Travisonline

Kris Posted: 07-10-04 3:21

As usual, I was getting the package ready for Dougie from the fan club. I was gathering up the letters and goodies and meanwhile I was talking with my friend Josh on the Internet. He was IM'ing with his friend Matt, who lives in Cincinatti. And he was talking with his friend Erika, who lives in California, and is a friend of the band. Anyway, he told them to visit the fan club site and so they were looking at it and thought it was pretty cool and Josh (I think) mentioned my little mission I take on every time the band comes to town. So to make a long story short, Erika IM'ed me and told me she was going to try and get backstage passes for me! I figured my chances are pretty slim, but just the thought that this total stranger was going to all this trouble for someone she doesn't even know was pretty cool. This was on the Friday night before the show, I might add.

So Saturday rolled around and I kept checking my e-mail to see if she'd written to let me know the status on the passes, and as the day progressed it seemed more and more like it wasn't going to happen, but that was alright because I was just excited to go to the show.

Sunday morning I went about my day as normal...I washed some clothes, ironed some things, straightened up and then I decided to check my e-mail. I opened it up and there was a letter from Erika saying she talked to Ian and he was arranging to get passes for me. All I had to do was go to the will call window at the venue and give them my name. EEEEK! At this point I was literally screaming and running around the house. It's not that I haven't met Travis before, but just the idea of going backstage and such was so cool and DEFINITELY a first. I hadn't told my friend about any of this, even when I first heard I might have passes, only because I didn't want to disappoint him if it didn't work out. Well I found out mid-afternoon and by that time, he was already on his way to the cities, so there was no way for me to let him know.

Around 4:00 or so he called and said he was on his way to meet me up at the hotel across the street from the venue and I said "Ok, cool, I'll be there as soon as I can. And I've got good news!" So we hung up and I had to get driving directions to the venue and that ended up taking forever and my friend was waiting for me for an HOUR in the lobby. I felt SO horrible.

I told him the news and he was like "Wow!" and I showed him the e-mail (I printed it out because I knew I'd forget the names of everyone) and he said, "Well, should we go then?" and so we walked across the street to the venue and went into one of the gates and asked where to go to get the backstage passes. And the guy said, "You have to go to Gate 1" so we walked over to Gate 1 and saw the will call window and I asked the man working there if my passes were there. He got my name and searched through the box and said, "Nope. But more will be coming in later, so check back." Ugh. So, my friend and I sat around and listened to Travis doing their soundcheck (they soundchecked "Side" and "Last Train" and did a lovely cover of the "Cheers" theme and a bit of the "Jaws" theme. Quite amusing, I must say.) We played Mad Libs to pass the time a bit, but we stopped because neither of us were really thinking straight.

So every fifteen minutes to half an hour I checked back at the window. I kept getting the same answer, "Nope, not yet." At around 6:30 we went over to the window and I said, "Me again. Are they in yet?" and the man checked and they were in! YAY! I signed for the passes and I opened up the envelope and there were two VIP passes and my friend and I were SO excited! Then I noticed there was something else inside, and I saw two MAIN FLOOR tickets!!! They were 8th row, center. Now keep in mind our previous seats were in section 116 row 16 (which is in the lower level across from the stage). So we were freaking out (well, I know I was). We didn't know what to do with the tickets. Another couple was walking around and they asked us if we got tickets too, and we said, "Yeah, and now we don't know what to do with them!" Apparently they were trying to sell them, but nobody really wanted them, and so my friend and I asked the people at the ticket window what we should do, and they said, "Your best bet is to just sell them" but we weren't going to stand around trying to sell them. My friend told his friend Travis to give them to someone who might need them. We had our passes so we asked Travis to check to see where we needed to go, so he found out where to tell us to go, and sent us on our way.

We finally made it to the backstage entrance and the guard asked to see our passes and he checked on his list thingy and told us that we had access to pretty much everything but the dressing rooms (unless someone invited us in or something). So we thought that was well cool, being that this wasn't much short of an all access pass. We walked backstage and we were the only non-band people there, aside from the couple who came in with us. We just sort of stood around because we weren't sure where to go. A guy rolled by on a skateboard and I said to my friend, "Was that Fran?" and he said, "No, he's got stubble" and I said, "Well, so does Fran." and as he got closer I noticed it was Jonny, one of their techs. This was good because I had a cartoony to give him. So I walked a bit closer to him and said, "Jonny?" and he said, "Yes?" and I said, "I have something for you!" And he said, "For me??" and I said, "Yes!" and handed him the drawing. He laughed (long story behind this but he's seen it a few times so it's sort of like an inside joke between a few of us in the Travis chat room) and said "Aw, thank you!" and he was impressed that I was the one who drew it (don't know why, it wasn't amazing or anything). We also gave him a picture from the webcam where he's holding up a sign that says, "YOU'RE ALL MAD." We talked a while and my friend asked about the tour and upcoming shows and such and as we were all talking, Dougie whizzed by on a skateboard, carrying a bottle of water or something in one hand. I just sort of stood there blankly because it's honestly all too weird. So he whizzed by again and stopped a few feet away from us and I said, "Hey Dougie!" and he turned to me and said, "Oh, hullo!" and grinned, then took off again on the skateboard. Jonny then showed us the injuries he'd gotten from skateboarding and I told him if I even tried to get on a skateboard, I'd fall on my ass.

Then I just sort of looked around and said, "I feel so WEIRD being here." He said, "Oh no, don't! Come on." and lead us into this hallway. There was a ping pong table there and Andy and one of the other crew members were in a heated game and my friend and I just sort of stood there as Jonny took off again on the skateboard. Neil eventually came into the hall and my friend and I sort of stared at each other like, "Should we say something?" and so my friend finally said hi to him and Neil apologized for just standing there and we said it was okay and that we were just sort of standing around since we didn't know what to do. Neil chatted a bit and asked how I was holding up and I said, "Alright. I haven't eaten in 24 hours though." and he said "Oh no! You should eat something!!" I said, "Yeah, but I can't afford a $4.00 hot dog made of mysterious grade Z meat." So he reached into his pocket and pulled out two food tickets (from the catering room or something, I assume) and said, "Get something to eat...um, if there's anything left." Ha! We just leaned up against a wall and talked to him for a while about the upcoming tour with Remy Zero and their new album and such. He asked if we wanted to talk to anyone else or something and I said, "Well, I've got stuff for Dougie but we're just dandy standing out here talking with you!" Neil said Dougie was "sort of half naked right now, so it'd probably be a bit" and I said "Yeah, keep him in there." Ha. So Neil saw a skateboard coming his way and said, "Ooh, look at this, I can surf" and hopped on the skateboard on his stomach and pushed his way around and through one of the crew members' legs and rolled around all over the place. It was like going into a toy store and seeing kids playing with the toys, it was such a riot. We stood around and Andy's ping pong game ended and as he walked away I said, "Good game!" and he said "Thank you!" and walked into the dressing room. We saw Fran so I went up to him and said hi and gave him a letter my mom wrote to him [cos she's groovy like that] and he left for a bit and came back out again. We gave him the rest of the webcam pictures and he looked through them and was excited. Dougie came out (fully dressed, mind you) and he took interest in the pictures as well, so all four of us were laughing over the pictures and when Fran got to this shady one where it LOOKED like Nigel was watching some webcam thing of Fran in the bathtub (this has been a mystery since the last webcam, mind you) and I said to Fran, "I have NO idea what's going on here, but it seems dirty." He explained that he was in bed and I said, "Still sounds bad." He laughed and said (to roughly paraphrase) that it was one of those phones where you can see the person you're talking to or something, and he had to talk to Nigel that way cos something wasn't working and so that's what it was. Fran and Dougie suggested we make Travis trading cards, and Fran said (in a silly American accent) "I'd pay a dollar for summa those!" and we all laughed and I suggested they also come with a stick of that really hard pink gum that nobody can chew through. Dougie and Fran decided to play a game of ping pong and it was hilarious because everytime the other would get a point, they'd mumble some insult or curse word under their breath. "Bastard." "Oh f-f-f-f-FUCK!" or something. It was so funny. Dougie ended up winning, by the way. After that, Dougie said they had to go back and get ready so we left.

We got to our seats during Emilana Torrini's first song. She was FANTASTIC. She has SUCH an incredible voice. Andy came out for two of Emiliana's songs...he rocked out, made love to the feedback gods...it was beautiful. Afterwards, Travis came on and the show was SO amazing! During "Flowers In The Window," ALL the members of the other two bands came out and sang and danced along. A few had cardboard flowers around their heads and they were holding up a window pane frame. It was SO cool. They put on one of the best shows I have ever, ever heard. Definitely the most amazing I've ever experienced. Andy played guitar with the mic stand. T'was very cool. Dido took stage not long afterwards. She was SO amazing. She totally blew me away. Her songs are so much more rockin' live. And she was so great. Just awesome.

Here's what Travis played, but it wasn't necessarily in this order:

Sing
Writing To Reach You
Pipe Dreams
Side
Driftwood
Why Does It Always Rain Me?
Last Train
The Cage
Turn
Flowers In The Window
Slide Show
Blue Flashing Light

Afterwards, my friend and I tried to figure out where to go for the "meet-and-greet" and after much ushering around, we were escorted (along with a few others with passes) to the catering room. There were round tables all over the place and we were told just to take a seat, so we all sat down and waited. There was another group that apparently was doing the meet-and-greet then, so we figured we'd be next. We waited. And waited. And a couple of Dido's band came in and we met them and they were cool and just hung out with us. And we waited. Waited some more. Waited. One of the backstage crew members, Dan, came up to our table (why us, I have no idea...perhaps the big orange gift bag?) and asked us if we were waiting to see anyone. I said "Well, I'd kind of like to be able to talk to Dougie. I've got stuff for him from his fan club." He seemed very nice and said, "Alright, I'll see what I can do." I was really nervous then because it seemed like everyone in the room we were in probably didn't have a good chance of meeting anyone. And then I felt stupid for not giving him the stuff before the show, but I just didn't have a chance. So after a bit, Dan came back and said, "Kris Heding?" and I said "Um...yeah?" and he said, "Come with me. And bring your guest!" and he was on this bike and so my friend and I followed him and we walked a while and made it back to the backstage area where we were before the show. We saw Fran meandering around shirtless and I said "Oh no, I can't see you like this!" and Fran said "It's okay! I'm like this all the time!" My friend said, "Oh come on, you've seen the man in bed!" and Fran laughed and said, "Yeah!" and he walked off and I waved to Jonny cos he was standing not too far away and he smiled. Then Dan said "Alright, follow me" and we did and he said "Ok, stand here." and he took off and we were standing in the area where the ping pong table was. We just kind of looked at each other like, "What now?" and I heard someone say, "Who's Kris?" as if someone had said "Kris is here" or something. I don't know, it was odd. And I said "I'm Kris..." and one of the fellows playing ping pong came over and said, "Hi! I'm Ian! I talked to Erika about the passes!" and I thanked him and he was very polite. Then the other fellow playing ping pong came over and shook my hand and said, "Hi Kris, I'm Pete, I'm the band's tour manager!" and I said "Nice to meet you!" and he went back to his game. My friend and I stood there sort of confused (I can't speak for him, but I know I had this sort of blank look on my face the entire time because I was either half in shock or just half confused about what to do next). Then around the corner came Dougie, and he gives me a huge hug and says "Oh hullo, Sweet Pea!" and I said "Hi!" and he said, "How are you doing?" and I said "Better now, thanks." Dougie, being his usual random self, points to his shirt and says, "How do you like my shirt? It's a bit DIRTY, isn't it?" and grins (it was a white shirt with pink trim around the collar and sleeves and it had this cartoon of a naked chick on it -- didn't surprise me, ha!) and I said, "Oh you know my head is in the gutter all the time, nothing's too dirty for my mind." He laughed and I gave him the stuff from the fan club and he said, "Oooooh!" and started digging through the stuff like a little kid on Christmas morning. He asked if I did any more pictures and I said, "Nothing new yet, but I've got ideas!" and he said, "Oh good, because the Jonny one was just brilliant." He was digging through and he thought everything was well cool. He especially loved the GDFC shirt I made for him, he was just so suprised. I told him I hadn't even made one for myself yet and he said, "You haven't?!" and he said "Oh wow!" and seemed quite happy with everything. He thought the Mad Libs were amusing as well. He talked to us about random things; my friend complimented him on the cover of the "Cheers" theme song from the sound check and he laughed and said, "Oh you heard that!" and we told him it should be a b-side and I suggested they do an album of covers of TV theme songs. And so he asked us if we had heard the new Tricky album, because apparently there's a track with the Red Hot Chili Peppers where they cover the "Wonder Woman" theme or something. Then he asked if I wanted anything to drink, "A beer or something?" and I said "Oh no thank you, I don't drink" and he said "Alright! You?" and my friend said, "That'd be great, thanks!" and so Dougie said he'd be right back and he returned a wee bit later with a Heiniken for Rob and he was carrying some odd gadget. He said, "This is my new toy!" and I asked, "What is it?" and he said, "It's a label maker!" and I said, "Um...what for?" and he said "To label things!" I said, "Well, yes, but why?" He said he likes to label the parts of his body (too much info, Dougie, really...) "It's really cool!" and all the while he's raving about his little gadget, he's typing in something and he hands me the printout and it says "THANKYOU KRIS XX" and he said, "See? Cool! I love this kind of stuff!" And I said, "So now we know what you spend your hard-earned money on!" He said, "Oh but it was only twenty dollars!" and I turned to my friend and said, "You hear that? Only twenty dollars! You need one!" We all laughed. I asked if he got it so he could remind Andy who he is all the time (sort of making a joke about all the "ANDY" shirts he has) and we got on a conversation about the AN/DY shirt that Grace made for him that looks like the AC/DC logo. Dougie said it was the best. We were talking about how Andy needs a fan club and Dougie said "Oh yes." and I talked about how lots of people have written to me and said they want to do a fan club for one of the band members and I said to Dougie, "See what I started?" and he laughed. Then Nick, one of their other techs, came over and said to Dougie, "I need a label that says 'tiny penis'" and Dougie said, "Alright" and started punching in the letters in his new gadget and he said, "Oh! I could make the font smaller!! That would be funny!" and so he gives this label to Nick and sticks it on him. Dougie said, "Have you met Nick? That's Nick." and I said, "I guess I just did! I know Jonny already." and Dougie said, "He's the nicest." And I said, "Yes, he's very cool." So he says, "Well, Kris, thank you so much" and gives me a big hug again and a kiss on the cheek and says, "Take care!" and I said, "You too! See you in October! Thank you!" and he waved goodbye. That's when Rob and I took the cue to leave everyone to their Heinekens and gadgets and skateboards.

We found our way outside and saw a group of people walking around and they said, "Do you know where Travis might come out?" and we said, "Well, they're still downstairs" and they freaked out because they found out we were down there and it was almost Beatlemania-esque. So we lead them to where we thought they'd come out if they did come out. We knew they had to leave right away for New York, so we said, "You might not meet them but it's worth a try!" and we chatted with them for a while and they were all super nice. Total die-hards. So we parted and we wished them luck. I found out later that they did get to meet the band, which was VERY cool. I'm so glad!

What a night! It was really fun, cos the band was just totally themselves. It was just like hanging out with friends, really. And once again, it just reinforces my opinion that Travis truly ARE the nicest band in the world.