Houston Buzzfest (Radio Concert)
Yesterday was both a long and eventful day/night. I woke up around 6am to drive to Houston which is a 3.5 hr drive. The weather here was awful (sheets of heavy rain) and I knew I would be on the road for quite awhile.
Driving to Houston in the rain was scary but it was quality “me” time. I ended up driving over 6 hours. I picked up Hien who is the sweetest crazy girl. I met her at Projekt Rev when I hosted the sidestage. We threw a LPJZ promo together in Houston way back. I invited her to attend the show with me because she’s awesome, and I knew she wanted to go to the show but it sold out in 5 days.
We drove in the scary rain to the venue with is in the middle of nowhere. As we were hiking toward the venue, we heard some guys say that Three Days Grace had cancelled because they were stuck somewhere b/c of the weather. (This is why I chose to drive vs. fly LOL.) I was REALLY worried that I wouldn’t have my tickets at will call since they didn’t show because I was on their label’s guest list. No band…no tour manager…no list. That’s usually the routine. Luckily, the powers that be had my tix there, and let me say they were AMAZING seats. We were seated Left/Center right behind the pit. Once we got in and figured out everything we walked around to see the sidestage bands and also watch some of the groups do impromptu meet and greets. I must give credit to all of the bands there, because they came out to the “autograph” booth quite often and signed for as long as they could. It was nice to see fans just enjoying themselves WHILE doing a m/g. As far as the show, I was just happy to see live music in a nice venue. Candlebox was performing when we arrived, but I was happier seeing a few local bands on the other stage. I’ve never seen Trapt live but I like a few songs so that was cool. Shinedown was after them, and since I’m not a fan at all, Hien and I went walking around more. The sun was blazing hot now, so we were in full-on sweaty concert mode which I love. Just enjoying everything around us without drama, time constraints or pressure since the band I was “promoting” wasn’t there which meant no meet and greet, and just having fun. Hien reminded of the blissful simplicity of going to a show and just being a fan and having fun with the “concert” atmosphere. I thought that feeling had faded progressively but it came back to me instantly. We returned back to our seats to watch Hoobastank. The lead singer Doug really puts on a show for the ladies! I’ve never found him “attractive” but when he took his shirt off and had his pants hung very low, I must say I was impressed. And they performed well also. During their set, they announced that Three Days Grace just made it in from the airport and they came out to play 2 songs in the middle of Hooba’s set. I really felt bad for their fans because I saw quite a few that were there just to see them. After Hoobastank we walked around more and talked to one of the Houston DJ’s that we know there. And the radio station cameraguy taped Hien and I being dorks while watching fans stand in line for meet and greets. I said something like “I’m single” with my mouth from afar and Hien did something, but I don’t remember. Basically we were cheesing it for the camera. He was trying to be slick by asking us for our numbers to he could “send” us a copy of the tape…riiight buddy. We just laughed it off. We sat back down to watch Staind who were the headliners. In the middle of their set, Hien went to the sidestage where she was trying to get this HUGE cardboard poster of the days’s bandlist and times. She sent me a text message that she got someone to take it down for her but it was too big for her to take back to our seats. I watched a couple more of Staind’s songs and headed up to meet her. I couldn’t believe the size of this sign and that she actually got it. She’s a tiny 5’3” Asian girl and this sign was at least 6 feet in height. We started walking out of the venue toward the garage (which is a LONG walk) and I was worried that the drunk guys would harass her and try to jack her sign. She was really proud of that sign, but as we walked and more fools came out, the dudes starting getting crazier so I took the sign and carried it the rest of the way. I’m way taller than her and I figured the dudes wouldn’t mess with me too much or try to jack me versus her. We made it back to my car, and we started to hand out Three Days Grace stuff throughout the traffic and waiting to leave. (That was how I got my tickets to the show, so I could at least do that. Plus, we were having fun alternating getting out of the car and just going up to cars and making them put the window clings up and take stickers. Got back to her house and we each took a pic with the huge sign and I left to come back home.
Drove back home and luckily it only rained for the last hour on my way back. It was pretty heavy rain though and being that it was 3am on a Saturday night, I drove especially cautious. People don’t really drive well in the rain here, and drunk drivers in the rain are even scarier. As I predicted, on my hour trek towards home, I passed so many cars that had slid off the road, into barricades, or each other. Came home, showered, and went to bed around 5am.
I’m here at the hospital today since I had to report at 2pm. We are pretty slow, so I decided to write up this recap. Overall, yesterday was well worth the long drives and rain. The show was fun because it was so stress-free and uneventful in a good way. What a change of pace from the norm when I go to shows with my “friends” here at home and some type of drama/drunkenness/foolishness occurs (even from myself too). The “friends” that I de-friended recently because of what they did to me. I feel as though tremendous weight has been lifted off of me lately. Perhaps because of the lack of their negative energy, or my clarity. Either way, I’m happy. Will upload pics at home. Time for some coffee!!