I chose Knoxville because it was the next closest tour stop and it was on a weekend. I thought long and hard about choosing Paris so I could also visit my friend, but I couldn't find a flight under $1000 and $900 was my limit. I sent Pat a message, refreshing his memory about the pictures he now owns because you know they meet lots of fans at meet and greets and radio promos etc. I told him I wanted to take him up on his offer for the Knoxville show. He asked me how many tickets I wanted, and of course I had to mess with him, so I told him I needed 16 and that we were bringing a party bus.
A few days later, Friend #1 backs out. I asked Friend #2 who also loves Train. She says yes! A few days later, she backs out. This is a great example of the type of friends I have (minus my two BFF's who happen to live in Florida and France). Very flaky and lame. Derek would've loved to go, but someone had to watch Arden =)
Clarisa loves Train and had been telling me for weeks prior to the show that she REALLY wanted to go to a Train concert. I figured this would be a good time to surprise her. I wasn't going to tell her until we got there and I thought I would just let her see the sign at the Theater that says "Train tonight" but I couldn't wait, so I told her an hour before we left. She was beside herself.
We packed up, stopped at Trader Joe's for some snacks and were on our way. The four hour drive wasn't bad. We had to go the scenic, winding road route because of the rock slide that closed I-40.
The small part of Knoxville that we saw was beautiful! We got there, grabbed some dinner and walked over to the Theatre.
I went up to the ticket booth and give them my name and ID for will call. DUN DUN DUN. "There are no tickets in your name. Could they be under another name?" huh?!?! WHAT?!?! I should mention that before this happened, little worrier Clarisa kept saying, "what if he didn't leave you tickets? What are we going to do?!? What if he forgot?"
I calmly leave the window, tell Clarisa to BREATHE (She's saying, "Oh great! Our night is ruined! What are we going to do??") and I sent Pat a message. He responds and says there are two tickets and passes for me at will call and that he's sending his tour manager up. OH boy. Someone's in trouble. He puts the ladies in their place and they apologize profusely saying my tickets were in the wrong spot.
Finally we were good to go and totally excited about our VIP passes. I thought maybe I'd get some, but you never know. After we calmed down, we looked at our tickets and they were for the THIRD row center!!! Again, I figured they would be for up in the balcony. Silly me.
Butch of course was great, and this time, when he covered "Rich Girl" Pat came on stage with a fake mustache to sing with him. Please excuse all the movement. I couldn't help but dance =)
Train has a song called "She's On Fire" and he brings a few girls (he tries to get the young ones) on stage to sing with him.
Clarisa was the first one chosen. She got a special "Trainette" shirt and sang with Train and I got it all on video. I loaded it onto You tube, but it was very choppy so I'm trying again and it's giving me a hard time, so I'll add the link later.
Butch joined Train on stage again and they sang "Dance The Night Away"
After the show, we head to our 'secret area' and wait. and wait. A group of people with special passes get to meet the band first. (They paid $175 for that special lanyard, so I guess it's OK if I wait a little longer. Oh and I hear the security guy tell them they only get to have one thing signed and one picture. I guess that means I'm in the cool group. It's late and we're tired and these two older women behind me are telling me about ALL the times they've seen Train and they always try to meet them were from NC too. Then Train comes out, and Pat comes over to me and hugs me and was asking what happened with the tickets, then starts telling Clarisa that I'm an old school fan etc. Meanwhile the ladies that were just bragging about all their shows were picking their jaws off the floor. Yeah, they didn't realize they were just talking to Pat's best friend (OK maybe that's a little exaggeration).
Did I mention that Train follows me on Twitter? That's right. In Knoxville he says "you know, you are the only fan that I actually follow, and the stuff you say is SO funny!" He said there are a couple of fans that begged him on twitter to follow them so he did, but they are kind of annoying so he ignores them, but me? He's actually replied to my tweets and I didn't ask him to follow me.. woot woot. I don't talk about stupid things on twitter, like "OK I'm going to the bathroom" etc. I just tweet random -usually funny- thoughts, and Pat. Monahan. Loves. It.
He also offered me tickets for their show this summer, opening up for John Mayer.
OK, I'll get off my high horse now. I just can't help it. I have met a lot of bands partially due to being a record label rep and doing promotions/sell merch at shows and no one comes close to the personality Pat has. HE is so good to fans, has great stage presence, is genuine and isn't afraid to make fun of himself. John Mayer on the other hand. heh. Even when he was a nobody, playing VERY small venues he had an attitude. Total ego. Nickelback too. And Jakob Dylan. Actually he's just rude to male fans.
Pat also doesn't drink or smoke and he's not a 'sleazy' rockstar. Major points.
This was Clarisa's first concert ever. Pretty darn lucky if you ask me =)
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