Justin: my twin, Lindsay: his wife
Jeff: a friend of Justin Jared : friend of Justin,
Email from Justin
Happy Everclear day to you. I am looking forward to a sleu of songs. I know I wont hear them all, so Art can just surprise me. I love it all. And looking
forward to seeing a new venue.
An email from Justin
I went onto the Everclear website to see if it had any more information about tonight.
one thing ART mentioned is that he has another completely different band. no surprise there. but at the end he said this, which I thought you would be
interested in hearing:
2009 has been a year of changes for both me and the band,….new guys in the band,….a new album,…a new label,…new management…..Vanessa and I were expecting
a new baby this year as well so we moved into a bigger house but sadly we lost the baby in march…..other than that, the family is great,…Anna started her
senior year in high school and Arizona (or “AZ” as we call her) is almost 2 now and growing like a weed
11AM ish: went up for breakfast, had rice Krispies with berries, and half sesame seed bagel with a cup of mint tea. My favorite type of tea.
12;18: my mom read me a text she got from Justin’s best friend in FL. He had a baby girl today. (well, his wife had the baby)
12;25 going to take clothes out of drier and put them away.
12;49: going to take a shower and get dressed for the big night
1;54: Snag, my dad had to take care of my Nanna, she wasn’t feeling well, probably just her sugar. My mom doesn’t like driving into Boston. I called Jeff and we are meeting at Sullivan station and we’ll start our journey from Summerville.
2;32: taking a short nap so I’m not tired tonight. I’ll then get up and get ready, pack up and meet Jeff at the station by 4.
Email from Justin 2;58
Five hours until Art takes the stage. Along with 4 other guys that today make up the group known as EVERCLEAR.
Let's go to Summerland. Just a name on the map. Sounds like heaven to me.
Jonathan replies: everything is wonderful today
My mom drove me to Sullivan station to meet up with Justin’s friend’s Jeff. We get on the Orange line, switch to the red line then at south station, we get on a commuter line.
OH! So for the commuter line, you need to buy a ticket first. So we walk up to the window and Jeff says “I need two tickets and one of them is for him, he’s blind.” The lady at the window goes and talks to her coworker. She comes back and says “you don’t need to pay” Jeff goes “well ok, but I still need one for me” lady: “Are you riding with him?” Jeff “well ya” You don’t need to pay. You’re his companion. Companions go free too.” Jeff thanks the woman and as we were walking away, I said “did I hear what I thought I heard?” Jeff” ya, I tried to pay. I gave her a 20, she didn’t want my money.” Me “I bet you want to ride with me more often” Jeff “well hell ya.”
So we get on and two stops later, Lindsay walks on and sits next to Jeff. Just as Justin drew it up. Most of the ride they were talking about Jared’s baby and how much it looks like the mother. (No one cares for Jared’s wife and don’t even refer to her by her name)They still didn’t have a name for the baby, which, we all thought was pretty stupid. Carrying a baby for 9 months and they can’t come up with a name? Then Lindsay was telling us that she and Justin are going to try to go down the week end of the 14-15 which is also right before Jared’s b day on the 17th.
We meet up with Justin, and head to the restaurant, dropping Lindsay off at their house first so she could pick up her car so after dinner, we could head to the concert and she could head home. She wasn’t going with us.
We went to the half way Cafe. It’s a little sports diner. Lindsay orders a stake, Justin gets veggie ravioli, a side salad and onion rings as a side, Jeff orders some chicken dish with a serving of buffalo wings for one and I get a salad and a burger with coleslaw.
Again, most of the chatter was about Jared’s baby. We got our salads, the buffalo wings and the rings, which I am sure I had more than my share. The waitress brings out the stake, my burger and Jeff’s chicken. … I was half way done with my burger and Justin still didn’t get his dinner. A different waitress comes over and says to Justin “where is your food?” Justin “I’m still waiting for it” She came back just as I was on my last few bites of my burger. No apologies, no “how is everyone’s food” not even a “can I get refills?” We asked for refills when she came back with Justin’s food but by that time, my drink had been gone for a bit. I took my time eating my coleslaw so Justin didn’t feel he was eating alone. After we finish and paid the bill, we were off to see EVERCLEAR!
We got in and it was a little club venue. There was two opening acts but I enjoyed the in-house music. I knew 90% of the songs that were being played.
The first act was a band with a female singer. I thought she was just alright. It was a regular rock band.
The second band was a punkish band from North Carolina. It was good. The lead singer told a story before one of his songs. That went something like this…
There was a young man who enlisted into the army. However, a month before, he had fell in love with a young lady. And you know young love, holding hands, feeling the electricity flowing, thinking love is going to last forever. Not wanting to be apart ever. So he was in the grocery store and reaches up to get a box a cereal when his phone rings. He answers the phone and it is the sergeant, the man who he enlisted with, he said that he is being shipped out to Afghanistan. The man and woman had talked about marriage before but they knew they wanted to get married before he went away so that day, they went out and got married.
That woman, is my little sister. “so this goes out to all the soldiers who have continued to fight for our right, freedom and safety.” It was a nice, non-punk song.
After his set was over, the leader, with the in house music playing some soft rock song, turns the microphone back on and starts singing “And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I wont forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I gladly stand up, next to you and defend her still today. ‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA.” (with the crowd singing from the middle of the first line to the end)
Everclear played about 20 songs. Below are the ones that I recognized and remembered with notes about some of the songs.
Art “two of the guys in the last group are very good family men. They have there wives and babies on tour. They are great fathers. My father would not do something like that. I wasn’t so lucky.”
Father of mine
Fire maple song
Santa Monica
A beautiful life
Heroin girl
Strawberry (the second verse, a group of people says very loudly “you are singing the wrong words” (the band stops playing and he stops singing) Art: What? What is wrong? (you skipped a verse) How does it go? (crowd singes the verse, 3-4th through it) Art: ok, I got it, thanks. And starts the verse from the beginning. *personal note, never heard that happen before
Wonderful
Art: do we have any ladies out there? (all the girls scream) Alright, I want just the girls to sing the chorus, got it? (girls screaming again)
Volvo driving soccer mom
I will buy you a new life
Art: You know, I grew up in the 70’s. We didn’t have any MP3’s, we could not down load just any song we want no …
A.M. radio
Art: you know when you fall in love when you are a kid and when you hear someone talking crap about the person. You just want to say fuck you?
Heartspark dollarsign
Art: ok, we only have time for two more songs. This next one is from my new album, in a different life, a remake of some of the hits. There are two new songs. This is one of them. I originally wrote this song in 2004 and gave the lyrics to someone else. I went to a rave last year and I heard the group sing the song. They put an entirely different meaning behind it. so I went back, changed some of it and put it on the new album.
At the end of the day
Everything to everyone
*side note 1: he starts to play a song on the guitar and says “na, I’m not going to play that one” crowd jeers, “you want me to play that one? It’s a races song. I don’t want to play that one tonight” (more jeers) “look, I am not a cover band. I am not just going to play just hits because you want me to. (jeers) no, I am going to play what I want and you will like it (jeers) (plays a different song) place goes crazy)
*side note 2, Art made reference to an incident 12 years ago in Boston at one of his concerts. There was a few New England Patriot players who went to the concert and was invited on stage. 2 players stage dives and one lady was hurt. He brings it up almost every time he’s in concert around here. He said something. This time was no different as he said something like “there will be no stage diving from 300 pounders tonight.” The place went nuts over that. I doubt everyone knew what he was referring to, but the long time followers knew.
After the concert we head out a side door. Justin and Jeff were talking about people around us at the concert. I guess they escorted a lady out who was standing right behind Jeff. By the sounds of it, she was so drunk, and she was trying to find her friend. She thought she had found her and she was yelling at her but the woman was not the person she thought it was.
On the radio we heard the Boston Bruins won 3-1, the Boston Celtics won a preseason game, the Patriots had a good day of practice and in the 8th inning, the Phillies were beating the Dodgers 9-4. I was excited about that news. I wanted the Phillies to win since the RedSox were out of it. I don’t know why. I just felt they have the best overall team and from the Nation League, would give the Yankees a good run for the Championship.
.
We got to Justin’s house. He showed me to the spare room. I knew where it was but he had to give me sheets for the futon. I had brought my computer so I jumped on line after changing and getting comfy. I opened up a messenger and a sports friend of mine was watching the game. She told me about the final out then what was going on, on the filed and what the players were saying since I didn’t have a tv or radio. Ryan Howard, the Phillies’ first baseman and power hitter, got a home run and drove in an RBI for a baseball post season record of 9 straight games. He was named the series’ MVP. He said that it was great, but there is still one more step to go. (They had won the world series last year too)
Once I got enough interview information. I thanked my friend for the reporting, but I was going to be woken up at 6 and 6 comes pretty early. I fell asleep pretty soon after that. It was about 12;30.
I woke up and feeling like I got a good night sleep, but yet wasn’t woken by my brother yet, I was curious to know the time and how much sleep I got. When my computer was on I went to the system tray where the computer clock was and it read “2;53” hmmm so I only got about 2.5 hours of sleep. Not bad. I read an article on espn.com, describing the baseball game and the celebration which followed. Knowing I was wide awake I opened this document up and started writing. When I got to the concert part, I opened up the internet and googled “everclear”+”lyrics” and found a great list of Everclear songs lyrics. I went through it, writing down the names of the songs I remembered they sang last night and then after going down the list, having to open some lyrics to see if it was the right song, I closed the browser and continued on. I will go back and put in little comments about the songs that Art said at the concert. I think I will wait till I get home for that.
Justin had come into the spare room to wake me, but I was already been up for a few hours. He told me we were leaving in twenty minutes. I quickly got ready and put my computer away.
Justin dropped us off at the train. We got on and Lindsay was getting on at backbay station to catch the orange line. We could take the orange line too the other way to get close to home. I had called my parents, they told me which station they would pick me up at and so we road the train till the end and waited till my mom came and picked me up. I said my byes to Jeff.
The End |
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