Amber's 7/28/01 La Jolla, Ca Review
See pictures from this show and of me on stage by clicking here
I’m going to separate this into 2 paragraphs. The first one is going to just talk about my day of the concert but not really about the concert itself and the other one is going to be the concert part so if you don’t want to read about my day just skip to the second part. First off, I have to say that this was the best concert I have ever been to in my life! With that said, let me start from the beginning. I woke up on the morning of 7/28 around 10AM. Normally I would have slept in later but my sister wanted me to help her buy Blink 182 tickets online. So I did that. Around 12:30 I ate lunch but I only ended up eating a few chicken nuggets from McDonald’s cause I was too excited to eat. That started a few days before the concert, BTW. I’ve just been so excited it’s been hard for me to eat much all week. Anyways, we left for the concert around 2 which I thought was plenty of time since the directions I printed online said it was only an hour and a half away and it didn‘t start until 6. But of course nothing ever goes the way it’s expected. We hit major traffic on the way there. I was hoping to be there by 4 so we’d have time to eat dinner at someplace nice and get in line for the show. We ended up not getting there until after 5. We had to swing by Carl’s Jr. and scarf down some food, which for me wasn’t much because, like I said, I was really excited. I was rushing everyone else because I was ready to just be there. Finally, we made it to the concert around 5:30. So me, my sister, and my dad make our way to where the concert was held. We had to wait in a pretty long line to get in but it was cool because we got to watch people try to win the Everclear car by putting in a key and seeing if it started. The best part though was that Art and Craig were watching so I got to start at them for like half an hour. Finally, after nearly 40 people, a girl won the car. I was really happy for her but I just wish it was me ; ). Almost exactly at the same time they started letting people in. Once we were inside we were actually kinda close to the stage. About 5 rows back . Not too bad. The show ended up starting late. I’m not sure exactly how late because none of us had a watch. The first band was Flipp and I have to say I wasn’t really too impressed with them. They were just really loud and it was hard to make out the lyrics. The cool part though was that Art and his wife, Stephanie, were standing off stage watching them and Craig was down actually very close to us taking pictures. I was surprised at everyone’s self restraint about that. I figured at least a few people would freak out about seeing Art and Craig but it almost seemed like people didn’t even know they were there. I did see a few people pointing to them though. After Flipp, Mayfield 4 played. I really liked them. They had good melodies and I liked the lyrics. They definitely pumped up the crowd better than Flipp. People seemed to be reserving their energy for Everclear though. American Hi-Fi played next and I thought they were okay. Not the best band but not bad either. They didn’t seem to pump people up very well for Everclear. Towards the end the lead singer actually said “You guys need to liven up or Everclear’s gonna be pissed off!” In between American Hi-Fi and Everclear I met up with, Joseph, a guy until then I had only talked to online. He is so nice! He was able to get a camera inside and he promised he’d take pics if I got onstage. We talked for a while and then Everclear came on! It was a blast. They played So Much For The Afterglow, Heroin Girl, Nehalem, Amphetamine, Everything To Everyone, Slide, When It All Goes Wrong Again, Loser Makes Good, Strawberry, Song From An American Movie Vol. 1, Song From An American Movie Vol. 2, AM Radio, Wonderful, Father Of Mine, I’ll Buy You A New Life, and Santa Monica. For the Encore they played El Distorto Melodica, You Make Me Feel Like A Whore, Rock Star, and Suffragette City. I can’t believe how much fun I had. I was jumping up and down the whole night and people were crowd surfing and I was singing with people I didn’t even know. There were several highlights of the night for me though. First one was during Slide. I was in the pit with tall guys all around me and I’m pretty short. Art saw me there and looked me straight in the eye and threw me a guitar pick. It literally hit me in the chest. It fell to the ground and I had to crawl on hands an knees to get it. The major highlight was that I got picked to be a Rock Star! By then I was at the very front and I had made a sign that said ‘I wanna be a rock star’ and I was holding it up as high as I possibly could to get noticed. Then Art goes “Who’s the one holding the I wanna be a rock star sign”. I jumped up and down and yelled “Me!!!” and he said “All right, you get onstage”. During Rock Star I got to dance with Art and sing part of the song with him. At the end of the song I was the very first person he gave a hug to! I was so happy! It just made my life. I can die happy now. Some other things that happened: During AM Radio Craig changed the words to say “Aw mom, not that show again, I don’t wanna watch that show. I just wanna party with the guys in San Diego!” or something to that effect. Also, Art dedicated Strawberry to all the long time Everclear fans which I thought was cool. During Suffragette City Art stage dived into the crowd. My sister was actually one of the people that caught him. All in all I thought it was such an excellent show. Definitely the best I have ever seen them do.
