The Academy Is... - Chicago - November 6th

As you may or may not know, I flew out to Chicago at the beginning of this month in order to see your favorite and mine, TAI, play a hometown show. Here is the story of that adventure.

I left my college around 4pm the day before the show (Nov 5th) in order to catch my 6pm flight. I flew out the night before instead of the morning of because I wanted to get in line early. I would find out, however, that this was not really necessary since no one from SLH showed up until like 4pm. But anyways. I got in to Chicago around 11pm, took the orange line to Lake/State, and walked SEVERAL blocks to a youth hostel on Congress Parkway. On my walk I saw Grant Park (where a million people celebrated Obama's victory the night before), Millenium Park, the Art Institute, and other lovely sights. I stayed the night at the hostel, but didn't sleep very well/very much since I went to bed around midnight and had to get up at like 6:30 in the morning in order to catch breakfast and go get in line. And I kept waking up in the middle of the night because the woman in the bed across fomr me would NOT stop snoring. It was the loudest snoring I have ever heard, louder even than my father's, and that's really saying something. It was intolerable! But I made it through the night and, after eating a breakfast consisting of three muffins and a cup of coffee, I took the GORGEOUS walk to the venue. Chicago really is a beautiful city. I got there around 7:30/8 in the morning to find four girls already in line. They were from nearby in Indiana and had gotten there around 4:30 in the morning. I made friends with them as we waited in line, but mostly I did the homework I had brought with me. When the restaurant opened for lunch the five of us ate lunch there. The day passed pretty uneventfully. I will say that one of the managers, Cuba, was extremely nice. When it was just the five of us early in the morning, he brought us coffee, and would come out often just to talk. When it started to rain he brought the line inside, too. Good man.

As the day wore on, fan club members began to show up. I met some people from TAILJ, one of whom brought me some delicious Giordano's pizza. At around 5pm Jack brought us up into the venue for the meet and greet, which was at a table since there were so many fan club members there. Jack handed out free tour posters for us to get signed; pretty legit, but I really do not need more shit signed by them. Anyways, the order was Bill, Sisky, MGC, Mike, and Butcher. I told Willia that I just ate Giordano's - but I forgot to mention that I wasn't actually from Chicago (took it for granted that most other people at the show were local kids), so he was just kind of like, "Oh yeah?" and that was basically it. No recognition, unfortunately. Sisky was a bit more talkative, asking "What'd you have" as he overheard our conversation. I told him Giordano's, and he asked if it was deep dish. I was just like "Uh, I guess so. It was...pretty thick." MGC is such a nice guy. He might be my favorite to talk to, but that might just be because I NEVER get to talk to him. I have yet to get a picture with the man! But anyways. He asked how I was, and I said fine, but that it was a little loud (Hey Monday was soundchecking). He apologized. Like, how sweet is that!? As if it was his fault. Sweet little Christian Australian manners. Anyways. He also told me that he liked my shirt (I was wearing the infamous Obama shirt) and he gave me a high-five, as did Mike Carden (looking particularly fuckable in black) when he saw it. He seemed particularly excited about Obama's victory. I told him about my experience of being in Washington, DC on the night of the election (at which point Butcher tuned into the conversation) and how amazing it was. That is a story all to itself, but to sum it up it involves a lot of solidarity, running to the whitehouse, high fiving strangers hanging out of taxi cabs, and Pennsylvania Avenue being filled with people. Both Butcher and Mike seemed really excited about the story. As Butcher was signing my poster he was like "I overheard your story" or something like that, and I was just like yeah it was amazing. I wished him luck in the show and then headed over to the girls I had been hanging out with to wait to be let onto the floor.

I got y favorite spot - barricade, slightly to the right of the mic when facing the stage. One of the LJ gals was on my left, and another girl who I came to know through our mutual trying to prevent people from squeezing in between us during the show was on my right. Good times for all.

Hey Monday, Carolina Liar, and We The Kings were okay. I really didn't like any of their music to begin with, and I wasn't that impresed live. The best part about the openers (co-headliner my ass) was Travis's comment about being a redhead and how they're dying out so we need to save them, which is definitely true. If I ever meet him I will tell him how he and I, as fellow redheads, need to procreate in order to perpetuate the redhead race. Although he is uggo so I do not want to fuck him. But anyways. For as lackluster as the openers were, TAI was amazing. The best I've ever seen them.

Me and the girls around me VERY successfully resisted all forms of pushing and pulling and did not move and INCH from where we started by the time TAI started. We even got security to yell at some tall asshole who was trying to force himself and his girlfriend onto the barricade in between me and the girl on my right. Ya!

Anyways. Where do I even begin with this? So incredible, despite the massive pushing and sweatiness and bad odor etc. Let me first say that I frequently looked up to the balcony during the first three sets, wondering what familiar faces I might see there, since it was a hometown show. And yes, I admit, there was actually once face I was looking for in particular - that of Chrstine, William's long-term girlfriend. Throughout the course of the night I saw Johnny Minardi, Nick Scimeca, that bald guy from Crush Management, and...sure enough, when TAI came on, Christine appeared in the balcony. Let me tell you, she's even more beautiful in person. Like, painfully so. Oh my God, she's gorgeous. And has a beautiful smile. So big and full of happiness. I kept looking up at her throughout the night just to make sure that she was still so fucking beautiful. And she was. Omg I'm such a creeper you guys. But I just couldn't help it. She probably saw me staring at her at least once and thought I was a total creeper. But she was singing along with every song, clapping, and positively beaming. It made me incredibly jealous. Not that she is the one who gets to love and be loved by William Beckett, but of the love that so cearly exists between them. I want that someday!

Okay so maybe I should talk about the actual show now, ya? It was so good. I KNEW that going to see them in their hometown would be worth it! I'm so glad I did it. It's jut one of those things that you HAVE to do, and I did! I highly recommend it, with TAI or anyone. They pulled out all the stops that night, as if to impress their hometown, to show how far they've come and repay the town that carried them to fame. There was just that FEELING of all that being true; I can't explain it. William's oice was beautiful. He experiment a little with his vocals, sometimes going higher, other times lower, sometimes he sped up, sometimes he slowed down, and it all sounded great. Mike Carden tore it up on the guitar, too. We exchanged some srs eyesex, too. It was the first time I ever got Carden eye contact. Anyways.

it was so great to hear the new album live - SO GREAT! They played my two favorite songs off the album - Rumored Nights and After the Last Midtown Show. And on that note, here is the most fucking adorable story ever:

When Bill introduced Midtown, I instinctively looked up to the balcony at Christine, remember that in his blog he said he wrote it about the only girl he ever loved. And what I saw just broke my heard with adorableness. She made that "awwww" face, looking extremely flattered and in love, clasped her hands together, and put them over her heart. It was so touching and sweet. She smiled throughout the whole song. I was so jealous that it made me a little sad.

Now, William does a great job of interacting with the audience, making eye contact and such. So SEVERAL times throught the night I got some great eye sex, and we would sing to each other and hed be smiling so big and God it feels great when that happenes. Anyways, when it came to Midtown, I wasn't singing along or energetic because I was stunned by the Christine thing and sad that I didn't have that kind of love and also it's a slow and beautiful song and I didn't want to ruin it by singing along. And everyone else was singing along and I was just staring up at William, just watching, a little somberly apparently, because when his eyes caught mine, a look of something between confusion and concern (maybe even recognition, finally?) flashed in his eyes. He kind of looked at me questioningly, maybe wondering what was wrong. Aw he is just so sweet. And a few times throughout the song his eyes slid up to the balcony at Christine. So cute.

OHMYGOD AND THEN. He had his acoustic guitar and so I assumed he'd be playing like Automatic Eyes or The Test or something, but he introduces the song and said "we just finished this song a few days ago" and I was like HOLY FUCKING SHIT NEW SONG!!! And he said it was about winter in the midwest, and it was called Winter Passing. And it was absolutely beautiful. Very Remember Maine-esque. Oh it was so stunning, it was so beautiful. I couldn't even give it the praise it deserved in the way of clapping and screaming afterward because I was just so impressed. Hearing it live....oh man. It was so earnest and heartfelt and beautiful and I was so glad to be in the crowd the first time he played that song.

So the rest of the show proceeded with fucking awesomeness. At the last song, Checkmarks, William of course came into the crowd, BUT...and I don't know if this was intentional or just a result of the strong pull of the crowd, but he completely left the barricade and was totally crowdsurfing. It was so awesome. But I was also like omg bill you are so dumb. And Christine had this look of like, humored worry on her face...it was so cute (yes I have a girl crush on her, can you tell?). So the show ended. I didn't get a setlist but I did manage to get a pic. I grabbed my poster (that I had rolled up and stuck under the barricade for protection) and went to merch to buy that I LOVE REDHEADS shirt. You had to be 17 or over to get into the merch area because I guess Chicago curfew is REALLY inforced, and I felt all special being able to get in there. After I got my shirt I met up with a girl from TAILJ that lives in Chicago that said she'd ride the Orange Line with me since she lived off one of the stops anyways. it was a lot of fun hanging out with her; she was a nice gal. And the nshe got off and I rode the last few exits by myself, looking wistfully at the subway map, wishing I didn't have to leave. I slept in the airport terminal and got up at 4 to go to my gate since my flight was at 6am prompt. I got back to DC around noon and basically sleepwalked my way through the airport, to the metro, to the bus back to campus, and to my dorm, where I first of all SHOWERED because OMG I got so sweaty at the show and was covered in my own seat as well as the sweat of everyone that had been around me, and then I took a glorious nap, with fond memories of my trip.

Chicago is a beautiful city. I want to return someday. Especially since I put 20 dollars on my metro card and only spent four. Woops.

Oh and they played (not in order):

Classifieds
Neighbors
Midtown
One More Weekend
Checkmarks
Big Mess
Summer Hair
About a Girl
Rumored Nights
Winter Passing
Black Mamba
The Test
Everything We Had
Slow Down
Phrase
His Girl Friday

I might be missing something but you know, it's all good.

I have pics, but not many since security told me to put my camera away early on in TAI's set. I won't bother to share them.

Be on the lookout for my update on the DC show as well, which will have a HUGE fucking surprise in it! You will all die of jealousy.