PART II: Sorry it took so long to continue with my review of The Q104 Jingle Bell Ball featuring The Calling. It has been a hectic week.
FORGOT SOMETHING IN PART ONE: While Sean was outside talking to the crewmen and his newly-introduced lady friends, Alex was inside the bus walking toward the front of the bus seemingly for some tortilla chips. Jilly and I see the whole thing. Alex sees the guitar that Sean was playing earlier on and picks up. I am not sure how Sean could have seen him pick it up from where Sean was outside, but he did. Sean starts running to the front window of the bus screaming "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING! GET YOU HANDS OFF OF THAT!" while pounding on the glass. It was hilarious. Sean was completely having a conniption and spasm while Alex pretended to air- play it, slam the guitar on the counter, and tons of other stuff. I guess you had to be there to truly know how funny it was. Billy was behind Alex during this and found amusement by it as well.
NOW TO THE CONCERT! Jilly and I rushed into the Palace Theater again. Jeffrey Gaines had 2 more songs to sing until intermission. Therefore, rather than going to our seats in the dark we watched the rest of Jeffrey Gaines' set and went to our seats during intermission. So many eyes were on us. Remember we were walking billboards. The crew sets up. We sat in our seats right in the middle of row G. I noticed where they put the set lists. The Q104 people come on stage to introduce The Calling. They kept saying "This is band is one of the nicest people. If you get to meet them, they are the nicest groups of guys you'd ever meet." It reminded me about how much Sean ignored Jilly and I. Well, Nate and Alex were nice. Sean was patient with me when I talked to him in October. He also mocked me out then though too. Then the band comes out. I notice that Alex took over his leather jacket he was wearing leaving his T-shirt "Bad Boys Wear Black" in better view. We were planning on standing up for their performance. Two girls stand up a few rows in front of us. So, we decide it is fine to stand up. It is less than 15 seconds into the first song, "Unstopple" when we start hearing "SIT DOWN!" The people around them yelled at the other fans of The Calling in front of us and they sat involuntarily. We decide screw everyone and keep standing. It was not 30 seconds when I was hit in the head with an object as large as a cigarette box and as massive as a marble. Then Jilly gets he shirt tugged by this 50-year old woman behind her. So, we sit angrily.
The band finishes "Unstoppable" and goes right into "Nothing's Changed" as someone shouted "take it off!" Darn teenyboppers. "Nothing's Changed" is one of my favorite tracks of Camino Palmero. I had not heard the song live, so I was very excited. Sean had background vocal duty. It was so amazing! I could finally see his brilliant face and eyes. He still had his unique facial expressions. Billy is always cool to view. He is so into the music. He smiles so much on stage. Nate looks short behind his set. He looks like a rabbit in the center of a circle of bushes if you can imagine that. Alex moved the microphone stand with the way he moved. There were a few Sean lovers in the crowd because I heard "Sean's hot" come from several rows behind me once during the song. After "Nothing's Changed," Sean threw his pick into the crowd. It landed near the left aisle of the row in front of us. Alex announced softly, "this is called 'Could It Be Any Harder'." Jilly and I clapped and cheered. Some others did too. Alex replied to the applause with a very large smile. The song made a few tears. That song means a lot to me. My family has been under a lot the last few months.
Alex finishes the song accompanied by another roar of applause by the fans there. He starts saying something akin to "Once again, we're The Calling. Our record just came out (umm, it came out several months ago. I don't consider that 'just came out')." Alex pauses. A few months ago, we wrote this song." Then they play this nice new song called "When It All Falls." I caught on to the chorus by the second time. The audience once again clapped and with a few cheers. Alex came back to the microphone, he said "This is 'Stigmatized'." A roar came from the crowd. Alex seemed taken back by it. He responded to the crowd "Oh, it looks like some of you know this song." The audience cheered again as it started to play. The band seemed to step up all the songs with more aggression and electric guitars, even though Alex did played on an acoustic guitar on "Stigmatized." The band followed up with harder version of "Things Don't Always Turn Out That Way." The audience applauded. Alex introduced "Adrienne" as "a song about a chick who screwed me over." First, Alex has always said the song is not about a real person in media interviews. Oh, well. I have heard "Adrienne" 2 or 3 times, but never like this. At the line, "and all the crazy things that you put me through" was changed to the angry-toned "With all the shit you put me through." I was not expecting that! Alex changed some other words of the songs to harsher words as well. It truly caught me offguard. They song rocked, but surprised me. The end was coming. Alex thanked the crowd for coming out to see them. "You can stand for the next song," Alex announced. Jilly and I looked at each other with a smile. We rose from our seats. The rude old people behind us kept sitting. The Calling played "Wherever You Will Go." After the song, Alex and Billy left the stage leaving Sean and Nate. Nate starts banging his left cymbol. Sean joins him by banging the neck of his guitar on the cymbal. Sean and Nate terrorize the poor cymbol back and forth for at least a minute. Then Sean starts beating up on the inflatable snowman. They finally leave the stage with a cheer from the audience.
After the set, I convinced Jilly to go up with me to the stage and try to get a pic or set list or whatever. While we waited for the crew to come on stage, I thanked one of the fans that were yelled at for standing along with us. I thanked her for "standing up" for what she thought was fan-worthy to do. We also told her where she could find the band's tour bus. She was not in her seat for the next set. Jilly managed to score a set list. Then I was given one of Alex's guitar picks. I snatched one of Alex's guitar picks at our last show in October. I was disappointed then because The Calling played without a set list. I really wanted a set list. Jilly really wanted a pick. I noticed that the pick I had been just like the one I already had except was newer. Jilly was in awe of it. I was amazed by the set list. We traded and both of us are happy with the trade. We noticed that the last song was supposed to be "Thank You," but it has a question mark next to it. The set list was written on the back of the set list if The Calling was the headliners. I would have enjoyed hearing "Thank You."
Quickly afterward, The Cranberries- the headliners came out. Everyone stood up. I hated the little mid-aged hypocrites! The Cranberries set was fair. It depended on probably expensive live engineering to make them sound good though. The lead singer, Dolores worked the crowd, but I still did not enjoy the bands set that much.
We were walking out the venue when I noticed an ad-postcard of The Calling. The radio station interns were giving them away before the show. We could not get them because we were at The Calling's tour bus at the time. I pick it up along with a wrapper of the sticker that said "In Stores Now: Camino Palmero.... includes the single, "Wherever You Will Go and "Unstoppable" and "Nothing's Changed."
We had to wait for a ride. We talked to a few concert-goers. Most people were amazed to meet the lead singer of The Cranberries. I met one young lady who had her tangerine signed by Alex. It seemed like the band met many people in Cleveland. Cleveland surely represented that they are the home of rock and roll!
Set List:
Unstoppable
Nothing's Changed
Could It Be Any Harder
When It All Falls
Stigmatized
Things Don't Always Turn Out That Way
Adrienne
Wherever You Will Go
For a few days, I was still out of character. I am always a bit odder and less reserved and thus more impulsive on concert days. It has been a week now and it seems like it happened so long ago, but a long-term memory.