Kari's Concert Collection

Like Some Weird 80's Hair-Do

Someone said hey ya to Nate as they gave him his microphone. Nate made reference to the Outkast song "Hey Ya." I sat down amongst the others to watch the soundcheck. But not in the very front because that was so close it was almost too close. It was just a few feet in front of them. So they were all jamming on the instruments and telling the sound guy what needed to be louder. Gabe was playing this really cool bluesy guitar thing. I was happily surprised to hear the electric guitar, being it was advertised as an acoustic performance. Nate did have an acoustic guitar; I had never seen Nate play before. They played a little bit of "Be Love" and I believe "Sea Of Angels." It was interesting because Nate would be singing, stop to talk to someone, and then continue singing like nothing happened. It was nice to actually see a soundcheck for once, before I've only sorta heard soundchecks.

Their manager Teresa came to bring the guys over to where they were gonna be interviewed for something. As they walked out Gabe said, "Thank you, goodnight!" like that's all there was going to be. Some ventured over to watch the interview take place. I checked it out for a little bit. I think the interview was for a school TV program type thing. It wasn't exactly pro people running things. The camera guy had to keep telling the boom mic holder to keep it up out of the range of the camera. While talking someone near by had a cellphone ring that was a Christmas song. Nate said it was one more sign that Christmas was coming. Also said was that "Poor Man" is the favorite on the album, and the performance for described as "acoustic, but not really because there's an electric guitar and keyboards." I guess their definition of acoustic is just not as loud and on full power.

I then went back to sit. I was on the aisle sitting on the floor, and there were shoppers and people walking through. I eventually got sick of people walking by and it front of the stage, so I scooted forward to the "so close it's almost too close" section. Plus One music was playing over the speakers. I overheard a group of guys saying to each other, "Oh, this isn't so bad." and then found a place to sit as well. I think many people that came in just happened to be shopping and decided to stay and watch. There were maybe 100 people there, if that. Nice, intimate setting. I love it so much; more shows should be like this. I saw the camera crew from the interview setting up to film the performance. They were also interviewing random people.

Finally around 6:30 a DJ from LIFE net came out, threw out some Plus One T-shirts, and introduced the band. They came out and took their seats. It was a sit down thing, so no jumping around which made it easier to focus on taking some close headshots. I have so many Plus One concert photos it's nice to switch it up every once and a while. And when I call this a sit down thing, I don't just mean the band, it was the audience as well. A nice sit down and chill out show.

First song was "Tonight." What was nice about this situation is before each song they would talk a little about the writing process and explain what the song is about. A "VH1 Storytellers" type of thing. I don't remember everything they said because there was a lot of stuff going on, but this was the first song they wrote and it was written during the Obvious tour. During the song Nathan's piano went out on the PA system. Or as the conversation went after the song, Nate asks, "When did we lose you, on the bridge?" Nathan answered, "Yeah, it was on the bridge." And then Nate said "Oh, I didn�t notice." It was a funny conversation. As Nate was introducing the next song Nathan was messing with stuff to fix it. I was close enough to hear him explain what was wrong and hear the keys as he tested it. And it was fixed in time for the next song.

And the next song was "Circle," which just so happened to be the last song they wrote. I believe it was around here when Nate said he wished they could perform "Poor Man," but it was too much for a little bookstore. That's understandable, but it would've been fun to rock out in the middle of a bookstore. I also forgot to mention that at the beginning Nate said he actually likes the cold weather. Anyway "Circle" is a very pretty song. It was the only one that at the time I didn't know all the lyrics. Next they had us cheer and scream for Dan and Jamie, the backup band. One thing that made me happy was there were no screaming girls during the songs. Just noise between. Nice after the whole Good Charlotte fiasco.

Next song was "Sea Of Angels," my favorite of the performance. When the song was announced a girl went "woo" and Nate said maybe she would like to talk about it instead. Like I said, this was my favorite. To me it sounds the most like Coldplay, and they kinda act like Coldplay too. Nate did his best at dancing while sitting on the stool. He did a great swimming motion with his arms and kinda kicked his feet up. Nathan when really getting into the piano part hunched down and did this bouncing thing. And Gabe's guitar playing was amazing. There's a keyboard sounding thing at the beginning that reminds me of the sound in Linkin Park's "Crawling", but it was actually played on the guitar. It was so cool sounding. I noticed that I seemed to be the only one singing along in my area. I assume because not everyone has heard all the new stuff, but I was really starting to be infected with Nate's bounciness and found myself sorta doing it as well. In the corner of my eye I saw the camera panning over the audience and kinda stopping on me. Too bad I'll probably never see this thing on TV.

Next was an oldie, "The Promise." They mentioned how normally they would do more of the older songs, and promised to be coming back in the spring with the full on concert madness. Nathan mentioned how this was the first song they sang together. And I don't remember exactly when this happened, but a cell phone went off as they were talking and Nate joked, "We ask that all cellphones and pagers be turned off... kidding." Next song was the first single "Be Love." I heard someone behind me go "Yes!" Nate laughed and said that was something to be remembered and reenacted it, including an arm pump thing. At the end with the piano solo, Nathan made a face as he finished like, "Finally it's done." Gabe said how last week they did that song over and over again for different radio stations, and how it got to the point where at the piano part they would be like, "Is it over yet?" And Nate adds, "But it sounds nice so we like to hear it." Last song now, "Here I Am To Worship." Some people were like, "cool." Nate asks, "What, no 'Yes!'?" so some of us did the 'yes!' And everyone sang along and it was awesome even though the little girl behind me was very off-key. Oh, and before it began Nate was arguing with himself on the title of the song and said, "Okay, now I'm just being stupid."

And that's basically it for the concert portion of the event. The DJ came back out and announced that there would be an autograph line and showed where to line up. I then watched as half the crowd scrambled to get into that line. I waited until after the question and answer session. I didn't have a question prepared, and the DJ was even standing right next to me asking if anyone had a question. They were asked what they thought about the comparisons to Coldplay. Nate claimed he didn't know they were being compared to Coldplay, but you know he really did. He also said, "It's better than *NSYNC or Backstreet." Another asked if when they come back they would play Club 3 Degrees. They called it the hottest new Christian Nightclub. Gabe I think said, "If it's 3 degrees it's the coolest, not the hottest." Anyway, there was no definite answer to that question, but I hope they do. Another person commented that they should take the snow with them when it comes. Gabe said, "Yeah, we'll pack it into a suitcase."

Oh, and before the audience questions the DJ asked a few. Nathan said he used to be a DJ for a County Christian music station. They talked about the website. How the old site never got updated, but now they have the online journals. The DJ said they should write about the 'yes!' It was a girl's birthday, so we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. They said he name was Anna, but it turns out it was actually Hannah. And they mentioned that Gabe's birthday was coming up and said to send cards to 2nd St., Nashville, TN. I didn't remember the number, but a 7 was in it I think. And that was it for the Q&A.

I waited a while to get in line for the autograph line sense I had to wait until it was over anyway for the Street Team meet n greet. While waiting I met some cool people I knew from online message boards. *waves to everyone* One girl had nothing for them to sign, so we suggested her shoe. And she did it! Okay, and now I�m to the front. It was kind of a combined conversation. All three of them really liked the shirt. FYI- I wore the "Oops! I Went Rock!" shirt again. They were surprised that it was homemade and done without a stencil. Nate commented that he liked the hair, which made all of the frustration of putting it up worth it. I had put my hair up into a faux-hawk ponytail type thing, and it took some time to figure out how to make it look how it was supposed to. Gabe liked that I had long hair. So that was it basically for the autograph line.

Next I found my dad sitting and talking with Teresa. They were talking about traveling and bus rentals and stuff like that. I went over to where the Plus One Street Team was supposed to meet up. There was probably around a dozen of us there. So we basically chatted and waited for Plus One to finish up with the autograph line. A great moment was when we were all talking and stopped, all looked in the same direction and saw Nathan and Gabe walk by at that exact moment. It was called by someone a priceless moment, like in the MasterCard commercials. We were all herded over to a door. Well, first they had us go one way, and then brought us back around the other way. I started off in the back of the line, and ended up at the front. We hear someone say something, I didn't really catch what it was exactly, and there was Nate walking by to get to the room the others were in. It was really random.

The deal was six people at a time went to this little room in the back and hung out with the guys for a few minutes. I was in the first group. As soon as I walk in Nathan repeats the fact that he really likes the shirt and he was just talking about it with Gabe. They had us all say our names again as well as our message board screennames so they could put a face to the posts they read. Nate spelled my name out K-E-R-I, so I had to correct him that it was with an A, not an E. Nathan said something about the message boards being free to sign up, and the guys joked that he had to pay to be on it. They asked what kind of things we got for signing up for the Street Team. Gabe was like, "No shirts?" We talked about their online journals and the whole Rico thing and Nathan's haircut. Nathan said he didn't want "some weird 80's hair-do." Nate said he was also gonna get his hair cut by the same person, but then after Nathan's he was like, "Nope."

Someone commented that they should have done "Poor Man" anyway so we could start a moshpit in the middle of a bookstore. They guys, especially Gabe, were entertained by the idea of a moshpit. Not even three years ago they were a cutesy little choreographed boyband wearing matching outfits that performed to a track, and now it's MOSHPIT!! Crazy; gotta love it. Next was photo time. Nathan took someone's camera and played photographer. I saw the results, and they turned out pretty good. Gabe commented that another camera had a "machine gun flash." They took some weird face photos. Gabe said, "Yeah, that one's perfect." when Nathan was making this funny "durr" look. Nathan also reenacted some photos he's seen of himself, including the "pick n eat it" shots. Someone said they saw a really funny picture of Nate doing a somersault onstage during the Obvious Tour. Gabe asked, "He was already doing that stuff back then?" I unfortunately only had one photo left, so I just got one group shot and was unable to get any goofy photos.

And that wraps up the craziest, most exciting experience to date.

PHOTOS

back