August 15 2002 - Warped Tour, Suffolk Downs, Boston Today was so incredibly amazing, Warped Tour! I was so excited, and just wanted to go. I had to go take care of my neighbors animals at 6:30 AM per normal, but I rushed home and showered and then had to just wait anxiously for my dad to be ready. We left our house at about quarter of eleven in the morning, only stopping at the local Mini Mart to get soda's and ice. We brought with us steak and corn and potato salad to have a tail-gate party, but things just didn't work out in that prospect. We got to Suffolk Downs at about eleven-thirty/noonish. Had to park in east-bum, but meh. We set off for the main gate; I had my backpack with four disposable cameras, my hair brush, my CD covers, and a Dr. Pepper. At the gate, the lady-checker-person made me throw out my Dr. Pepper... Bitch! I was kinda peeved about that, but we got in with everything else intact. Had to walk like, three miles to get to the main area. First thing first; we had to check out the schedule. Reel Big Fish at 3:30, okay, I can handle that. And all the other bands that I wanted to see were all grouped around the same time, Lagwagon, No Use For A Name, Goldfinger, and of course The Mighty Mighty BossTones. Since we had about two hours to spare we started walking around and visiting all of the booths. First stop, go on, take a wild guess; the booth for... Reel Big Fish!!! (duh) I bought a really cool new shirt that's red and has the Thunder Cats logo on it. I also got an awesome new hat that's dark blue and on the front there's and off-center rbf, and on the back it says Reel/Big/Fish. I got the small and it's still a little big... Then on to the other booths. All in all, I spent $100 bucks on merchandise and the god-damn friggin' wicked expensive food and drinks. I got a MMBT tee, Lagwagon, NUFAN, NOFX, and a Vans02 tees. And the Vans shirt came with a free hat too! By this time my bag was starting to become slightly heavy so I was like, "Hey Dad, let's go put it back in the truck and maybe get something to drink." So we get to the gate (back three miles again), and the dude there told us that there was absolutly no re-admittance. Shit, now we can't even leave the friggin' stadium. And there was no bag check place either. Then dad realizes that our poor steaks are sitting in the cooler in the truck, all by themselves, just waiting to be eaten, and we can't even leave until at least 7:30 if we want to see the MMBTs. So dad goes ripshit. I seriousally thought that he was going to start beating people up or something. So waiting for 3:30, we travled around and saw other, small bands. I don't even remember the names of any of them; sad, huh? So then comes 2:30 and Flogging Molly is on stage. Dad absoluty loved them! He likes Celtic stuff because his grandmother was an Irish immagrant. So anyway, FM finished their set and Dad decided that he wanted to go get us drinks. I wanted to go right then to try to get to the front, right below the stage. Ended up that things got so full so fast that I wasn't able to see Dad again until RBF had finished their set. So I get to about 6 or 7 people back. Good, but not great. Slowly I work myself forward, inch by inch; by the end of the hour when RBF finally took the stage I was only one person back, and the girl in front of me was rather small. So then the whole time that we're waiting for the Fish, the security guards are taking hoses to us to keep us semi-cool. Then they got bored and were making girls flash them for water, heh, I was already soaked, so I didn't flash them... :-P We're counting down the minutes on the girl next to me's watch. Suddenly I see Scott sneak onstage to drop off a water or something. Being the freak that I am, I of courst screamed out his name and started a huge yell in the crowd. Scott gave us a sheepish smile and disappeared offstage. So then a chant started, "Reel Big Fish, Reel Big Fish, Reel Big Fish!" And in a poof of a magic cloud, all of the Fish appear onstage! Okay, not really... Tyler Jones, the new trumpet player that took over after Tavis quit was the first onstage. Big Horray's all around. Then the rest of the guys took the stage; Aaron, Scott, Dan, Carlos, and Matt. Also playing with the Fish was the trombonest ('Boner, hehee) of MMBTs, Dennis Brockenborough. I started going crazy! The people around me were even giving me funny looks! Teehee! But I didn't care though... I mean, there I was, inches away from my six favorite guys and a really cool extra. How much better can life get?? So I freaked out their entire half-hour set (but didn't faint this time, yay for me!) I used a roll and a half of film on them and my dad used about a roll from where he was a little bit behind me. They were so awesome!! Well, just like always of course! I don't know the exact order of the set, but I remember that they played Ban the Tube Top, Where Have You Been?, Beer, Suckers, Take On Me, Good Thing, and they closed with Sell Out. (There could be a song or two that I missed, but I honestly don't remember.) When they were done, (boo hoo...) Dad and I headed for the Strawberry's tent where they were showing up for a signing at 4:30 (yay!). By the time that we found and reached the tent, there was already a fairly long line. We had to wait about 45 minutes to reach the tent. And there they were, it was like a dream or something, all of them in a row, just waiting for me!! Hehee... Sorry, I'm starting to get carried away... So Scott was the first in the line. I handed him the three CD covers that I had that hadn't already been signed, my ticket stub, and then I asked; "Scott, will you sign my hat too?" "What, you expect me to sign all of this stuff and your hat??" he said jokingly. "Yes, because you are so so so nice." "So you're making the assumption that I'm nice and will sign all of your stuff?" he said (as he's signing one thing after another). "But I'm not assuming you're nice, I know you're nice because I was able to meet you before." "Ahh, you did huh?" At this point, my dad chimes in with a, "Yeah, she's probably one of your biggest fans." By this time I had moved on to Aaron (who was wearing just about the most absolutely coolest visor ever). He almost forgot to sign the ticket and I had to bring it back to him, at this Scott yelled, "Aaron's slacking!" Hehee. Then onto Dennis, who signed everything, even the CD's that he had no part in making, but that's okay, make's them unique! He signed everything Pops too. Then Matt, who just signed quietly and passed them along line normal. Then Carlos who did the same. Then Dan, who seemed reallyreallyreally happy about something. Then Tyler at the end of the line. I told him that I really enjoyed him up on stage, that he has a really cool stage presence and looked like he was having a lot of fun up there. He looked really happy that I had said that. He thanked me with a huge grin on his face and I told him that I was looking forward to seeing him again. As I left the tent I was so insanely happy! I was floating on air. I could have just died right then... Ahh... We watched Lagwagon, New Found Glory, and No Use For A Name. We also saw some random band on the Drive Thru Stage that I really liked but didn't catch the name. Dad thinks they were Allister, but I really don't know. Then came, duh, duh, duhn... The Mighty Mighty BossTones! They were awesome, just as I expected! I used at least another roll of film on the 'Tones. At one point in the show, Dicky Barrett therw out his tie to the audience. I so wish that I had been the lucky fool the got to keep that! Oh yeah! I almost forgot... After RBF finished their set and I caught up with my dad, he handed me a guitar pick. Apparently Scott had thrown it and my dad was miraculousally able to find it in the mud! Yay! After the 'Tones we left. We ended up missing Bad Religion, but we were hungry. To sorta make up for it we listened to my BR CD on the ride home. Not the same, I know, but we tried. We got home, fired up the grill, and finally ate our steaks. I now have my CD covers, the pick, and hat all on display in my room. And I've already bought my ticked for the Oct 17th show back at Avalon! Yay yay yay yay! Back to NEWS Back to HOME |