Toquet Hall Teen Center, Westport, Connecticut 5/24/09

Last night was the Tally Hall concert that I have been expecting. I waited anxiously all day. We took a train ride to Connecticut and rented a car while there. Before the concert, we caught some lunch at Boston Market and headed to our hotel room to prep for the long awaited concert.

We finally arrived at the Toquet Hall Teen Center after some much needed directions around 6:30 p.m. To get into the venue, we had to walk down an alley. But there were some steps leading to a shop next to the alley and I stood on the top step. What I didn’t realize was that I was standing next to Ross and his girlfriend until my mom pointed it out after they walked towards Rob and Zubin and some of their fellow friends. I was in a state of shock.

A little bit later, we decided to go over to where Rob, Zubin, Ross, and Andrew were playing hackysack with Malbec and talked to Rob for a little bit. Rob gave me a hug and I immediately felt ecstatic. Joe sat on a bench nearby talking to Jim, Jennie’s father.

We talked a little bit about coming up from Florida and my mom mentioned that I wanted to go to U of M to Rob. While doing so, Jennie, who was also talking to the band, ran down the hill to grab my brother. After talking to Rob for a few more minutes, we then started talking to Andy (Andrew) and he asked if we had a song request for the show, but the ones Billy, my brother, pitched at first wouldn’t be able to be played. Then we started talking to Ross for a bit, but I can’t exactly remember what about, but there were some laughs. My mom talked to his girlfriend while we did. After a little bit, Billy, my mom, my uncle, Andy, and I headed back to the venue. We did talk on our way up to the second floor, where the bands were performing. Andy told my mom more about the origins of Tally Hall. My mom then pointed my Tally Hall colored nails to him.

After we were done talking to Andy, we purchased our tickets and headed out. We came back in when the show was about to start. Fortunately, my mom and my uncle left after a few minutes to go get some pizza and walk around, so we didn’t need to worry about them hovering over us while there.

Then, a little bit later, Billy and I headed out of the venue after watching some of the opening bands and I walked over to where Joe and Andy were talking to Jennie and Jim. Billy was to nervous to go up and make his new song request and said we shouldn’t disturb them, but i decided to request it for him. I had introduced myself to every member except for Zubin and Joe by this time.

When I approached Andrew and Joe, I asked Andrew if it was to late to make one last song request and he said it wasn’t. So I requested the song Billy wanted to be played, which was Praise You. Joe made a mental note of the song and we talked for a little bit. After a little bit of talking, I quickly pulled out my cell phone to text my brother to let him know it was okay to come up. While waiting for Billy, we talked about Malbec, who was playing hackysack with Zubin. On a stone picnic table next to us, they had boxes of pizza and Vitamin Water (so good) laying out and offered me some, but I refused. Rob was talking to I believe one of the merch girls. Ross was talking to his girlfriend.

Billy finally came and introduced himself to Joe and we had a six-way conversation about different topics, including assassination, Pokemon, Mythbusters, man walking on the moon, and a lot of other stuff. About ten minutes or so after Billy came, they decided to walk back towards the venue. Andrew left the conversation, so all that was left was Billy, Joe, Jennie, Jim, and me. While walking back towards the venue, either Zubin or Rob had put their formal shoes on their hands. It was funny.

We all stopped at a sidewalk and stood there talking for a good thirty minutes before heading back to the venue. I told some stuff about my school and some of my friends. We also talked about depression. Here’s what I remember about the depression part of the convo:

Joe: It’s not good to be depressed.
Me: Yeah.
Billy: Be happy (I think that’s what he said…)
Me: Jump the cliff…
Billy: That’s like being depressed if you jump. It’s the complete opposite.
Me: Not unless you make it to the other side.
Joe: Or if there’s pillows.

We also talked about the Internet Show. Joe jokingly said that it wasn’t meant to be funny. It was meant to be serious. We also came up with time o’ clock because someone asked what time it was.

We finally got back inside the venue, Billy and I waited anxiously for Malbec to get off the stage. On my way up, Billy and me were talking to Joe and I told him about this book I was writing called the Pretty Committee Takes Over. When Malbec finally did get off, I made my way to the other side of the stage. By now, I was really thirsty and my mom was coming with drinks. Unfortunately, as I got my Gatorade from her, I lost my place in front row. Yet, I managed to squeeze myself up onto the edge of the stage and sit down.

After a few minutes and a few pictures, Andy tapped me on the shoulder so I could do a group huddle with them along with Billy and Jennie. While in the group huddle, I stood in between Andy and Ross, who was still stuck behind the drum set. Jennie lead the group huddle by saying (not exactly in order):

“Remember, everybody is here for you guys. It doesn’t matter if you guys do good or bad, they will still dance along. As long as you bang those drums, play that keyboard and all the other instruments at the same time, they will all have a great time. They’re all going to dance and they’re not drunk. Okay, on 3, Non-drunk dancers.” After she said this, we all stuck our fists in the middle and repeated Non-drunk dancers. The only way Ross was able to do this without moving from behind the drum set was to stick two of his mallets on top. It was funnier in person.

Set List for Tally Hall:
A Lady
Sacred Beast
You and Me
Hymn For a Scarecrow
Good Day
Never Meant To Know
The Gap
Greener
& (Pronounced ‘And’, not Ampersand)
Turn The Lights Off
The Whole World and You
Bananaman
Praise You (they performed the last two songs as an encore)

I ended up sitting next to Andy on the stage, which I thought was really cool. I got many pictures, and also a few videos. During Greener, a string on Rob’s Les Paul broke and Joe ended playing the solo, I think. For the rest of the show, Rob had to use his Fender Stratocaster if he had to play electric. I sang along to most of the songs, even some of the new ones. On Praise You, which they did end up playing for us, they invited Malbec to come up onstage with them; Andy placed a tambourine next to me and at certain points while I was filming, I did end up playing it. They didn’t do the tambourine toss, which was rather unfortunate because I was really looking forward to it.

After the show was over, I got a sticker and grabbed a poster for the show from a wall (Luckily, I was allowed to). I also had the pamphlet to the first MMMM that belonged to Billy. After getting the poster and the pamphlet signed by Ross, I got a vinyl, since the first two I ordered were not shipped to me in time. I also got a set list. I got each member to sign each thing and got some pictures with them. Soon after everything was signed, I gave the pamphlet back to Billy.

When I went up to Rob, he actually took notice in the fact that my nails were painted Tally Hall colors. But while he signed said stuff, we talked about Dane Cook. It turns out Rob and Ross live in an apartment together. They watched Dane Cook sometimes. They don’t have Comcast, so they download some of his stuff. I told him about the ISolated INcident and Vicious Circle specials. We had fun talking about it. Pretty soon, I had to go get the other members to sign the stuff, but before I walked away, Rob gave me another hug.

When I first got Ross to sign the poster and pamphlet, he offered to give me a memorabilia, which was a brush that had broken during the show that he was going to throw away. I accepted the gift and smiled. I ended up coming back to get him to sign the vinyl and set list. He also gave an old drumhead to Billy.

Jennie and I did end up talking to Andy about late night television, and he did end up cursing in front of us. But we had fun. Zubin nearly walked off with my (borrowed) Sharpie after I got him to sign the stuff. As I was getting my stuff signed by Joe, he did actually ask what my book was about and I told him what it was about and that it involved Tally Hall. Both Zubin and Joe had to borrow my Sharpie to sign some other fans’ stuff. It took a while to get it back.

After this, I got a picture with each member. I did end up getting two group photos with them (Billy was included). But before the photos were taken, Billy and I were talking to Jennie and I had decided to sign my arm with a Zubinesque signature and shown it to Zubin and Rob. My brother joked that Zubin should watch out on his credit card bill. I had a gift for Zubin, but unfortunately left in Florida. I did promise I would bring it the next time I saw them live. I got to hold the megaphone during the group pictures. I did end up hugging each member good bye. Rob was the winner with 4 hugs from me. Joe came in second, I believe.

I also talked to Ross for a bit and told him he was a really good singer. My mom talked to him, too. Ross was really nice.

After the group photos, Billy and I talked to the band for a bit and we told them about Florida. I told them about trying to get more fans in my hometown and one of Billy’s friends having Greener on her iLike list on Facebook. I can’t remember much else that was said.

Soon after, there was a Joe/Jennie/Emily/Billy conversation. That also included Joe and Jennie doing an Gollum impression. Each member did say thank you a lot for coming up all the way from Florida to see them. I found that I talked to the band more than Billy did.

All in all, I had a really fun night and will remember it for the rest of my life and beyond. I wrote in their black book where a lot of people left messages supporting the band. I wrote a page long message mainly because it was in big handwriting.