Matchbox 20!!!

A couple of weeks ago Jon was listening to the radio and heard a question to win concert tickets to Matchbox 20. the question was "who sang the title track to Grease?"
Which, of course, is John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Duh.
Anyway, he called in, and he won!
Matchbox 20 is one of my favorite bands of all time - in fact, only Marroon 5 ranks equal with them. Jon knows that, so he gave the tickets to me.

When he brought them over last weekend he said to me "also, I was entered into some prize drawing where you get to meet the band, but I'm not going to win so don't worry about that"

Guess what?
we got to meet the band!!!

The concert was last night and it was awesome.
First we had the meet and greet. We got to talk to each of the band members - and they were very cool. They are like munchkins, though. Seriously - the tallest guy in the band was maybe 5'9 - he looked about Matt's height to me. The rest of them were 5'6 or 5'7, maybe. They looked like they were almost life size, you knwo what I mean? Like they stepped out of your big screen TV.
They gave us an 8x10 photograph and each of them signed it - made out to us individually. The guys were very personable, very friendly. The promotions director from the radio station asked Rob Thomas a couple of questions and he was so willing to answer her..it was really neat. He told us that he always watches a portion of the opening acts - otherwise he feels like it's a wierd transition from just being backstage to preforming. He likes to be part of the crowd beforehand to get a feel for the audience. He also told us that they have a tradition after the shows...when they arrive they set up a room with a disco ball directly above an air hockey table. After the show the guys from Matchbox 20, Mutemath and Alanis (plus their wives, girlfriends, etc) all get together, turn off the room lights and have an air hocket tournament under the disco call. He said it's like Fight Club - everyone crowded around in a circle, watching and yelling...it was hysterical.
The radio station took group pictures, and then we were done. The meet and greet lasted about 30 minutes, I think.

Then Matt and I ran over to Chili's for dinner.

Mutemath opened - and they were REALLY good. The music was very cool, and they were great preformers. Check out their music here http://www.myspace.com/mutemath

Then Alanis preformed. I think about half the people at the concert were there for her! She seems to have a very strong cult following! She put on a great show - very entertaining. I was shocked at how many of her songs I knew the lyrics to! Almost all were off the Jagged Little Pill album that I listened to in high school.
She did a parody of My Humps that was hysterical. She wore a pink boa and her band showered her with money at one point. That was the lead in to You Outta Know - which rocked.

After Alanis I pulled out my press pass and went down to the floor. The guy from the radio station escorted me up front where I got to take pictures in the press area. There was only one other photographer and one security gaurd there - I felt pretty special :)
There was about 3 feet between the stage and the first row, the space was mostly filled with gigantic speakers. That's where we stood to take pictures. We were allowed to move back and forth, etc. It was so cool.
I got to shoot during the first 3 songs, then I went back to my seat.
Matchbox 20 were amazing. So high energy! The guitarist was incredible in person - I've never really noticed that on the albums! And Rob Thomas's voice was just perfection live.
We stayed until about 10:30 - the concert was supposed to be over at 11:00, but we needed to get home to the kids and thought we'd skip the mass exodus traffic.

I took some pictures with my camera, and then the battery died. Can't believe I was such an idiot that I didn't think to charge it before we went! After that I used the camera that was part of the prize package. It's a Nikon Coolpix, a very cute little camera, but not great for taking action shots or pictures in strage lighting. Anyway, the pics I took with it kind of suck.
The radio guy also took the group shot with that camera. So that's why it's pretty grainy, I don't think he really knew how to use it.

Here's a link to a slideshow of the group photo and some of the best shots from my foray as a prossional photog. http://s148.photobucket.com/albums/s23/1141Mandy/?action=view&current=9ced3142.pbw

It was a seriously cool experience. We had such a great time.