Oy, okay, here we go. Way too long, way too drawn-out, way too fangirly. But what else do I live for, eh? I ASK YOU.
sandwich_armada (hereafter referred to as "Laura") and I got up around 7:30am to attempt to beat the traffic on the 101-S to Dodger Stadium. We had both emailed Erin, this girl who's the head of the recycling program on Warped Tour this summer, and were all set to get in for free in exchange for collecting bottles and cans off the ground all day. She had told us to get there around 10am and give her a call.
Traffic was much better than I expected, and we got to Dodger Stadium around 9:10am. We tried to get in, but the security guy said that parking didn't open until 10:30am. WTF?! We drove around a bit and then called Erin and told her we were an hour early. She said she'd come meet us at the gate and help us get in, so we headed back to the stadium. We didn't see anyone who looked like an Erin, but this time, we told the security guy that we were recycling volunteers - and got in for free without a hitch! Whee! Paying for parking; so 7/7/06.
We parked and tried to get in; had to call Erin to come get us. We trekked through pre-Warped, and it was pretty interesting to see everything being set up. The recycling tent itself was still being set up, but it was set up enough to give us shade, and Laura and I hung out there for about an hour. Our job was apparently, yes, to pick up bottles and cans all day. See, we had been told that the top recyclers of the day would get to go side-stage for any band they wanted after 6pm - TAI was playing at 3:45pm, but Laura loves Less Than Jake with a fiercely burning passion, and they were playing after 6pm, so we decided to go for that. When we actually started picking shit up, that is.
We hung out, hung out, got our orange VENDOR wristbands (important later, I swear), walked around, walked to the porta-potties, checked out the being-set-up-merch-tables, hung out, etc. After about an hour, once they had started letting kids in, we took a plastic bag and started walking around. Bottle-and-can-collecting was pretty slow, but we were diligent, and we got about a third of a bag in 45 minutes.
Then, we discovered the goodness that was the Monster VIP tent. The Monster VIP tent isn't a tent, it's this big set-up where they make kids wait for a really long time in line for a free Monster Energy Drink that they can't take out of the Monster VIP area. Needless to say, there were MANY, MANY CANS there. We hit the jackpot on the cans. We were stoked. We were sticky. We were VERY sticky. Monster Energy drinks are super gross. I really don't recommend them.
Nonetheless, we filled a bag right quick, hauled it behind the semi where recycling went, and went to town on a second bag. It was around that time, however, that I went back to the recycling tent to chat with Erin, and she told me that as this was the LA date, no one was allowed to go side-stage. WELL. There went my and Laura's incentive! And then Erin was rather bi-polar about giving me a can of water, so I was a bit tainted on her. I went back to Laura and conveyed all, and we decided to do a bit more work, but not much, and to just have fun for the rest of the day.
While we were parked by the Monster VIP tent, many people approached us, thinking that we worked for Warped Tour or for Monster, and asked us questions. We directed them to the appropriate people, for the most part, but this was notable: a young girl in a Panic! At The Disco shirt and a Clan necklace asked us a question, and we said we didn't know, but we sure did like her shirt. We talked briefly about who we were all there to see, and it came to light that we were all there to see TAI. I told the girl to go to the backstage area behind the Hurley stage both before and after TAI went on, because that would be her best chance of talking to any of them. We would meet this girl later. Oh yes, we would.
We had learned earlier in the day that Butcher would be doing a solo signing at the Sabian booth at 2pm, so at around 1:45pm, we left our post at the Monster area, dragged our bags o' recycleables behind the semi, and went to find Butcher. As we passed the Hurley stage, I thought I saw Jac Vanek - turns out it wasn't her, because we saw the real Jac later. But I thought it was her; it looked like her! Why do people try to look like Jac Vanek? Ryan Ross' hand won't be on your thigh, I guarantee you!
We saw Butcher moving through the crowds, and we essentially followed him to the Sabian booth, where he was doing a "drummer" signing with 3 other drummers from other bands. WTF, we didn't care about other bands! We went right up to the Butcher! Laura asked if we could get a picture together with him, and he seemed really confused by the question. He sort of cocked his head to the side and went "Ehhhe?" And she repeated herself, and he sort of shook his head and said "Oh. Yeah. Sure." OKAY BUTCHER, LESS PBR IN THE MORNING. Laura gave her camera to a girl, and boy, we didn't look our best, but Butcher is slim and tan and tattooed between us, and surely he rectifies our sweaty awfulness.
Laura is out of state for 5 days, and all media is on her camera. But hey, my camera phone emerged from the day with a grand total of 3 pictures, and here's the first:
We started noticing TAI members in the vicinity; Carden was first, then Tomrad. Around this time, we saw the real Jac Vanek and her entourage come around to the backstage area. We crawled out from under the truck to watch TAI members prep - okay. I mostly watched William Beckett prep. This is the part of the recap where I admit total, complete lust for William Beckett. He is my baby sister's age (okay, also Laura's age), but I would do him in a fucking heartbeat. That kid is beyond gorgeous. I'm not even kidding, he was so fucking born to be a rockstar. Okay. We watched everyone mill around, and I watched William stretch, and we saw Mike Carden napping on an amp case, and then it was time to go get a decent spot in the audience. We ended up on the left side of the stage, pretty far over - we had good line-of-sight for Carden and Bill, but couldn't see Butcher, Siska or Tomrad at all.
I won't lie to you. I saw Pete at the Pomona date, and I really thought, I honestly really thought he wasn't going to be at the LA date, or if he was, I wasn't going to see him. I know Laura was hoping to see him really badly, and I hoped for both her sake and my sake, but I really, really, really didn't think he was going to be there.
He was there. TAI came onstage to "Afternoon Delight" and almost as soon as William launched into Checkmarks, Laura stiffened next to me and went "HE'S HERE." and I went "WHAT?" and she said "PETE." and she jutted with her chin, and sure enough, Pete was clambering onto side-stage. It was really this trailer-truck that attached to the stage, and he went into the frame of the open back of the truck, wearing the red cords and Stay Gold Clan hoodie he was wearing last Friday at the October Fall show. Seriously, it was like 115 degrees out there; how he wasn't sweating, I will never know. Laura and I squeeed and grabbed each other, and we were determined to enjoy TAI's set (impossible not to!) but we were definitely distracted.
After Checkmarks, I was looking at the skinny brunette in a white Clan hoodie that Pete was cuddling with, and I said to Laura "hey. Is that Michelle Trachtenberg?" And it so, so was. Laura's pictures are seriously definitive. And Pete was definitely cuddling. He was whispering in her ear a LOT, and dancing with her. He was dancing a lot in general! We had a great view of him - and okay, there was this moment during Classifieds, which is my favorite TAI song, where I was dancing and rocking out pretty hard, and I was the only one in my immediate area doing so, and I thought Pete looked right at me, but then I was like "noooo, surely not" - but later that night, Laura was like "there was a moment during TAI's set that I thought Pete looked at you" and I was like I DON'T CARE IF HE DIDN'T, LET'S PRETEND HE DID! I had that syndrome with William too, because he kept coming over to our side of the stage, and the girl 2 rows in front of me sure thought he was making eye contact with her and pointing at her, but *her* arm wasn't up in the air viciously rocking out, so I choose to believe he was singling me out. SHUT UP. DELUSIONS ARE HEALTHY. OMG Beckett sleep with me. :(
So! Pete came out for Slow Down, the "I'm not saying that I'm not breaking some hearts tonight girl" part, and the first repetition he sang, but the second repetition he fucking *screamed*, and it was *hilarious*. He came over to William and slung his arm low around his waist, his hand on William's hip, and it was precious. And as he was running offstage, he and William came together to hug in the middle of the stage, and it was PRECIOUS! Their right legs both went UP and BACK like they were gleeful little girls, and William's arms were so flaily and happy to be around Pete, it was so fucking adorable. By the by, Laura and I believe Pete and Michelle are SO TOTALLY DATING. Pete clearly was just having the best time, dancing and shit. He was chewing gum and singing along to everything.
At the last song of the set, we went around to the backstage area to try to catch Pete - but it was a fucking MADHOUSE. Fangirls like crazy. I shouldn't have been surprised, but it was a fucking madhouse, man. A 14-year-old girl with braces asked me why people were standing there, and I explained that you could see and talk to the band when they came offstage, and that Pete Wentz was there. She asked, with great disdain, "do you LIKE Pete Wentz?" At which point, the girl from earlier in the day, with the Panic! At The Disco shirt, THRUST herself into the 14-year-old's face and declared hostilely "I FUCKING LOVE PETE WENTZ." I literally separated them with my arms. It was great!
When Pete and Michelle came out, he yelled "Go say hi to The Academy Is!!!" as he tried to get away - he had a bodyguard who hustled him out of there pretty quickly, and the line of kids following him? Like the fucking Pied Piper of Emo, seriously. Laura wanted to follow, but I elected to stay and stare at Bill for a bit more. Laura thought she heard Pete say he'd do a signing at either the Clan tent or the Myspace booth - we went to both and couldn't find him, but apparently he went to both - sorry, Laura!! - to see Gym Class acoustic at Myspace and did a signing at the Clan tent. We missed both. I am sorry. Laura, forgive me. Sherpa.
So we went over to get in line for the TAI signing, but it was so long by the time we got over there, we never really stood a chance. We didn't have anything for them to sign anyway; I really just wanted a picture with Bill. When the people in charge told us "absolutely no personalized pictures" I was like oh, fuck it. And we got out of line (where I had befriended a girl and talked about *NSYNC with her, oddly enough) and went up to the signing booth and I stared at William Beckett for like 15 minutes.
Then back over to Hurley stage for Gym Class Heroes! And omg, I am getting tired! But we ended up in the same spot that we were in for TAI, so we had an excellent view when Pete and Michelle came side-stage again. And we freaked a bit, because I very seriously wasn't expecting to see him again! And he fucking rocked out to GCH, and it was absolutely precious. Laura has pictures!
For the first time, I think, GCH performed 7 Weeks, the song that William guest-vocals on, and William came out for it, and it was fucking, fucking awesome. He and Travis were very touchy, and it was just lovely. I love how all FBR people love each other so much that they have to caress each others' waists in public onstage all the time. I vote for caressing of other parts onstage. Wait, what? And Pete totally sang part of Cupid's Chokehold to Michelle. We *saw* it, dude, we *saw* it.
Once again, Laura and I worked our way to the backstage area to try to catch Pete as he left - Laura was determined to have a moment, so I thrust her towards the fence barricade and told her to just try to say hi and have him say hi back. When he came offstage, he stayed for 3 or 4 minutes, signing and taking pictures, but once again, it was such a fucking madhouse, and his bodyguard pulled him away, screaming MOVE BACK! and HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF YOU WERE TREATED LIKE THIS?!?! (um, give me the Grammy noms, the money, the songwriting ability and the Patrick, and I wouldn't mind too much, actually) He was very apologetic to the girl standing next to Laura, who was FREAKING OUT, DEMANDING a picture, and he said "I'm so sorry, I really have to go, I'm so sorry, I have to go interview William for something" - he was a foot away from us, and I don't care, dude, he looked good. Laura said hi, but I don't think he heard her. :( But as she very wisely said, it's not like this was her last opportunity for such things, nor was it mine. I congratulate us on our awesome perspective.
That done, we sort-of-not-really followed Pete's entourage back towards the fenced-off bus area. From a discrete and awesome distance. Just enough to see him go into the bus area. And to see Jac follow him in. Hahahahahahah! We walked around some more, then we decided we should probably recycle a little bit more, so we picked up a bag full of bottles and cans by the bus area - as we were hauling it back to behind the semi, we passed Disashi and Matt from GCH, taking their gear back to the bus, and as we passed them, I said to Disashi, "Hey, we caught your set, it was awesome!" and he high-fived me. It was neato!
We milled some more - saw a bit of Less Than Jake's set, saw a bit of Thursday's set (and dude, Thursday is fucking *insane*, I strongly recommend their set to you), and then said, eh, let's call it a night.
So we stood by the fence by the busses for 10 minutes. Ahahahahahahhahahaha!
And THEN, I saw a girl behind the fence and was like "HEY. Isn't that one of the recycling volunteers, there? Behind the fence? In the bus area?" And it WAS. And fucking HELL, if ONLY we had figured out that our orange VENDOR wristbands allowed us back there earlier in the day!! Because we just fucking strolled into the bus area. We just walked on back there!! And we said hi to the recycling girls. And we walked back, walked down by the busses, walked down the row of busses, and dear sweet jesus, we were like !!!!!!!!!! on the inside. And a little bit on the outside. And we found TAI's bus, and we strolled casually by Pete interviewing William on-camera for something. Like. They were right there! And we walked by them! And Laura POINTED at them and I was like OMG DON'T POINT!!! And it was awesome!! Okay, see, it's probably not THAT big a deal, but omg, to us, right then, right there? We were all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we stopped a bit past TAI's bus (so we could still see, of course) and hung out for 15/20 minutes, talking and me smoking and whatnot and feeling MOTHERFUCKING COOL. Dude, I will take my thrills where I can get them.
And we couldn't go up to anyone without looking like totally lame fangirls, so we contented ourselves with very casual glances at Pete. And William. And Travis. And when William and Pete went onto the bus, we said, you know, we've had a pretty fucking awesome day, all things considered. Let's go while the going is good.
AND WE WENT. We had to go to a Starbucks and fucking decompress, because we were jittery and gleeful with squee. Because OMG, Pete! And William! And TAI! And GCH! And Travis! And SoaP(BI) ALL DAY LONG! (because you know I played the shit out of it all day long on my phone)
So, yes. That was Warped Tour LA for me and Laura. And it was motherfucking HOT and motherfucking SWEATY and we looked like SHIT most of the day - but damn, it was good fun. I will be the one to tell you that if you want to go to a show, Laura's an awesome person to go with. She's so enthusiastic and smart and funny and insightful, and I'm super-glad I met her, and I can't wait to go to Panic! shows with her. Thanks, Laura! You are the neatest!
In conclusion: YAY!
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