FanStory3

2.2 Camden Gang [saturday afternoon]

After again showering, prettying up, and packing the cooler with goodies, Ellie (my car) and I ventured out into Willow Grove to pick up Jimmy. I called Marlene to say that I was on my way. "We’ll pick up Steve last, since he’s near Byberry, which we need to get to Woodhaven to get to 95 to get to the Ben Franklin to get to Camden to get to Tweeter," I rambled in one breath, and then hung up the phone. We picked up Marlene, and then Steve, and then made a few pit stops - first at Wawa for cash, then at Getty for gas, then at Sunoco for coffee and such. After that we were again Camden bound on I-95.

2.3 Beer and Frisbees [later saturday afternoon]

"Welcome to Camden," I said while making retching noises as we made our way through the "lovely" city. Everyone grabbed the "oh shit" handles. We pulled up to our tailgating lot only to find that it hadn’t even opened yet. We swung around by the gates to say hello to Joel, and then circled back around to park on the side of the street right outside the lot. Luckily we only were the second car to make this decision, and the street soon filled up after us. We popped the trunk, I poured some Diet Pepsi Vanilla, and the boys busted out a frisbee. Marlene spotted her cousin and we went over to say hi and just chilled for awhile. The lot people told us that the lot would open in around an hour, after Lot 6 (crappiest of all of Camden) was filled. Deciding there was no way in hell that we’d park anywhere besides our beloved tailgating lot (especially Lot 6), we agreed to wait the hour out.

However, we got bored and wanted to go sit by our gates again, so I handed my keys over to Marlene’s cousin, who said he’d bring in my car for me when the lot opened. Once at the gates, we chatted with Joel, met Garrett and his friend, as well as Jeff and his friend, and watched some buses come in - we even got a nice view of Dave and his butt from his tour bus. We waved to Daryl who was sitting in the front of the bus. I noticed that the lot had opened up and ran over to find my car, then moved it to a spot closer to our sidewalk and headed back to the gang. After a gladiator-style duel with Jimmy on some metal barricades, the boys and I went back to the car for some snacks while Marlene waited on her sidewalk.

On the way back, I ran into Barry again and stopped to say hello. I was telling him how Jim wouldn’t let me into the lounge because I was only 18, which caught him by surprise. "So you were only 16 when I met you two years ago?" "Yup," I answered, laughing. I said goodbye and he yelled, "Seeya, jailbait!" People had begun to crowd around the gates. They didn’t know what was up, obviously. We watched from Marlene’s sidewalk and waved hi to our buddies from there...Cody, Duwayne, Coran, Rudy, Ray, Pete, Carol, Joel, Barry - finally I saw Jim come out and ran across the street to talk to him.

"Hey, it’s Crazy Courtney!" he said. We talked for about a minute and he again told me to find him after the show, so I ran back across the street to chill. We watched Garrett and his friend talk to Jim and I realized that Daryl and his golf-cart had arrived, too. I ran over again to say hello, shake Daryl’s hand, and ask about the jellybeans. Jim greeted me again with, "Hey, CC." When I asked about the little boy with the aftershow pass, Daryl said that he’d gotten to meet Carter and Butch, and was very happy. I told the guys that I didn’t want to bug them, and so ran yet again back across the street. When Daryl left, Garrett came back over to tell us that Jim had referred to me as "that crazy girl coming over here again." This worried me. A little while later, out of boredom I happened to be lighting the corner of a cinnamon-sugar graham cracker on fire with my lighter, and of course - who happened to be watching but Jim. "Crazy Courtney!!" he yelled, "are you a pyro now, too?" "Nah!" I yelled back, "we’re just makin’ some s’mores!" And after second thought, ran across the street to offer Jim some graham crackers, or anything else that he wanted to eat or drink. "No thanks!" he said, smiling. So I said goodbye and he yelled, "Seeya, CC."

2.4 Chilling on the Lawn [saturday nite]

A little while later we decided to move on inside. We went to the bathroom and peed, then did the usual hanging-out by the door for awhile. We met a new event staffer named Jeff, who was just as nice as our other buddies. After hitting up the merchandise stand, we strolled over to the lawn and found a nice little spot all the way at the very back of the lawn. Garrett and his friend came to visit and took a nice picture for us. We chilled for awhile during the opening band’s set. Garrett revealed some of the setlist to us and I think I scared some people away when I yelled "YES!!!!!!" and tried to jump in the air like a sista. This called for dancing, which I did much of.

We were pumped by the time DMB came onstage and opened with Stay, which was mad wicked fun to dance to. Crush was beautiful as usual, The Stone rocked really hard, as well as Don’t Drink the Water, Satellite was cute and fun, and Bartender is so incredibly amazing that I have no other words to describe it. At one point the guy next to us got totally busted with his weed but was very comical in refusing to give it up even after he was caught. Jim found this hilarious. Later, some girls walking by decided to stop right in front of us and block Marlene’s view. Steve took care of that and did a weird stoner dance around them.

2.5 Stub-Ups, Courtesy of Fran Reh [saturday nite]

During the outro to Bartender, Fran called me on my cell phone to say that she was leaving and offered us her ticket stubs. She said that she was leaving in five minutes and I told her we’d meet her in the lobby as soon as we could get there. Quickly realizing that the four of us needed to get from the back of the lawn, which held roughly five thousand, and into the pavilion, without losing anyone, I relayed unto the others that we needed to stick together and run like hell. How we made our way through a solid wall of a few thousand people without losing anyone, is an unknown phenomenon, but a miracle nonetheless. Once in the lobby I spotted Fran right away and ran over to give her a hug. She said that she’d had fun but wanted to go drink instead, and handed me two ticket stubs, explaining that two more were on their way out.

Jimmy and I went in to look for the seats and found ourselves in the first row of the first VIP box that was raised above the level of the pit, and happened to be a mere inch or two from the soundboard. Marlene and Steve joined us not more than a minute later. Turning to see that DMB was now just about a hundred feet away, the four of us threw a fit of hugging and screaming and jumping and dancing and yelling "THAT’S DAVE, THEY’RE RIGHT THERE!!!!!!!" I danced like it was my job. A guy behind us said to me, "I’m glad we finally have some real fans up here, all the other people did was sit in their seats the whole time!" I laughed and explained that those people were my friends and had given us their ticket stubs. Marlene and I finished a bottle of Schmirnoff Ice, and then I knocked Jim’s hat off his head and he stared at it until we asked some guy to pick it up since we couldn’t reach it. Dancing Nancies had us cheering like maniacs, Watchtower was absolutely insane, Spoon was incredible, and Ants has us jamming our butts off. A long encore break had me burning my fingers trying to keep my lighter up and on, but when DMB came back for The Maker, I was in heaven.

2.6 "The Thrill of It All" [later saturday nite]

Of course, we had to leave again halfway through the encore closer, but I got to twirl to the music while we waited in our corner. This time, by the end of the show, there were about three times as many people as there were the night before, which scared me. I tried to wait patiently by myself, but this was difficult in that there were so many people standing around that there wasn’t even a place that I could stand alone. Daryl came out the door announcing that the aftershow was cancelled. "Dave’s gone, BT’s gone, Carter’s gone," he said. "That leaves Stefan and Roi, and you know that ain’t happening." That dampened some spirit, but not entirely - less than a minute later, Jim Hathaway stuck his head out the door.

I scrambled around in hopes that he’d somehow see me. Later Steve told me that he’d heard him say, "Courtney? Did I see Courtney out here?" I heard my name and looked at my friends with wide eyes, as they motioned for me to part through the crowd to get to the door - which I did, and Jim let me through. "The band left, the aftershow’s cancelled," he told me. I asked if it would be okay if we came and hung out with him. He said that he had to pack, but that he could let me in the lounge. I asked if I could bring my friends with me and he asked who they were. I told him that it was my best friend and two guys, to which he replied, "I can’t have dudes back here." So I asked if I could just bring my best friend, and he told me to hurry up and go get her. I rushed back to them and said, "Listen, they’re going to let Marlene and I back, but you’re not going to be missing anything because the band’s already gone - we’re just going to hang out for a little while." I gave them directions from there to the gates outside and they agreed to wait for us.

I grabbed Marlene’s hand in my own and hurried back to the door, where Jim gave us both lounge passes. "I’m only letting you because there’s no booze left, make sure you wear these stickers." We were in awe. We said thank you and headed into...the lounge. It was a little room with dimmed lights, a bar and a table full of food, and a bunch of people - important looking, older people, that all knew each other and were talking and mingling. They were all friends of the band, or members of the crew and management. We felt important. The bartender gave us each a can of Red Bull and I grabbed a turkey wrap from the table. We hung out and just watched all the rest of the people. I pointed out Coran and Fenton to Marlene. We tried to go and talk to Daryl but he seemed really busy. (I grabbed another wrap, they were really good.) I called Jimmy’s cell phone and left a funny message. ("If you get this before we come out, then I just wanted to let you know we’ll be out in about ten minutes and you can wait by the car if you want...if you don’t get this before we come out, thennnnnn....I dunno!") Then we saw Barry, who had made his way inside. I wiped my hand off so that I could shake his hand and say hello, and we talked for a minute or two.

Even though we were having an awesome time, we realized that there wasn’t much for us to do, and that the boys were waiting outside not knowing how long we’d be, so we decided that we’d leave. We walked out of the lounge and asked some event staffers if we were going the right way to get outside, and they said yes. Then I stopped and asked one of them if I could have this little poster hanging on the wall - it had samples of each kind of backstage pass, its purpose being to let the staffers know who was allowed to be where. One of the staffers said he wasn’t sure if he could take it down, but another one went right ahead and did it. I said thank you and we passed through a set of double doors. I was making my way toward the exit, walking slowly so I could peek into the dressing rooms we were passing, and Marlene stopped me so that she could ask another event staffer for a poster for herself.

As the guy was taking the poster off the wall and giving it to her, we happened to look down another hallway and saw a door open up. A dark-haired guy walked out with another guy who I didn’t even look at, due to the fact that I found myself thinking, "This dark-haired guy bears a very striking resemblance to Dave..." The thought passed through my head slowly as I began telling myself, "Holy shit. That‘s Dave." Marlene and I turned to each other with a look that I will never be able to describe. It seemed to say, "Oh my God," "Is that really him?" "Not uh," "I can’t believe this is happening," and a great big "holy shit," all in a split second. The expressions on our faces were a mix between complete and total disbelief, and a smile so big that we almost bust out laughing hysterically.

Dave seemed to notice us ogling at him since there was nobody else in the hallway, and kept his eyes on us as he moved up the hallway towards us, talking to the guy with him. Somewhere I came up with a very wavery, "...hi Dave" and Marlene yelled, "Dave!! What’s up!!" As he approached us, he said something to the guy who had given Marlene her poster. When it appeared that he was finished, he turned to Marlene who introduced herself and shook his hand, which I noticed had squeezed hers in return. I did the same and as he started to shake my own hand, I asked "Could we bother you for a picture real quick?" He held onto my hand and tightened his grip, answering, "Oh yeah, absolutely." He let go, and I realized that I was still holding my bag, my poster, my Red Bull, and my wrap. Looking at Dave, I asked, "Um, do you want this wrap? You can have it." Marlene added, "Yeah, do you want any of this stuff? We’ll give it to you!" Dave just laughed and shook his head. "No thanks," he said. "I’m good." Then Marlene started telling Dave about how much we had enjoyed his shows, and he answered saying thank you and that he was glad. After fishing out my camera, I turned to him and added, "Yeah, just so know, like, today and yesterday were the two best days of my entire life - just because of your shows." Dave smiled and ducked his head. He looked very humbled.

I turned on the flash and handed my camera to the event staffer and Dave stood in the middle of Marlene and I with his arms around us. Looking down at a big wet blotch on his shirt, Dave said, "Sorry, I’m a little sweaty." We laughed and I said, "A little?" as Marlene said, "That’s okay, look at us!" The guy went to take the picture and nothing happened, so he began to inspect the camera, saying, "Oh, I think you didn’t turn the wheel from last time." Dave said, "Yeah you’ve just got to...yeah, turn the wheel." So he did, and this time Dave squeezed Marlene and I tighter around our shoulders and pulled us in closer. Right before Dave dropped his arms, I totally grabbed his butt. "Thank you so much," I said to the guy who handed my camera back, as I turned the wheel again. Dave reached over and took the camera out of my hands. "Yeah, let’s turn this again," he said, "and how do we put the flash back on?" Surprised, I asked, "Oh, you want like, another picture? We can do like, a self-portrait kinda thing." And Dave answered, "Yeah, let’s get another one," and he handed the camera to Marlene. I thought to myself that this may very likely be the only chance I would get to grab Dave around the waist, so I flung both arms around him and smiled for the camera. Then Dave took the camera from Marlene and gave it back to me while he put his arm around her for another picture.

After that, I heard Daryl behind me say, "You’re done." We gathered all our stuff as fast as humanly possible and said thank you again to Dave, and then to Daryl. I asked Daryl if I could give him a hug, but did it anyway before he could answer. We headed down the hallway and by the time we reached the exit to get outside, both of my hands were covering my face. Approaching the tour bus gate, this time from the inside, we came to a bunch of event staffers. I think they must have thought that we needed some kind of help. I saw Mark who asked, "You got back, didn’t you?" "Yeah," I cried. "Can I give you a hug?" Again, I didn’t wait for a response. We walked out of the gates to find a crowd of kids standing around, obviously waiting for Dave to come out. Marlene and I wobbled across the street, looking like we’d been abducted by aliens or something. The kids were giving us weird looks until one of them yelled, "You met Dave, didn’t you?!?" I nodded, and then we kinda collapsed onto the sidewalk next to Steve and Jimmy. "What happened?" they asked. (They had been worried that Daryl tried to shoot us.)

As I began to talk, my voice cracked and I started to cry. "We were walking down this hallway to come outside...and Dave walked out this door...and I was like...’hi Dave’..." The boys just started laughing. Steve said, "Dude, as soon as we got outside I was like, ‘Five bucks says that Dave didn’t really leave and they’re gonna meet him!’" And we all laughed. This older lady who looked like a mom, but was pretty drunk, was standing around with us and patting me on the back, eager to hear about Dave. "Wait," I said, "I need to call my mom." So I did, and still crying, I debriefed to her the reader’s digest version of the story and told her I’d call back later. Then I hugged Jimmy and Steve, saying "I am so, so sorry," to which they just laughed and said that they were glad just to have been at the concert and had so much fun. We noticed Marlene laying on the sidewalk, talking to Joe on the phone. Someone asked her if she was drunk. We took one more quick picture and I asked if there were any Wal*Marts open at that time of the night (it was a little after 11:30). Being too excited to drive, I handed Jimmy my keys and we all walked back to the car. Marlene went to find her cousin to tell him, while the rest of us got some drinks and I screamed to the whole parking lot that we had met Dave. (Nobody cared.) Then I went over to Marlene and her cousin, who was very drunk. We said goodbye to him and then we gave each other a big hug.

COURTNEY'S STORY:

9-6-03, Camden, NJ

Friday morning

My day started out wonderfully in that I got out of school at 11:00 due to a cancelled class. I went for my run, showered, prettied up, and packed a fun cooler with some sodas and snacks for tailgating. I picked up Marlene at her house and we headed for the high school to pick up Mike and Brian, then stopped at Lindsey’s house to get her. After that we were Camden bound on I-95. We found a very nice spot in the parking lot which consisted entirely of tailgaters, all of whom were the friendliest bunch of people I’ve ever come across. Lindsey and the boys hung out in the lot and I followed Marlene over to the gates at Tweeter where the DMB tour buses come in. Luckily, we happened to be parked right across the street from the gate.

Jim Hathaway and Daryl [friday afternoon]

Marlene and I ran across the street and the first person I saw in front of the gate looked really familiar. The only things I had in my hand were two bags of Jelly-Bellys for two of the DMB security guys, complete with high-quality laminated Print Shop nametags that included pictures of the guys that I had scanned from the DMB calendar. I glanced at the picture on one of the tags and decided that the guy standing in front of me looked very much the same, so I asked, "Is your name Jim?" He nodded, and I asked, "Jim Hathaway?" "Yes," he answered. I smiled pushed the jellybeans towards him and said, "Here, these are for you!" He looked surprised at first, and then really flattered. (He said he loved Jelly-Bellys!) I explained that I had met him at the X-Games and he had helped me find Stefan, thinking he’d have no idea what I was talking about - until he said, "You were wearing a Phish shirt, weren’t you?" I almost fell over. I told him I couldn’t believe he remembered, and that I was glad I remembered his name. Then I asked him if he knew where Daryl was, so I think then he called Daryl on his cell phone, and Daryl was out the gates within a matter of a few minutes. I reintroduced myself to Daryl and presented him with the jellybeans. Much to my surprise, he remembered my jellybeans from last year, too. I asked if there would be an aftershow that night, and they told me probably not until the next night. They told us to look for them later, and were on their way. Marlene and I headed back to the lot feeling like two of the most suave chicks on the planet, and high-fived as she said, "And that’s how you do it."

PBJ and Ray [later friday afternoon]

After stopping by the car to pick up a bag of pretzels to munch on, we went right back to the gates to introduce ourselves to the event staffer who we knew would be on duty at the gate the whole time. His name was Joel and he was super-nice from the start, probably because we didn’t bug him too much and offered to bring him refreshments any time he wanted. I think he knew that we knew exactly what we were doing. Marlene and I caught a glimpse of Stefan and Coran Capshaw walking by, waited awhile longer, and spotted two guys with laminates coming out of the gate. "They’re in the opening band," I said. "You can tell, they just look like rock stars." We both waved and said hi, and they came right over and introduced themselves, being really friendly and quite creepy at the same time. Their names were Cody and Duwayne, of the North Mississippi All Stars. "You don’t wanna talk to us, you don’t know who you’re talking to," they told us. "We’re just the opening band." We laughed and said that we could tell just by looking at them. We got some pictures with them and I offered them some of my pretzels. "They’re really stale, but they’re good when you’re broke and hungry," I explained. "We’re poor college girls." They seemed to be very sympathetic about this and immediately offered to make us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Trying not to rudely bust out in a laughing fit, we said no thank you. After a few minutes, we realized that they weren’t backing down on the sandwich offer, so we agreed on a couple of sodas instead. They took us over to the VIP lot - which was cool - and we waited outside while they went to get us some soda.

As we were waiting, we hear a voice from behind us - "Hey, can I have one of your pretzels?" Turning around, we noticed a head sticking out from one of the DMB road crew buses. We yelled "Of course!!" and handed the bag over. Then I remembered how stale they were and was a little embarrassed. The guy introduced himself to us as Ray and we told him about the peanut butter and jelly issue. He told us that he was a crew member, to which we responded with an offer to come on board with the crew for the job of - of course, none other than - making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! He just laughed and said that they get tons of people who beg to come on tour as roadies. In the middle of talking to Ray, Cody and Duwayne brought us a Mt. Dew and a Diet Coke. We said thank you and they were on their way, but we stayed in the lot to chat with Ray. We just hung out for awhile and showed him pictures from my wallet.

Pre-Show Rituals [early friday nite]

Hanging around the gates for the rest of the afternoon, we met two youngins named Pete and Julie, and an older lady named Carol, all real nice people who were doing the same thing that we were. All of us were treated to a glance at Dave walking by behind the gates, and a "Dave wave."

Some time later, we saw a guy walk by that looked all too similar to "Jager," a Camden comrade from 2001. I went over and asked him if he was a beer distributor, and he said no. Marlene asked him if he had a Jagermeister t-shirt, and he said no again, but by this time we were sure it was him. "Yes you do!" I told him, "and you wore it two years ago here when you gave us DMB guitar picks!" This seemed to jog his memory a bit. He laughed and said hello and asked how we were doing. I showed him the guitar pick that I still keep in my wallet. After awhile we went over to the 95.7 promo van to try and gank some free t-shirts. They gave me some big dice and said I had to roll a nine, so I found five dots on one die, and four on another, and placed them on the table for my free shirt. Then the guy named Stan got out this video camera and I asked if we could be on TV if I gave Marlene a kiss. He said yes, so I did. Then I had to say, "I’m the girl from Almost Famous and you’re watching the Low Budget Show!" Then I got another free shirt.

After that we made our way into the venue, we went right to the corner with the pay phones and the backstage door. I introduced myself to the event staffer on duty, whose name was Mark. I explained that we wouldn’t bother him, offered to get him some food or drinks, and asked if he’d mind if we just stood around for a while. He seemed really nice and said it would be fine. We stood there for awhile, yelled "Hi Coran!" to Coran when he walked by (he waved, but looked confused because, well, he has no idea who I am), and then called Garrett to have him meet us there. He came over and we said hello and all, and agreed on a stubbing-up after the first song or so.

1.5 Showtime [friday nite]

Marlene and I headed to the lawn and found Lindsey and the boys all the way in the back. We chilled with them up to and through the opener, then called Garrett and said we were on our way down to the pavilion. (On the way there, I stopped for a few seconds to jam to my favorite part of Rhyme and Reason.) He met us outside and we completed the stub-up job successfully. I did a bunch of crazy dancing and screaming, which I’m sure convinced every person surrounding us that there was something wrong with me. 41 was absolutely gorgeous, Warehouse kicked my ass, One Sweet World was its usual sweet self, So Much to Say ~> What Would You Say also kicked my ass, Jimi Thing rocked, especially Dave’s scatting, that was hot, Crash was a lovely sing-a-long for me, and Two Step provided me with a wonderful opportunity to show off my dance routine designed especially for the song. And after that, it kicked my ass, too.

1.6 Post Show Rituals [later friday nite]

During Everyday, Marlene and I left to make a run for the backstage door, where we met Lindsey. I danced all alone in the corner while Everyday ended and DMB played through Too Much. Gradually, more and more people began to crowd the corner, and by the time the band had left the stage, it was packed. We met Garrett and his friend, Jeff Pilcicki, his mom, his sister, and her boyfriend. As we waited, lots of people with lounge passes went right on in through the door, Coran walked by and I yelled hello again, and event staffers started clearing out all of us who didn’t have aftershow passes. Our friends left, but we managed to stay. Rudy the photographer came out and I asked him if he knew where Jim was, and if he could find him. Being unusually nicer than usual, Rudy wrote down his name and said he’d look for Jim. Somehow we ducked our way out of a bunch more times that the event staffers tried to make us leave. I noticed a guy named Barry that had been at Tweeter for the past two years, trying to do exactly the same as I was doing, so we introduced ourselves again - just like we do every year.

Friday morning

Then Daryl came out the door to announce that there would be no aftershow party. A little boy who was waiting with his dad looked heartbroken - Daryl asked if they could make it to another show, and when they said no, Daryl took them back with him anyway and said he’d show him around. By this time, the event staffers were making even the people with aftershow passes leave, and I thought we were done for. After going through about five times of explaining that we were waiting for someone who actually was going to come out, our claim finally came true as Jim Hathaway walked out the door. He came over to talk to me but wouldn’t let us back. I showed him pictures from my wallet and told him that I looked forward to Camden all year long. I asked him if we could have lounge passes but got denied because we weren’t 21. I tried to pass off myself as being 21 (haha, big joke, I know), and then tried to do the same for Marlene. I asked if we could have passes for the next day, this time knowing how much I was pushing it. I figured by this point that I had blown any chances we’d had. He just laughed and said to look for him again the next day. I told him that’d be near impossible, considering the number of times we almost got kicked out, but he thought that if we’d done it that night, that we’d be able to do it again. And so we left.

2.1 A.M. Confusion [saturday morning]

After crashing at Marlene’s house on Friday night, we both woke up on Saturday morning remembering that someone had sent a large number of text messages to Marlene’s cell phone sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Realizing that it was Joe saying he had been out until 4, we thought it wise to call and make sure he was still coming to pick us up at 2. I went home and started getting myself ready for the next show. Throughout the morning, many changes of plans occurred that need not be discussed in this novel, but in the end we agreed that our friend Steve would be taking Joe’s spot.