two-headed dragon, and a frog made of sand. I wasn't sure what my thing is for turtles and frogs. I had a white Buddha in my pocket that I had taken out of the bag. Aaron of course was not there. But I asked Nate if he liked Buddhas and Nate replied yes. So, I gave that Buddha away with my other stuff. Nate went back onto the bus to get the CD booklets signed. A few minutes passed and a crewman asks us to wait a little longer. Nate comes back and hands Jill and I 2 CD booklets. The one Nate originally gave me was actually Mulletman's and I gave his to him. Mulletman then asks him if he knows any famous people. (Stupid question, in my opinion. But I couldn't even think of any questions. So, I'd better not judge) Nate says that he does not know any one of that nature. He did say that he was been playing drums for 22 years though. I stated that I wasn't given my booklet or my sharpie back. Nate seemed puzzled and said oh sorry, I'll be right back. Mulletman leaves us. Another few minutes pass. It had to of been 8 by then. Alex comes out and hands me my CD booklet and we chat for a little bit. Jilly and I mention how we hoped that Aaron would be back on tour, but knew it was very slight that he would be. Alex simply said in his gentle voice "Yeah, he's gone for good." Try to analyze that. Was he just talking about the tour or the band? We will just have to see. I don't remember what started the conversation but I remember me saying that I saw them in October. Alex goes "when we were with Lifehouse?" I nod and go "uh-huh." Jill once again adds in that it was at an acoustic gig the afternoon before the Lifehouse show that we met him before. I start talking about it. Alex smiles and says "Yeah, I remember you." (You as in plural. There is no CORRECT way to say you plural in the English language grammatically. Basically when he said "you" he was talking to both Jilly and I) That comment amazed us. In the back of my head, I always hoped they would remember us. Then after a few more minutes Alex ended the conversation. Nate came back to us and chitchatted. I looked at him as he put the green sharpie in his pocket. I told Nate where our seats were and so on. Right as he started to end the conversation, I brought up the sharpie issue once again. I don't know exactly why the sharpie was so important to me. Still, Rick from Lifehouse almost stole it from me in October and now Nate almost took it. So, Nate finds it and jokes about how he was going to steal it. One thing all rock stars need are sharpies. I ask for a picture, but The Calling says their good-byes. I don't get my picture, but I get the memories and the bruises. I cannot make this article a novel in one post. Therefore this is one part one and part two will come in another post.