enamoured | one more day left.

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OH LJ, HOW PERFECT FOR YOU TO ASK.

One of my fondest '09 memories: Maroon 5, November 20.

So basically, this is what happened:

I got on campus at about 3:50 and went to Davis Hall, where the concert was going to be held. There was a small crowd of about fifteen/twenty people tops already there. I talked to some people, and we made jokes about trying to sneak in with the catering people and everything, but mostly we waited. And waited. And waited. I went to my car twice: first to get my hoodie because it was getting cooler, and the second time to get my camera and to get batteries for the camera. I ended up driving to a gas station like, a block away while a really nice girl held my spot in line and I bought a two-pack of Duracells that would later end up sucking. I got back, got a better parking space, and continued waiting.

And waiting. And waiting. At some point, it had started to rain and everyone who had come after I had and wasn't under the covered part were getting drenched. And my feet were hurting because I was wearing boots, not sneakers, like a sane person. At some point the friend of a girl who was behind me came up and they started gushing about New Moon (the movie had just come out that day) and being Team Edward and I was just like >_> the whole time. We finally got let in at 7:30 and for a moment, the line I was in wasn't moving, and this was vexing because all of us were all "WHAT IF EVERYONE ELSE GETS THE GOOD SEATS BEFORE US, UNFAAAAIR". So when we finally got moving me and a few of the other girls who were there early made a mad dash for the front row and I got in the third row, thereby making this the best seats I've ever gotten at a concert and making the wait in the drizzly cold worth it.

Look how close I was!

I'm pretty sure that the first five rows of seats were about 75% full of women. It was a big ol' ocean of estrogen right thar, and I was sitting next to the guy who was Mr. UTA (the homecoming king!) and one of the girls I met in line, Melissa, and a row ahead of a guy who came with his friend/girlfriend/I wasn't sure of their relationship to each other. The first row, I swear, was packed with girls who were all but swooning half the time. It was awesome.

Melissa and I were watching our seats like hawks, lest we have to beat someone down if they took them from us. We went and checked out the merchandise table and talked and then the opening band, Fitz and the Tantrums came on.

...yeah, this is sadly blurry as all get-out. D: Also: I do not know who's ruffly hair thingie that is.

They were quite awesome (and, by the way, if you like free music, you have until tomorrow to download their EP and GO DO IT SRSLY), and after their set, they band was out in the lobby taking pictures and signing autographs. So I went out and got my picture taken with Noelle (the backup singer)...

Ignore the goofy look on my face. And my bra strap showing. Good Lord.

And then with Fitz (the lead singer, of course):

Again: ignore/laugh at my bra straps being super visible and the goofy look on my face.

There was this lull after that, and they started playing music. People were dancing and talking and it was very cool. And then they started playing that one song, "Blame it on the Alcohol" by Someone Who I Have Just Forgotten, and people are dancing and singing along, and it's right about that time that Maroon 5 shows up, just all casual-like. The girls in the front row went from mellow to batshit insane in .5 seconds.

I was totally psyched by this time, and I had my camera ready and everything. I was fully intending to take a whole bunch o' pictures... but sometime after snapping one blurry-ass shot the batteries just died. It was totally like, SNAP, then, LOL DED. I think I shrieked, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!" at one point or another. But I did manage to get one shot during the show:

HI ADAM LEVINE (pictured in white button-front shirt).

Random noteworthy points:

There was this girl a row behind me who was shrieking like a maniac. I haven't heard that kind of screaming at a concert since I saw Justin Timberlake when he did that tour with Christina Aguilera. It was that high-pitched dog whistle type of screaming. There was some point when I turned to Melissa and said something like, "I bet all the guys here came with their girlfriends." (I can't remember what prompted this, but I remember saying it.) There was all sorts of random bantery stuff from Adam, including one part when he said that the song "Secret" was about some "kinky shit [he] did a long time ago", and he did a cover of "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys. Someone a few rows behind me ended up catching a drum stick at one point. And I had two of my own Losing of the Shit moments when they did "Sunday Morning" and "Sweetest Goodbye" (the two songs that I didn't hear them do at the first concert of theirs that I went to), and those are my favorites from Songs About Jane, so I was all, "DSJSJLGJSAAAAAAAAA!!!"

After the show was over I headed out the side entrance and thought it'd be cool to see if I could wait for a little and see the band when they came out, since the buses were parked right behind Texas Hall and everything. I was walking behind these four girls and I heard one of them say that she wanted to wait too, and by this time we were on the sidewalk facing the buses, which were fenced off for obvious reasons. Her friends tried to talk her down and I was like, "Hey, I'm waiting, I'll wait with her." So while we waited, we talked and exchanged names (hers was Lauren and she was a freshman and I was all, I FEEL OLD GOD) and stories about other concerts and stuff. Then we heard this shrieking coming from near the door where we'd come out so we both looked at each other and ran back across the street and toward one of the doors that led backstage where there was a barracade with security guys and a ton of (mostly) other girls. The sprinklers were on and we were ducking and shrieking and we got up closer. I futzed with the batteries some more while everyone else started yelling for Adam to come out.

And he didn't. Instead, Jesse (the keyboardist) did:

He was signing whatever people could pass over and people were screaming and asking for pictures. At one point I started asking if anyone had a pen or a Sharpie just in case, and no one did. I didn't even have one in my pockets for once, which was different. Once Jesse left, The Other Keyboardist came out and there was shrieking and panic, and it was kind of still for a few minutes until Adam came out. And lo, there was a great amount of shrieking and my camera batteries decided to die AGAIN, so I have no pictures of him being like, two yards and behind a fence away from me. I ended up passing the program I'd bought over someone's head for an autograph and he signed it with a Sharpie that somehow magically appeared out of thin air, and then they passed it back and I started freaking out. And Lauren and I kind of stumbled our way down the fence a little and were all like, "HI!!!" and she got a picture with him while MY CAMERA WOULD NOT WORK. It was very vexing. He was RIGHT THERE (and he's about my height, give or take, and I'm 5'7". Heeee).

And after that, Lauren and I both shrieked and hugged each other and exchanged numbers and went our separate ways. And so concluded a pretty awesome night overall--and it was made even better because I didn't get sick from standing outside in the wet chill for like, four and a half hours and then getting sprayed by sprinklers, and that Sunday my mom came back to town with my grandma. The end.