Oh my word, I don’t know where to start other than last night was
amazing. It left me almost speechless (quite a hard thing to do). Words cannot
explain how wonderful last night was. I know that must be the most overused
phrase in the book but I am utterly at a loss on how to portray last night into
words. I know whatever I say will not do any justice to what really happened but
I will try my hardest to paint a good picture. Let’s start at the very
beginning, a very good place to start…
My friend arrived Wednesday night at 9pm and after a brief meeting with
some church friends we headed off to my house to talk. We stayed up until
2:30am (sorry Joel!) catching up and talking about life so we slept in way late the next morning. We hung around the house until it was time to get ready. I told my other 2
friends to meet me at 2:30pm at the church and we would make the 2½ hour trek
to Toledo. We planned on eating at the nearest Olive Garden and then making our
way to the concert. When I arrive at a place I’m
either right on time or late. This time we were 15 minutes late to meet at the
church. It was ok though because we had allowed ourselves a nice cushion of
time. Yes, I had the tickets and showed them off proudly to my friends. They
were impressed and we all were so excited to finally get going. The drive up
was pretty uneventful and we listened to Straight No Chaser’s new EP CD with my
new favorite song Rhythm of Love/ Can’t
Help Falling in Love with You sung by (you guessed it) Ryan Ahlwardt. I absolutely love his voice. It's so mellow and very easy to listen to. Moving on, we arrived in Toledo around 5pm and found the nearest Olive Garden which was about 2 minutes away from the
theater. We were so excited and talked about what songs we would love to hear
(mine was The Lion Sleeps Tonight),
who we wanted to meet (Seggie!!!), and where we were sitting. The table next to
us was filled with ladies in their 70’s. They proudly announced to the waitress
that they were going to see Straight No Chaser. One of the ladies told her
friends “We don’t have the best tickets as I waited too long to buy them.” My
friends and I just smiled at each other thinking of those front-row seats and we
all thought that we probably would be the youngest ones there. We finished our
dinner and made our way to the theater. We were early (about 45 minutes or so)
and had a short wait until they opened the doors. The usher (usheress?) took
our tickets and told us to walk all the way down to the front. We followed
her instructions happily and after a brief hiccup (not on our part, mind you),
we found our seats. We were ecstatic because we didn’t realize that we could
even be so close. We were in the orchestra pit and could literally touch the
stage. See Exhibit A…
My friends kept giving me a time update…7:10pm then 7:15pm. I gave
them specific instructions to tell me when it was 7:25pm because every time
they gave me an update my stomach did a somersault and turned itself into a
knot. I was afraid I’d throw up so I had to calm myself down. I was really that
excited. I can only explain it by the feeling you get when you first get on a
roller coaster. It’s like your eyes see that big drop coming up and sends a
signal to your brain to release the adrenaline. My adrenaline was pumping so
fast that I couldn’t calm down. I took a deep breath and concentrated on trying
to keep my hands from shaking. They told me when it was 7:24pm and then the next
thing I knew it was 7:30pm (the time of the concert). You ask a friend to do a
simple thing and they mess it up. Oh well, I could overlook the mistake this
one time. Around 7:35pm we started seeing shadows behind the curtain and my
friend and I (yes, we are crazy) pointed and squealed each time we saw a
shadow. We couldn’t wait for the opening song. The lights went dim and the
awful music the theater was playing shut off. They played an opening video
(hilarious!!) telling of who SNC is, where they got the name, and how they
prepare for the concerts. Then it went dark and we heard “Ready, Ready, I’m
ready come on!” See Exhibit B…
My friend and I and the rest of the audience screamed for joy. We were flabbergasted at how close we were. We could
see their faces and expressions. It was amazing!! I was taking the above video
when I noticed that Walt was looking at me (or in my direction) and I gave him
a thumbs up. He nodded back. I think I died inside, because Walt actually nodded at
me. Swoon… We cheered at the end of the song and I stopped the video. All of
sudden, I heard “AH we-ma-wet…” I gasped really loud then said SORRY at the top
of my lungs. They were singing The Lion
Sleeps Tonight my all-time favorite SNC song!! I recorded it and tweeted
“My life has seriously been made. Ryansongs (Ryan’s twitter name) sang The Lions Sleeps Tonight.” I was that
excited and was so happy that they sang it. I’m a little embarrassed about my
reaction but hey you only live once, right? My only regret about the concert
was that I was so concerned about getting the right picture that I fiddled with
my camera a lot. I wish I hadn’t and just sat back and enjoyed. Here are some
of my favorite pics. See Exhibits C and D…
(Disclosure: While I was looking through my pics, I noticed that Ryan
was in almost every one and he was looking at me in almost every one. No, Ryan
I am not a stalker. It’s just the way it turned out that way I promise. He’ll
probably never read this but I just had to say that.)
The first set included songs like Summer
of ’69 (Tyler totally rocked that one), a
Beatles Medley, and Stayin’ Alive/Superstition (during that one Ryan hit a
high note and I think I screamed or nodded my head or both and he just smiled.
Cue swoon…) It was amazing the interaction from the guys to the fans in the
front seats. They smiled at us, nodded, pointed, or just looked our way a few
times. It was a totally different world from the front row of the balcony. We
will never be able to sit anywhere else again, seriously. Intermission came too
soon and we took a few pics. See Exhibit E…
Cool pic huh? I thought so. The next set of songs went by fast and
it included the SNC Movie Medley
(which if you ask me, they really need to record). Charlie did the intro (his
intros are awesome!) and the guys happened to have a popcorn machine with some
buttery, salty popcorn on stage which they promptly ate. (To go on record this was the first time they ever did this) If you’re any kind of
a singer, you know popcorn is one of the worst things to have before you sing. It’s
scratchy and those dog-gone blasted kernels always get stuck in your teeth. However,
they sounded amazing even after eating the popcorn. Most of them only ate a few bites
or in Ryan’s case, a few handfuls. Behind Charlie, Ryan was throwing pieces of
popcorn at Walt who was having extreme difficulty catching them in this mouth. Not
sure whose fault that was but one time Ryan mocked frustration and ended up
throwing a huge handful of popcorn at him. Walt just shrugged and his expression
said “Come on, man!” When they were just about ready to sing, the guys handed
out the popcorn to the middle and right front rows. We were in the left front row and they missed us! L We were a little
disappointed but nothing could crush our spirits. Then Jerome came over and
said something like “Come get some popcorn. It’s really good” and promptly
dumped half of it into our hands. Cue swoon… From then on, every time we moved
our feet we heard the crunch of popcorn. He made our night. As a total
surprise, Ryan came back on stage with this huge bag full of popcorn and gave
it to me. Cue swoon again… The popcorn was super delicious and I got the guys
to sign the bag after the show (Charlie laughed and said “This popcorn wasn’t
greasy at all” and all of the guys got a huge kick out of signing it). See
Exhibit F…
They sang a couple of more songs including Fix You. See Exhibit G…
I still get chills when I listen to that song. It’s so emotionally
moving and powerful. I will never be able to get over that sound. They ended
the show with a club-like medley that included Party Rock (and yes they shuffled). The crowd (did I mention the
venue was sold-out?) called them back for 2 encores. I need to tell you about the 70+ lady behind me. She a set of lungs that
could out scream me and my friends. I seriously could not hear anyone else but
her even when I was screaming. Their last song (the final encore) was Up on the Roof which is a very beautiful song and they did it
off-mike.
Straight No Chaser always has a Meet and Greet after the show so we
waited for a while until the end of the line for our turn. I had my Ryan
Alhwardt CD that I wanted Ryan to sign and my popcorn bag (I have a previously
signed ticket from them). When I handed the CD to Ryan, Seggie was like “Who is
that?” Ryan said “Oh, just some guy.” Ryan asked my name and I told him then
said “It’s spelled C-h-r-i-s-t-a” (everyone spells it with a K). Then Seggie
was like “I could’ve burned that for you.” I responded (so blonde) “Well, then
he wouldn’t get the money would he?” Stupid response. I should’ve said
something like “Well, if you would’ve followed me on Twitter then you would’ve
known.” I’ve come to terms that I will act like a blonde when I’m around people
I am anxious to meet. At least this Meet and Greet was better than the last one
even though I still acted like a blonde. When we got to Jerome he asked us if
we were in the front row on the left. Amazing memory and (you guessed it) cue
swoon… We talked to the security guard and asked them if they were taking pics
afterwards. He said “You didn’t hear this from me but wait around.” So we did
and we each got our pics taken with the whole group. See Exhibit H and I…
Side Note: (I think Walt missed out on the memo that the second pic was
supposed to be a non-funny pic. At least I wasn't the only one acting blonde.
Sorry Walt!!)
It was an amazing night and I came back home with a newfound respect
for SNC. I really love these 10 guys and their sound but the feeling was
different on the way home this time as I reflected on the whirlwind events of the
night. It was a feeling of respect instead of girly giddiness. I can’t really explain
it but I think I grew in my maturity just because of the night. I was more
content with life. I knew I hadn’t thought exactly right and I botched the
whole Meet and Greet thing again (When will I ever learn?! I'm such a dweeb!) but I came away knowing there was a connection. I
don’t know maybe I’m going crazy but it was just different. I cannot wait to see them again and maybe next time all common sense and sarcasm bestowed upon me won't abandon me again.
The best thing was this morning when I woke up. My mom came and asked
me a question and I showed her my popcorn bag. She was not as excited as I was
about it but asked me “So are you a groupie now?” I said “No, we’re called
Chasers.” Cue Big Smile…. I will remember and re-live this night for a very
long time. I can now say “Hi, my name is Christa and I have finally joined the
ranks as a Chaser.” Today we are going to the zoo, it will be fun but nothing
could ever live up to last night can it? I think that is the question of the
ages…
