November 7, 2008

Catching Up Part 2: Nashville & Louisville 2008

Since I'm out of old blogs to post, I'll have to write some new stuff about the shows I've been to recently. I did Nashville and Louisville back to back, and I roadtripped with some friends I made at the Asheville show back in May. I can see myself going on a lot of trips with these girls in the future, because they're awesome. So:

Nashville (10/3/08)


My friend Whitney met me in Charleston Thursday afternoon, and we headed for Knoxville, where several friends would be meeting us to make the rest of the trip. Six hours later, we arrived in Knoxville and made the spur-of-the-moment decision to camp out for Nashville. So 3ish hours after that, we laid down our sleeping bags in front of the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville, and occupied #s 12-20 in line. I have a sleep disorder though, and really, I didn't sleep at all. There wasn't much line drama, accept for one couple who decided to just stand at the front of the line about 30 min. before doors, which is just unacceptable when we've all slept outside (thankfully they were persuaded to leave by some angry fans). We all ended up occupying a good chunk of rows 1-3 right in front of the piano during the show. I was really excited to hear Get up and Go live for the first time, because it's been one of the songs at the top of my "must hear live" list. We all went crazy and did the Macarena during Can't Stop (don't ask, I don't know whose idea it was, but it was genius), and I can only imagine the look on Taylor's face if he happened to see. It was an awesome show, especially being up front right there with all of my friends.

Louisville (10/4/08)


We all headed out of Nashville around 2 AM with the intention of driving until we couldn't drive any more. For 2 carloads of us, that meant stopping at a rest stop and sleeping. For me and my insomnia, it meant resting for 20 min. at a rest stop and then driving the rest of the way to Louisville. There was a point where I was getting exhausted and my eyes were shutting, and the two people in my car were passed out and not helping, so I prayed that I would find a rest stop because I knew it was getting dangerous to keep going. So God laughs by sending me a CLOSED rest stop about 2 seconds later. But then, all of a sudden I'm getting passed by Hanson's tour bus, which for whatever reason is driving with emergency flashers on. This woke me up a good bit, AND gave me a literal goal to follow until I could find a rest stop. We made it into Louisville a little before 6 AM, and the city was dead. There was no one in line (this was where they had "Camp Hanson" set up inside), and we couldn't even find the front doors to the venue. We decided to rent a cheap hotel room and just sleep until the other girls in our group arrived, but alas, 2/3 of us in the car weren't 21, and the one 21 year old had left her ID in one of the other cars. We must have driven around for about an hour looking for a cheap hotel that might accept someone under 21, and then drove around in search of parking. When we finally ended up inside, I passed out in a chair for a few minutes before we were all sent back outside at 9 AM. 

The show was the earliest I've ever seen. Doors were at 6, and just as we got into our spots in the venue, Everybody Else came on stage and started playing (which is absurd since I was #45 or something in line...most people were still outside). EBE actually got kicked off stage during their last song. They got a few chords in, then said "Just kidding! Apparently we're out of time." My friends and I were directly behind the handicap barricade (which was one of those pull-out elastic thingies--worst barricade ever!), which put us about 4-5 rows back in the crowd, but with no one in front of us. It got kind of crazy, though, being next to that flimsy elastic barricade, and we slowly ended up inching further into the handicap space because of the pushing of the crowd (the handicap area took up about 1/6 of the floor space, and there were only TWO people in it. I have no idea what the venue people were thinking). Some girl behind me was practically laying on me, so I looked around and noticed no one was pushing her and she even had some space behind her. I pointedly asked her if someone was pushing her into me since she was so close. She looked confused and said no, so I said "Then can you please get off of me?" and she left me alone for the rest of the night.

I spent the first few songs and most of the opening acts being really stressed out about the crowd and the barricade, but I finally got over it and enjoyed myself. I was excited to hear "Deeper" for the first time, and I somehow ended up with my first guitar pick when Isaac threw one out during "Great Divide." At one point, a girl I had met in line came past me looking sick and heading for the handicap section which would give her room to breathe. I gladly moved aside so she could get out, but unfortunately she ended up putting a stool directly in front of me and staying, completely blocking my view. I felt kind of rude, especially since it was a nice girl I had met in line earlier, but I felt that it was very rude of her to take advantage of the handicap area and then block my view entirely. I did get her to inch over a bit, but that was all. Before they played Soulshine, Isaac mentined a girl they had met last year and how she had been going through some rough times. It was one of the girls in the handicap section, and he ended up dedicating the song to her and personally handing her a guitar pick. It was so sweet! I don't know the girl's story, but I felt so happy for her with what Isaac did. Overall, it was a good show, but this one is probably lower down on the list. I guess the crowd killed it for me a bit.

P.S. I'd been wandering all day what the top of Taylor's hat said, and I finally saw it clearly at the bus after the show:



Kudos to you if you know what "Ba La La" means. I don't.

3 comments:

Mego said...

I've failed the Hanson exam - what does BA LA LA mean? :( I'm ashamed of myself lol

Holly said...

Haha, the kudos to you was serious. I have no idea what "Ba la la" means lol.

Holly said...

i'm glad i'm not the only one. when he was signing my "take the walk" thing, i asked what his hat said, and when he answered "ba la la" he had moved far enough away that i couldn't have easily asked him to explain.