It's the F-L-O-B-O-T-S; what did you expect?

About a week and a half ago, I was listening to KTCL (that's a radio station), and they were just about to play Make It Stop. This is a game where they play some crap song until someone calls in with the correct song title and artist, and then they stop the song and give the person a prize. The prize this particular week was tickets to go see the Flobots at the Gothic on 11/3. I was so excited to hear that this was the prize (because, as I said in my Liebster or something awards, Flobots are one one my top two favorite bands). I ran over to the phone to get ready to call in and try to win tickets, and then the song started playing on the radio.

I have no idea what this song is. Never heard it before it my life. Could have googled it, but someone else would most likely have called in at that point with the right answer. But this is the Flobots! I can't just not go see them play live! So a day or two later, I decided to buy tickets. :D SO EXCITING! I bought two, hoping to find someone who would want to go with me. Unfortunately, most of my friends only know two Flobots songs (or, they think they only know two, but they actually know five. They just don't know that the other three songs are Flobots): Handlebars, and Circle in the Square (they also know White Flag Warrior and Rise and Stand Up). And they were all at a friend's coming home party. And they mostly weren't too interested in going. Or had to wake up early. Or any combination of the above. So I ended up going alone, but it was still so much fun. Going to concerts stag is not as bad as I always imagined it would be. And this was single-handedly the best concert I've ever been to.

Astronautalis and My Body Sings Electric opened for Flobots (though not in that order) and I actually missed all of My Body Sings Electric (I was at the welcome-home/Halloween party for Trey who just got back from Basic and AIT training-- he's Army Reserves-- and left a little later than I should have, and then the line for Will Call tickets was really long and slow). Doors opened at 8, concert started at 9, I probably got in line for Will Call at like 9:25 (I would have gotten there 15 min earlier, but I couldn't find anywhere to park that was public... I wasn't even looking for free, I was just looking to find a lot that didn't tell me they would tow my car. I gave up with that and decided to take my chances on getting towed and parked for free in a King Sooper's parking lot), so it was probably about 10 before I actually got into the concert. Astronautalis was playing at that point.

Astronautalis, as a side note, was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, the rapper was the only one who was there out of the entire band. They couldn't make it; I don't remember why, but they're stuck in Texas. He had an instrumental recording that he used to rap over, and it still sounded pretty good. He also had a really nice stage presence. He told some jokes-- like there's this one song he wrote to make money, and it's about the guy who invented the periodic table of elements. Because, in hip hop, that's what everyone wants to listen to. Singing about boobs, butts and bullets is so last year. Now, old dead chemistry guys are where it's at. Also, he freestyled a song for us! It was way cool. He took topic suggestions from the audience, and he ended up rapping about this Davy Crockett hat that someone gave him, shoveling snow, the equator, the evolution of the free spirit (haha), and some other things I don't remember. It was cool.

After his set was done, Flobots came out and they were so good. First off, they're just really talented. But aside from that, that band just sounds really awesome live. Most of the shows I go to (as fun as they all are), I feel like the music isn't balanced well, so I can't really understand the words of the song, and usually the guitar and bass are both really loud compared to the vocals. But they sounded really awesome and I could clearly hear the words, the viola, guitar, bass, drums. It was sick. They're really good at being awesome and getting the audience to be an active part of the show. They dance and get everyone to move with them, or clap along. And I know those things are pretty typical of all shows, but Flobots was just better at it than everyone else I've seen.

They played their set, and then went backstage, and everyone sat there chanting for them to come back and play encore. They did, and played like 4 or 5 more songs, then actually ended the show and they all gave high fives to everyone that came up to the stage. It was cool :) I got to touch the hands of Jonny 5 and KennyO. Jonny 5 said he and a couple other of the band members would be out to say hi in a couple minutes, so I hung around and got some signatures (Brer's and Jonny's, and the guitarist). I talked with them for a little bit-- there weren't actually a lot of people who hung around-- and then walked back to my car. It was, thankfully, still there.

Such a great night. But I have a fun story now! Well. Fun might not be quite the right word ha.

So when I got to the Gothic, I bought a shirt (as pictured) and then went back to watch the show. There was a big crowd of people hanging out right in front of the stage as there usually is when someone is playing, so I just stood off to the side by some stairs that went up to the second level, and as people moved, I gradually got closer to the stage, while still keeping to the side. Eventually, it was just me and this one other guy standing by the stairs. Ha. This kid. He was not subtle. But he was attractive, so that's fun at least.

We're sitting there, listening to Astronautalis who is currently in the middle of a song, and this kid taps my arm and points down at my shoes to tell me they match. Haha really? In case you haven't noticed, I wear cons all the time. And I was at a concert. My shoes probably matched with a third of the people there. But I just nodded, and he said they were good shoes, and I smiled and turned back to the stage. A couple songs later, he stood right next to me so our arms were touching, and asked if it was ok if he stood there. He seemed nice and all, so I said it was. Between a couple of the songs, he tried making a little conversation and asked if I had ever heard of the guy who was singing (I hadn't) and then said that he thought he was pretty good, but he was actually just here to see Flobots. And then he pointed out all the smoke in the lights and said, "That's what happens at a Flobots concert when they're about to legalize weed in a couple days." I mean, I don't actually know that much about drugs, but I do know that weed has a distinct smell, and that wasn't present in the venue. There was also really good security at the Gothic. What I'm trying to say is that I'm pretty sure that smoke was just an effect. But hey, what do I know. Maybe it was weed and I'm just crazy.

Between the bands, while we were waiting for Flobots, this kid-- apparently his name is Ryan-- was talking to me, but it was a weird conversation. The topics were normal, but he kept asking for clarification on weird things. For instance, he asked where all my friends were, and I told them they didn't come because they were partying. So then he asked why I wasn't partying, then asked why I don't drink-- almost without even waiting for an answer from the first question-- and assuming it was because I wasn't 21 yet, asked when my birthday was. Similarly, we got on the topic of school, and he asked where I go. Apparently he goes to UCD (which is on the same campus as Metro) and then he asked what I study, and why I want a chemistry degree. All normal. But after I told him I want to go into forensics, he told me that was cool, but why do I want to do that instead of being a doctor? Random. (For the record, I wanted to be a doctor, once. And when I got into that field a little with Crew 911, I realized how annoying it is to try to keep people alive. Too much work. I'll just deal with the people who are already dead.) I gave him my reasoning, and he told me that it's not that hard to keep people alive, just work out and eat well, and you'll be healthy all the time. Well ok, sure, most of the time that theoretically works, but the people who are healthy aren't the ones who will need to see doctors. So he told me that I should be a preventative doctor or something, and I gave up and told him I would consider it. And then he was all proud of himself for convincing me to consider a career change... Yeah. Because I'm totally really going to consider it.

Whatever, Flobots eventually came out and we moved a little closer to the middle of everything, and things were normal. Until they played a slowish song. Ryan waited until the song was nearly over and asked me if I wanted to dance. Um... no? This is a concert... Like, he wanted to do the whole ballroom-meets-grinding thing. I know that's actually a thing people do at concerts, but typically the people who dance like that were a couple that was together before the concert started, and came to the concert together, and will continue to be a couple after the show ends. Haha. Anyway, he asked and I said no, and he asked why, so I told him I'm not really a big dancer. We actually already had this conversation, between sets, and he just kept trying to tell me that I could dance, really, and he kept trying to dance with me. I kept saying no, and he eventually got it. The song ended, and Brer Rabbit was talking, setting up the next song, and I'm sitting there trying to listen to what he says, but Ryan's busy trying to save face and says, "Oh, the reason you didn't want to dance is because the song was almost over, right?" Dude. In a super sarcastic way, I told him yes, that was totally the only reason, and for good measure, I rolled my eyes at him too. He just kinda yeah-I-thought-so'd and then backed away to hang out with his friends and go jump around in the circle pit.

Heheh. Once, during a fireside, my friend Jason said something about how girls are really mean, to which I replied, "That's probably my favorite thing about being a girl." He was shocked I would say such a thing, but really. When boys are going to be dumb, I'm not going to try to be nice to them. My new friend Ryan is exhibit A.

And just to finish off the post, here's some sweet pictures of my Halloween costume I had at Trey's Welcome Home party. I made it myself (the apron, I mean. It's duct tape). I'm Alice. A creepy Alice, which is really loosely based off American McGee's Alice. I like my eyes in the second one, because the flash did a weird thing and made one of them all white-pupiled and awesome. But in the first one, you can see the knife better. I also have some cards (queens and aces of spades and hearts, and the joker) sticking out of the apron, but I don't really think they showed up well in either.