After parking, we walked around Baltimore and went to the inner harbor. We took some pictures, watched a very mean-spirited street performer, and ate lunch at Panera. It was only a little after 3:00 PM, but we decided to head back to Sonar and wait since we didn't really have anything else to do.
We sat down on the other side of the street on these log things and watched as the band members went inside to do sound check. Tom walked across the street before heading inside to talk to this fan in a wheelchair who it seemed went to a lot of their shows (Steph said she also saw him when we were at 9:30 Club a couple weeks ago). I kind of stared at Tom (at first trying to figure out if it really was him since he was wearing a hat so the easily recognizable hair was covered up). He looked at me but didn't say anything, and since he was talking to the other guy, I didn't even try to say hi.
After a while, we decided to move to the other side of the street and stand right by the doors. There was another JEW fan there whom we had seen when we first got there at 1:00. She had traveled to Baltimore from New York I think (my memory flubs on some things). It was over an hour before the next couple of fans showed up to stand in line. During our wait, the band members kept going back and forth as well as roadies. The Pipettes were also playing at the club, so we saw them and their roadies, too. I liked their shoes a lot.
At one point when Rick passed by, he leaped over the metal barricade and went, "Woo!" or something. That made me and Steph smile. Apparently all of their families were with them (although I think it was just Jim's and Zach's because I only saw Jim's wife and Jim's and Zach's kids), and at one point Jim walked inside with them, and as he did, he looked at me and Steph sitting on the corner and said hi to us. I said hi back, and afterwards I was like, "OMG! Jim and I just said hi to each other! How awesome was that?!" I don't get out much. Until yesterday, the biggest celebrity I ever met and actually spoke with was F. Murray Abraham.
Fellow JEW boardie Penny and her husband showed up and stood with us. We finally got to go inside a little after 7:00. At that point Steph and I were acting very weird from the cold and very long wait. I scurried front and center and tripped onto the platform. They need to put some glow-in-the-dark tape on those things dammit. At around 8:00 Viva Voce went on.
A little background before I continue. We saw Viva Voce when they opened for JEW at the 9:30 Club. I liked them a lot and even friended them on myspace right afterwards. A lot of JEW boardies, however, were not of the same opinion and tore them to shreds on the board, especially the drummer. So for the record, Steph and I were among the very few people who liked Viva Voce after seeing them play with JEW (oh, and at the 9:30 Club the guitarist called them Jimmy Eats World and basically alienated half the fans right there).
After a couple of songs, I thought, you know, I really like some of these songs. I think I'll buy the album. The thing was, I was standing right in front of the guitar amp and thought my heart was going to explode from the vibration. I also couldn't hear them well from the high frequencies and noise. Steph just thought it was too noisy, but nonetheless, we both stuff our fingers over our ears. I was amazed to find out that by doing this, I blocked out the high frequencies and noise and could actually hear the singing and everything sounded normal and good.
But apparently, the drummer had a huge issue with us doing this because after like the second song, he said something like, "This is for the girls in the front row covering their ears. You are in for a long night!" Everyone else thought he was just joking and playing with us, but I could tell he was being extremely nasty and spiteful. I watched as he kept turning something up, and he also tried to play harder. Mature, dude. Very mature. What was even better was towards the end of that song, he threw a cymbal at us! A cymbal! That shit has an edge to it, and if it had been a couple inches higher, it would have hit us and hurt us pretty badly. I was so shocked at what happened, what could I do but take a picture of the cymbal? After I took the picture, he threw is drumsticks at us, too. One ended up with the cymbal. I think the other flew into the audience. Oh, and before he even started picking on us, some guy in the audience started heckling them screaming, "REMEMBER THE ALAMO!!!" The drummer had a shirt on that said "The Alamo". The audience thought it was funny. He did not, but apparently he decided he couldn't chuck a cymbal that far.
Stephanie still thought it was a joke, but I was pissed. I stopped covering my ears because I didn't care if I could hear the vocals or not. All I heard was really bad feedback crap for the rest of their set. Whatever.
Oh, it doesn't stop there!
He decided we hadn't learned our lesson or felt his wrath I guess because the second to last song he "dedicated" to "The girl in the hoodie in the front row who [insert the incoherent babble of a drunk] Pringles [more babble]". Again, people continued to think it was a joke, including Steph (the girl in the hoodie) who laughed, though none of us really heard exactly what he said, but oh, I knew the gist of the first part of what he said, and I wanted to run up on stage and beat him with a guitar. That was not cool. When we were standing outside waiting to come in, Penny asked us if we liked the opening band. Steph and I said yes, but Penny said she didn't. And who ends up being attacked at the show?
And the finale. "This is our last song." Thank god! At the end of the song, he decided to throw half of his drumset at us. And I think that's when the audience realized it wasn't a joke, he really could have and tried to hurt us, I'm pretty sure the last drumstick he threw did hit Stephanie, and the guy was clearly drunk and angry, but that's no excuse or reason to treat people like that. Especially people you are trying to win over and sell something to. If I was handed a group of potential clients by some famous photographer, I would never take it for granted and slap one in the face or something. Who the fuck does that?
Enough of that! On to the important stuff!
Jimmy Eat World came on the stage half an hour later. They were brilliant! They sang a couple of songs they didn't at 9:30, so that was good. I could see Zach better this time from where I was standing. The stage at Sonar is narrower, so the guys were a little closer together. I was also closer to Rick this time (last time we were in front of Tom), so I could hear him better, which is a treat because he rarely sings. We were right in front of Jim, so this time he looked even sweatier. hahaha I told Steph that when he came out his shirt looked made of cotton, but after the first couple of songs it looked more like a shiny material. He was drenched and dripped all over his guitar and set list. I was worried he might get electrocuted. It may sound like I'm exaggerating, but I am definitely not. The other guys remained completely dry. But then again, Jim is the only one who dances around, and he has some really sexy moves. I love when he dances, and after the show I tried to come up with names for each of his moves.
Towards the end of the last song, some guy bum rushed the stage. I have it on video.
After the show ended, we waited around trying to get picks and set lists. Steph got Jim's pick and (maybe Rick's) set list. The woman who got Jim's sweat-drenched set list, I asked her what she would do with it. Sleep with it under her pillow? She was really nice; earlier we had talked with her about how disgustingly crazy the Viva Voce drummer had acted.
Apparently it started raining (but not hard, so that was good), and so not a lot of people waited around outside for the band to come out. In fact, Steph, Penny, her husband, and I were like the last ones standing after only half an hour. There were people coming out from the Pipettes and people standing around because they got scammed at a parking lot and their cars got towed (I felt so bad for them. $300 towing fee!).
After a while, we flagged down Tom. He has really sleepy eyes, so it made me feel like we were bothering him, but he was very nice and signed our liner notes and took pictures with us. Then we flagged down Rick and got his autograph as well. We were more timid about asking for pictures, but then we decided this was our only chance and chased after him. Jim passed by but was holding a bunch of stuff and said he would drop it off and come back. We caught Zach who seemed in a hurry, and he said he would give us autographs when he came back. A few minutes later he did, and he still seemed like he was in a hurry, so we didn't even bother to ask for pictures. We were just grateful we got the autographs, especially Steph who said she always missed him and wondered if he existed.
We waited around for I have no idea how long and kept seeing Tom and Rick pass by. Penny and her husband had bought Jim a birthday present, but when it was clear he wasn't coming back out (and who can blame him? His family was with him, and he was clearly exhausted), they decided to ask the next person they saw to give him the book. It was Rick. He is so incredibly down to earth. We were on the other side of the street, and he told us he would come to us, which completely threw me off because I was thinking, 'You're Rick! It should be us crossing the street to you! Who cares if we get hit by a car?'
They explained the book (and I kept interjecting and then backing off...I think I just really wanted to talk to Rick, but it was their present, which is why I felt guilty after every time I spoke). He took it and thanked us again for coming to the show.
So it was between midnight and 1:00 I believe when we finally left. Roads were blocked off, so Steph ended up asking a cop for directions, and he was so nice that he actually told us to follow him to where we needed to be. And I think the story ends here. Good times.
Click here for more pictures from the concert.
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