Last Stop
filed on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 7:19:42 PM CST

Earlier this year, I got wind of the All American Rejects opening up for Fall Out Boy at the UIC Pavillion here in Chicago, and I was all over Ticketmaster like you wouldn't believe.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there, all of the good seats were sold out.  Oh, sure, I could have gone for a nosebleed seat or a side seat or whatever else, but what I really, really wanted was the "dance floor seating" that had been available.

No.

Such.

Luck.

Well, I sighed, and resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be seeing them this time.  But then, a few weeks later, they announced a second show for mid-May.  You better believe I was sitting there in front of my computer ten minutes before the tickets went on sale, refreshing my browser again and again and again until it popped up with the sale page.  Wham, bam, two tickets on the dance floor.  Woot woot!

Monday night was the concert, and I got the bad news from Jill that she'd be working late, and wouldn't be able to go with me.  I didn't have think long before I decided who I'd ask to go with me.  I went to work, walked right over to G's desk, and asked her if she'd like to go with.  It didn't take much to twist her arm either!!!  So about 6:00 in the evening, we headed on over to the UIC Pavillion after a quick gas fillup and an adventure through a CVS Pharmacy trying to find G some earplugs to protect her ears (okay, someone please tell us why the earplugs are in the same aisle as the pregnancy tests...).

We get there, head for the front doors, hold out our tickets after being patted down.  "Oh, you're on the dance floor, go around the building and in over there."  Okay.  Right.  So we head around where we were directed, and get ourselves some nice glowy orange wristbands to indicate we were dance floor material.  We manage to get inside, and then, uh... start to wonder where the hell we're supposed to go.  Down one set of stairs, we get told by the guy at the bottom to go back up and around to the dance floor entrance.  Something you'd think they'd have told us about when they checked our tickets, or at least have clearly marked.  Hell, I'd have settled for just plainly marked.  Or marked.  Period.

We circle around to the doors we weren't allowed to come in, and still haven't figured out where we're supposed to go.  G asks this girl who's standing in front of a curtain that looks like it might be the mysterious entrance.  No.  Not there.  Go around two sections, and go down the third.  We're going to have to buy that woman some fingers, because it was actually the fourth.  But, all said and done, we finally find the stairs down, and get in and get on the dance floor, and are standing there among a couple hundred teenagers and young adults, listening to the second opening act.

No idea who they or the act that followed were...  The following act was the sore thumb of the night.  Their music was harsh, yelly-screamy, and more of a hard metal than it was a rock.  Still, it was strangely relaxing, and enjoyable if only for the hillarious antics performed on-stage.  No idea what any of the words to any of the songs were, particularly when the lead singer said, "Listen carefully," and then wanted the crowd to sing back to him.  The first time didn't go over at all... like, next to no one sang back.  The second time he asked, almost in disbelief at the first time, the crowd sang mostly back at him, but I think they were all just making up sounds that sounded like words.  Me, I sang, "Blah blah blah blah blah," back at him.  And during the break someone sent a text message to the silly side screens that asked, "Was that last act even speaking English?"

Well, they leave the stage, and not long after, the Rejects took the floor, Chuck Norris-decorated drumset and all.  Oh.  My.  God.  They were awesome!!!  Okay, so I agree with G that poor Tyson really sounded strained, and since this was the last show of the tour, I can understand why.  Still, they put on quite an energetic show... it was such a blast!  They brought out a blow-up swimming pool, and threw big beach balls into the audience, and guys from other bands came out in their underwear and sat down in the pool and danced around, and it was just such a hysterical blast, quite entertaining!  I'd say the only down side was that I think they only performed six songs tops, but then, they were the last opener, and the main act was Fall Out Boy, so I guess I can't complain.  The energy they put into Move Along though, wow... what a way to close out their act!

Finally, came Fall Out Boy, with a few messages about Pete Wentz (the bassist) coming across the text-message screens about how someone had seen his "big boy," and how "Pete Wentz makes me cream my jeans," and all kinds of rather interesting things.  About two songs in, he even asked how many people had seen his penis on the internet while a big fake phallus ran around on stage labelled "Pete's Penis."  Quite a bizarre turn of events, but I guess ya have to give the guy props for just dealing with something that could potentially be quite embarrassing.

I really didn't know many of the Fall Out Boy songs, as I didn't pick up their most recent CD until recently (heh), and have only heard a couple of songs on the radio (enough to know it'd be worth seeing 'em), so I was mostly crowd watching and stage watching and the like.  We had a couple of strange dancers who tried to dance their way through us, but ultimately failed to get us to move, and one rather rude man stood in front of G at one point making it difficult for her to see (and if I could have bumped in front of him without knocking through a tall, stick-figured girl, I'd have gotten in his way just to get him gone).  But really, it was a great time!

The finale though... I don't know how else to say it, but to say that it really felt like I was having one of those surrealistic moments where I was actually in the middle of something that you see on television all the time, but that never really happen in real life.  Except, of course, that it was happening in real life, and I was standing right there for it.

Since it was the last show, people were quite goofy the whole evening.  Well, during the last song, the Rejects ran out and started having fun, and others came out, and it was just bizarre.  And then, balloons fell from the ceiling, and streams of confetti shot into the air, and fans blew it out into the audience, all during Dance, Dance Dance, and the lights shining through it, and the paper falling all around us, and the music and balloons and the whole nine yards... it was just such an awesome close to the night!

This was followed promptly by G and I sitting in my car for about twenty minutes on the fifth floor of the parking garage waiting for traffic to move, and a long, long ride home consisting of a traffic jam on 290 that G snuck us around on Harlem Avenue, but we did get to stop for Frostys at Wendy's, so, hey, not too much to complain about there either.

At any rate, it was such a fun, enjoyable night of awesome music, and entertaining performances!!!  A real nice break from the day to day doldrums presently haunting my life.  And G, thanks so much for going with!!!  If it hadn't been for you, I'd have been standing right next to that poor girl asking, "Want to buy a cheap ticket?"  It was a blast having ya along!!!