August 22nd, 1998 Review

This Review is submitted by Joanscrazy

I (Stacy aka Joanscrazy) had 4 internet friends coming in town to see the show. Wednesday night I received a call from Kate who's from New Jersey (KitKat, LoffKat, etc.) saying she wrecked her car in PA and was taking a bus into St. Louis! Talk about dedication! Friday, my husband Tim (aka Shame) picked me up from work and we headed to the airport to pick up Alicia, (aka Tweeka) who flew in from NC. The 3 of us headed to my house and later met up with Marcy (aka NalaLove) at her hotel. We went to eat then hung out at the house til it was time to pick up Kate from the bus station.

Tim scared everyone with his driving (LOL) and we weren't sure exactly where the bus station was. Tim stopped and asked someone and she pointed us in the right direction. We picked up Kate and headed back to my work to pick up Tims' car. All the girls rode with me and left Tim all by himself because of his crazy driving antics. LOL We joked about racing him home. I took it easy on the drive home and they all said they wanted me to drive to the concert the next night (LOL) but I won't drive in St. Louis. Pulling into our mobile home park, there was a cop right behind me and he flipped on his lights. I was freaking out thinking I was being pulled over for doing 43 in a 40 mph zone when the cop flew around me. Whew! LOL We actually beat Tim home, but only because he stopped at a gas station to get ice and cigarettes and he got into an arguement with the clerk. The clerk wouldn't sell Tim cigarettes saying it wasn't his license (lol) cuz Tim has changed a bit since that picture on it. We all hung out at the house and then Marcy and Alicia went to their hotel and Kate crashed on my couch. It was like almost 2 a.m. and we were so excited we didn't want to sleep, but once asleep we didn't want to get up! LOL

So Saturday came and we were all to meet at my house. Marcy, Alicia, and Mary my niece (aka Blah) came over. We were on our way to the venue after stopping at our local mall to eat. We went early hoping to meet the guys before soundcheck. We parked in the garage and went down to where the busses were to pull in. Tim was wearing an Extreme 104.1 radio shirt and some girls waiting for the band asked us if we were from the radio. LOL One of them even baked Paul a cake! LMAO! Tim went to walk around and not too much longer we saw the busses drive down the wrong way. We were waiting for them to come back around when only the roadie bus pulled into this underground tunnel with a garage door closing behind it. Tim comes back to tell us that the bands bus was stuck on the sidewalk on the other side of the building where he was standing earlier. LMAO! Tim was kneeling down looking under the bus with Rick when Paul opened the door and almost hit Tim in the head! LOL! Paul acknowledged Tim's presence with a nod and proceeded to talk to Rick. Tim saw Paul, Rob, and Brian step off thier bus and onto the roadie bus. Too bad he didn't have my camera with him! Dang!

Well, at this point we realized the band wasn't going to meet people before soundcheck and we decided to hang out at Union Station the next block over. Just then we saw the roadie bus again being followed by the band bus. Mary, Alicia, and I decided to stay and watch the busses just in case while the others headed to Union Station. Rick had his window open and Alicia and I were yelling at him saying, "Hi" and, " Let's hear it for Rick!" LOL! He smiled and waved at us! = ) Well the busses pulled into the underground tunnel and the garage door closed behind them. = ( So we met up with the others at Union Station. About 6:15ish we headed back to Kiel Center to meet up with the last girl Shiela (aka Gecko) who drove in from TN. We hung out in the front until 7:15 because we registered to win front row tix and the winner wasn't being announced until then. Well, we didn't win but oh well. We had 5th row center anyway! WooHoo!! = )

We found our seats and the lights went down and on came Semisonic. They were really good! I even went out and bought one of their cds the day after! LOL The singer was really funny! Soul Asylum came on later and I thought they were pretty good too. The lead singer reminded me an awful lot of Axl Rose. LOL! Sometime in the middle of all this, some of the gang went on a beer run and Alicia was carrying 2 beers in one hand when she slipped spilling part of the beer down her face and shirt, but she managed to save those beers! LMAO! I went to look at the merchandise with Mary after Soul Asylum. Tim already had bought me the wind jacket so I bought the green t-shirt that just says "matchbox20", the button up gas station shirt with a patch on the front that says "Yourself Or Someone Like You" and says "matchbox20" on the back, and a program. Mary bought the jacket, a navy t-shit that just says "matchbox20" and a program. Then back to our seats to anxiously await mb20!

The girls in front of us had turned around to ask us questions because it was quite obvious they didn't know anything about mb20 except that they sang "Push", "3a.m.", and "Real World." LOL! They asked us if my mom had dropped us off for the concert! LMFAO!!!! So finally the lights went down and there was mb20 starting off with "Argue"!! Rob was wearing a white cowboy hat and a dark red leather suit coat over a black t-shirt and leather pants. WooHoo! = ) LOL! I help up my sign right away, the side that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL! WORD TO PAULS BUTT YEAH BABY YEAH" I saw Brian read it right away and about die from laughing = ) !!!!! LMFAO! I saw the rest of the band read it and smile and Adam chuckled = ) LOL! At one point, Tim was yelling "Go Brian!" and the girls in front of us started screaming it too. Then they turned around and asked me if the singers name was Brian! LMFAO!! Later in the show they screamed "I love you Rob!" LMFAO!! At the beginning of the show they didn't even know his name!!! Tim continued throughout the show to yell such things as "You da man Rob!" LMAO! I swear Rob heard him... During "Busted" I held up the other side of my sign that said "I NEED SUCH AMAZING GRACE MATCHBOX20 SWEEP ME AWAY" and the guy behind me yelled at me LOL! I turned around to glare at him and he was sitting down even! I turned back around and put my sign right back up! LOL go me! What did I bring a sign for if I wasn't going to hold it up? Sheesh! So I even passed the sign down and everyone took turns holding it up = )! I brought a Valentino beanie baby bear to throw at Adam during the show. Tim threw it for me and hit Adam in the leg with it! LMAO! You could see Adam watch it fly thru the air and hit him then the stage. It slid and Brian kicked it back up to Adam. LMAO! After that song was over, Adam picked up the bear and placed it ever so lovingly on his amp facing the crowd among the doll heads LMAO!!! Awwwww = ) I was ecstatic!!! Mary had brought a bear to throw at Rob and Tim threw it andit landed at Robs' feet but a roadie picked it up. =( Alicia had bought Paul some Spice Girl stuff for his bday (LMAO) and she threw them but only the Spice Girl movie video made on stage and a roadie picked that up. She had written Paulie all over it tho and her name so I'm sure he probably got it. = )

Since it was Pauls' birthday, Rob led the crowd into singing "Happy birthday" to him! Awwwww = )! Rob kept saying how special Paul was to him and how he wished Paul got everything he wanted. Awwww again! Rob said, "Yeah, usually we just tell crowds it's someone's birthday and it really isn't, but today it really is!" LMAO! At one point in the show after a song Rob pointed somewhere in the audience at a couple all hugging and kissing and said how he thought it was sweet.

The band played everything from "Yourself or Someone Like You," "Tired," "Nothing Compares to You," and for Robs' solo, I'm not sure of the title but some of the lyrics were " I remember shades of summer, winter sets in..........but it's all good now." They played "You and I and I," too and I happened to notice Joey rocking out playing guitar during it! Cool! When they played "Long Day," I had to sigh because I knew it was the last song. = ( But they did drag it out real long and did all sorts of different verses and breaking it down so Rob could talk for a bit. But it was now over and it ended way too soon!

After the show, I returned to the merchandise stands and bought the mb20 tank top and the long sleeve t-shirt! LOL! Hey, I figured my birthday was coming up next Friday, so Happy Birthday to me! = ) We went back to our cars and hung out for a bit. Marcy, Alicia, and Shiela were pretty drunk, so Kate was going to drive Marcys' car for her. Tim, Mary, Shiela, and I left to take Shiela back to her moms' house while the others stayed to watch for the busses to leave. Kate was about to fall asleep waiting, so she decided to drive around the block and then there were the busses! They were following the busses when they got pulled over by a cop and got a ticket for turning right on a red light even though the light was green! >: ( They saw the busses hit the interstate though. So Tim found them and we all went to Steak-n-Shake for some food. The waitress was pretty funny and asked Alicia to stop kicking her LOL! She was just crossing her legs. Tim was being a dork putting the menu on his head. The waitress pretty much screwed up our orders and she brought Kate chili instead of cottage cheese and the waitress said "cottage f**king cheese" LOL!

Alicia went to call her friend to check on her new kitten when we heard her talking baby talk over the phone to it! Awwww! It was so cute! Marcy was trying for 20 minutes to get the cherry out of the bottom of her shake LMAO!!! So we were pretty much tired at this point so we found a hotel and crashed. Kate had to be on the bus for home by 9:45 a.m., so Tim took her. Then we checked out of our hotel around 2 and ate and went to the Galleria mall until we had to take Alicia to the airport for a flight that left at 4:35. Then Marcy followed us back to our house and Mary walked home and not too long after Marcy left for home. So that was it. = ( My wonderful weekend came to an end. = ( Can't wait to meet up with you all again and see matchbox20 in concert again!!!!