Road Trip....to College Park?

The Date: March 1st, 1997

The Circle of Friends, who are we?:

Amanda Ear (me)
Jenn Rubin
Mark Shipley
Jenn Wurzbacher

Scene: opens with a girl (me) truding through the substations of VA and DC, with a gym bag over one shoulder.

I got to the substation in DC and called Jenn W, only to encounter an excited and hyper Jenn. Why you may ask, was Jenn so up? Cause she JUST found out that BTE was doing an in-store in Maryland, and we were all waiting to go over there. Jenn's Apt- I walked over there, and met the other Jenn (R) and we waited for Mark, arrived wearing the exact same T-shirt I had, it was a "conjunction junction" shirt, I wasn't wearing it, but I pulled it out of my bag to show him. Well, armed with a map, and Mark driving, we headed over there at 4:00 pm.

-College Park-

We arrived at about 4:30/40'ish, and BTE wasn't supposed to go on till 6:00pm, which left us plenty of time to get to the ball by 8. Well, 6 O'clock rolls around, and BTE is NO WHERE in sight, Jenn W and I circled the lot a few times, trying to find the 'back door' and see the band. No luck. The local bagel place was handing out free poppy and everything bagels, and there was some guy handing out "Water Joe." (It's a caffeinated Water, BTE fans kept waiting, and drinking caffeine...you could just SEE a riot waiting to happen.) Well, about three fire trucks pulled up, and we kept expecting BTE to come in on top of them... that would've been an AWESOME entrance. But alas, it turned 7, and still no BTE. At this point a WM employee named...."Bill" came out and started working crowd control. The pimple-faced minimum wage worker was walking around like the shit. Every once in awhile stopping to tell people, there's been a delay and the band's on their way from the airport. The teen's behind us kept calling to him, and taunting him, cause Bill had the power to walk in and out of the store anytime he wanted....ooohhh. (Why am I thinking, "we are young and unimpressed by all."?) Well, I’ll admit, I did do a verse of "Won't you marry me, Bi--lllll", and told people, "Hey, for $4 an hour, Bill's not getting paid enough to be ridiculed."

Well, we're all antsy, and Mark's been back and forth to the parking meter about 100 times, and the news arrives the BTE FINALLY arrives! The started letting people in 15 at a time, into this tiny store, and many people ended up outside of the store. I had a key spot in front of Kevin, but these "better than thou" WM people were forming a human barricade, so they're heads showed up in a few of my pictures. BTE did a bunch of songs...King of New Orleans, Normal Town, In the Blood, WWOZ, Porcelian (I don't think they were planning on doing "Porcelain" but Jenn W had a sign that had "Crashdaddy" on one side, and "Porcelian" on the other. When Tom spied her sign, he gave her a "maybe." I don't know what they were supposed to play, but hey, I'm glad to hear Porcelian.) and a "Uncensored" version of Desperately Wanting, which shocked me cause there were childern in the front row! I think that was it for the WM show, it ended around 8:30, and we booked it to Jenn's cause the ball started at 8. We rushed thru getting prettied up, and were at the Bartender's Ball by 10 pm.

...Bartender's Ball

We arrived at 10, but BTE wasn't supposed to play till midnight, so we chowed down....weird food (most of it's a mystery to me) and got drinks.

Well, FF to the concert, which was great! The BTE boys (except Travis) were plastered! Kevin was drinking Molsen, and Tom, Heineken. Travis, Polar Springs. They did a whole listing of songs...I can't remember many of them. I know he did "When Doves Cry, Porcelain, Road Trip, Let's Stay together, Welcome Back, Kotter, You make me fee like a natural woman.." I LOVE that one! It's hilarious! Afterwards, flashing our passes, a bunch of security guys were being jerks, and Jenn W kept telling everyone "we're with the band" and finally some guy bought it! One guard stopped me, and I said "He told me to go this way!" and ran when he turned his head! heheh.

Backstage- We followed the directions, and Jenn W popped her head into a room, and out comes Tom! He talked with us and took photos. Well, Travis came out next, then they went in and Kevin came out. I handed all of them stuff to sign, and gave them the presents. Kevin liked it. His face totally lit up when I handed him the puppy and said, this is for Ivy. "Oh, she'll love it! She'll chew it up. " And when I gave him the necklace, (which I'm told he's still wearing!) he was like, "Z-man? as in Valley of the Dolls?" to which Jenn and I went "Babes and babettes, dudes and dudesses... this is the Z-Man. I'm with you all ovaa." It didn't phase him.

Then we found out that they were going to the after party, which is a $25 event. (We weren't about to pay the $25 since we didn't plan to stay very long) Jenn W got inside with the band, but the rest of us got cut off. But being the smart gal she is, Jenn told the people at the door, "There are people out there with the band, and they need to get in." We were asked to show our passes, and we flashed the BTE backstage passes, and were waved in. (but they thought was were with the band performing at the after party...some guy stopped Jenn R and said, I thought you were with the band! You didn't sing! We hightailed it out of there.)

So, the scene closes, and the camera fades on Kevin's silhouette walking out of the Sheraton and down the alley into the Omni Shoreham.

I think they were in a better mood during the Waxie Maxie thing. Since this is just a review of the concert, I'm not including alot of the back stage things and the after party, feel free to ask me about that, but I'm not gonna post it. Also, to the C.O.F. krewe, I know this doesn't even begin to touch on half the stuff we experinced, but I can't give away all our secrets, huh?