May 17, 2009

• After spending a few hours at the “Hearts for Paws” Pet Expo in Orange County, CA, I found myself driving to Huntington Beach for Meg & Dia‘s free concert at “The Strand.” This past day was also going to be the “boardie prom” so the theme was for us to be dressed up for the event. I went in a suit and tie, but I wasn’t sure if I was still going to look over dressed for the occasion. Now originally I was first going to go to the hotel where the boardies from out of town are staying at, for a pre-show party. However, I got the impression that I was going to be too late for it and should just meet them all at the Strand. Well it was a little after five and there I was sitting in my car inside the parking structure at the Strand. I decided to call one of my boardie friends and ask him where they are. He told me that they are still at the hotel, and that I *should* go to the hotel as well, because they are waiting for a certain someone to show up. D’oh! I got the hint, and realized that there’s going to be a “boardie surprise.” I quickly called two of my friends who are also Meg & Dia fans who I knew where already at The Strand, because I’m pretty sure that they would like to be there for that surprise as well. We met up at the intersection and went straight for the hotel, luckily finding a parking spot without too much hassle. We entered the hotel and we thought it was a coincidence that there was a wedding happening there, because since we were dressed up, we did not look out of place at all. Anyways, we got ourselves in the elevator and went to the room the boardies were staying at.

  Me and my two friends were at the front of the hotel room and who do we see walk out? Dia herself. I was literally dumbfounded and blurted out an “eehh, are we at the right place?” Dia said hi to us, and went on her way. Once we got inside the hotel room, a lot of the boardies were partying it up, with Meg, Nick, Jon, and band manager Mike. For the first minutes, there was a lot of hi, long time no sees, shake hands, hug hug, and all that. I should have been there sooner because clearly it was already towards the tail end of the pre-party, as some people were already visibly drunk, and the boardie gift that we gave the band was already handed over to them. Meg gave a speech and toast thanking us boardies for being such awesome fans (as we only should be), and saying how surprised and happy she was that we all dressed up for the event. Afterwards they had to leave to prepare for the show, and being that I was one of the few persons who drove to the hotel AND haven’t drunk any alcohol yet, I was given the task to help transport the band to The Strand. Wow, I was honored to do so, and as my wife told me later, “see, there are benefits to not drinking.”

  

  Nick, Carlo, and Meg got in my car, with Nick taking shotgun so that he can give me direction to where I need to drop them off at. Nick noticed I had my Dream Theater – “does Metallica’s Master of Puppets” CD, so I went ahead and put it on. Nick and Carlo I wasn’t surprised liked what was playing, but Meg also enjoyed the heavy metal. I was thinking “cool,” as Meg was singing along the riffs to Master Of Puppets (unless that was my imagination). Then Carlo and Meg had a small talk about playing Metal music on the guitar, and then later discussed about extending the intro or outro to one of the songs they were going to play. After I dropped them off at their tour van, I was thinking “if somebody told me that I would have Meg, Carlo, and Nick sitting in my car, I would say that person is crazy.” Then I thought to myself how blog worthy this experience was.

  I drove back to the hotel afterwards and picked up a few more of the boardies. We went straight to The Strand, tried to look for free parking until settling to just go to the parking structure. By the time we got to where the concert was, there were already a lot of people in the crowd. The bulk of the boardies were settled towards the front right of the crowd, so we made our way near there. Meg & Dia performed eight songs total and they looked like they really enjoyed themselves on stage. I’m sure it was partly because of the energy coming off from the boardies singing along, “summoning the guitar gods,” clapping along, chanting USA USA USA (which the band got the inside joke from the last time we did that), and even twirled neck ties in the air (since we were after all dressed up). “So-Cal Hype” indeed. It was a very fun show, and I’m hoping that the people in the crowd that was just there to see The Maine, have discovered what a great live band Meg & Dia is.

  After the show, we boardies just hung out off to the side for awhile, and eventually went on our way to go eat or go back to the hotel. I joined along with the group that wanted to go eat, and maybe close to an hour later we made our way back to the hotel. By the time we got in the hotel room, it was clear that a lot of people were simply exhausted from such a long day. That didn’t stop some people from playing beer pong, but that’s just how it is. I had a time limit to how long I could stay, because I was at the metered parking, so almost two hours later of just hanging out, I said my goodbyes and headed home (after dropping off one of my friends at his home).

  Yet another successful, entertaining, and fun time with the Meg & Dia band.

  * videos I took from the day *
  - …from the Meg & Dia pre-show boardie party
  - Roses
  - Black Wedding
  - What If
  - Cardigan Weather
  - Inside My Head
  - Are There Giants Too, In The Dance?
  - Monster
  p.s. they also did their cover of Blind Melon’s “No Rain,” but I chose that song to rest my arms from raising the camera up so long.

  * click here for photos I took & video stills from the day *

  

  • 8:36 am
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