Who: Jump Little Children • Red Wanting Blue
After the previous night's show with Jump, Little Children, I was expecting really great things. I know that Red Wanting Blue has a massive fan base in Ohio, but I really didn't think that more than 100 people would turn up for the show. Johnna, my friend from Spanish class who took me to my first Red Wanting Blue show and would be my lover if she was a man, was planning to meet her friends there, and Mike the Volunteer Team Leader was a maybe, but I had somehow coerced Josh Rea (November 5th, 2001) into making me his sole reason for being there. He was already in line when I arrived, as were about twenty other people, and after I berated myself for being late, we shimmied up to the ticket counter to grab our goods. Once inside, Josh busied himself with the posters on the wall, so I went on down to the floor to get myself some front-row action. I saddled up to the grate that separates the crowd from the stage, nudged my way in between two people, and asked them which band they were there to see. The guy to my left looked at me, dumbstruck, but the girl to my right answered that she was a Jump girl. I took the opportunity to gab about the night before in Struthers and the meeting of the band and such, as if she would care. But care she did.
Josh came down to the floor and complained about the fact that he was going to have to stand all night. Usually, I'm all about the sitting at concerts, but when it's your band, you're willing to sacrifice your feet, and you expect your friends to, too. And Josh did after I assured him that we wouldn't be staying for Red Wanting Blue and he would only be standing for an hour. He then threatened the band in several different ways, claiming that he would cause them rectal discomfort and such if they failed to come onstage on time. I attempted to explain the band's sound to him, but I believe that I only left him feeling rather apprehensive about whether or not he had just wasted $8. He was, however, excited by the pink mandolin and the flying V, so I had faith that he would enjoy the soiree. One of Josh's "friends" from high school happened to come and stand not 5 feet from us, so Josh proceeded to attack him and make small talk as if he and guy had really shared something special during high school, only to tell me later that he couldn't stand the guy. He also accused me of thinking that the guy was hot, because, you know, if all other girls think someone is hot, then I must think the person is hot, because I'm exactly like every other girl alive. Uh . . . huh. Josh kept making fun of Red Wanting Blue and talking of his absolute hatred of them, and all of the fans around us kept glaring at him and plotting his demise and such, so I had to keep quieting him. We discussed the Radiohead show from last summer and the fact that Josh is prone to bawling like a baby at the drop of a hat until Johnna found us. We petted each other and stroked each other's hair as we always do, and then I asked Johnna if she was wearing her WELFARE panties, because man, she has a pair. She bought them at the thrift store, and they actually say WELFARE on them, which I really think is far beyond cool. She showed me her panties and Josh was frightened and I explained my newly-discovered amazement of Matt until Jump came out a few minutes later.
People clapped. Like a lot of people. And this wasn't just oh-look-there's-finally-a-band-onstage clapping. This was real I-have-genuine-interest-in-seeing-this-band clapping. I was impressed with my town. Setlist, I say:
Too High :: Perhaps a better choice for an opener than even Vertigo was. Way to show Jay's vocal range right off the bat.
Hey, yeah. I enjoyed the setlist far more Friday night than Thursday. True, I didn't get to hear Say Goodnight, but I did hear U Can Look, and well, that's just a crazy good time. Plus, I had downloaded Darkest Love to make myself familiar with it the night before, and it was even more inexplicably incredible when I was able to sing along with it. I adored the fact that when Jay looked down at me, I knew that he knew that I want to jar his voice and preserve it for sad days after I had told him such the night before, and even Ward gave me a double-take as if to say, "Oh, look. It's that psycho from Struthers." If it had been my first Jump show, it would have been the night for me, but as it was my second Jump show, I had some basis for comparison and therefore wasn't totally satisfied. 1) The venue was too large. I wanted to be deaf as I had been the night before when I walked away from the stage. But the Newport has a whole lot of room and the sound did a whole lot of bouncing. 2) The crowd was too large. In Struthers, I had felt like I was one of ten people in the room, and five of those people were the band. In Columbus, I could hear people behind me and knew that I was going to take someone out if I got too rowdy in my little dance/jump/shake number. 3) Red Wanting Blue is making a DVD of this little tour that they're on, so this camera kept swinging over the crowd and in front of Jay while he was singing, apparently to test the angles out. Annoying. Really, though, it was just so good. I was proud of the band for doing songs like Ordinary Girl that not too many of us knew, and I spent the entirety of the splendor thinking about all of the things that I wanted to talk to them about after the show.
When they left the stage, I asked one of the security folk if he could grab me a setlist, and he asserted that he's not allowed to grab anything off of the stage. I didn't argue with him or even offer him Johnna's body in exchange for breakin' the rules, but I hadn't written the set down as I always do at concerts, so I needed one of them there things. So, when one of the roadie-types leaned down in front of me to gather some gear, I called to him to toss one to me. He ignored me, so I pleaded. He ignored me still, so I acted as if I was going to cry and pleaded more still. (Yeah, so I'm obnoxious when I want something. I needed it, all right?) He finally looked at me, reached down and grabbed two of them, and threw them off the stage in my direction. The gap between the stage and the grate that separated me from it had seemed so small during the show, but the setlists were floating toward the floor, and my arms had become stumps of their former selves. I grabbed at lists, which were clinging together, but they escaped me. Knowing that I could do nothing once they hit the concrete, I made another desperate lunge and amazingly wrapped my grubby paws around one of them. I felt like Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when he found his Golden Ticket, holding the thing above my head as I made my way out of the crowd, making sure that the jealous onlookers didn't attempt to accost it.
Josh and I made our way out to the lobby, where he borrowed money from me to buy a copy of Vertigo and where the merch girls from the night before found me and asked if I remembered them. We talked for a moment, but then I saw Johnna step into the lobby, look around, and leave, so I followed her back into the main room to see what she thought of the concert. She rejected my presupposition that she would adore Matt and expressed her desire for Ward instead and spoke of her love for Red Wanting Blue's manager, who allows her to rub his head and such. Just as I was asking her where she thought Jump would go when they left the stage and whether or not I was good to go if I went behind the joint to wait for them, Jonny came cruising out in his incognito toboggan and strolled past us. Without thinking, totally instinctively, I called out, "Jonny!" and immediately shielded my eyes from all of the shiny globs of lameness that were dripping out of me. It was more of a "Hey, look!" sort of thing meant for Johnna than a "Hey, get over here!" sort of thing meant for Jonny, but nonetheless, he stopped and turned, and I was caught. He recognised me from the night before and gave me a hug as I walked toward him with my tail between my legs. I didn't plan on hugging him. I don't know him nearly well enough to hug him. But before I knew it, his arms were around me, and I was feeling his sweaty t-shirt in my hands. I eventually asked if the other guys were coming out, and he told me that they were all sort of doing their own thing, so he wasn't sure what the plan was. I implored him to tell me that they were all going to join together as one to guarantee my happiness, but he refused. I released him when he wouldn't lie to me, and he headed for the lobby. When Johnna and I were finished, I went back out to the lobby to apologise to Josh for running away from him, and he pointed out the fact that Jonny was mingling with the lobby-fied fans. I made up my mind not to attack him again and instead began arguing with Josh about whether he should go or stay. He made the mistake of saying something to the effect of "the night is young", which is absolutely one of the worst things someone can say to me. I'm the kind of girl who thinks that anyone who's with me should be focusing only on me and should not be thinking about what he's going to do with his friends as soon as he can escape from me. But Josh obviously was, so I tried to make him feel super bad about it and gave him The Pouty Look™; that let him know that I was not at all happy with the situation. He asked me not to look at him like that, so I expressed my dissatisfaction with him and then told him to leave. So, Josh left but not before telling me that he couldn't have sex with Matt because he's apparently unattracted to buck teeth. Yeah, who had ever even noticed that Matt has buck teeth? Not I.
After Josh left, I hung out with the merch girls for a while and learned that their names are Jacquelyn and Jessi. They go to school in West Virginia and travel around with the band like the scary groupies that we all want to be, because they know the band's manager. In fact, over Spring Break, they're planning to go to North Carolina with Jump, so I coveted them for a bit until they just up and asked me along. I swear, I don't know why men have such a hard time getting girls' numbers. All I have to do is make fun of girls in pink pants, and I'm in. See, since The Merch Girls have spent so much time with the band, they're apparently very disillusioned toward the fans. They were really just making fun of everyone who was talking to Jonny, especially a particular girl who was wearing a pink shirt, pink satin pants, and a tan jacket. It was just bad, bad times, and The Merch Girls let subtley her know it. I was all about their sarcasm and cynicism and wit, and apparently, they were all about mine. Jessi claimed that she asked Jonny to sign her breast, and thinking that it was a fine way to commemorate the occasion, I made her call Jonny over to actually do just that.
When she said his name and he turned to her with a wink, she just pulled down her shirt and popped one of them suckers out; Jonny cuddled up close to it for a picture after slapping his signature on it, and my night was complete.
Actually, that's a lie. My night was far from complete, because I hadn't seen the rest of the band yet. The night before, when Matt and I had discussed the Newport and where I could find him after the show, we settled on the lobby, where the band could stand and sell their wares to the starving college kids. And yet, the band was nowhere to be found. I waited and waited and waited. Jacquelyn told me her deepest, darkest, saddest secrets, while Jessi flirted with Jump's manager to make Jacquelyn jealous. They were great fun, but Red Wanting Blue was playing Decorator, and I couldn't let anyone know that I really dig that song and risk losing all of my friends, so I was forced to use all of the goodness within me to control my urge to sing along. Finally, I was all waited out and admitted to myself that I was going to fall over dead at work the next morning if I didn't get some sleep, so I said good-bye to The Merch Girls and headed for home.
I was let down. I was disappointed. I was hurt and confused and depressed. I had been lied to. I realise that bands can't exactly go around telling the truth to everyone about everything, but somehow I expected that Matt would know that he's part of my band and therefore had to tell me the truth. But alas, I was left remembering the night before and wishing that I hadn't even come to the Newport. I felt betrayed. And decided to refuse to drive anywhere to see Jump ever again. Because I'm childish. And I imagine that the world revolves around me, so I somehow think that my not showing up at shows I planned to show up at will somehow affect Jump. Like they'll recognise the lack of me think, "Wait a second. Katie's not here! What could we have done to make her unhappy with us?!" Hey, it could happen.
Later, I talked to Johnna, and was horrified to hear that Jump had actually come out to the lobby when Red Wanting Blue was finished. Of course they did. That's what all of the bands do. So now I'm forced to live with the fact that not only did Johnna get to talk to the boys and I did not, but it's my own bloody fault that Johnna got to talk to the boys and I did not. That hurts, friends. That hurts a lot. However, now I can rest assured that I was not lied to. And I can once again feel justified in traversing the globe for the sake of hearing my band live.
Where: Newport Music Hall • Columbus, Ohio
When: February 8th, 2002
Vertigo :: This song amused me, because Jay totally forgot the words to one of the verses. He kind of mumbled some random words in place of the ones that should have been there. It reminded me of mouthing watermelon when I used to forget the words to songs back in my choir days. It was cute.
Habit :: The best way for me to describe this song is to quote Josh Rea: "I do NOT like the cock. But let me say this,...If there was one guy who could have TURNED me gay,...it would have been that Matt." Mmm-hmm.
Come Around :: I like the lyrics to this song. I don't like the notes of the lyrics with the notes of the music, though. Yet still, I was somehow looking forward to seeing it live. I wasn't let down.
Darkest Love :: Brother. This song has such a build up. It's all Jay-y goodness at the start but you know that something is coming and you know that something is Matt and you wait and wait and it comes and you're just . . . blown away . . . by how much you want to weep or sit down or hump the person next to you. It's just . . . that . . . good.
Words of Wisdom :: A lyrical masterpiece. Sounds better live than I ever could have imagined.
Cathedrals :: I don't like this song. I've said it before. I'll say it again. I don't like it. It was very amusing to me when Josh tapped me on the shoulder when it was over and asked the name of it. It's his favourite. Of course.
Angel Dust :: I lived on the Dockstreet version of this song this summer. It was actually better than the album version ended up being, but this is pretty much the definitive Vertigo song for me. Jay's voice is so unbelievably resonant, and the strength with which he hits the words feelin' that I'm gonna get burned always knocks me down, bewilders me. I needed this song Friday night.
U Can Look :: I had actually been listening to this song not ten minutes before I left for the concert, because it was always my favourite of the Matt songs before The Singer came along. I was totally shocked to hear it. Shocked. Jublilant. Exhilarated.
Ordinary Girl :: Once again, cool song. Glad to hear it brought out of hiding.
Not Today :: Magazine songs were a big hit with the pseudo-fans. I would have rather had more Vertigo or maybe somethin' crazy like Johnny Jump Up, but hey, I'm all about keeping people happy.
Afterlife :: Yay unreleased songs. This was better here than in Struthers. By far.
My Guitar :: Nothin' like two guitar gods joining as one to give the crowd a good rilin'-up. Great closer.
The Matt pose.
Look at that orgasm face. Uh-huh, uh-huh.
It really hurts me that this picture is so darn dark and won't scan well. Trust me; it's a friggin' work of art if I've ever seen one.