Last Friday was quite possibly the craziest time I have ever had in Clemson! Granted, I have never partied with any of the students there! EVANESCENCE was in town kicking off their tour in support of their new self-titled album and Tessa and I got there before 4 since they were doing their meet and greet with listeners and fan club members at that time.
While we were waiting to go down to the main floor of the auditorium, Merckle was playing with his camera and caught me in my natural state. Let me be clear: THIS IS NOT A POSE!!!!
The meet and greet was held in front of the stage while the band ran through several songs for that night's soundcheck. After they were done, they came out to sign autographs and to take photos. Amy was very nice which goes to her credit since she has a reputation for being a bit of a diva and is allegedly difficult to work with. But being courteous to fans speaks volumes about a musician or any other sort of celebrity!
After the meet and greet, we had a few hours to kill so we drove around Clemson and stopped at Dunkin Donuts for some, go figure, coffee and doughnuts! When we got back, we stood by the Planet table with Merckle and gave the poor guy our last doughnut since he hadn't had a chance to eat all day. Mike Burton, one of our other event photographers joined us as well as other folks we knew including Amanda from TATTERMASK.
When the doors opened, I wanted to wait for the line to go down before getting in line since we had assigned seating. So we sat in my car to thaw out for a few which ended up being a bad idea since we already had to pee and melting the ice in our bladders only made it worse. So we went around to the south entrance to see if we could gain media access but my name wasn't on the list but they were kind enough to let Tessa use the restroom. I stayed at the table to serve as collateral then went back to the car when she was done. By this time I had to pee so bad that I decided to use one of the empty Dunkin Donuts cups to give my bladder much needed relief! The downside to this method was that I was unable to properly adjust my gear afterwards so I ended up with a bit of a trail if you catch my drift! Thankfully we had time to sit in my warm car and let things air out!
When we got into the coliseum, we met up with my ex-girlfriend Rebecca who happens to live in Clemson and does student housing there (the irony is that she's a HUGE Gamecock fan). She was there with her current boyfriend Jonathan and friend JD. We talked through all of the opening bands (sorry guys) then went our separate ways as we took our seats for EVANESCENCE's set.
The band sounded great but no one really had much stage presence except for Amy Lee. I wonder if that is how she wants it to keep the focus on her. Not criticizing because she IS the main attraction of EVANESCENCE. As a matter of fact, when they came out on stage, there was a young girl just a few seats to my right whose head was about to explode from excitement as she screamed nearly the whole show. Tessa and I were quite amused with the young avid fan!
After the show, we went over to Rebecca's place since she had invited us earlier. Jonathan fixed us some apple pie moonshine (the legal kind, mind you!) mixed with whipped cream vodka and man it was tasty! Then we spent the remainder of the night sharing our favorite tunes and comedic bits on the internet. Ok, so it's not as crazy as some but it twas a good night!
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