Slice of Life - Day 121 (Saturday)
Today was the Buckcherry show at the Thunderbird Arena up at UBC in Vancouver. Show days are usually busy, getting ready, running around, then heading to the venue to see the guys hopefully before the show. This show was a little different though as the band had been on a break and this was their first show back so they flew in, meeting the buses/trucks/crew here and their plane landed only a couple hours before the show. Keith went straight to the radio station from the airport for an interview and the rest of the guys got ready so we didn't see anyone until after.
We spent the morning lounging before I took R&R down to Look Watts Cooking for breakfast and white chocolate mocha's while B went and got his haircut. After eating R&R went and did the tourist thing on the pier and at the White Rock before going home. After that we lounged then got ready for the drive into Vancouver... last minute we decided to take Kalli and drop her off at Grandma's house for a fun filled sleepover so she would have some attention while we were busy playing groupies. We left there and then were going to drive through Vancouver for a little photo taking action but realized how late it was and drove right up to UBC... once there we drove around and around looking for something quick to eat and finally had to call Paul for some emergency 911 directions to McDonald's :)
Got to the venue to find that a huge line had formed since the last time we had walked by it so got in line and shuffled slowly forward as a guy yelled out hockey highlights from the Canucks game... Rob and Ronda looked around in amazement as the entire crowd pumped arms in the air and cheered as he called out that it was 2-0 for the Canucks. They had no idea how much of a hockey town Vancouver is and didn't really get the concept as Seattle has no NHL team. I think they thought it was kind of cute lol. Anyways once we got into the venue Rob and I both went and bought the new Buckcherry hoodie. After all these years of my Buckcherry obsession I don't own even one BC hoodie... I purchased one for a friend at one of the last shows but never have I seen one that I just had to have... finally on this night I did and although I shouldn't have spent the $$$ on it I just needed it :) We made our way down to the floor (second row) and I texted Carleigh to see where her and Matt were sitting... she saw me and waved and later texted me again saying she could see my tattoo from way up there after I took off my hoodie... sweet!
The opening band started (Rev Theory) and I wasn't really a fan... it was so loud that everyone but me decided they had to go back to the middle of the floor because we could all feel the bass drum thumping inside our chests... like a trooper I stayed up front! Not giving up my spot for anything at this point! Becca, Mike, Mandeep and Christine showed up at this point and Brendan came back... R&R moved down the rail to the end one Keef's side front row because they didn't want to deal with the crowd in front of Keef. Next came The Trews which I guess are pretty good at what they do but what a weird band to have on a BC bill... total pop... my goodness they even had a keyboard. It seemed almost like the promoter/label wanted another band on the bill and they just checked out who was available and picked the first band. Finally Papa Roach came on and got the crowd roaring as usual. My love for this band just grows and grows with each show I see... Jacoby is an amazing frontman...simply awesome... in my opinion one of the best out there right now. He just knows how to get the crowd going and has a great voice and awesome presence. At one point in their set a fan got past all the security on stage left and ran up on stage, right to Jacoby and started singing along. We all waited for him to taken down by security but watched in amazement as Jacoby wrapped and arm around him - telling security to back off - and finished singing the song with the dude as the the guy took one handed photos of him with Jacoby, the crowd, the stage, himself on stage etc. It was so cool! Josh would never let that happen, never lol. After the song Jacoby explained that the guy had snuck into a video taping at Riverview the day before and Jacoby had dared him to sneak onstage at the show... and the guy managed to do it... mad props to him!
Finally Buckcherry was next! They busted out on stage with Tired of You... then played an hour and 20 minute set that included 14 songs including Cream as an encore. I took some photos but none of them had "wow" factor... there is one I like of Josh that has Keef in the background giving me the finger. The girl beside me looked at me kind of shocked as I yelled "fuck you!" back at him while returning the favor... I think she was kind of confused not knowing that I know him. So it probably looked weird to her as I fingered him while yelling "Fuck You! Don't give me the finger you jerk" or something similar :) It's a bit of an ongoing joke. They completely rocked it out there and finally seemed to be on their arena/stadium game. The crowd went nuts for Crazy Bitch as usual... oh and they played tow songs from Timebomb, one that I haven't heard in a while... Porno Star! I was quite surprised at the cheering that went on when they started playing it... there must have been a lot of older fans there too.
After the show B, R&R and i went back to the car to keep warm while waiting for Keef to text me... it was taking forever so we went to get something to drink and as we drove by the gates I saw Jacoby from Papa Roach talking to a couple fans by the gate so I asked B to turn around and ran up to him and just stared at him with a big smile on my face like an idiot. He asked "whats going on?" and I just stared some more before mumbling "nothing" and stared at him some more, practically vibrating in excitement! Finally after what seemed like minutes I blurted out "I'm just so excited to meet you" LOL! He kinda smiled and then I said how much I love them and what he had done for that fan and so on and he said "well way to represent" because of course I was wearing Buckcherry gear not PR gear so then I told him all about how many times Ive seen them now and how I just love them more and more... finally I asked for a photo and looked around wildly for Robbie who I had thought was right behind me to take it. Next I took a photo of him with R&R and he left right as B was getting there after parking the car again. Hopefully next time B can get in a photo too cause he likes them a lot as well. After that Jimmy came and chatted with us for a while and then finally I called Keef and he came and found us. I had taken them a chocolate chip banana loaf from Watts Cooking and a can of Timmies for the tour bus so he was quite excited... they love their "timmie hoes" as he calls it. He wasnt feeling well so we kept our visit short but he expressed disappointment that we didn't get any real "visit time" in and asked if I was going to the rest of the shows... I said I wasn't and he said we should at least go to Prince George and he would hook us up with passes... I told him I would let him know and we said our goodbyes after posing for one photo.
We drove home... leading a couple girls back to the highway that we had met who had come all the way from Salem, Oregon for the shows. They drove the whole way up that day and then all the way back that night but had gotten lost trying to find UBC and were nervous about how to get back to the border.
As always I loved every minute and am already craving my next show... we decided there was really no way for me to go to Prince George since the Passat has a broken exhaust so it would be bad for it to drive all that way there and back.
Slice of Life - Day 120 (Friday)
Today is the start of my Buckcherry Weekend! Rob and Ronda came up from Tacoma, Washington and we had a BBQ with a bunch of our friends and Paul and Christina. I think everyone had a good time... we had a fire and roasted marshmallows. It was good!
I had written this on the chalkboard before everyone got here... :)
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