Econoline Crush @ The Rave in Milwaukee, WI ( 4/5/99 )

My friend Megan and I got to the venue around 6:30 PM and met up with a few friends of ours. We bought our tickets and then sat outside the room they were going to be playing. I turned my head for a moment and I see Johnny Haro walking through the main door and walking over to get something. I yelled "Johnny!!!" and he looked over and smiled. He waved and then he walked back out the door. I got up and started looking at all the posters on the walls of previous bands that had visited The Rave. Megan pointed out a few and then I turned around to look at the other wall and walking in the main door was Jay, Amir, and Paige for the band Orgy. I couldn't talk, I just pointed. This had been the first time I've seen Orgy in person so I was a tad bit shocked. Megan grabbed my hand and she rushed over. Amir and Jay had already gone in the Soundcheck room so we didn't get them but we got to talk to Paige. He was so happy he was recognized and that people were waiting to see him. We gave him big hugs and got autographs. He gave us another hugs and then went into the soundcheck room. We went back to where our other friends were and sat down again. I was 7:00 pm so we all skittered into another room to watch Orgy perform. They put on a lovely show that evening as well. After their show we went into The Rave Bar and got front row by the stage. The great thing was this stage was really small and you were right up to whoever was playing. At 8:00 pm EC finally came on and started playing. To my surprise Trevor would come right up and grab people's hands in the front row and just sing to them. I experienced this action twice. It was sooo lovely :) I also got a high-five from Dan since I was near him as well. I waved to Johnny a few times and got a couple of waves back. Trevor entertained the crowd with his wonderful dancing and the ever so famous tongue flicking. He has a thing with sticking his tongue out. After their show we were sitting on the stage and waited. Trevor came out and said the whole band would be out to talk to the fans in a little while. Johnny came out and got a beer from the bar (no surprise. I've never seen him without a beer. JEESH!). We walked over to him. He smiled and gave us all a hug (this guy is soooo huggable.). We all were talking to him for a while and got more then enough pictures with him. He's so adorable. After we were done talking to Johnny we went over by Trevor and gave him his hugs, and praised him on what a good show he did. We got our pictures and such and were happy as clams. Ziggy went over and was talking to Johnny we didn't really bother him. We went back over by Johnny and gave him more hugs and said next time EC was in town we'd all be there. He smiled and thanked us all. Megan and I had to leave (the rest of the group hung out there for a while.) and as we were walking out we run into Dan. He smiled and waved. He said "Hi guys! Did you like the show? Was is good?!" We of course said yes, seeing it was one of their best shows. After that he ran up and gave us both HUGE hugs. "Aww you guys are the best! Do you want a sticker?" He held out to "The Devil You Know" stickers. We took them and thanked him. He hugged us and then said he had to get going so we waved and we left the venue. What a lovely evening. And that's my Econoline Crush concert story :)

Econoline Crush @ Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI ( 6/28/99 )

After driving to Summerfest me and my group had to walk from the parking lots over to the main gates. As we were walking my eye caught someone with blue hair walking down the street. I blinked and it was Johnny and Ziggy (walking next to him) from Econoline Crush. I pointed and me 'n my group walked over and said hello to him. Johnny looked at us all and said " Awww! Hi guys! " He gave us all a big hug, as well as Ziggy, he gave us hugs too. Ziggy smiled and said "Johnny and I were just on the Summerfest grounds and we rode the rollercoaster, ate cotton candy, it was a lot of fun." Johnny added his 2 cents and said "And I got a few beers." Then they said they better get going because they had to go back to the hotel and get Trevor and Dan. So the waved and hoped we had fun for the day. What sweeties. When we got in nothing too exciting was going on at the time. At around 7:00 Econoline Crush came out and signed autographs at a special lil autograph signing booth. There were quite a few people in line. We were the first ones up there so we each gave two roses to a band member. They were delighted so we of course got hugs and autographs. After that we walked over to the Levi's L 2 Rock Stage, where most of the well known bands were playing this year. Summerfest offers a wide selection of music so there's about 10 different stages, this being on of the most popular ones. We watched a band and my friend Erynn and I got bored because we saw them once before and didn't impress us at all. So me and her jumped out of the crowd and walked back over to the autograph session thingy. EC had already left, so we asked some guys that worked there if they knew where they went. They told us they were backstage at The Levi's L 2 stage. We ran over and got onto the bleachers which happened to be looking over the whole backstage area. Erynn knew Dan from EC very well. They're pretty close friends and see each other everytime EC comes around the Midwest area. She yelled "Dan! Wait a sec." He saw her and she ran to the fence below and he went to the opposite side of where she was and they talked. I couldn't hear because the music was so loud so I watched. After about 5 minutes she ran back up with a HUGE smile on her face. "He said if we wait after the show we can go backstage!" We high-fived and talked for a little while waiting for our friends to get out of the crowd. As soon as they did we yelled to them and told 'em what Dan said. They all were real happy after that :) So after watching a couple local bands perform it was soon 10:00 PM and Econoline Crush came out. They opened up with "Sparkle and Shine" and sent the crowd wild. It was even more fun to jump around and sing that night because it was raining. Woohoo! Trevor did his lil dances and flicked his tongue out a lot. Everyone was happy. After the show you could tell they probably gained quite a few more fans, if they weren't already. After the area somewhat cleared out we waited by a gate, watching Johnny talk to some people by their trailer. Next to us was a group of Teenie-Bopper girls screaming for Johnny. Grrrrrr. I hated 'em. Johnny came over, he had a beer (what a surprise.) and talked to us, pretty much ignoring the teenies. Then Glen (I think that's his name, Erynn told me it and I think that was it!) the tour manager came out with two signed drum-sticks and handed one to me and one to my friend Monica. I have no clue why Trevor signed it and not Johnny but I loved it all the same. Soon Dan came out and talked to us for a while and gave us all many hugs. He said they had to leave right away and he was sorry that he didn't realize it earlier. After that him 'n Johnny waved good-bye and walked back to go get Trevor and Ziggy so they could all leave. We were all WAY too hyper for our own good and were hopping around until we got back to the car. Another wonderful EC show.

Submitted by Holly