Groupie Alert!!

Ya'll may recall my "Girls' Weekend" with a few of my friends from Utah the first weekend of October. One of the highlights (besides sky diving, surfing and getting called rude names by Johny Depp's body guard...) was meeting the band
MATCHBOX TWENTY! (See the archive from October 2007 if you want to read about it.)

One of those friends, Tiffany, called a couple months ago to tell me that Matchbox 20 was coming to Salt Lake City in March. We had met the band at the Jimmy Kimmel show during his "Choose Your (pizza) Topping" segment during a trip to Hollywood on Girls' Weekend. I was planning a trip to Utah during the first week of March anyway, so with the concert coming up, Tiffany and I decided it was time for a Girls' Weekend REUNION!

A few weeks before the concert, Tiffany called again to get me to email Rob Thomas-- Matchbox 20's lead singer, of course--and remind him that we met on the Jimmy Kimmel show and see if he would hook us up with tickets. I just laughed, there's no way he would remember us . . . WOULD HE?



I flew to Utah and Tiffany, other Girls' Weekend attendees Lisa and Teresa, and new addition McKell picked me up at the airport and we were off for a night to remember!

We started our night off with dinner (nothing all that memorable about dinner, unfortunately), then headed to the concert. Alanis Morissette opened for MB20--she's good, but somewhat PSYCHO! Just before MB took the stage, we noticed some open seats below RIGHT NEXT TO THE STAGE. We decided to check it out--what's the worst that could happen???

We were almost to the seats when we were stopped by security. I played dumb (not hard for me) and asked, acting curious, "Wow, these are great seats! Who's are they?" The security guard's reply: "Last time I checked, they were YOURS." That's right baby, I've still got it (ha ha--right)! Nevertheless, we settle into "OUR" seats and the fun started!

We were literally right next to all the band's roadies (the dudes over lights, sound, etc.; they even have a guy that's a guitar tuner--did you know that after every song, the guitars are switched out and tuned?!)



Anyway, we started chatting with some of the guys and eventually we're given the names of Rob Thomas's personal body guard and stage manager. During the course of the night we eventually met both of them (see below), thus getting us closer to um, well, possibly MEETING (again) the band? (Yeah right--keep dreaming!)

Lisa and McKell had a brilliant idea halfway through the concert. They realized that we needed a sign to hold up to get Rob Thomas's attention and let him know that we were the girls (stalkers?) from the Jimmy Kimmel show (how could he forget us--right?).

So they went and found a used pizza box and one of the security guards gave us a Sharpie. On the box they wrote

"Rob,

We are the girls from
Jimmy Kimmel Live"

Then I added, "CHOOSE YOUR TOPPING!"



Since Rob was basically standing 5 feet from us during most of the show (and often walked right over to the edge of the stage right by us) it wouldn't be hard for him to read our sign--and it wasn't!

The first time he was on the side of the stage next to us, we held up our sign. By the look on his face, we knew he was reading it (right in the middle of singing a song). He looked at us and pointed assuring us that he did in fact remember us! SIGH!!!

We weren't the only ones that noticed. We looked around and everyone was watching us all of a sudden and wondering WHAT he was pointing at and what our makeshift pizza box sign said.

When I looked back at the stage, one of the crew members looked at me and asked me what it said. I showed him and he smiled and mouthed, "I remember you guys." Then he started texting someone.

From that point on, everyone figured we were die-hard MB20 fans. We all had a collection of guitar picks by the end of the night (though, I actually got Kyle Cook's (lead guitarist) pick that he used during the concert . . . you better believe that's getting put on a necklace to wear close to my heart)! (hee hee)

Rob Thomas's personal bodyguard, Jason, then came over to meet us (he's the person the crew member was texting after reading our sign).

After the show, the crew member that texted Jason introduced himself to us and we talked for a while. He was Donnie, the band's stage manager. He travels with the band to every tour stop and basically lives with them while on tour. He asked (now thinking we must be total groupies--never guessing that we were actually a bunch of MOMS who didn't even own any of the band's albums!) if we were coming to the L.A. show. Obviously, we weren't planning on it (I'm the only one from our entire group who lives anywhere close to L.A., and we weren't exactly groupies going from one tour stop to the next in a VW van), but Donnie took down my phone number and told me he'd call me when the band was in L.A. if he could get me tickets.

Two nights before the show in L.A. one of the Girls' Weekend girls called to ask if Donnie ever called me. NO CALL! When I got home that night, though, there was a message on my answering machine and it was from DONNIE calling to talk to me about the MB20 show in L.A.!

It was late, so I didn't call him back, but he called me the next night while Dwight and I were out to dinner with some friends. Donnie was really cool and invited all of us to meet him and some of the band members that night in L.A. for drinks, etc. Since we were already at dinner with our friends and I wasn't exactly sure if the whole "drink" thing would have been just a tad awkward, we decided to pass (what were we thinking?!).

Donnie ended up not being able to get me tickets to the show--but he did even BETTER than that. He told me to come to the Staples Center 3 hours before the show to get in (at the time I wasn't exactly sure why I needed to go so early).

There was a problem, though--no wait, TWO problems:

1) The L.A. concert was on a Sunday (everything down here is on Sundays, even kids' birthday parties--ARGHH!), so I wasn't going to go; and

2) I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning from dinner the night before (I knew we should have gone to L.A. for "drinks") and I didn't think I would have even made it through the concert had I gone!

Just the same, I couldn't let this opportunity pass! Someone had to take Donnie up on his offer! It so happened that it was my sister, Annie's, birthday that day. Annie lives in SoCal, so I called her up and asked if she and a friend wanted to go to the concert. She jumped at the chance (and Donnie seemed to be happy to have her come--she's single, after all) and didn't have to try that hard to convince her friend to come along on short notice.

Because they were over 2 hours from L.A., though, Annie and her friend were only able to make it in time for the show and not to meet the band. Apparently, they had a pretty sweet experience nonetheless and Donnie was really cool to them. At one point, she was standing right next to Alanis Morissette. They even got a few venue security guards in trouble for harassing them for not having "passes" to be where they were. Donnie took care of that--the security guards got reassigned to a not-so-perfect area on the floor next to the stage (hee hee), and spent the rest of the concert throwing Annie and her friend nasty looks!


A few days later Donnie texted me. He hoped that my sister and her friend had a good time and was sorry that they (and I) weren't able to meet and "hang" with the band, as were the plans before the show (hence the arrival time 3 hours before the concert started)!

The tour ended in Las Vegas two nights later. I can't believe I missed out! All in all, it was a fun experience and believe it or not (according to Donnie) Rob Thomas DID remember us at the Salt Lake City concert!

Whoever said moms aren't cool?