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| July 22, 2000 | no doubt lit and black eyed peas at portland meadows Ex-Girlfriend Sunday Morning Bathwater Different People Magics in the Makeup Happy Now Just a Girl Home Now Staring Problem Simple Kind of Life Trapped in a Box New Dont Speak Excuse Me Mr. --encore-- Lit-My Own Worst Enemy Spiderwebs *note: I dont really want to explain who all these people are, because if you know them, then you know who Im talking about, but if you dont know them, then you probably don't know who Im talking about and it really wont make a difference who they are, now will it? My story starts Friday July seventh at about 9 PM. I had been calling the local radio station all day desperately trying to win passes to "Pig Out With No Doubt." At one point I had about twenty people calling for me!!! Sadly, no luck. I went to my friend Carly's house after what seemed a roller coaster of emotions. I of course continued listenng to the radio for more chances to win, calling the djs. . .trying to get any info out of them I could, but it seemed hopeless. A few hours passed and I was at dinner with Carly, her sister Lindsay and their mom. I know its rude, but i had brought my walkman radio and a cell phone with me to the restraunt just in case. Still no chances to win. Finally, we decided to take off to see Scary Movie. As Carly, Lindsay and I piled into the car, Gwen's voice came on the radio letting us know it was time to call in and win those passes. Carly and I whipped out our cell phones and began dialing. However, both of us being incredibly nervous and pumped full of adreniline, could not get the right number punched in. After two or three tries, we both finally got the right number. It seemed hopeless. The time to call seemed to have passed long ago. First try, busy. Second try, busy. All of a sudden Carly started screaming that it was ringing. . .that is always a good thing, much more comforting than the obnoxious beeps of the buisy tone. Marconi picked up and guess who the winners were? US!!! At this point, we had been driving a few blocks. Lindsay quickly yelled at Carly to pull over, and that's exactly what we did. We screamed for a few minutes until they put us on hold. I whipped out my walkman to listen to what was going on on the radio. They played back what had occured seconds ago and we were all screaming even louder! I was finally going to meet my heros of six years at a barbeque before the concert which takes place July 22! July 22 happens to be Carly's birthday!!! What an exciting day!!! No Doubt and me!!! Okay, the radio station finally called the other day and told us we could come to the station to pick up our stuff. We went the next day and when we got there they gave us the tickets but said the promotions people havnt worked out the bbq yet. Hmmmm. That didnt sound too good. Well, it wasnt. They called yesterday and informed us to goto the parking lot at 7:15 or so. . .i forget. Thats an hour and 15 minutes into the show, so I assume we will miss Lit. No biggie. My only concern is that I will lose any chance of a decent spot for No Doubt's show. Hopefully they will work that out for us, because I am sooooo excited to meet anyone in the band, but I still want to see the concert, you know? Finally, finally after three years. . .my favorite band came back in full force! Here I go. . .Im going to attempt to recapture all of the events that occured last night. Okay, first I went to Carly's house. While I waited for her we found out that one of our friends couldnt go with us so we tried to find someone else to go with us. No luck, but oh well. We got in the car around 2:30 which was way later than I would have wanted, but since I was going with a bunch of non No Doubters, it was the best I could do. We picked up my friend Kim at the gas station she works at and then we headed over to my friend Ryan's house where we waited for his friend Courtney. Once it was all good, we headed for Portland Meadows. Well, Ryan's stomach got in the way and we had to stop at McDonald's (puke)! Back on our way to Portland Meadows. How do I explain this part? Well, I had been so excited for this night for oh about two weeks, so I had pretty much died outa excitement for the rest of the car ride. I was mellow yellow if you know what I mean. I guess it was good though, because I conserved energy I would soon need. Finally we got there at about 3:40 or so. There were not very many people there, but there were quite a few noticable Gwenabees. I was pumped and ran to our spot in line while the others lolly gagged behind me. I planted on the ground because we now had to wait until 5 for the gates to open. I scanned the line a few times for Michelle and Katy (two girls I met waiting in line for tickets a couple months ago) but I couldnt find them. I planted again. I repeated the last two steps many times. Then the NRK van showed up so Carly and I went to check what was going on with the bbq. They told us to meet in the parking lot at 6:15. That was an hour before they had told us on the phone. Lucky we asked! So then the gates eventually opened so to speak at 5. Carly and I found a bench and sat there watching everyone go in. . .including our friends and then later a couple girls from my school and even later Katy and Michelle! They all were incredibly confused as to why we were sitting on the bench instead of going in, but when we explaind they all wanted to kill us. Some friends, ey? Jealous. . .its pure jealousy! After most of the people went inside we started to look for the real promotions chick. It turns out we were talking to the survive Marconi victims instead of nrk staffers. bummer. We found her and she started checking us all off on her list of people. Yeah, we didnt even get backstage passes! Believe me, I asked if we could have them, but i guess they didnt want us to have them. The promotions lady introduced us to some representatives. One was from interscope. . . thats all I remember. He was cool. I asked if he could make me a fake pass just for fun, but he kinda laughed at me. oh well. That guy explained what was going to happen and then had the stupid fat butt security guard tell us the rules (no cameras ect) whatever! So the interscope guy took all of our cameras and then we went through security and stood around inside the gates for a while until they were ready for us. I was showing everyone the picture I made for the band since everyone seemed intrested. A guy with a lot of earings told me it was acceptable. Ill explain the picture real quick for your simple enjoyment. I made a sccratchboard (if you dont know what it is, dont ask) picture of each band member and stuck them all on a piece of silver paper. Then I put all that in a frame I painted bright pink and glittered all over except for the top on which I wrote "No Doubt" in glitter. Now they let us go back to the tent. Me and Carly and my friend Molly (a girl from my school) and Connor showed up and sat with us right in the front of the tent. The promotions lady handed our cameras back. Soon after Lit came in. I am not the biggest fan of Lit so I really didnt care. I got my picture taken with them for the hell of it and thats about all I have to say about that. I went back to my chair, because I noticed Adrian was there. I have read about a woman suit he has worn at a few shows, so I asked him about it and he was like "where have you seen that" with a cute little grin on his face. I told him I heard about it from friends that went to other shows and he just kinda giggled that I knew about it. I asked him if he was going to wear it for the show and he was like "I dunno, maybe" and he laughed some more. Tom was by my table so I said Hi. He said hi back. He is a funny guy. I didn't say much, because I really didnt know what to say. I had more questions I wanted to ask, but I didnt want to intrude or take too much time so I just hung back for a while. Molly and I decided to get more autographs. I got my Full Circle single signed by Gwen, Tom and Adrain. Tony was talking to Marconi and I didnt want to interrupt Molly got a blown up Return of Saturn cover promotional thing signed. I got one too, but I didnt get it signed. Tom was cool. I told him I was sorry to bother him again and he was like "No, thanks for being forward about it." I was a little confused by that, but it sounded good I guess. Next, the pushy radio people and the body guards told us to go sit down so we could start taking pictures. After we sat down they said we could get in line to get our pictures with the band. Why did we sit down again? hehe. I guess they were just demonstrating their power. I noticed Gwen talking into a microphone over to the side. I realized that it was Marconi! Gwen was trying to do one of those radio things for the comercials or whatever and she said "Hi this is Gwen from No Doubt and you are listening to 97 NRK." Close but no cigar Gwen! She was trying to say 94.7 NRK, but oh well. Then she asked Marconi if she could do it later. I said "Good job Gwen" kinda sarcastically, but I dont think she heard me. Carly and I were first in line to get our pictures taken so I went and stood by Adrain. The guy snapped the picture with my camera and then we walked over to our table again. I cleaned up my stuff and it was time to go. We got in the concert after a couple of Lit songs. I am not so into Lit, like I said. . .so I just stood in the back with Courtney reflecting on my encounter with No Doubt. It was so surreal. After a couple of songs I have never heard, a guy got hurt and Lit stopped playing. Oh, bummer. They had to bring in a backboard and all that. The singer made a new rule for us: "if you are over 180 pounds you should not crowd surf and you should not land on people smaller than you." I guess that is what happened. A big guy landed on top of a smaller guy and he got hurt. Lit started to play again (I think this was after that part). The singer started talking about when they took over the radio station the night before and they asked if anyone remembered their proposition. I had no clue. They proposed to shave a girl's head and she would get money and watch the rest of the show from backstage. Pretty crazy stuff. So Adrian came out and shaved the girl's head. Finally Lit had to leave even though they werent done. boo hoo. It was time to set up for No Doubt. By the way, I saw Tom watching Lit from the side. Just thought Id share that. No Doubt time!!!! The space Odessey thing or whatever that opening is came on. I saw Tony run out, but I was buisy trying not to step on people as Ryan pulled me through the crowd. I got up on his shoulders cuz I am an unfortunate midget (Gidget) and couldnt see a dang thing! A few minutes later this girl in fornt of me started yankin this other girl off some guy's shoulders cuz she couldnt see. I was crackin up cuz it was like this cat fight right in front of me when I was doing the same thing. Thank god I wasnt in front of her!!! Ok, now I guess Ill go through all the excitement of the concert song by song! Lucky you!!! First of course was Ex-Girlfriend. I cant say anything too exciting happened. They did a great job. I was pretty distracted by the girls in front of me though. That could be why I dont remember this song too well! The whole band changed out of what they were wearing at the bbq as far as I remember. Tom may have worn the same thing, but everyone else changed I believe. Gwen had a whie shirt with some pink face on it and her pink pants and a sparkly scarf. Tony had a white muscle man shirt Adrian had those rainbow shorty shorts and Tom was wearin some dark outfit. Next was Sunday Morning. . .one of my favorites!!! Well, at least from Tragic Kingdom. No sing along, that kinda stunk, but oh well. I like those sing alongs! The crowd was goin wild on this one. I was going wild, but also tryin not to fall on my butt. . .hehe! Bathwater: This song is for sure my favorite song on Return of Saturn! It reminds me of the old stuff, but its got the new twist. . . for example they arent singin about gettin teeth pulled and stuff. Not that I dont love all those songs. . .I do, but most of the songs do have pretty weak lyrics! I dunno, I just love this song. It was amazing live! Gwen had the audience do the part at the end "du du du du du du du." You know what Im talkin about, right? Differnt People was next. I think it had a lot more energy on the Tragic Kingdom tour, but it was still cool! This is the last song I could actually see, so it was kinda sad. . . but I guess it would have sucked if I killed Ryan with my fat arse! Well, when he let me down I did fall on my butt, so heh. Molly laughed at me. Magics in the Makeup. I like this song, but I would have been much more thrilled to be bouncing around singin at the top of my lungs some more! Im sorry Im not remembering much from these songs. Im tryin!!! "Happy, happy happy. . . Are you happpy now?" Yup Happy Now was next. I think at this point this girl in front of me was tryin to do the skank. . .you know the dance that Gwen does sometimes with the arms and all the kicking? Yeah, I got kicked in the shins many times and slapped in the stomach. That was not very enjoyable, but the song was awesome as usual. I love this song live even though it is not one of my favs on the cd. Carly said she got really scared on this song, since she is not quite the fan we all should be. Yes folks, it was Just a Girl and Gwen did the traditional arguaing and "fighting" with the crowd goin "What the fuck are you staring at" and so forth. Then she did some pushups. Some guy in the front was making fun of her for only doing three i guess. Thats kinda mean. Once again, no sing along :( No Doubt played Home Now next. I was a little surprised they played this one, because it was one of the songs you could vote for on the official site. It was cool though. I love that song. . .just kinda slow. I like the lyrics a lot. Its sad and obviously about Gavin. How sweet! "I know that you know how I feel. . .giiiirlies!" Staring Problem!!! This is my favorite song on ROS besides Bathwater!!! I think this is the song that really made my throat hurt! I was screaming all the words. At the beginning of the song (I think it was this one) Gwen mentioned how Portland was soooo loud on the TK tour. . .and she wasnt joking. . .she had to tell us to calm down and shut up and stuff so she could talk. Then she told everyone to sing with her as soon as they knew what was going on. Of course I was on top of it!!! "S-t-a-r-i-n-g" Oh, I love that song!!! I stare a lot too Gwen! People watching is one of my favorite things to do! I guess thats a little different than staring, but same difference. I think on this song Gwen asked us if she could skip it. Of course everyone said no so they played Simple Kind of Life. This song is cool. . .slow, but cool! I kinda gave the singin a rest on this one. My throat was really hurting and of course I wasnt moving to get water!!! Now it was time for the web poll winner! I started chanting "No Doubt, No Doubt" as soon as Gwen started talking about the internet poll. Actually I didnt vote for that song, but I knew from that morning that it was a tie between No Doubt and Oi to the World. I seriously doubted it would be Oi, since it is kind of a Christmas song. To my surprise and extreme pleasure. . .the band selected Trapped in a Box (the song I had been voting for all along!). I have this song on mp3 from a long time ago at Cal State Fullerton or whatever (well, I have most of the live mp3s, but this is one of my favs from the old skool No Doubt) and I jumped and sang the whole time! This song is one of the truly amazing ones from back in the day! The video is hilarious too. . . pretty dang good for such a low budget! New is the next song. This song is soooo cool live! I am so glad they released this one early for Go! Gwen once again talked about how loud we were last ime and that if we didnt sing with her on this next song they would stop. Dont Speak of course. I know this song took the band "around the world" or whatever, but I have to admit its not one of my favorites. Either I heard it one too many times or I just am not the hugest fan of No Doubts slow ballads. Well, I love the song. . .I just got sick of it for a while. Anyhoo, Ive never heard the guitar solo on electric guitar so that was cool to have some change in it. Gwen came out this time and told us that she didnt get very many presents this time (I already gave her mine so I was off the hook I figured) so people started throwing stuff at her. She got a good armfull of bracelets care of the raver people and some sunglasses and even an order of chinese food and skittles. When she oppened the Chinese boxes she was like "what the fuck is this?" I think she was expecting something more exciting to be inside. Then she threw the skittles at the crowd, probably because she cant eat stuff that gets thrown on stage! Now they went into Excuse Me Mr. This song rawks live!!! I remember it from TK. I know on TK Tony and Gwen did all the jumping over eachother and I think they did it this time too. Well, it was either this song or Just a Girl or somethin. So they got through the song a bit and then the sing along! Gwen climbed the side of the stage and when she got up to the top she explained how important this was and then she had the guys go "Excuuuuuuse me. . . Excuse me mr." and it was not so good. So Gwen was like "do I need to come down and get you guys?" and of course they said yes, so Gwen made her way back down the tower. She tried again and whoa!!! The guys were soooo loud so she made them do it a couple more times. She seriously looked shocked by this and she even asked Tony what he thought! So now it was the girls turn. Um, it was loud, but it was clear that the guys won. Since Gwen likes the girls to win, she was just kinda like "okay, lets just do it all together. . .you guys are so amazing!" So we all sang "Excuuuuuuse me. . .Excuse me mr." a couple of times and then the song was over and it was encore time. After a surprisingly short time, the lights came back on. I got back on Ryan's shoulders and guess who came out! Lit. Not a thrill for me, but Ryan went back in the pit. This time I didnt fall on my ass though getting down, so it was all good. Lit palyed My Own Worst Enemy. The thrill the excitement. They didnt get to play that due to that guy's stupidity earlier. Now all the bands came out and finished up with Spiderwebs. Oh, best part of the show. . . Adrian pulled down his little shorty rainbow shorts and danced around the stage!!! Wooo hooo! This song is cool cool cool! I am tired so Im sure you can deal with no big story on this song! At some point during the show, Im not sure when. . .but during the beginning Gwen mentioned it was Carly's birthday. . .so that was cool i guess for her. And Gwen went throught the whole thing about how they have fooled a lot of us and that they are a bunch of nerds (except Tony, she said). Whatever Gwen. . .we are all nerds and loosers in different ways. . .some more prominant than others!
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