This is a memoire/shrine of my experience attending The Good, the Bad and the Queen concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. on March 14th, 2007. Be prepared for fangirlishness, as I will be providing as many details as i can remember of my "dream come true" moment (including the show itself) I'll also warn you that I'm not the best writer, so if I don't make any sense what so ever...that's just too bad. No one is holding a gun to your head saying, "READ THIS OR DIE!" ;)
So if you still insist on reading this crap, sit back, relax and get ready for a long, drawn out, way too detailed load of obsessed fangirl rubbish.
Okay...on with the insanity!
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When my boyfriend, Kevin, and I first got to the club, i peeked in through the door just out of curiosity, and i spotted a TGTBATQ poster on the wall. I said, "I want that poster!" and the guy guarding the door went over and ripped it right off the wall for me. Later on everyone was stealing the posters off the walls on their own, so i was the only one that actually got one with permission. Pointless detail, but I thought it was cool....anyway, there was only one person in line at the time...a fellow Damon fangirl like myself, Jennifer. She hung out with us the rest of the night. She had already met the band about an hour or two earlier, and they had just gone off to an interview. The tour bus was parked right outside the front door...what luck! We spent the next hour or so just bullshitting about Damon. Who came waltzing out of the tour bus...Eslam. I've always been a bit intimidated by him, but i said hi anyway. He said hi back. Not too scary. He was just wandering around the outside of the building chatting on his cell phone the whole time we were out there.
Then, they came back. Sadly, i didn't even notice the rest of the band at that time, because as soon as i saw Damon Albarn that first time, i froze. O__O I did manage to snap out of it and approach him. He asked me, "You got something for me to sign?" so i gave him my poster that door guy gave me, and my TGTBATQ cd cover. He used Jennifer's silver marker to sign them. You can't really see it at first glance, but hold it at an angle and it glows. I didn't even realize that Kevin was snapping tons of pictures the entire time. I did get Damon to pose for a pic with me before they went into the club, I said thank you and hugged him. I was in a complete daze after that...somebody pinch me, that did NOT just happen! ^_^
Needless to say, the next waiting period was full of fangirly squeals and giggling from the two of us. Kevin was getting annoyed, so he took off walking down the street. He ended up meeting and getting his pic taken with Stevie Wonder at the cafe at the end of the block! THAT was unexpected!
After awhile, the band came outside again. We were all sitting on the step, and they walked behind us. I was in a silly mood by then, so i looked up at Damon and said cherrfully, "Hello again." He nodded his head, and i stuck my hand out behind me. Damon slapped it. I got a...er...low five??? from Damon ^_^ Damon, Paul, Tony and Simon walked down to that cafe for dinner. Kevin took my voice recorder and followed them out there (I chickened out. I should have taken the opportunity to speak to them, but i was still in a giggly fangirly state...pitiful) He asked me what I wanted him to ask them, and i drew a blank, so he just kind of made it up as he went along. He said he asked Damon for a short interview, and when Damon asked why he told him, "My girlfreind out there runs the Gorillaz Safe Haven site." Damon simply said, "Okay." (like maybe he's already heard of the place??? O__O) So he came back with a short, like minute long mini interview all for me ^_^ Nothing any TGTBATQ fan doesn't already know, but it was cool that it's MINE. Kev didn't really know anything about them, so it was news to him anyway. But i love it. The fucking wind distorted a bit of the recording at the end, but it's good aside from that. He told me that as he started walking away he heard Damon say, "I think i've seen him before?" which means he remembers him from the Demon Days live in Harlem we attended. Kev was trying to get the guy in the van Damon was in to roll down the window so he could get Damon to come back out for me (i froze and couldn't move from that spot when he was rushing to the van after the show, but Damon waved at me that night as they pulled away) I knew Kevin's weird cowboy hat...thing was good for something...haha. I stole Kevin's lighter from him because he let Damon use it...now a sacred artifact.
They came back with their food and went straight to the bus. Evidently the lock on the bus was shit, because they kept having problems opening the door. They ended up staying on the bus until the crowd was let into the club.
Jennifer and i made a beeline for the front, and stood right in between the piano and the center mic, for the best Damon view, of course. The opening act was horrible. Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey??? o_O A very strange burlesque comedy act. Ugh...the monkey guy was hideous, but it was funny as hell anyway. At one point there was a guy on stilts that was supposed to be the grim reaper came on stage, and immediately i got an Animaniacs quote in my head, so i yelled out, "Can I call you Daddoo?!?!?" He pointed at me and nodded his head. Disturbing, but funny.
The shining moment (yeah, i'm blowing this all out of proportion, but it was extremely exciting for me to get to see this for the first, and hopefully not the last, time) The band takes the stage. Damon looks so happy and full of energy the entire show, and he knew EXACTLY where me and Kevin were. Kev is not easy to miss, towering above everyone else. He saw us and smiled at me a bit...actually got quite a few looks from him throughout the show. Made me feel a bit special ^_^ (i'm using that ^_^ thing waaay too much. Oh well. Deal with it ^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^)
That predatory stare that Paul gives you and pointing his bass at you like a rifle is almost mesmerizing. I got that stare like 3 times throughout the night. You just can't help but stare back and smile. Evil bastard. Gotta love him.
At one point in the show Damon picked up the melodica instead of the recorder (I think that's what it's called). He threw his hands in the air, laughing, with a look on his face like, "What the hell am i doing?" A similar thing happened when he forgot the words to one of the songs, but he played it off well...just smiled, shook his head a bit and went on.
Damon started playing that interlude at the end of Chemical World from the Modern Life is Rubbish album, with this shit eating grin on his face, looking like a little boy at the piano, and the rest of the guys just looked at him rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. That's one of my favorite Blur songs, so that really made me happy. Nice surprise.
Towards the end of the show, Damon just started staring at Tony with this goofy grin. He was trying to ignore it at first, but when Damon didn't stop, he just couldn't help but laugh at him. That's one way to get Tony to smile...stare at him like an idiot. HAHA!
The last couple of songs from the album, Damon started drinking from a bottle of...i think it was rum, but i couldn't see the label on the bottle to be sure. Eventually he started pouring it into a glass and set them both on top of his piano. Right before the last part of "The Good, the Bad and the Queen" where he beats the hell out of the piano playing it so hard, he downs a glassfull (i have a pic of that) then gives that piano hell!
As everyone that has been keeping tabs on the tour already knows, Doghouse, and Mr. Whippy were the encore songs. Damon was especially animated during Doghouse, in between his melodica parts. He was bouncing around, dancing his heart out, having a great time. Eslam had the whole crowd throwing peace signs during Mr. Whippy.
We waited outside for like an hour and a half...i think...it might have been longer. Eslam was wandering around again just like earlier. I said to him, "Hello again." he came up to me and said, "Oh, I bet you want a hug, don't you?" and he gave me a big bear hug. He's not scary after all. Just a great big ol' teddy bear. A while later on yet ANOTHER trip around the front of the club i said hi to him again. He said, "Hey, sweetheart" ^_^ Yup...teddy bear.
Simon came out first, signed a few things for a couple of people and went to hide on the bus. I didn't even TRY to meet him because he seemed a bit...pissy. He was kind of cold to Jennifer earlier that day, so I didn't bother. Tony came out next. Me and Jen got our pic taken together with him. He smelled good...like a really fancy cigar or something o_O. Then Damon and Paul both came out together. Paul went right to signing autographs for people, and Damon was talking to someone about what happened when he got into town that day. I only caught the tail end of it, but it sounded like someone came up behind him with a gun to his head, and said, "BANG!" and told him to not walk around there alone...or something like that. Scary. Damon could have lost his life before that show. Yikes. Anyway, after that he came up to me smiling a bit, beer in hand, and i said to him, "You're going to hate me for making you sign 10 thousand things before the night is through." I made him laugh with that one (i have that exact moment in a pic as well). Here's where the fangirl shit goes haywire (good thing he had been drinking. Kev got several pics of him taking swigs of his beer). He signed my ticket stub with MY marker...another sacred artifact. After he signed it I hugged the hell out of him and told him, "Thank you so much. You're wonderful. I love you to death." Then i was clinging to his arm for about 10 minutes. He didn't seem to mind. (his suit was soft^_^) After he got done signing stuff for other people I asked him, "One more thing?" He said, "What's that?" I asked if i could kiss him on the cheek. He smiled and rolled his eyes a bit and said, "Alright. Go ahead." and bent down for me. (my lips touched Damon Albarn's cheek O__O...sorry.) After that I told him, "Yeah, I know I'm pathetic." He laughed out loud at that. I think that if I ever get to meet him again i might be able to actually hold a conversation with him without freaking out. It felt more comfortable after making him laugh.
After that I left Damon alone, and went to go bug Paul, who seemed to be eating up all the attention he was getting. We got our pic together with Paul and I had him sign the other side of my ticket. He ended up almost keeping my pen, but i eventually got it back.
Smoggy was trying to get them to go to the bus, but paul was still signing stuff, practically ignoring him. Some people took pizza into the bus and Simon was eating it in front of the window. Smoggy yells at him "You better not be eating all the bloody pizza, you fucking cunt!"
Me and Jen turned around and stared at Damon for a minute. He was maybe two ft. away, and I realized how tiring the whole thing was for him. When a bunch of other people lined up for him to sign stuff, he sighed heavily. The poor guy was so tired. Everyone got on the bus, and I could see where Damon was sitting. Of course my silly fangirl arse stood there watching him until Kevin finally dragged me away.
Well, there you have it. For those of you that actually read through the whole thing, congrats. That's time you've wasted and will never get back. As for me, I STILL have to listen to my special little interview and look at the photos to remind myself that it wasn't all just a dream. My photos didn't turn out quite as well as they could have, but it could have been worse, I guess.
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