Wow, I’m not even sure where to begin. It’s a really bizarre feeling when nearly everything about your highly-anticipated weekend trip goes wrong, but ends up working out so well in ways completely different from the original plan. Life is amusing sometimes. (Unfortunately for you, that means a very very long story... sorry.)
Here’s what happened... Amanda and I had been planning for some time now to go to the Lifehouse show in Milwaukee on March 22. Their current tour features HoneyHoney and Matt Nathanson as openers, so needless to say, that’s an amazing lineup. I saw the show in Los Angeles over spring break, but it was from the back of the room and wasn’t quite the front-row experience I’m used to. We were really excited about the show, and my parents being the insanely nice people that they are, offered to put us up for two nights in a nice hotel practically right across the street from the venue. We also had plans to hang out with our friend Stefan, formerly of We The Living, on Friday night. My friend Erin had let me borrow her navigation unit, “Jeeves”, so we wouldn’t get lost when we were driving around. Then, we’d see the show on Saturday, have lots of fun, and drive home on Sunday.
As you’ve probably guessed, our best laid plans didn’t quite pan out.
An hour into our drive, we got a call from Stefan that it was snowing pretty considerably up in Wisconsin, and would continue to be doing so all night. Since he is currently driving someone else’s car, he was wary of driving into Milwaukee in that kind of weather. We decided to play it by ear when we got up there, and if anything, we’d drive up to Cedarburg to see him. The weather became rainy up near Chicago, and started to get snowy shortly therafter. This was my first time driving in Chicago, and I think I did just fine. Unfortunately, as the snow got heavier and it got darker, we also hit some construction and closed lanes, and it took us for-ev-er to get from Chicago to Milwaukee. The interstate was just crawling along for the longest time. We eventually made it into Milwaukee after 5 and a half hours, and it was supposed to take under 4 hours to get there. The streets in town were terrible, but we found our hotel, got checked in, and parked. We were staying at the Ambassador Hotel, which is a really cool art-deco place my mom found, and it was only half a block from the concert venue. Our room was very nice and we were thrilled to be somewhere other than a Super 8.
After settling in, we called Stefan and we all decided that we’d drive up there and meet him and some of his friends at a 24-hour diner. After 20 minutes of Jeeves misleading us and telling us to take ramps that did not exist, we made it out of the city and headed north. This was not our brightest idea. The snow was even worse and we saw lots of cars in ditches, but we kept going and made it to the George Webb Restaurant. Stefan was there with his girlfriend and her friend, so we got introduced and sat down to chat. The girls had to leave a little while later, but two of Stefan’s other friends showed up and hung out for awhile as well. Once they left, we paid for our food and sat around talking with Stefan for awhile, mostly about what he’s doing now, what his plans are, and the whole situation of leaving the band. After awhile, we realized we should go because the snow had been getting worse. We said our goodbyes, snapped a quick picture to commemorate the occasion, and went our separate ways. It was really really good to see him and I’m glad we did, blizzard or no. On our way back the hotel, we were worried about the snow so we drove really slowly and left the music off. Neither of us were talking because we were both lost in thought about parts of our conversation with Stefan, and the snow was coming down hard and whirling all around the car. We both felt really odd, and it’s hard to describe, but we decided that were both a little unsettled about the night and nervous for the next day, and being trapped in a silent snow bubble added to the weird feelings. We made it back to the hotel without crashing or dying, got on the internet for awhile (free wireless and laptops are beautiful things), set an alarm for the next day, and passed out.
[blizzardy death in Cedarburg, WI]Neither of us were thrilled to wake up Saturday morning, but we did anyway, and got ready for the day. We weren’t totally sure of our plans, since we usually wait all day outside venues, but it was cold and everything was covered in snow. I got online to check the weather forecast, then checked the Lifehouse message board, and was absolutely horrified to find that HoneyHoney had send out a myspace bulletin saying the show was canceled. No one else knew anything yet, we weren’t willing to believe it for sure, and the box office wasn’t open yet, so we just sat in our room and worried for awhile. We also didn’t know if a cancellation would be due to the weather, or due to Jason’s ongoing cold/flu sickness. Unfortunately, an announcement from Matt Nathanson came a bit later that the show was canceled due an illness from the Lifehouse camp. Now we believed it, but we called the box office to make sure, and the lady who answered said they’d received calls asking about it, but no official word from the band. This both concerned us and ticked us off, so we sat around grumbling about lack of communication and irresponsibility. Finally we received word that it was officially canceled because Jason was in the hospital. Excuse me, what?! So then, naturally, we were both worried about him and extremely sad about the official cancellation. If you know me, then you know how much emotion gets invested into the experience of a Lifehouse show. We were not altogether surprised due to how the weekend had been going, but it’s still kind of heart-wrenching to have a show called off when you can see the venue from your hotel window, and even more to have it called off due to the lead singer being hospitalized. So, shocked and bummed out, we grabbed our computers, got back in bed, and lamented the situation with other Lifehouse fans online.
After awhile, we were starting to get bored with the internet, but I decided to check myspace again. When I logged in, I noticed a bulletin from the band Cavashawn about their show in Chicago that night. The guys in Cavashawn are originally from Ohio, but currently reside in Chicago. We were already planning on seeing them next weekend with We The Living, but thought it would be great to see them earlier. We both sat pondering this, looked up the travel time, and decided it would only be possible if we left Milwaukee for good that day and drove back to my apartment after the show. It was past check-out time as this point and we figured we’d get charged for the second night, so we didn’t know what to do, but we were suddenly becoming desperate for a way to salvage the weekend. After a few phone calls back and forth with my mom, she finally called back and decided it wouldn’t be the end of the world if she still had to pay for that night if we left. We still decided to call the front desk however, to see if anything could be done. I called, spouted off a story about how something came up at home and we had to leave early, got transferred to two different people, was told we could leave without being charged for the second night, and was also told that if we were out by 1:30, we wouldn’t get charged a late check-out fee. Needless to say, we packed up pretty quickly, and I fired off a message to Cavashawn to let them know we were coming and put on a We The Living shirt so we’d be obvious. Then we bought tickets for the show online, put addresses into Jeeves, and checked out right on time. As soon as we left that hotel, everything began working in our favor. We got out of Milwaukee with no problems, the sun was shining, and the roads were clear and mostly dry. Prior to leaving Wisconsin, we saw signs for the Mars Cheese Castle, and decided to stop to see what it was.
[This is what it was. Apparently it had a Gallery of Art in it as well. We were confused, took a picture, and got back on the interstate.]Amazingly enough, once we go to Chicago, we found the venue without getting lost, drove around, found a Starbucks with a bathoom, got coffee, and hung out for an hour to kill time. Thankfully, we managed to snag the two giant purple chairs by the windows. I alternated between reading Atlas Shrugged and taking pictures of anything in my line of sight.
[Starbucks boredom]At around 5:30, we went to the Beat Kitchen, which is also a bar/restaurant. We ordered a pizza and while we were waiting, we kept seeing guys walk by who we were fairly sure were members of Cavashawn. Unfortunately, we are pansies and never said anything because we’re afraid of being creepers. The Purdue/Xavier game was on the tv, so I was trying to watch that. The guys in the booth behind us, who we decided were indeed Cavashawn, were cheering on Xavier. One of the guys (Jesse, the drummer) was leaning against the spot between the two booths, slightly in my line of sight, watching the game. I think I swore when Purdue missed a free throw, because he turned around and apologized for standing in my way, then started talking to us about who we were rooting for. When he started walking away, he stopped and turned around and asked if we were staying for the show. We said we were, and Amanda said “You’re in Cavashawn...right?” And he said he was, so we said we knew We The Living, and he got all happy and we proceeded to have a 10-minute conversation about our Milwaukee troubles, their band, and which exits on I-65 between Cincinnati and Chicago are the best. [side note, we saw some of the exits on our way home and laughed quite a bit] Benton (bass player) also walked by and Jesse introduced us, and he briefly joined in our conversation. They went away after awhile, and we finished our dinner. At one point, Scott (the lead singer) walked by for the first time, and we were fairly positive he saw my shirt, but he didn’t say anything. At about 6:30 we got up to get our wristbands from the will-call guy. As soon as we got up, Scott (apparently having realized who we were previously) popped up suddenly from their booth and started talking to us. He also said something about not wanting to be a weirdo, I think he was referring to why he didn’t say something to us sooner, but I’m not really sure. He had gotten our message about coming to the show and was excited to see us, but then said he was nervous now because we’d never seen them before. After we talked to him, we got our wristbands and went into the venue part of the building. The place was full of little scene kids of the mild variety (no one too hardcore...), and we were fairly sure that most of them were there for the other two bands. We decided to just lean against the wall for awhile.
When it got close to 7, we moved up front to the stage. The guys came up on stage shortly after 7, and proceeded to blow us away for their entire set. These guys are GOOD. We weren’t totally sure what to expect, but they were completely amazing live. Scott throws around his microphone and rocks out all over the stage and bends and twists and who knows what else. The guy is certainly a performer.
I know they played Madison, Out of My Mind, Thrill, Just Because, Hey Hey Hey, and Friendly Fire. There were a few more I think, but I didn’t catch the names. We were happily singing along to the ones we knew and had a great time. They were wonderful and so fun to watch.
After their set, we went to the bar and grabbed drinks, and went back to hanging out against the wall. Scott saw us and came over to talk for awhile. He gave us half-hugs because he was worried about being sweaty, but we told him we’d hugged so many sweaty band dudes in our lives that it didn’t even matter anymore. We talked to him for a bit, then watched the second band. (Bury Me at Makeout Creek) We weren’t overly impressed. After that, Scott came over to talk again, and we started telling him about how similar Jesse and Ben from WTL are. He said Jesse would love to hear it, and when Jesse came over a few minutes later, we told him our thoughts. He loved it, because apparently those two are like the same person and get along really well. After that, we went to buy CDs and t-shirts, then watched the last band. (The Ivorys) They were better than the second band, but still nothing really special. Once they were done, we went to say goodbye to Cavashawn. This was all kind of rushed because there was another show taking that place last night, so they were trying to kick us out really fast. We started talking to Scott and Jesse, and asked if they’d take a picture with us. Scott said he had wanted to ask us if we wanted a picture, but didn’t want to seem pretentious. While we were laughing over that, he called over the other two guys and we took just about the best picture ever.
[L to R: Benton, Scott, Me, Amanda, Jesse, Chris]Chris (guitar) introduced himself to us at this point, and it was actually the first time we’d talked to him all night. We think he’s the quiet one of the bunch. Jesse asked us to send along any pictures, and wanted to know if there was any good place to play at Purdue. I said that we didn’t really have good places, but I’d talk to my friend on the Underground Concert Committee. At this point we were being asked to leave by the bouncer, so we said our goodbyes quickly. Scott went to shake my hand for some reason and then sort of hugged me in the process. I pulled back and remarked that it was such a man hug, with the hands in between. He laughed and said okay, then proceeded to wrap me in a giant real hug without warning, causing me to bust out laughing. He asked if it was a real man-woman hug and once I stopped cracking up, I said that it was. We waved to the others and were promptly shooed out for the last time by the bouncer. We were practically skipping down the street on the way back to the car because we couldn’t even believe how well the day had managed to turn out. The show was amazing, and the guys are super-nice. Scott completely lacks the superior attitude that is found in so many lead singers, which I wasn’t expecting at all. I still think it’s so funny that we worry so much about being creepy, and this time, he was the one that was worried he was being weird. The last thing we need is another band to love, but we’ve got one. Please go check them out at http://www.myspace.com/cavashawn !!!
As we were leaving Chicago, the skyline was absolutely gorgeous. The night was clear and the buildings all stood out sharply against the sky, with the moon hanging low in the sky above them. It was a really beautiful sight. Even better, we got out of Chicago without paying a toll, and we thought that was impossible, so that was a huge plus. We drove back to my apartment without any trouble and listened to the same six Cavashawn songs on repeat for the entire two-hour drive and tried to understand just what exactly we’d been through in the past two days. Even now, we still can’t wrap our minds around how this weekend was almost nothing that we planned or expected, but still worked out so amazingly. Of course we’re still quite sad about the Lifehouse show, and we’re worried about Jason’s health, but when you think of how disastrous the weekend could have been, life was pretty good yesterday. We’re seeing We The Living and Cavashawn play a show together in Cincinnati this Friday, and now we’re even more excited than before. We have a new band to love and support and promote, and we couldn’t be happier.
Life’s little twists and turns keep it interesting. When something goes wrong, get over it and make a new plan. It may have gone wrong for a reason... and you never know where that new plan may take you.
