Monday, February 13, 2006

02.13.06 - Pierre's Blog: "London." It's 1pm in London right now and I just got back from a little bit of shopping and walking around on the famous carnaby street.  It's filled with little shops and boutiques that sell stuff you probably won't find in every city, so if you're looking for cool unique fashion, this is the place to be.  As you all know, my wardrobe consists of t-shirts jeans and shorts with an occasional hoodie, but i still enjoyed walking around and checking out the hip stores.  I bought 3 new t-shirts!!!!  I'm so boring.... Yesterday was our last of two sold out shows at the Astoria in London.  Contrary to what we expected, the second night's crowd was a little more crazy than the first, but they were both amazing.  We've played the Astoria a few times now, the first one being with Bowling for Soup over 2 years ago, and I have to say, the venue rocks.  It's one of those old classic theaters where many famous bands have come through and you just know that if the walls could talk they would probably have some crazy stories.  All in all the London stop was great and we had fun.  We even goofed round and did a short version of Foxy lady by Jimi Hendrix last night on stage.  We nailed it pretty good considering we just pIayed it out of the blue but I think that a lot of fans were a little too young to get it, because as i gazed through the crowd after the song I saw a few people with some puzzled looks on their faces, but we enjoyed it and had a good laugh anyways. On the night of the first London show, we ran into a fan named Andy who I recognized from our last tour in the UK.  I was with Chuck and Seb on our way out for some dinner and he spotted us so he ran up and politely asked if he could get a picture and autograph, so of course we said yes even though we were in a little bit of a hurry.  Just as we were about to take the picture he turned to us and said:"This is so great....  you guys are my favorite band in the world!!!" and then his eyes started to water and he hugged us and was so happy.  I couldn't believe that the fact of meeting us was bringing him to tears!  After we signed his cd booklets, took pictures and said goodbye we all were so amazed.  It made me realize how our music has touched people in such an incredible way.  This 18 year old guy, who is from Manchester, took all his money to buy train tickets, concert tickets and a hotel rooms and is following us for the next few days just because we make him so happy.  That right there is what it's all about.  Seeing Andy's eyes tear up when he hugged us was the greatest felling ever. That sort of moment cancels out all the negative things that have ever happened to this band. It makes us forget about the critics that give us horrible reviews, or the haters that throw us whatever they can get theirs hands on.  So thank you Andy. Oddly enough, yesterday we bumped into him again randomly on the street as he was walking out of pizza hut.  He offered us a slice of pizza and we hugged again.  Small world... Today I'll be taking the train to Nottingham at 3pm and The All American Rejects are playing there tonight so i might stop by and say hi.  I hope you guys all have a good day out there. See you at the show. Pierre