I flew to Las Vegas on Friday morning. The plan was to meet my friend, Wayne, and attend 2 shows put on by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds.
(Disclaimer- this is going to be heavy in DMB lingo. Sorry)
(Also sorry that I said, "lingo.")
My friend's flight ended up getting delayed, so he wasn't able to make it to the Friday night's show. Since he was my seat buddy, it appeared that I was going to be going this show alone. Sometimes that's okay, sometimes I get bummed about it. It's usually okay. Friday night it was alright. I had just enough booze in me to think that I was having fun, then get quietly angry at myself for wondering if I could get better seats. "Vanessa! You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!" At no point did "bummed" get the best of my Friday night. Victory!
(It's alright to continue reading even though I mentioned booze.)
I met some people around me. The 2 guys behind me had flown out from New Jersey Friday morning, were seeing the show and flying back Saturday morning. Troopers. Then, there was a man who picked the PERFECT spot to stub himself up. When I got to my seat, he was in my friend's seat! I said, "Hi! You did a good job! This seat was empty, and now it's yours!" Isn't that neat? The one open seat in the first 20 rows, and he found it before we had even gotten there? Good for him. He was nice and mellow, and we chatted a bit. He reminded me of one of the customers at the bar. That gave me a soft spot for him. I almost wanted to pour him one too many beers and have him tell me a joke where he forgets the punchline and I suggest that maybe he should go get something to eat.
The show was good. It was great to hear Write a Song acoustic, it was lovely to hear Beach Ball. They both surprised me. I think my favorite surprise may have been Dodo. I keep singing it....it's stuck in my head for days. Grace is Gone was beautiful. I get the goose pimplies when I hear the crowd sing with "one more drink." I'm such a sucker for singalongs. I really try to keep my voice down when I sing along, until the rest of the peanut gallery pipes up. Then its fair game. Dave's voice was phenomenal both nights. He's such a dang good singer.
After the show, I met up with some friends. We grabbed some drinks, did some chatting, I ate some food as well as stuffed a granola bar in my purse for the road. Somehow, when I'm at my hungriest, the lounge sets me free (from hunger). As we were leaving, there was a group of people waiting. By a door. In a loading dock. Of course we thought waiting was a grand idea. What better to do in Vegas? There was a van ready to whisk someone away, and a few moments later, we found out that the someone was Tim Reynolds. I didn't bother him, nobody did.
A little while later, someone poked their head out of the door to scope the scene. Then the head of security came out and told us all that Dave would come talk to everyone. Exciting! Only in Vegas! People were keeping their cool. Good job, ladies and gentlemen. We were supposed to back up and go stand by a certain area so that he had room to actually get out of the door and so that nobody rushed him and frightened him away. Some of the younger girls, the really freshly 21 girls, didn't want to listen, so I heckled them from far away. Just kidding. But they really didn't want to listen and you could feel everyone that was playing by the rules getting uneasy. "You're gonna blow it for us! Get BACK here!" It all worked out, though. Don't worry.
So then, like a tall, funny angel, Dave Matthews walked among us. He came out, and people were playing it cool, but secretly freaking. Me, too. Some guys were being generous and telling me I could go in front of them (We had kind of started lining up. Poor Dave. Thank you, Dave.). I felt all pumped that I could tell them I'd rather them be first because, you know, I'VE met him before. "Oh, please- DO go ahead of me." What an butthead I am. Seriously. Why do I DO that junk?
There were a lot of people that had stories to tell him. He listened to each one. He signed casts, he took pictures, then 2nd pictures if the original didn't turn out well. Finally, he got to me. I went to shake his hand, but I had a sharpie in it. UGH. So I said something like, "Whoops. A pen. Will you sign my ticket?" Yep. Smooth as all that. Then, his security minded friend prompted me to tell Dave a really fun story about how I had met said security fellow. I SHOULD have said, "My best friend and I were in San Francisco the day before Golden Gate Park. We met some Irish fellows who claimed to have connections, said they could get us in. We went with them for drinks, met them for breakfast, then, after 100,000 people had already gotten into the show, realized they had lied! We needed help, and your friend gave us wristbands and lounge passes! " Instead, I said, "Um, someone tricked us and he gave us wristbands and lounge passes." It felt like this 19 second clip of Baby:
Anyway, I made a jack ass of myself, then that was it. He was gone pretty soon after. I DID give him a little note I had written on the back of my ticket that night. I gave it to him and said, "I wrote you a silly little note.." And he said "I'm sure it's very nice and thoughtful and full of generous things." That was nice of him to say....unless he was being sarcastic? I had gotten a feeling the day before to write a real letter, and actually tried to start one on the plane, but I was worried that the strangers next to me would try to read this letter to a guy I had only met twice, so I didn't write one. I think I got the main gist of what I would have said across on the back of that ticket, though. Hope he liked it. And licked it.
I had a great time. The other couple of times that I've gotten to touch Dave Matthews...I mean MEET Dave Matthews, it was in totally different situations. I'm sure I never really come off as even keeled, but at least I didn't really have very much pressure to act like I "belonged" on Friday night. We were all just fans freaking out. I'd never asked for an autograph before, I'd never seen so many people try and pull themselves together before he came out. It was pretty touching that this man who could have breezed past us took the time to give everyone their moment. Stars. They're just like us! Actually, even better on account of the talent and attractive faces.
If you really want to get down to my brass tacks (heeeyyyyy), I'm a little bummed about the way I handled it. I do this thing when I'm nervous where I try to let people off the hook...like, "Ok, I'm sorry I'm a dope, you're free from my weirdness." I watched a video of us taking a photo, and him looking at me afterward, and my body language comes off as totally dismissive. Ugh. I wish I could change that. I know Dave Matthews doesn't sit at home and worry about whether or not I blew him off, but...maybe someone does. I hope I get better at being a fellow human being someday.
Anyway, stay tuned for part two, due sometime tomorrow.
By the way, I'm changing my name to Venessa. Vanessa is SO 1982.
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