Here is possibly the longest post in history, so hold on folks! It is filled with shenanigans and hijinks, so try to power through!
First, I think you all know that I've been planning to go to Houston to see Ryan Star. You've heard me mention Ryan before I'm sure. I've been a fan for years and I believe he is really talented and about to be on his way to big things (new album coming out in July, just made VH1 top 20 this week, etc.). Anyway, he was on tour with another act (Serena Ryder) and was coming to Texas. I was so excited until I discovered that his show was on Thursday night and I couldn't go because I had to teach class. I saw that he was going to be in Houston on Friday night, so I made plans with my friend Abby to go visit her. She lives about an hour outside of Houston.
Well, on Thursday, I see a tweet from Ryan that Serena Ryder had to cancel her concert due to an emergency, but he was going to still be at the Dallas and Houston House of Blues (HOB) shows. There was much confusion at the HOB, and we had to re-buy tickets for the Friday show after our's were refunded, but everything was still on.
Friday morning I headed through much, much, much traffic to South Texas. Once there, Abby and I headed into Houston to our Hotel for the show at the HOB. We got there at 7 to get in line. After standing in line for about an hour, the bouncer came around carding everyone and getting everything ready to open the door. At this point, we started to notice that there was another line forming closer to the door. We asked about it and he said it was "skip the line" pass people. Of course we said How do you get to be skip the line people? He says that if we had eaten in the restaurant or purchased something in the gift store then we could skip the line. Really?, we say, Too bad we didn't know that sooner. He says go on down to the gift store, you have time. We say, But the doors open in 3 minutes. He says, you've got time, I promise, just hurry. At this point it dawns on us that he is the door opener and is saying that he will wait for us, so we rush back to the store (down three floors) along with the girls in line behind us.
I run into the gift store, grab a $1 pack of skittles and say, give us the Skip the Line pass. Then we find out that we have to spend $15 each to get to Skip the Line. I say, Look, I don't want your crap, I just want to skip the line, so what's the most cost effective way to do this? The guy working the gift shop says, Why don't you just buy a gift card that you can use in the bar upstairs? Perfect! We get our card and rush back up to the venue and are like #3 inside.
Once inside, we have two options: (1) We can stand at the stage. I mean literally AT THE STAGE. Like you could get spit on by an enthusiastic singer, close to the stage; or (2) We can sit at one of 6 tall tables that have bar stools and be about 8 feet away from the stage. We opt for option #2.
The girls in line behind us come in much much later. They wanted to know what we had to buy and how we did it so quickly. They say that they had to buy crap like drumsticks, and cards, etc. to get their pass but then didn't even get back quick enough to use the pass. We explained our gift card situation and they thought we were the most brilliant, awesome people ever. Seriously. Word spread and people started coming by and saying things like "Wow, you guys rock!" and "Y'all are so smart!". It was like we were Yoda of the HOB!
Some other band comes on and plays. We have no clue, but I start to notice that lots of people have cameras. I had done much research on this subject including calling and asking. I had been told NO CAMERAS at all. Was told that they would have to be checked for a fee if you brought them. They lied, they lied, they lied! I find a young girl who has a very nice camera. I go ask her to take photos of Ryan Star and e-mail them to me (I gave her a business card with my e-mail address). She has no clue about Ryan Star, so I become his PR person and sell her and her group of young chick-a-dees on how awesome he is. Then I get into a conversation with another girl who was in Dallas for Thursday, came to Houston for Friday, and was going back to Dallas on Saturday. Wow! I thought I was a fan! More on her later...
So we sit there through the first "show" and then believe that Ryan is coming up next. At this point some of the group that belonged to the girls in line behind us start to stand in front of us, but all the people with them said, "OH NO! Don't stand in front of them! We like them, their awesome!". Abby & I just laughed and laughed. It's good being Yoda of the HOB!
There was a group of folks pressed against the stage and then about a foot walk space between them and our table. I look over to the right and I see a guy walking in that walk space toward us and it is Ryan Star. I try not to freak out, but I alert Abby (because she also has no clue who he is, she's just along for the ride!). As he goes by, he touches my knee and Abby starts saying, Oh my gosh! He touched you! I will totally vouch for it!
He takes the stage and I alert my little teenage camera girl that This is Ryan. I also hand my camera phone up to the Dallas-multiple-shows-girl and ask her to take a pic. Here it is...
Update: Ryan tweeted a link to my blogpost to his followers, so if that is how you got here, welcome fellow Ryan Star followers!
Update #2: I guess I should have more faith in people! (In my defense, people lie to me all day, every day) My little teen chick-a-dee friend from the show just sent me 4 more pics! These are similar to what I'm sure I would have taken if I would have had my camera during the show...
First, I think you all know that I've been planning to go to Houston to see Ryan Star. You've heard me mention Ryan before I'm sure. I've been a fan for years and I believe he is really talented and about to be on his way to big things (new album coming out in July, just made VH1 top 20 this week, etc.). Anyway, he was on tour with another act (Serena Ryder) and was coming to Texas. I was so excited until I discovered that his show was on Thursday night and I couldn't go because I had to teach class. I saw that he was going to be in Houston on Friday night, so I made plans with my friend Abby to go visit her. She lives about an hour outside of Houston.
Well, on Thursday, I see a tweet from Ryan that Serena Ryder had to cancel her concert due to an emergency, but he was going to still be at the Dallas and Houston House of Blues (HOB) shows. There was much confusion at the HOB, and we had to re-buy tickets for the Friday show after our's were refunded, but everything was still on.
Friday morning I headed through much, much, much traffic to South Texas. Once there, Abby and I headed into Houston to our Hotel for the show at the HOB. We got there at 7 to get in line. After standing in line for about an hour, the bouncer came around carding everyone and getting everything ready to open the door. At this point, we started to notice that there was another line forming closer to the door. We asked about it and he said it was "skip the line" pass people. Of course we said How do you get to be skip the line people? He says that if we had eaten in the restaurant or purchased something in the gift store then we could skip the line. Really?, we say, Too bad we didn't know that sooner. He says go on down to the gift store, you have time. We say, But the doors open in 3 minutes. He says, you've got time, I promise, just hurry. At this point it dawns on us that he is the door opener and is saying that he will wait for us, so we rush back to the store (down three floors) along with the girls in line behind us.
I run into the gift store, grab a $1 pack of skittles and say, give us the Skip the Line pass. Then we find out that we have to spend $15 each to get to Skip the Line. I say, Look, I don't want your crap, I just want to skip the line, so what's the most cost effective way to do this? The guy working the gift shop says, Why don't you just buy a gift card that you can use in the bar upstairs? Perfect! We get our card and rush back up to the venue and are like #3 inside.
Once inside, we have two options: (1) We can stand at the stage. I mean literally AT THE STAGE. Like you could get spit on by an enthusiastic singer, close to the stage; or (2) We can sit at one of 6 tall tables that have bar stools and be about 8 feet away from the stage. We opt for option #2.
The girls in line behind us come in much much later. They wanted to know what we had to buy and how we did it so quickly. They say that they had to buy crap like drumsticks, and cards, etc. to get their pass but then didn't even get back quick enough to use the pass. We explained our gift card situation and they thought we were the most brilliant, awesome people ever. Seriously. Word spread and people started coming by and saying things like "Wow, you guys rock!" and "Y'all are so smart!". It was like we were Yoda of the HOB!
Some other band comes on and plays. We have no clue, but I start to notice that lots of people have cameras. I had done much research on this subject including calling and asking. I had been told NO CAMERAS at all. Was told that they would have to be checked for a fee if you brought them. They lied, they lied, they lied! I find a young girl who has a very nice camera. I go ask her to take photos of Ryan Star and e-mail them to me (I gave her a business card with my e-mail address). She has no clue about Ryan Star, so I become his PR person and sell her and her group of young chick-a-dees on how awesome he is. Then I get into a conversation with another girl who was in Dallas for Thursday, came to Houston for Friday, and was going back to Dallas on Saturday. Wow! I thought I was a fan! More on her later...
So we sit there through the first "show" and then believe that Ryan is coming up next. At this point some of the group that belonged to the girls in line behind us start to stand in front of us, but all the people with them said, "OH NO! Don't stand in front of them! We like them, their awesome!". Abby & I just laughed and laughed. It's good being Yoda of the HOB!
There was a group of folks pressed against the stage and then about a foot walk space between them and our table. I look over to the right and I see a guy walking in that walk space toward us and it is Ryan Star. I try not to freak out, but I alert Abby (because she also has no clue who he is, she's just along for the ride!). As he goes by, he touches my knee and Abby starts saying, Oh my gosh! He touched you! I will totally vouch for it!
He takes the stage and I alert my little teenage camera girl that This is Ryan. I also hand my camera phone up to the Dallas-multiple-shows-girl and ask her to take a pic. Here it is...
{Ryan singing "We Might Fall", one of my favs}
So we greatly enjoyed the show. It was a scaled down version of what he had planned before the cancellation, but it was great. I loved it. Of course I was bitter the whole time about the camera situation. I got a couple with the iphone, but they weren't great. See...
At some point, I see the Dallas-multiple-shows-girl has a camera, so of course, I give her my business card too and ask for pics to be e-mailed to me. After the show, Ryan comes off stage and is swarmed by my
camera girl and her little friends (and me of course). I get my camera girl to take my photo with Ryan. I am over still talking him up to the youngsters and this other girl standing around says, "Wow, you're a great salesman for Ryan!". I talk to her and it turns out she is Ryan's assistant/roadie (not sure of official title).
I talked to Ryan a little more and bought a portion of the new CD. It has 5 songs on it and a code for itunes once the full album is released. He signed the album for me! Love it!
Then Abby & I start talking. I explain that I have trust issues about these folks and whether they will really send me the pics. I ask my new friend, the assistant/roadie, if I went back to my hotel (6 blocks away) for my camera, would I be able to get a photo with Ryan when I got back. She says, "If he isn't still out talking to people, I will make sure that you get a picture with him, so go for it".
Abby & I head to the door and tell the new bouncer dude at the door what we are doing. He says, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave and come back.". We of course go into our litany of woes about being told no cameras, my long drive, etc. We wear him down and he says okay, but only bring in a point and click. I say, But other people have real cameras inside there! He says, "Well I didn't see it, so don't bring anything back but a point and click."
We run down to three flights of stairs, catch a cab at the corner and tell him to get us to the Hyatt ASAP. I tell him to leave the meter running, I'm running up and will be right back. We run up, I grab my camera bag with both cameras (of course I'm not going to follow rules ever again if I can help it) and run down. We get ready to hop in our cab and some guy accosts us saying, "No! Get in line, this is our cab!". We yell at him as hopping in our cab, Sorry, this is our guy, he was waiting on us! and head out for the HOB. Problem is, the baseball game had just let out and traffic downtown was a nightmare. I yell at our super nice cabbie PRETEND LIKE WE ARE ON THE AMAZING RACE AND GOOOOOO!
We get back to the HOB start to head inside and the bouncer says "Let me see your camera", so I do this (at this point of the post, there will be several re-created scene photos)...
He says, "Okay" and I head inside. Once inside, I pull out the real camera and start to snap photos of Ryan...
Then he decided to stop and pose for me, rock star style...
Then Abby takes the money shot...
Ahhh, everything was then right with the world. I was no longer having to trust that someone else sent me the photos! Home free! Oh and I also took a shot of the Roadie Chick since she was so nice and helpful...
Abby and I decide that we were tired and had a big day of shopping coming up, so we decided to leave. On our way out the bouncer says, "Did you get a photo". We gush...Yes, a great shot, thanks so much, etc. Then he says, "Let me see the pictures." This is where the whole situation becomes a Lucy and Ethel adventure!
Ummmm.... I can't show you
"Why not?" he says
It's a film camera I say.
"No it wasn't" he replies
It's a disposable, Abby ads...
Then she tries to change the subject and distract him
He. Was. So. On to us!
So then I make up some insane story...
and thankfully, he lets it go!
At this point let me say that neither one of us could have lied our way out of a paper bag!
He was nice and offered to take a photo of us (with the point and click of course)
And then we ran!
Whew! Safely in the cab...
I have to tell you that every time we start talking about the bouncer/camera/can't lie worth a crap situation we laugh so hard that we both cry!
Then to top it all off, I got a Direct Message tweet from Ryan later that night!
So. Much. Fun!
Update: Ryan tweeted a link to my blogpost to his followers, so if that is how you got here, welcome fellow Ryan Star followers!
Update #2: I guess I should have more faith in people! (In my defense, people lie to me all day, every day) My little teen chick-a-dee friend from the show just sent me 4 more pics! These are similar to what I'm sure I would have taken if I would have had my camera during the show...
Comments
In case anyone was wondering we had all this fun and only three drinks between us!!