When I first found out that j. was playing this show at the Horseshoe, I knew that no matter what, I had to be there. Unfortunately, there was one slight obstacle in my path: it was a 19+ show. I emailed j. on Thursday night, pleading my case, and he *so generously* put me (and my friend Amber, and her aunt) on the guestlist for the show.
When we got downtown, we were supposed to meet a friend of ours in front of the club, but she wasn't there. We waited for a while, and then we ran into another friend of ours, Lana (who is also friends with j.) We tried to convince her to come to the show after she finished work, and she said that she might, and we'd call her later to find out if she was coming. Then we decided to grab something to eat, and we returned to the club at about 9:30. Amber and I were both a little bit nervous that we would get asked for i.d., but we were told to "act confident."
We got to the first bouncer, and Amber's aunt went in first, and she had no problem. Then the bouncer asked Amber and I for i.d. and we just told him that we were on the guestlist, and we didn't bring i.d with us. So he said that was fine, that we just looked a little younger from farther away, but that it was ok, and to bring our i.d. next time. So then we went up to the next set of people, and we told the girls that we were on the guestlist...but they didn't have my name on there. So then I just kinda pleaded my case, and they just wrote my name down, and crossed it off.
A little later, we were just standing around listening to the first band, and j. walked in and came over to where I was standing, and gave me a hug. Then we were telling him about the confusion with the guest list, and he couldn't believe that I wasn't on there, and he appologized. Then we talked for a bit, and I gave him a little "critter" that I'd made for him (a little fuzzy thing, made of pompoms and foam stars...it was inspired by him *L*) Then he told us that he wanted to go home and have a nap before the show, because he'd gotten home from Ottawa really late, and he said he'd catch up with us later.
Then, the second band went on (i think they were called Palomar, or something like that). At this point, Amber and I just really wanted j. to go on, so we weren't paying too much attention to them. (We paid more attention to the two people that were dancing in front of the stage *L*) Then, at one point, towards the end of this band's set, I turned my head, and I noticed that Lonny was there. When he saw us standing there, he seemed a little shocked that we'd gotten in, so we just talked to him for a little while, and then he got a drink, and we just kinda left it at that.
Then after that, we decided to give a call to Lana, to see if she was going to join us. So then we decided to stake out our spot right in front of Lonny's microphone (there were already some girls standing in the middle, and I don't really like standing in the middle, because it hurts my neck to have to look up all night. I'd rather just look on an angle...and you get better pictures from the side) So then, Lonny was setting up his guitars, and tuning 'n stuff, and when he had a few seconds, I asked him if i could have his setlist, and he said "yeah, when i'm done with it" and he smiled at me.
Then finally, the background music cut out, and it was time for j. to go on. I'm pretty sure they opened with Breaking Down. They played a couple of songs, and then a guy in the crowd yelled out "Lonny's SEXY!" (or something to that extent) and we turned around, and it was JUNIOR! (Junior is j's old drummer, for those who don't know) So Amber and I smiled and waved at Junior, and he did the same, and we focussed our attention back to the show. He played Abused, with the "I'm a very saucy boy/controversy" part in the middle, similar to the Lee's Palace show, and it just sounded cool! Other points of interest were the TTW version of Flowers For Ophelia, which was just totally ROCKIN' and j's version of "you are my sunshine" (i could just picture him singing that as a li'l kid) Also, Fade and The One Thing were really amazing!
When they came out for their encore, j asked "so...what song haven't i played yet?" and everyone yelled out "MORE!" except for me, and one other guy *L* we both yelled out "MY SONG!!!!!!!" but, that didn't work... Needless to say, they played More. It sounded incredible! Once again, he did the "it's your turn now, help me out now, sing it out now!" thing...I think he must say the exact same thing at every single concert he does!
After they had gone off stage, I noticed that Lonny's pics were on the floor, so I kinda helped myself to 2 of them *L*. We saw that there were a whole bunch of posters in a pile, and some guy asked us if we wanted one, and we were like "YES!" so we got one each. Then we went downstairs to talk to j., but Brent told us that he'd be upstairs near the merchandise to sign stuff in a little bit. So Amber and I waited there for a bit, and sure enough, j. came over and talked to us. Amber got her poster signed first, and j. started writing and he writes "hey.." and he looks up and says "amber, right?" and she's like "wow! you actually remembered!" (i just thought that was cute) so he wrote "hey amber, hey again, j." then she asked him if we could get pictures with him, and he's like "no! you guys have too many!" but, of course, he posed for a picture, and in the picture, he kinda turned towards her, and stuck his tongue out. it was really cute. So then he goes to sign my poster and he wrote "hey katie!" and then he started to write something, and both me and Amber were trying to read upside down what he was writing, but we couldn't, and we just had these puzzled looks on our faces. So then j. goes "do you know what that says?" and we're like "no!" and he goes "it says BLLLEEAHHHH!!!" and we all just started laughing. Then it was my turn for a picture with him, and he put his arms around my shoulders, kinda (it's hard to explain) and he leaned really close to me and growled/purred in my ear. I just started laughing so hard at that point, so i probably have the stupidest expression on my face in that picture! Then we let some of the other girls that were there talk to him, and when he was done with them, and he passed by where we were standing, we thanked him for getting us in, and we got a few more hugs.
Then at that point, I noticed Lonny was putting away all his gear, so we went over to him, and I asked if he had a setlist, but he told me that he actually didn't use one for the show. He said that they were playing the same set at all their shows lately, so he didn't need a set list. He checked around if there were any other set lists lying around for me, but there were none. Then we introduced ourselves to Dave (the drummer) and I asked him for a drumstick, and he said that we could have one each. So we were talking 'n stuff, and then he brought over his stick bag, and he pulled out a stick each for me and Amber, and I asked him to sign it, with the sharpie that Lonny had left on the floor, so he signed my stick "hey katie-keep practicing! Dave" (i told him that i'm a drummer too...that's why he wrote keep practicing). Then after that we just talked with some other people, and hung out. It was lots of fun! (but i got in a LOT of trouble, because i didn't end up getting home until 5:30! but it was all cool!)