Tuesday November 28th, 2000- Knoxville Civic Coliseum: Knoxville, TN
Melina and I decided that we would skip class to go see the Deftones in TN and SC. Tuesday afternoon we got to TN around 2pm. Of course no one else was there. Melina had this amazing drawing she had made to give to Chi (it was a drawing interpretation of one of his poems, �The Host Animal�) and I had more poems to give to him. The Deftones came around 3. Melina and I saw Frank and Steph get out of the bus and this guy who we thought was Chino. (it was really Juan, who is now my fucking hero! But I�ll get to that later) When Chi came out of the bus Melina screamed his name and he came over. She told him that she had the drawing in the car to give to him and he told her that he�d wait right there for her to get it. So he just laid down on this grassy hill until we came back. The drawing Melina did was of a fetus in front of a moon with an ant holding up the moon. It was really good. Chi loved it! There were some people who recognized Chi and so they walked over. They were really impressed with the drawing as well. But what was funny is that Chi didn�t even remember the poem. Melina had written an excerpt of the poem at the bottom of the drawing and he read it and said, �wow did u write this?� we couldn�t believe it! Melina said, �No Chi that�s from one of YOUR poems.� And he said, �Really? I don�t remember writing this.� It was so funny! We thought that he�d remember it since he put in on the CD, but he said that he writes stuff all the time and that the stuff on the CD were just the poems he had that were new at the time. Anyway, I gave Chi my poems and he thanked me and put them in his pocket. I knew he�d read them cause he read them last time. Chi is just as cool as shit! Well after our little talk with him, he had to leave to go to sound check. So he said goodbye and that he�d see us inside.
After hanging out for a while Melina and I met this dude named Brian. He told us that he had met Chino and the guys at the hotel the night before. That he was just chilling with Chino and telling him about his band and stuff. Of course Melina and I were really jealous so we asked how the hell he managed to pull that off. He said that this guy named Juan (I�m not exactly sure what this man does for the Deftones but he IS the fucking man!) hooked him up. Then he pointed out Juan to us. I think Melina and I both wanted to go up to him and ask him to try and get us back stage but we didn�t want to bug him
Anyway a little later we were just chillin on the grass when we saw Jarrod from Taproot walking back to the venue. We stopped him and talked to him for a long ass time. He totally remembered us from the Nov. 6th show in Atlanta. He was actually out walking around the city. He�s like the only one in that band that likes to do anything during the day. He actually went to the art museum by himself! We were shocked. I was surprised Steve and Mike weren�t up walking around or anything. I wasn�t expecting to see Phil cause he sleeps all fucking day. But anyway, after talking to Jarrod for a while, he left to go to the bus.
After that, Incubus� bus pulled in. They had been there for a while when Brandon came out and started riding his bike around. It was really cute�.Anyway, that was all the cool stuff that happened before the show. Melina and I were able to get right up front for the concert. The fans in TN are so much tamer than they are here in Atlanta. They didn�t push, and I didn�t get kicked in the head by crowd surfers. Anyway, all the bands put on an amazing show. It was cool when Taproot came out to meet the crowd, Jarrod saw us again and I told him that we�d be at the next show in SC, and I asked him if he could hook us up with some backstage passes. He said that he�d see what he could do, but that he couldn�t promise anything. When we met Mike again he told us that he had seen our pics with them online, which was weird but cool. Incubus had a really good set. They�re so amazing live. The Deftones were awesome of course. Chino was in such an awesome mood. He told everyone that Frank would be turning 30 at midnight and so Chino started celebrating right away. I don�t know how many drinks/ beers he had but he had a few. He would drink from a cup and then give the rest to someone in the crowd. Chi kept whispering into the mike, �it�s just water. Water is good.� Chi tossed a bottle of water to us which was really nice of him. Anyway, after the show ended we tried to meet the band. We sorta stood near their bus when we saw Phil, Jarrod and Steve from Taproot climbing over a railing to get to their bus. Well I hadn�t talked to Steve all day so I yelled out his name. I was just expecting him to wave but he actually came over. Phil and Jarrod followed. I told Steve that their set was awesome and that we�d be seeing him the next night. Jarrod joked with us and asked us if we had been standing there all night waiting for them. That poor boy must think we�re stalking him. Anyway, they said goodbye and went back to their bus. We waited a little bit longer for the Deftones but we figured they weren�t coming out since there were people brining in drinks and stuff back into the venue. We figured they�d probably be partying all night or something.
So at this point Melina and I wondered what we should do�then Juan walked by and I just tossed out the idea of asking him for backstage passes for the SC show. What was the worst he could say, no right? At least we had nothing to lose. Melina didn�t think I would go up to him, since we�re always talking out of our asses and we never really do what we say we will. But I called her bluff. When he walked by again I called him over and I told him that we�d be at the SC show. I asked him if there was anyway he could get us backstage passes. This man, who is my angel, said, �You�re going to the show tomorrow? Yeah well just come and find me and I�ll hook you up.� I said, �Really?� and he said, �Yeah.� �Thanks,� I said. Then he walked away. All I could think was �That was way too fucking easy!� Melina and I decided that night that we were going to be fucking shameless in our pursuit to meet the Deftones. Whatever we had to do, we were going to fucking do it, because we knew it would be a while before we saw them again.