CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY:
"I" (Morgan)
"Rachel" (Rachel)
"Our driver and Rachel's older sister" (Karen!)
"Laryssa" (Laryssa)
CHARACTER COSTUMES: (Morgan and Rachel)
Bright blue pants, orange shirts, rainbow belts, elf
hats, red blinking arrow lights (attached to the hats!), etc.
GETTING STARTED:
After the 3 ½ hour drive and a stop at the hotel, we went to Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA) for the concert. On the way over there, we heard an announcement on the radio that there was going to be about 5000 people there but tickets were still on sale. We got there, and there was a line wrapping around the building. I didn't have the tickets yet, I was going to pick them up there.
- ONE HIGHLIGHT OF THE EVENING: We got to meet Laryssa! She's a cool chica who we've known online for a while.
None of us really knew what to do about getting the tickets...but I
pulled out my ID card and went up to the window and told them I was
picking up 3 tickets and 3 backstage passes. Checked ID, gave me the
tickets. It was odd, because on the tickets, it said "General" but at
the bottom they had scribbled "B-20" (and B-21 and B-22). I went back to
the office and asked if those were the seat numbers, and they said yes.
For anyone who can't put two and two together, that means SECOND ROW!!!
Smack dab in the middle!
30 minutes later, we were inside and sitting about 15 feet from the stage. INCREDIBLE. I felt kind of bad actually ;o) Then another girl came up and introduced herself to us, it was SARAH from the jarsboard! Such an awesome night, we met tons of people! Meeting Laryssa and Sarah and seeing my friends who go to LU again was great!
Show started with Shaun Groves. Same set list (Satellite, After the Music Fades, Two Cents, Welcome Home), same jokes (yet they were still unbelievably hilarious) and the same.. well... everything! (He did change clothes though...) He was GREAT. I'm really starting to love his music even though that type usually isn't my thing!
Jennifer Knapp was next, and Laryssa says that she sang 13 songs. For an opening band, that's just a LITTLE much. I've seen her 5 times so I won't talk about it. We would have gone out and looked at merch, but it was kind of hard to get out of the 2nd row without A: stepping on people, and B:Seeming very very rude. So we got up at intermission and wandered around. Talked to Laryssa some more, she was about 10 rows in back of us but still had great seats!
After intermission, we have... *thinks* oh yeah, that... JARS OF CLAY band! They seemed SO much more comfortable on the big stage than they had at the Norva, and that makes sense because I'm sure it's been a while since they played somewhere that small. But they played the same set list: Silence, Disappear, Unforgetful You, Crazy Times, Like a Child, I Need You, Life in (Lynchburg) Town, Widowing Field, Something Beautiful, Fly, Collide, Flood, Love Song For a Savior, I'm Alright, Revolution, and for the encore The Edge of Water and Worlds Apart. EXACTLY the same. That was the only, and I repeat ONLY bad thing about the concert, we already knew exactly what they were going to say (and wear! Good gracious, Dan was wearing the same clothes, and Steve was wearing the same clothes as he was on the PPV! They sure don't have a big wardrobe!) Concert was very, very, very good; they kind of kept looking at us and our blinky little lights, but never said anything... Steve was dancing and Matt was headbanging, Dan laid down on the floor and Charlie banged on his piano.
RANDOM NOTES ABOUT THE CONCERT:
-Steve hits his guitar twice in the middle of I Need You!
-I'm not sure, but it seemed like Steve had a lot of guitar and technical
problems, he had to switch during the songs a few times and stopped
playing once.
-Dan and Matt got haircuts. Matt's hair is the same, just trimmed because
it was getting long. Dan's hair looks better than it did because it
doesn't look so much like Matt's and he's got it parted in the middle.
Charlie still has that pointy little spike thing, and Steve has the same
hair.
-During Collide (I think), I looked over and Charlie was BANGING his
piano. I mean... his hands were a full foot off the keyboard every chord
he hit! Incredible I tell ya, I couldn't hit the right keys.
-Aaron is still singing backup...
-I still find Dan's Pork Pie Drumset amusing, with his initials on it and
everything...
-I don't have any more random notes...
AFTER THE SHOW HOWEVER...:
(and this may be the longest part)
Rachel and I ran up to the stage and got two playlists (direct copies of
the ones we have, but that's ok! They have beautiful orange tape on
these!) and three picks. Not too thrilling because we saw that there were
two picks left on Matt's microphone stand, and one left on Steve's.
Our thoughts: "Oh, that's PERFECT! We can each have a Matt one, and I
already have a Steve one so Rachel can have this one!"
Reality: Matt was using Steve's picks.
So we ended up with three Steve picks (and I already have one). Rachel
and Karen each took one, and I gave mine to Laryssa.
We went over to the Meet & Greet area, and lo and behold, there's about 40-100 (opinions and memories vary) people there! UNBELIEVABLE. Passed lots of signs that we thought about taking and were going to get on the way out (Dressing room signs, tour bus signs, etc...), but we went out a different way. Went upstairs and waited in a crowded room for about 15 minutes, then Jars came in. It wasn't much of a meet & greet, more of a "get an autograph and get out" greet! But it was good because when we went through, it was clear of people enough to take pictures and such.
CONVERSATIONS:
The guys were lined up: Dan, Charlie, Steve, Matt.
Dan: Oh look, it's the little elves!
Us: LITTLE? *weird look*
Dan: So what's your name?
Me: Morgan *shakes hand* (how exciting, right?)
Dan: Morgan? Well it's nice to meet you
Me: *thinking* For the third time... *end thinking*
Me: So did you enjoy the Norva?
*All heads turn and nod*
Steve: Yeah, the Norva is great
Charlie, Dan, and Steve all make misc. comments about how awesome the Norva is and the great after-show accommodations for the bands and how cool it was.
Charlie: Is that where you're from?
Me: Yeah, about a half hour from Norfolk
Charlie: Which is how far from here?
Me: About 3 ½ hours..
Charlie: Wow...
*Charlie is still signing my book and giving it back when Rachel comes up*
Rachel: Could you please sign Wanda? *holds out frog*
Charlie: Wanda huh...
Me: *KNOWS WHAT'S COMING NEXT*Charlie: And what's HIS name? *points to Morgan's blue frog*
Me: You don't want to know
Tour Manager: Hurry up, PICTURE
*All of us turn around and get the picture*
Charlie with Steve looking on: No really, you can tell us! (what the frog was named)
Me: No, you really REALLY don't want to know!
Rachel: It's not a BAD name...
Charlie: Ok, well don't say I didn't ask!
Me: OH! Accordions... You play Hohner accordions, what line though? Like.. what kind are they?
Charlie: The little one that me and Dan play is a student accordion...
Me: GREAT, that's what I thought... thanks! *moves over to Steve who already has my book and is dropping playlists, pictures, lyric books, and everything else that isn't securely taped down out of the front of the book*
Me: AH! You're dropping my stuff!
Steve: Oh, I'm sorry!
Me: It's ok, it's just your album cover and stuff and Shaun Groves *holds up picture of us and Shaun Groves* Ain't he beautiful?
*LAUGHTER*
Steve: *gets distracted by Karen* "YOU... You're... are you related to... are you.... aren't you... who are... you're..."
Karen: I'm her sister *points at Rachel*
Steve: Ooooh....
Steve: *back to me* Did you wear those same clothes at the Norva concert?
Me: Yep! They're our concert outfits!
Steve: I THOUGHT I remembered seeing them!
Me: That's why we wear 'em, ya know, getting our stuffed frogs and black notebook paper signed just doesn't cut it anymore, to get people to remember you, you gotta wear funny clothes!
Steve: *laughs*
Matt: *has been holding out my book forever*
Matt: Hey, thanks for jumping and cheering and standing up and dancing and... all that good stuff...
Me: You're WELCOME!!
Tour Manager: Come on, hurry up and move it through!
So I went over and started packing up stuff, then as we were leaving I said goodbye to Matt again (He was cool! He didn't say much, just observed...) and he made some more "thanks for coming, nice to meet ya" comments.
We went outside after asking the security guard WHERE Shaun Groves went (because he was in the room and had left before we got to say hi again!), they said he had gone with friends. Sure enough, we got outside and saw that he was down by the tour buses with a group of people. Karen wouldn't let us wait for him to come up, so we went ahead and left.
RANDOM COMMENTS:-What's up with college kids? Haven't they ever seen people wearing elf
hats before? Don't they know it's RUDE to stare? They stare more than
anyone I've ever seen in my LIFE!
-Yes, I know that was only one random comment, which is why this one is
here.
-Here's another one. We got pictures with all of them together and one of
just them together, then Karen got some shots of us talking to them.
-Oh, and I'm also the proud owner of an original Steve guitar string. *Evil
grin* (thanks Ryssa!)
And that was the end of my concert experience. A wonderful one at that, the 7th Jars concert I've been to and the best. The last two hadn't been as good as the ones before that, so we weren't expecting this to be much better, but it just blew us away. The concert was great, we had awesome seats (and hard to believe it, but we've had better!), we got to meet them, and now I'm wanting to go back... AHHHH!