Westbeth Shows
12.1.99 and 12.2.99
We planned on one show...
We went to two.
...and began a meaningful friendship...

I'm not too sure when we decided to go to the Westbeth show in NYC. The time span stretches from the Conan O'Brian show to the 9:30 Club show. Whenever it was decided, we never expected for all the fun that was in store for us. The final group for this trip: Laura, Atasi, and Gwynne. Yes, Laura and Gwynne are the Fru-Virgins for this trip.

So, we're on the road at about 2:00pm. I'd say that the first 20 minutes of the trip really set the mood. Before getting on I-81, we stopped to get gas. I offered to pay first...a wise decision on my part cause the tank was already 3/4 full. Tee hee.
from Laura: "Amy's cheap!! We decided we'll take turns paying for gas. Well, the genius up front said she'd pay for gas first. Ok, that's cool...Except she only had to pay liek $2.00. But she bought $3 batteries so that makes up for it. Right."
Ain't I a stinker? Oh, well. The owner of the car should get certain privileges.

On the interstate, about 5 min out of the 'burg, I'm asked to look in the backseat. My stuffed frogs (toys...not dead frogs that are stuffed...geez! you people have sick minds!) are dangling from the 'Oh Shit!' handles, chillin on the backs of the front seats, and being tossed in the air by Laura and Atasi. During my observations, the car wanders to thenext lane. This is followed by my saying, "Oh look! We're in another lane!"...don't worry...this happens all the time with me. :-)

Anyways, so ya. We had a good time on our way up to NYC. Fruvous was playing almost the entire time cause Gwynne (surprisingly) had never really heard their music. It's not like I wasn't her RA the year before or one of her closest friends. Whateva.

Ok, so we get into the city around...oh, I don't know. Atasi was driving and Gwynne was navigator. First observation about driving around the city: slow down while driving toward the Hollan Tunnel! There's this really sharp turn that you don't expect and boy did it get us. I swear to you...I thought we were done for. By the way, really funny thing happened while we were paying the $4 for the Hollland Tunnel. So, we go through the toll booth thing and Atasi gives the lady our money. As we're driving away (from the toll booth!) Atasi goes, "Was that the tunnel?" hahahaha. Silly Atasi...that was just the toll booth! Second observation: always expect to get lost! Yes, yet again, we got lost...The directions from mapquest said for us to take Joe DiMaggio Hwy. That's great...but there is no Joe DiMaggio Hwy. It was renamed West or something like that. Ya, nice for someone to let us know!

After taking the Manhattan Bridge (or whatever it is called), having a really quick and totally hillarious pit stop, and getting directions from this awesome guy at the Mobile Service Station (thanks, Gwynne, for running in to get the directions!), we made it to the Westbeth Theatre. And, there it went. Sadly, there were no parking spaces. Two or three blocks later, we parked (Atasi's a great parallel parker!), and were at the club around 8:30pm. The concert started at 8:00pm, but it was ok cause there were two openers. We planted ourselves stage Dave (of course!) and chilled. Gwynne wasn't feelin the vibe which is understandable considering she was dead tired and she hates the feeling of being closed in. She hung out by the pillar and it was all good.

Now that I think about it, I think that Lisa and Val were standing behind us. Can anyone confirm or deny that? Just wondering. Anyways, so we're chillin and I start looking around for this chick named Jordan. She had posted on the newsgroup that she was headed to the shows and was wondering if anyone wanted to meet up with her during the course of the night. Not knowing the true intentions of this post ;-), I emailed her and we decided that we'd see each other when we'd see each other. So, I'm looking around for her, spot her, and send Atasi and Laura over (cause I'm passive like that). They talk with her, point me out, we wave, and Atasi and Laura come back. Jordan said to catch up with her after the show. Well, I'm glad that ireceived her approval to be seen with her. ;-)

Fruvous put on a *great* show as always. Let me take you through the concert: Setlist; great improv about the name Westbeth (complete with lisps--groovy for me since I have a slight one) with audience participation; and it looks like that's all to comment about for this show. It was fun, though. Dave kinda hit his mic with his head during the show...kinda funny, but I felt bad for them. Shows in NYC are important for any band cause they have to come across without any screw ups due to all the reviewers and record label peeps in the audience. Good recovery, tho. :-)

After the show, we talked with Jordan for a bit. She's really cool (ya, that's what we thought of her then...). She cheesed with us fo a bit and said she would send me a copy of her Indy tape. yay! :-) We then moved into the lobby par of the venue and awaited the arrival of *someone* from the band. We definitely achieved our goal for that night. We got Jian's autograph! (how sad were we???) ;-) We had cameras, but never thought of taking pictures. We were just too caught up with the emotion of it all.

That being done, we had to head home. Gwynne wasn't feeling too well, Atasi had a CALC exam in the morning, and was all had classes to go to. We left with smiles on our faces and also thought Jordan was pretty chills. We all looked forward to hopefully getting to know her better and chillin with her in NYC sometime.

Atasi and Gwynne drove us home...We got in at 6:20am or so. We all just crashed...