A Concert in London Part 3 – A Time for Hanging out Backstage without Backstage Passes

The concert ended like concert always does. And even though the crowd chanted for an encore they didn’t come back out. For a few seconds I was rather disappointed in them but my brother and I shrugged our shoulders and started to walk towards the cloakroom. That’s when my brother spotted Shawn. Naturally I spazzed (what?) when I couldn’t see him and kept going “Where? Where?”

When I spotted him I freaked again because I just had to met him but people were walking so slowly and I almost panicked. XD

After pretty much knocking a few people out of the way we reached him. There were already fans talking to him (of course) so we had to wait for a bit. I was basically bouncing up and down x ] Then finally we could walk up to him. He was real polite and shook our hands and all.

Don’t ask me why but I had brought a black permanent marker with me to the concert. And my brother happened to have the map we had used earlier in his pocket. So he ripped that into two halves and gave me one. Then we asked Shawn to sign them for us and he was like “yeah, sure!” After he had signed the back of the two map halves he gave me a hug just to be nice I suppose. He was about to leave when I told him what I had wanted to let him know for years. I simply thanked him.

I said: “I just wan to thank you. Thank you for existing. Your songs, your music, it means so much to me.”

He looked like he was about to cry when I said that. He looked so overwhelmed and extremely touched. His eyes got like glossy with tears. You know, like when you’re about to cry and tears make your eyes look sort of wet? I was actually scared that I’d make him cry.

Anyway, I immediately continued by adding: “Like Darkness Rising. And Salty Eyes. I love those songs.” Then he smiled a little and looked so incredibly adorable when he said: “Those are my favourites too!”

I have a hard time believing that but it was sweet of him to say that. And it was nice to see him smile for a few seconds, even though he still was on the verge of tears pretty much.

But I wasn’t done.

I hurriedly ended with: “So you should just know that you’re appreciated.” and his smile went away instantly and the glint in his eyes turned to more tears but he seemed immensely grateful. I’ve never in my life met anyone that’s been so thankful because of something I’ve said.

He went all “Aww, thank you.” and his expression was a mix of wanting to smile and wanting to cry.

And that was when I got my second hug. It was like he was just waiting for me to finish actually so he could hug me =P He sort of held out his arms, like he couldn’t wait or maybe was just about to hug me but had to wait until I had finished talking. We were standing pretty close just so he would be able to hear me properly so all he had to do was basically to wrap his arms around me. He didn’t even really have to move x ] Oh, and in case you’re wondering; I hugged him back of course.

When he let go I just touched his arm lightly, smiling sheepishly, and asked if it was okay if me and my brother could take a picture. So I asked my brother, in English, if he had the camera but he probably didn’t hear me because he want all “what?” I repeated what I had said, but in Swedish, and from the corner on my eye I could see that Shawn’s face got the funniest expression when I switched language. It cracked me up a bit since the first thing we had told him was that we had travelled all the way from Sweden just to see them play, which he thought was awesome. He was pretty impressed actually. Then he had mentioned that he sort of knew two girls from Sweden and I had been like “yeah, those two girls from Skåne who’s done some interviews with you?” and he had said: “Yeah.” and I had went “Yeah, I know about them.” He had replied with “That’s cool.”

Yeah Shawn, real cool x ]

Anyway, back to that photo. My brother gave me the camera so I could take a picture of him and Shawn but I was shaking so much that the picture got a tad fuzzy. I apologized for it three times I think. I just couldn’t help it though. I mean, I’d just thanked my hero just for fuckin’ existing and he had been on the verge of tears. It doesn’t get much more emotional than that. And when I get nervous (of course) or very emotional I start to tremble. Ah well. They both forgave me. ^^

Then it was my turn to get a photo. Sadly enough I sort of blinked and didn’t have the brains to check the photo more closely >__> I mentally kicked myself for that later. It’s still a nice photo though. I don’t know if it’s just my imagination but I think you can see that he came close to crying.

Shawn and me

Wondering why you can’t see his hand on my shoulder? You can’t see it in the pic since it was taken too close but it’s because his arm is around my waist. :tehe:

After that there were almost like a line forming so we had to leave. Can’t hog him forever, right?

My brother then saw Jon so we decided to head over to him. He seemed equally impressed when we told him that we had travelled all the way from Sweden. He said he’d never been to Sweden. (He said something along the lines of “like, we’ve obviously never played in Sweden and I’ve never been there either like.”). And then we told him that we were gonna go back to Sweden and promote them (and he was like “Please do! Please do!”) so that they could come and play here. Then we added that they like at least should come here on vacation XD

I just had to add like “We could guide you and all. We could give you a guided tour.”

He just laughed.

Guess what went through my head? Yeah, that’s right; “I get a laugh, but I’m not joking. You think I’m joking?”* Seriously, like wtf? How weird am I? xD Ah, rhetorical question of course.

After we had gotten the pictures and the autographs we had to run around for a while before we found Justin. We had tried to catch Matt but he had just run pass us. He didn’t really seem like he was in a very good mood.

Anyway, we found Justin and he, on the other hand, was in a very good mood. He was grinning like a fool most of the time. He was pretty cute actually. :tehe: Of course he was also impressed that we had travelled from another country and that we had spent so much money just to see them play. Unlike Shawn however he had no clue where Sweden is. But for some reason he asked like where in Sweden we were from. So my brother told him we live an hour’s drive from the capital, Stocholm. And Justin was like “Okay. Yeah. I have no clue where that is = ]”

By that time I was so hyped that I actually forgot to ask him for an autograph. Thankfully my little brother reminded me. I felt kinda stupid when I went back to him and asked him to sign that map lol.

Justin is, in my opinion, most adorable in the photo of him and me.

Confession time. =P When we left Justin and went to look for Matt we walked passed Shawn. It actually wasn’t so crowded that I had to touch his arm so he’d move a bit but what the hell, right? :001: Besides, it earned me such a cute smile from him. So it was worth it right? XD (He'd smile each time he saw me actually <3 )

Back to the story, I have to tell about Matt too! My brother and I practically had to throw ourselves over him to get the autographs and the pictures. He really, really didn’t seem very amused. It doesn’t really show in the photo with me but in my brother’s it’s quite obvious. I wonder if he had a bad day or something. Or if he was in a bad mood for some reason. Or if he always is like that. =/

After that an idea just hit me. It was like a somebody had switched on a light bulb x ] I realized that I just had to speak with Shawn again. My brother however was very hesitant to that idea so I suggested that we should go and get our coats and hoddies first and then I would try to talk to Shawn. I also retrieved my home-customised and spray painted t-shirt and put it on over the plain black one I already was wearing.

I found Shawn right away but I stayed in the background since there were fans that wanted to meet him and talk to him, so I figured they should get the chance since I already had spoken to him and all. When the last girl, an Asian-looking chick who asked him for a signed guitar pick, was done I sort of just said his name.

He gave me an almost blank stare which made me a bit nervous I guess. Therefore I apologized for bothering him again but he was real sweet about it. “Sure. No, its okay,” he said.

I took a deep breath and asked him if he could do me favour. And without him even knowing what kind of favour I’d ask him for he said “sure” right away. I was tempted for a second to ask for something stupid, like if I could get a kiss or kiss him or whatever, but I reminded myself that it had an important mission (lol) and that I shouldn’t be such a moron. Because of that however I started to babble, probably barely making sense.

This is pretty much how the conversation went:
“You’re going back to the states now right?”
“Yeah”
“And you’re gonna play a show March 14 and such and like some dates after that, right?”
“Eh, yeah.”
“It’s like, I kinda know this girl, this girl in the states-”
“Ah-ha”
“-and she’s going to one of your concerts.”
“Right.”
“And when she, if she, if you happened to meet her, she wanna meet you, gonna try, and I’ll like tell her to tell you her name, Sara, so-“
“Right, right”
“-and then if you just could like say hello to her from me. Could you do that?”
“Of course!”
“Tank you!”
“So what’s your name?”
And I told him my name but he didn’t hear it so he leaned really close and went like “What?” so I had to repeat it. Then I remembered that I should tell him my nickname instead. So I was all hyper and like “But she probably knows me by my nickname, Rose.”
“So I’m gonna say hello to Saaa-?”
“Sara”
“-from Rose.”
“Yeah.”

Then he sort of repeated it quietly to himself which was so cute.

He actually did say hi to Sara. She told him about me and he was like “Oh yeah the Swedish girl yeah she told me to tell you hi" That makes me suspect that he’s always gonna remember me as Rose, the crazy fan from Sweden. XD Oh, well. ^-^

Anyway, he was sort of on his way to leave but I got another crazy idea. I went like “Hey, Shawn, what do think of my t-shirt?” and he gave me that blank stare again. I didn’t know what to do so I twirled around and added that I had made it myself. Then he smiled and said “I really like the strap on the back!” so I went “Thank you” and grinned like a moron XD Then I started babbling again. :roll: I told him that he, and the rest of the guys, had inspired me to finally make DIY clothes and then I tried to ask him why they had changed their style, if it was like for the sake of the new record or whatever. (I might have touched his arm somewhere around here in the conversation, I don’t quite remember. XD I know that I at least like looked at the two shirts he was wearing and that he like followed my gaze. It was a weird moment XD)

He somehow made sense of all my nonsense though and said that they sort of liked to match their style with their albums and that that basically was why they’d changed it. (“What we’re trying to say musically would only make sense if we did it visually as well.”)** So I told him that old style wouldn’t really suit their new album and that their present style really fitted their new album. That seemed to really cheer him up because he smile and was all like “Thank you!” and he looked really happy. So adorable <3

One last idea found its way into my mind and I asked Shawn if he had another guitar pick that I could have. He sort of made a face, a mix between a grimace and a smile, and said, half laughing, “No, I’m sorry, I actually don’t.” So I was like joking and saying “Aww, now you made me sad.” and he went “Naww, sorry!”

And he pulled me in for yet another hug, rubbing my arm like he was comforting me or something like that. For some odd reason I felt a bit embarrassed by that. I mean, I really didn’t try to hug him again or get another hug. Honestly, it was all him. And I felt like I had to tell him it was okay so I was like “It’s okay, you’ll just have to come to Sweden and then
you can give me a guitar pick.” and he answered that he’d try really hard to make that happen. Seriously, damn him for being so sweet. XD I really think he sort of made me fall a little in love with him. :tehe: Not in like a creepy stalker crazy fangirl way >__> but like just that I adore him so much =P

After that I just started at him. There were of course more things I wanted to tell him and more questions I wanted to ask but right then my mind just went blank. I really couldn’t think of anything and that’s what I told him (“You’re just awesome. Like all of you. And I really don’t know what more to say”). He just rubbed my arm again (seriously what was up with him touching me all the time? XD ) and we kind of just went our separate ways.

After that my brother and I decided to check out the merch (since we sorta felt we should try to make up for downloading The Matches albums). At the merch table we met the singer and guitarist, Sam, from Twin Atlantic.

Little want-to-be-nice-and-oh-so-polite brother told Sam that their show was pretty damn good. I bet he hadn’t said that if he hadn’t been so hyped about having talked to The Matches XD. Not that Twin Atlantic was bad, they were pretty great, but if you haven’t heard a band before, well, a little less enthusiasm would make more sense. Ah, anyway, back to the story.

We shook hands with Sam and he asked for our names and told us his. And he picked up my brother’s accent (you can tell right away that English isn’t his first language because of his pronunciation) and asked us where we were from. So we told him that we’re from Sweden. The look on his face was priceless! But then he got himself together and said: “But you live here in London?” and we were like “No, we travelled here just to see The Matches!”
“Really?” Sam said.
“Yeah,” we answered.
“Do they know that? I have to tell them!” He looked around like he was about to run off and tell them right away. (What a sweetheart huh? ^^)
“They know.”
“Jon knows, and Justin I think,” my brother said.
“We told Shawn. So Jon and Shawn knows,” I added.
“Did we? I can’t really remember!”
“I think we told everyone ‘cept Matt,” I retorted.
“They have to know, I’m gonna tell them. They’ll be so happy. They really deserve some appreciation like that!” Sam then said all of a sudden.
“Sure, tell them,” we told him.
“Yeah, I will. I will!”

He called us something too, but I can’t remember the word. We’d never heard it before so we had to ask him what he meant. And it was that he had respect for us, only that that word was a much better word for it x ]

Then my brother just said “If we buy you’re CD will you sign it for us?” and Sam was all like “Yeah, of course!” and he thanked us like a million times for watching them play and for buying the CD. So we got the CD and when he was gonna sign my brother’s booklet (with my pen btw XD ) he like paused and went “Wellum was it?” and my brother was all like “huh?” So Sam repeated “Your name, was it Wellum?”
“No, it was Robert.”
“Where did I get Wellum from?”
“I don’t know XD”
“I’m sorry, all the names and I’m really tried. I’m so sorry! How could I think that your name was Wellum when clearly it’s Robert!”
“It’s okay.”

I had to spell my name for him so that he didn’t get it wrong. Because that would have kinda sucked lol.

We got a hold of the other guitarist in Twin Atlantic as well. He was also impressed with our journey. He also asked us where we were from and said that he almost had been able to pick up the accent. I found that kinda funny because it was my brother who had spoken to him. Sucks from my bro that his English isn’t top notch XDShut up, mine’s prefect and you know it >___>. So anyway, he signed the booklets as well and then my brother started to babble about playing Cello. Only he kept pronouncing it wrong and the guitarists (who also had played Cello during their performance btw) kept trying to correct him. He gave up after a while though lol.

We were just talking and chillin’ when some big bloke, obviously a security dude, said something to my brother and me. I couldn’t hear him so I mighta kinda have ignored him =P My brother however asked him to repeat himself. And then I heard. He asked us if we had backstage passes. Which we didn’t. Oooops, haha. It rocks to hang out backstage without passes. Until you get caught of course x ]

So we had to leave but that place was really confusing, weird architecture I tell you! So we got a bit disorientated and bumped into Sam again. He asked us who we were looking for and we told him that we weren’t looking for anyone, that we were being kicked out.
“Who’re you lookin’ for?” he repeated anyway.
“No, no one. We’re being kicked out.”
“Kicked out? What for?”
“Because we don’t have backstage passes,” we said.
“Yeah and this guard kicked us out,” I added.
He looked so pissed off when we told him that. I almost got sacred, he looked so angry!
“That’s bullshit!”
“Yeah, but we don’t have passes so.”
“That’s bullshit. You should be able to stay.” He looked around and I was a bit afraid that he was searching for the security guy to (try to) beat him up or something. It was nice that he was so protective of us but I really didn’t want him to get into any trouble because of us so we told him that we’d just leave.

So we did. It just took a like a minute to find the way out though.

Once outside I felt like dancing and singing and just screaming my lungs out. I was so crazy happy about having met The Matches. I did nothing of the above but I it was damn close XD

On the way to the hotel we grabbed a hamburger at McDonalds and decided to walk all the way instead of taking the bus (it wasn’t that far anyway). And we we’re all hyper and happy and went on and on about the concert and hanging out “backstage”.

Honestly? It was the best time of my life and I wish I could go back and do it all over again. Maybe with some minor changes :tehe:

Some random things that I don’t reallyremember know where to include:
1) A funny thing about that permanent marker of mine; everyone thought it was a great pen and that I was really cool for brining it XD I still laugh a little at that.
2) Both guitarists in the band Twin Atlantic wished us a safe journey home. We said the same to them.
3) Sam talked about how they had been touring with The Matches and the he was bummed that it was over. He also told us that the show we went to was The Matches best gig on their UK tour.
4) The map with the autographs.
5) The autographs in my twin Atlantic booklet.
6) The t-shirt I bought at the merch table.
7) I know you’re wondering; how many times did this damn groupie make physical contact with Sawn? Well, it was a total of ten times.*** Keep in mind though that I only took the initiative in touching him three**** out of those times XD

And that was the story of the insane siblings who went to another country just to watch their favourite band play.

I have a feeling I forgot something though.

Oh, yeah, right! The date for the concert was March 12th.

Now you only have to listen to the song “If I Were You” by the Matches and hey, my signature will suddenly make sense!

Thanks for reading, hope you didn’t choke on any pesky bones ; ]

*A part from the song “Future Tense” by The Matches.
** Quote from AP ( "Alternative Press" ), #237.2 2008
***First time crowd surfing, second time crowd surfing, shaking hands, getting the first hug, getting the second hug, touching his arm, posing for the photo, walking past him, getting the third hug and getting a friendly rub on the arm.
****When I put my fingers through his hair the second time he crowed surfed, when I touched his arm and asked if it was okay to take some pictures and when I walked past him in search of Matt. :001: