Friday, April 25 was a very memorable day. There were unrelenting phone calls, a TV interview, a funeral, a wreck, an after party, and of course, X-Fest.
The phone calls and text messages began around 8:30AM. People wanting tickets. People wanting backstage passes. People wanting something. I've been in this business long enough to expect it, but it's still a tough thing to get used to. I can't figure out why people feel like it's a good idea to wait until the day of a show to ask for SIX tickets to X-fest. Not one, not two, but SIX. And "backstage meet and greet" passes. It's one thing to ask the week before, but the day of? It's not that I have a problem with it, it's just that I can't accommodate it. But it's ok, I understand why it happens. I guess.
I got to the River Center right after my morning shift at 9AM. There were already people lined up for the show. Pretty cool. We appreciate the dedication. I stayed at the River Center until around 11AM getting our passes, and setting up some of the meet and greets. Walking out, I did a very brief interview with Fox 44. By this point, my phone was full of texts and missed calls, so I was a little frazzled and I think I mentioned that in the interview. I never saw the finished piece they did, though. After that, I drove out to a funeral. When I got out of the funeral, more missed calls, more texts. People wanting attention. I did the best I could.
Dan and I headed off to the River Center around 2:30PM...It was a little weird because Shannon Marks was going out of town, and Dan and I were to be at X-Fest, so the radio station itself was left in other people's hands. I have to say that they stepped up and made sure we didn't go off the air, so props to Anna and "Crash" for taking care of business at the homefront.
Everything went pretty smooth this year at X-Fest. I remember last year we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off because we were trying to coordinate meet and greets, interviews, and band stage intros while dealing with all the phone calls and texts. We learned our lesson and tried to streamline things. No interviews (they were all done before X-Fest) and the meet and greets were kind of kept together. I drank a lot of energy drinks and coca cola too, but I'm not sure that helped.
Dan has a pretty good summary of the bands that I pretty much agree with in his blog, so check that out.
Security was a little weird at X-Fest this year. I saw a lot of confused faces wandering around in that mythical area that's known as "backstage." On more than one occasion, I asked "What are you looking for?" and received a "the bands" response. Ok. There was also a little area set up on the side of the stage that had a lot of girls ready to party with the lead singer. Which lead singer? Does it matter? It's an interesting psychology that happens at concerts with (some) girls and members of the band. Things they will do to party with people they can't name. All I can do is shake my head and laugh.
X-Fest wrapped up pretty much on time and it was off to the Varsity Theatre for the after party. On the way there, an exhuberant (and lost) 104 the X fan ended up running into the X-Vehicle. I'm not here to pass judgement on whose fault it was..I'll let the police handle that one (there was a ticket given out, it was not to me), but it was kind of scary to for all of us to be stranded on that part of Highland road at midnight. As sucky as the situation was, we were cordial with one another, so it was ok. These things happen and that's why we cut that insurance company a check every month. The X-vehicle now sports a nice messed up front bumper.
After we settled that matter, I made it to the Varsity. It was around 1AM and I had t-shirts to pass out. I'm not going to lie - by this point with all the day's events, I was a little tired. Dan and I distributed the girlie tank tops to the ladies (and a few guys?!), and it was time to call it a wrap for X-Fest.
April 25. A long day. But a good day for us here at the X. Thanks to everyone for help making it possible!
