omg finally

[drunkoffthestars]

Clare's (not so) Wacky Hijinks, OR, the Infinity Flight 206 Chicago Show

The Build Up. Or Clare babbling about stuff.

The day started off awesomely with me running at least half an hour late and running through the airport to catch my plan, blahblah traveling is wacky shit. I got seriously turned around coming out of the subway, but everyone that I talked to was SO VERY NICE AND HELPFUL, and I found my way to the House of Blues without too much trouble. When I got there, maybe a bit before 1pm, there was already a line out the door waiting to get in. After much confusion, I finally found the ticket window to pick up my ticket (Hint: Around the back, through the restaurant entrance, immediately to the right after you come in the doors along the back wall of the building. No one was able to explain this to me, or maybe I was just having a bad-directions-understanding day, but whatever.) I then decided that freezing my ass off was not in the cards, so I went and ate some food so I wouldn't keel over during El Show.

I wandered back to the venue at about 2:30, when the doors were supposed to open. I was impressed by how the entire line was gone. I had to go check my bag because I had food in it, but the lady said my camera was fine, which I was tres excited about.

For those of you who've never been to the Chicago House of Blues, and care to know, it's a pretty sweet venue. There was plenty of floor space for anyone who wanted to be there (it helped that the crowd was AMAZINGLY SMALL, I'm so bad at estimating numbers, but I would be a bit surprised if there had been much over 100 people there), and plenty of bar seating for anyone who wanted it.

Most of the people there were Obviously Much Younger, and so dressed so Scene, it hurt. It was pretty funny, and I felt kindof out of place, but whatever. I'm a big girl now, I can get over it. The best part was these two SuperMusicScene Boys, who were at least college-age, dressed in obscure band shirts, and namedropping FBR types LIKE WHOA. One was constantly fiddling with his sidekick (apparently there's a cobra starship theme-something you can get for it, if anyone cares) and the other was playing with his RAZAR (with an Academy Is... wallpaper) talking musical smack next to me for a while. They were pretty funny. I love eavesdropping.


The Show
So, 3:30 rolls around, and there’s some muffled noise coming from behind the curtain, which gets everyone excited, but nothing happens. About 3:45 or so, someone comes on the PA, which got everyone excited, except it was to announce that Fall Out Boy had just landed at the airport, and would be there as soon as possible. It sounded a hell of a lot like Pete, but... I'm not sure how that works if he's several miles away. And no, it didn't sound like a phone connection. Whatever. MYSTERIES WHO CARES.

Everyone chills out and listens to what the hell ever is playing over the PA. The SuperMusicScene Boys make snarky comments about how much it sucks. Blahblahblah. Everyone is really patient, but getting bored.

4:15 rolls around, and we're hearing some of the songs on the PA for the third time now. Finally, instrument-sound-check-type noises are heard, and everyone perks up. The curtain goes up to a folk song (I couldn't tell you which one), I'm presuming off Bruce Springsteen's folksong album that I heard Patrick gush over in the XM interview ripped by lovelypoet recently, but I could totally be making that part up. The curtain goes up and everyone SLAMS toward the (empty!) stage and pictures are frantically snapped (of the empty! stage). I am SO AMUSED, but not so amused that I don't push forward too. After a couple seconds, they boys come out, do their hand-slapping, and bounce to their places and IMMEDIATELY launch into "Our Lawyers Made Us Change..." Everyone goes nuts! There is so much energy from everyone involved! The boys look So Happy and Excited! Everyone in the crowd is singing along! Yay!!! Whatever they always play next comes next (Gin Joints, I think), and after that I lost track. After the first two songs, Pete apologized for being so late, and said that they were going to keep things moving so they could get through the whole set before they had to go again, so everyone was all pumped up and ready to go.

There was a HUGE difference in the atmosphere at this show, and at the one I saw in DC. Guys. Seriously. They were so into it, it was amazing. And everyone was moving and jumping around and waving their arms, and it wasn't like the stunned-rabbit-being-shoved-around business that happened at DC. Everyone was jumping and clapping and singing their hearts out (especially to the older stuff) and having such a good time. They did a fair amount of the 'have the audience sing bits', which was fun. Most notably "Where Is Your Boy", where the audience did the intro (though I gather they do that one quite often like that), and some bits of other ones too. Joe did his spitting thing. They all looked really happy to be there and playing, especially Pete, who was practically incandescent. It. No Words. So Much Love.

For Sophomore Slump, I took some awesomely craptacular video because I love that song with the burning of thousands and thousands of suns (youtube). I've uploaded the mpg file, for anyone who cares to grab it, but it's got this annoying tag in the corner, because of the software I used to compress/convert it. here. If anyone wants to recommend some FREE conversion/compression software, I will a) love you forever and b) redo it so it doesn't have that stupid tag, if you're into that sort of thing. The sound is really really crappy, and I make some unfortunate aiming/zooming decisions, but for the most part, I can't actually care, because I love that songs so much. Also, at the end of this song, William "my hips are too skinny for words" Beckett came out and sang, and that was just waaaaaaay too much fun. I LOVE HIS DRAMATIC ARM GESTURES!! Also, the bits where everything goes all bouncy in time with the crowd? That's because with that many skinny scene kids jumping in unison, the floor was seriously moving. I think I've only ever been to one or two other shows where that's happened. Good times!

Also of note: There are a bunch of private box-type things above the main floor, and it appeared that there were all kinds of people up there. For sure, most or all of The Academy Is… was there, and Pete’s parents (and maybe others) may or may not also have been there. But, if for some reason, you need random people to be there, you should feel free to make it so, as it was nearly impossible to see who all was up there. I had a good time playing the "who would I want to be up there" game, and not recognizing anyone.

At this show, when Pete did his thing about the internet, it was "Thank god for Wikipedia, otherwise we wouldn’t know Patrick was both an expectant father and a homosexual". Why am I constantly tickled by this? WHO CARES.

They played three (that I remember) off the new album. Thriller, Arms Race, and Take Over. I am deeply amused to note that I already know the songs by heart, and almost all the words. It seemed like the audience didn't quite know what to do during the newer songs, which surprised me a little bit, but everyone was really into it, especially during Arms Race. I adore yelling God! Damn! Arms! Race! and so does everyone else. He did the 'swearing warmup' again, which still tickled me pink. I'm so easy.

Dirty totally came onstage during "Dance, Dance", and 'tried' to do Pete's dance from the video, and everyone had a lot of fun with that one.

They played everything I wanted them to play, expect for "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" aka the one that will always be labeled in my head as 'the he tastes like you only sweeter one', because I would either die or pay good money to see Patrick sing that baby live. OH PATRICK.

As usual, they ended with Saturday, and Pete did his crowd thing, and it was right in front of my face, and I took a really crappy video of it, and omg. Guys. He loves doing that. He loves it so much. He loves doing this so freaking much, it’s astounding and inspiring and humbling. Us being there and happy about it made his fucking LIFE BETTER. He gets this amazing look on his face. It's beatific, if that means what I think it means. I'm still kindofalot blown away by that. Like. Yeah. I wish I had just taken a picture. It. Just. Yes.


also, shades of that cult leader fic. I for serious have not been able to get that one out of my head. Also, so true. I realized during this concert how fucking perfect that fic is. Like, during that entire concert, I would gladly follow wherever they led me.

At the end of everything, they basically chucked a bunch of picks at the crowd, Andy threw his drum sticks, and they waved and ran off. Charlie was an asshole and held up the set list and ripped it, making an 'oh so sad' face as the curtain closed. And then, everyone started leaving. While the set was probably shorter than the one in DC, it was about a MILLION times more satisfying, somehow. After the DC show, I really just wanted them to keep playing forever. After this show, I just felt very very satisfied. Which was a good thing, as after they were done, they pretty much ran off stage to dash to the airport and fly to LA, so that was it.

Before the show, they announced that there would be merch in back somewhere, but by the end of the show, I had completely forgotten about it, and also was spazzing about whether or not my plane would be delayed enough for me to catch it. Which is really too bad, as it would be super-cool if I could have gotten a shirt with the IOH winged lamb on it, like I saw one guy wearing (though I don’t actually know where he got it). On the other hand, it's really for the best. I don't actually need to be buying that much shit.

The end of the story is that my plane was delayed by almost the exact amount of time that the show was delayed, so everything went off without a hitch, which I am still kind of astounded by, as my travel plan was actually the most retarded thing ever. But I did my dash madly thing, and my 'get irked by people who don't know what they're doing when going through security' thing (which actually makes me a giant asshole, because if I it wasn't for flying fairly recently, I'd be confused as hell about all the new security BS too), and I made the flight with enough time to refill my water bottle so I could rehydrate on the way home.

I am so so so happy that I got to see another small show before the big shows this summer. It's made me even more excited about those, and !! I’m excited to see what all the differences are, and to see them play again, and to maybe meet fen, and to maybepleasepleasepleasegodplease hear Patrick sing "he tastes like you, only sweeter" live and in person.


All I have now is !!!!

Comments

[clumsygyrl.livejournal.com]

YAY!!

[clare-san.livejournal.com]

so much YAY!!! This it totally one of those experiences I want to keep in my pocket at all times, so I can take it out and feel it again whenever I need to.

[geneli4.livejournal.com]

SO MUCH FUN!!!

it's so swesome that you did this, and i'm thrilled you had such a good time!

[clare-san.livejournal.com]

I had such a good time! Up till the night before I left, I was still kinda 'i'm totally nuts for doing this', but then it was awesome, and like I said to clumsygyrl, it's one of those experiences I want to keep in my pocket at all times so I can take it out and feel it again whenever I need to.

So I hope I was able to share a little of that with you!

[geneli4.livejournal.com]

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

[geneli4.livejournal.com]

also, i don't know what you're converting from, but i typically use WinAvi. that said, my needs are pretty simple and chances are good you need something a little fancier, but, hey, it's there if you want to try it!

[clare-san.livejournal.com]

oooo! Thank you so much! That looks perfect! I basically just need something that will shrink down files, as the original file off the camera was over 300mb, and that's not really share-able.