(A melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution.)
"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever." - Psalms 52:8
Saturday, June 30, 2007
some changes to my sidebar!
right, i have finally decided to do away with my tagboard to make way for a 'Now Reading' section.
simply because i actually have time to read again. the 20% off at kinokuniya sparked off a massive buy-out over the past week. i now have so much to read, it's abit scary.
after many attempts to go cycling, the weather finally allowed us to have a good windy, shady day at the beach.
we were very excited to leave the house for a day of cycling. tee-hee.
we strolled all the way from alvin's to the bicycle shop and chose our bikes.
i had no idea what to do. i stared at the bikes, and chose something not too high, for fear of not being able to mount my 'steed'. alvin saw me prodding the bikes uncertainly, so he tried to guide me by asking me to check the bikes. i 'tested' the brakes and rolled my choice back and forth. well, as long as it could roll on two wheels and brake to avoid hit and runs, can pass liao. so ok we set off!
i had a really shaky start. i couldn't cycle straight, and barely made my way out of the bicycle kiosk coz the road was so crowded, arghhh. anyway, i pressed on with alvin following behind (in case i fall) and continued down the road...
both of us kept shouting back and forth: 'what is this??' 'it's the BRAKE!!' and 'what gear is for what??' 'arghhhhhh'... in this manner, i learnt how to change gears! :D
was growing abit more confident about cycling, until we hit the end of the road... alvin suggested the ECP (omg are u nuts??!?!), i told him to er, somethingalongthelinesofgoanddie (yes i am a terrible girlfriend, of course i knew he was joking, i just hope he knew i was joking too *weak laugh*).
so alvin made a nice little turn at the end road, while i hopped off my bike, turned it around, got back on, and started peddling... past alvin's incredulous face.
after abit, he caught up with me, and shouted, 'eh u don't know how to turn ah???'
'nope!!' *continues peddling*
he went ahead of me and made a left turn. i followed along, looking suspicious.
i asked, 'eh we turn in for what?'
'you need to learn how to turn.'
'aiyah, no need la! i can just get off my bike and...' i am quelled by his DO-U-WANT-TO-LEARN-HOW-TO-RIDE-A-BIKE-ANOT look.
sulkily, i watched him do a turn, and i tried to follow.
a bad attempt! but no matter! after alvin taught me how to position my legs (it was like a dance move, i swear) and when i made one fabulous turn immediately after, i got cocky.
'HAHAHA!! so easy! ok let's go macdonald's for ice-cream cone.'
'eh, not so fast; you need to do more turns...'
'okokok. easypeasy. i'll do THREE consecutive turns ok?'
it was not easy. somehow, i just kept only doing 2.5 turns. like, more than 10 times!! i've decided to call the place: the vortex of only 2.5 turns.
we were stuck there for 45 minutes!!! gahhhh!!
anyway, after i managed my 3 turns (while alvin was on the phone, so he couldn't video it) and a turn on my left, we finally left the 'vortex of only 2.5 turns' and continued on.
that was when i fell. spectacularly.
it started off like this: alvin noticed something on my back, so my body twisted to allow my hand to fly to my back. the front wheel turned, i lost control of my bike, and before i knew it, the bike toppled, skidded, and then somehow... somehow i landed on my back. and my hairband clanged to the tar about a metre away.
alvin said i did a mini-somersault off the bike... my back was merely scratched, and not even bleeding! it's a miracle!!
aileen reckons i've fallen down so many times in the past, because i was preparing for this one day when i'd have scraped my knee and probably gotten pinned under my bike, if not for all the training in the past.
hallelujah! :D
when i got up, the mostly female crowd just stared from the sides. i think they were shocked. haha. i picked up my hairband, alvin fixed my chain, and we were off!! (mainly because i was sibei paiseh la.)
then alvin tried to wash my wound, and i don't know what gave him the idea but he decided to pour his entire water bottle down my back. i sat on my bicycle, squelching as i peddled, and everytime i went over a hump.
we passed by macdonald's... i didn't want to touch a cone with my dirty hands. and i had a wet butt. then ahoy! we saw... NEW ZEALAND'S NATURAL.
alvin couldn't stop laughing at our reactions. coz we were riding in the straight line at high speed, then when NZN came into view, both our heads whipped towards its direction and automatically made a bee-line for it. i kinda expected screeching tyres as we turned sharply to our left simultaneously. hahaha.
we had their chocolate thickshake. *slobber* as you can tell, we were very satisfied:
this picture of alvin is priceless.
so then, we continued on. by this time, i seemed to be cycling much better, making fast and sharp turns like, damn seh la, and changing gears (though they seemed to be not working very well... they kept making sounds)... i tell u, i really felt very seh man. darn good feeling.
so i kept peddling on like a madwoman, up and down little slopes, turning while applying abit of my brakes, and cycling DAMN FAST...
it's been a crazy fortnight of pretty much going out everyday. most of the time with the same person. so anyway, i finally have time to upload a few back-dated pictures!
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bringing tricia to the playground:
she was so excited, she took a bath before going to the playground. which didn't make much sense to me, but she bathed anyway. alvin had pulled a back muscle at gym the day before, so he just hobbled downstairs and watched us play. and took pictures... and laughed at me.
tricia was lugging around her half-filled water bottle. sounds normal right? i'll get back to this later.
first we went to the playground next to alvin's. i think i was having more fun than tricia because the slide was steep and smooth, so i took a few gleeful slides down, but tricia was quite petrified... until i said she could sit on my lap.
there we go, sliding down... tricia was exhilarated while i yelped when my thigh made contact with the slide while sliding down... oh the abrasions... T_T
and we did it again... and again... *tears of pain*
ok the funny thing about tricia is that everytime we have a round of fun at one part of the playground, she'll say, 'okay! time to drink water.'
so after the first slide...
tricia: okineedtodrinkwater
after the 2nd time...
tricia: time to drink water!!
after the 3rd...
tricia: ok i'm going to... me: yes, go and drink water please.
alvin laughed at my exasperated face. that girl just doesn't know how to have outdoor fun! *sigh*
so for ten minutes, we ran around the playground, littered with many 'tricia-water-stops'. an average of every 2 minutes, i think.
so then she got bored, and wanted to go to another playground. alvin and i swung her between our arms while we walked. '1, 2, 3! *SWINGGG*'
it was so cute when she squealed as we swung her really high (while trying not to sprain her small arms)... until alvin put me in the center and told tricia, 'ok we have to swing jiejie now.'
i shot him the best -_-"' look i could. i thought he was joking, until he really swung me! and it was so unbalanced coz tricia had no strength so i was kinda lifted up on my left only. sheesh.
i have to say though... it was quite fun. hurhurhur. yeah, cheap thrill, i know.
so we went to the playground at octopus (ah, i miss TC and long dinners there)!
tricia was still drinking like a little fish, so it wasn't surprising that after another 10 minutes there, she came up to us and whined:
'i xu-xu in my pants.' :(
sigh. see la, keep drinking water. but i really had to muffle my laughter as we all rushed back home (it was so far away!!) while trying to get tricia to hold it all in.
she is really... SUCH a funny little girl. (oh, she's 5, btw.)
so we got home, all sweaty and tired out after only 20 minutes at the playgrounds. but tricia wouldn't sleep unless she slept with me, so alvin was voted out of his room, while tricia and i enjoyed the comfort of the air-con.
well we just arrived two days ago here in adelaide, australia. what an amazing adventure thus far, as many of you know we had never been to singapore or japan before.
all the shows were amazing but in singapore we played a small acoustic secret show at a really cool club called hope. i think absolutely everyone was singing along because i couldn't even hear myself singing. in life that is going to go down as one of the greatest shows for me personally. i could not stop smiling the entire time.we all made a promise to each other to translate more of our songs to acoustic guitars because we did not want that night to stop at all.
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coolness!! XD
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numero 2:
it was true, at the concert stephen (yellow tee) couldn't hear himself so he just gave up and enjoyed the sing-along session. BUT, i found this gem where they were rehearsing backstage, and his voice is JUST LIKE in the album. it's great.
oh, alvin and i were also wondering why nate (black beanie), their drummer, was there at the acoustic show; well, i know now.
he was there to be backup vocals during the rehearsal. an uncanny soprano, he is. hohoho. then halfway, the lead of copeland, aaron (grey beanie), comes over to listen in.
i finally, FINALLY met up with the NUS bunch. my gosh, i missed hanging out with them! jo, ann, ser, greg and brose made it down to chinatown!
they were so sweet to me, coz they said the haircut was alright. i feel abit better about it now. :)
we had dinner at sushi tei (*YUM*SLOBBER*) before heading down to this place called Family Karaoke. eh, $10 bucks per pax for 5 hours. pretty good deal man.
except that their popular english songs selection had much to be desired. and oddly, as greg noted, they DID have an extensive selection of indie artists. which was altogether quite funny to both of us as we noobs huddled at a corner, struggling to master the remote control.
as usual, we all laughed loudly, spoke loudly, and sang REALLY loudly, especially when The Boyfriend arrived. woah, he's his own loudhailer man.
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oh, before we left for sushi tei, jobyna was all excited about me and The Boyfriend getting together (yeah i forgot to tell her, so her glee was rather belated). then she pondered awhile before saying, 'oh no. you're so loud, and alvin's even louder... both of you are gonna be damn noisy together.' :O
wah, thanks ah.
ok i give up, i'm just gonna say alvin from now on, and not call him The Bf coz it's too long to type.
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amazingly, my voice was quite alright last night, and it held through Adia, Ye Zi and Xie Yi Shou Ge, but when i hit toni braxton... er, i tried to be sultry which kinda worked in the beginnning, but being the clown that i am, the song quickly went downhill to drama-mama style. i was totally into the lovelorn 'I WANNA BE YOUR SPANISH GUITARRRRR' mode. heh, great fun for me, but everyone else was quite -_-.
however, they tolerated me and refrained from pressing the 'eject' button... i think it was because of my birthday. heh.
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ooh, -_-. <--- looks like a 'diao' face with a mole. heeheehee.
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we sang from 8:30pm to 12am... and they kinda didn't come in and stop us, so i guess we might've continued if greg hadn't put his foot down and said, 'ENOUGH!!' coz everyone else had work the next day.
and so, that sums up birthday outing #1!
#2 is coming riiiiiight up: cycling at east coast! yes, we are trying again!! if i don't post, it might mean i fell off my bike because alvin didn't wanna tandem-cycle with me, and i broke my wrist, fingers etc. he's very adamant i should cycle on my own.
edit: i'm going to take the 'no-real-names' lead from angel; it's useful coz maybe if i call alvin The Boyfriend, maybe you guys will not begin to NOT link embarrassing stories about him, to him. ok whatever, let's just try this ya?
... and it was quite intense. actually, it's quite like those times i tried to kill him in lab, while working on malaria (i'm not kidding, i get quite murderous) but those times, i wasn't his girlfriend so it doesn't count. yeah ok anyway, our faces were so black and we just ended up fuming, seething etc. it was just running through my head:
OH, I AM SOOOOO NOT GOING TO TALK TO YOU UNTIL YOU APOLOGISE @#$%^&!!
when The Boyfriend tripped.
i couldn't help it. i clapped my hand over my mouth and i had to HOLD my laughter in so hard, i was hyperventilating/choking etc. i didn't want him to see that i was laughing, coz that would mean i'm over the angry silence, because i wasn't!
but damn, that was so funny. hahahahaha.
the constipated laughter held on for approximately 3 minutes. it was so long!! i had to bite my lips (yes, both), then i gave up and fell backwards just to laugh. you know, it's always worse when u cannot laugh out loud; everything just seems tons funnier.
after dinner, when i was done being mad, i turned to him and mentioned, 'haha, u tripped just now! and i laughed! betcha didn't see that.'
'oh yes, i did! it's so you! u laugh at anyone who has an accident. *mutters* schadenfreude...'
it's nice, how a very short meeting just to pick up a frisbee, can make my heart swell up (and feel like bursting).
i don't know, maybe it's the unexpected meeting, or because of the short period that we have... that's why even though he was a little smelly, (ok, who am i kidding? QUITE SMELLY.) we hugged, had a moment, then sent him off with a prayer.
ah, short but sweet.
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ok i might regret penning down this impossibly diabetic mushy moment... but i will still publish this. hurhur.
does anyone want to gush about their boyfriends with me? coz i'm definitely on.
are EVIL. they are so addictive, yet inflame your nasal passages everytime u chew one; i could feel the base of my nostrils flaring which made me mutter 'ow, ow, ow...' while adrean looked at me curiously.
i need a break before i start on my next packet. *nose bleeds with invisible wasabi gas*
And I swear we're in the movies The highlight comes when you kiss me And the stereo sings our song And we don't hesitate to sing along
- Anberlin, Autobahn
i've just come back from the anberlin/copeland secret show; my face is all XD!!!!!!!!!
it was fantastic. the crowd was great, singing along to every single song in the acoustic set of anberlin's, causing stephen's face to crease from smiling everytime we sang the right bit at the right time etc. he was really pleased, man!
and then there were the highlights, such as them playing 'adelaide' acoustically for the first time, and them covering 'creep' by radiohead (hahaha all the younger crowd don't know this classic so they couldn't sing along).
well, then of course, there's a reason why my title is so. while stephen and the two guitarists, Joseph and Christian (i think) were tuning their guitars, there was a short break were the host wanted 2 fans to get on stage and say why they loved anberlin. the first was a girl, so for the 2nd, he wanted a guy.
at once, alvin boomed, 'ME! ME! ME! ME!!' while i shouted (and pointed while jumping up and down), 'HIM! HIM! HIM! HIM!!!'
and he was chosen to get on stage, obviously, otherwise no story already. i grabbed his cam as he went up and shot a few lousy pictures then started filming it down when i suddenly heard something like, '... oh, anberlin brought me my girlfriend...'
O_O
of course, i got dragged on stage. i passed the cam to a pair of girls we got friendly with, and they continued filming. once i got on, the crowd started chanting, 'kiss kiss kiss kiss!'. eh hello, miss loon is game ok!
alvin was looking sheepish when i grabbed his neck...
and whispered, 'FABIO.' (no la, no kissies yet!)
so we did our thing, fabio-style. if you've seen romance novel covers before, er... it's quite close to what we were trying to do. WITH CLOTHES. WE WERE FULLY-CLOTHED.
anyways, we were like the old fogies in the crowd (again). it's like, almost half the crowd needed under-18 tags so that they won't be able to drink. but it was still damn fun la, and i was reminded of it when we were taking pictures with stephen and he was like, 'oh hey! great kiss!!' hahaha.
anberlin's got a good bunch, all nice, all very patient for photos. *lub*
oh, oh!! another highlight was when they sang inevitable, which was one of my favorites. there was this bit when the last chorus is altered from the rest, where it was 'is it over now?' but it becomes 'it's not over now'. i love that line, because the addition of it changes the entire mood of the song. so when they were singing that part, i raised my hand and shook my finger and head while mouthing, 'it's not over now...'
and stephen turned towards me (coz i was the only one who reacted to the change), pointed to me while singing the same part as i was, and grinned.
*sigh* i was so happy!!! it's nuts!!!
yar man, anberlin needs to know there are people in sg who love their music to bits.
at the end of it all (photo-taking, chatting etc), i really didn't want to leave... and neither did alvin. we both had things to say to them, like 'u need to play cadence!' or 'come back for a full blown concert with copeland again!' etc.
but we had to go...
oh, copeland was goooood. i love the lead's voice, very mesmerizing and very solid.
ah ok, it's time to stop raving like a 16 year old and go to sleep. my knees are hurting me.
from blueprints for the black market: 1. autobahn 2. love song 3. cadence (*crosses fingers*) 4. naive orleans (maybe?)
from never take friendship personal: 1. paperthin hymn 2. the symphony of blase 3. a day late
from cities: 1. the unwinding cable car 2. alexithymia 3. inevitable 4. dismantle.repair 5. *fin (? simply because it wasn't played last night)
not from albums: 1. haunting 2. there is a light that never goes out
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ok from youtube, it is more likely there will be autobahn, love song, paperthin hymn, a day late, the unwinding cable car, alexithymia, inevitable, dismantle.repair, and maybe creep by radiohead. and maybe a bit of wedding/funeral from anchor and braille.
3 local bands kicked off the long wait for copeland and anberlin.
first up was The Fire Fight, whom i absolutely loved. it's very rare ok, that i even enjoy a local band...
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explaination: the local scene that was introduced to me at the tender age of 16 was... not good. well, i didn't like it. if u did, i am not insulting you, i'm just saying we have different tastes. you don't judge me, i don't judge you, alright? :D
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i bopped, tapped my feet and nodded to all their songs (about 4 to 5, i forget.) coz they have a good strong beat which was very tight, thanks to their solid drummer. he's not all flair and fancy, i wouldn't know about technique, but hey, it was good music to me. even alvin was quite o_O and recorded their entire performance.
good stuff.
then i noticed after the 1st song (it might've been the 2nd, but my memory is failing me; i am bushed after anberlin... more about that soon), the lead tore plasters off his fingers. i noticed it but thought nothing of it - maybe he had plasters to reduce friction, but they were getting in the way?
but nooo... after the 2nd song, he paused and apologized... didn't explain why but probably for any mistakes in his guitar bit (but i couldn't tell, it's not some jarring mistake anyway), explaining that they had a disastrous performance last night which left his fingers bleeding.
as an audience, 1, 2, 3!
'AWWWWWWW...'
then he grinned and continued on to the next song. i think everyone thought it was no big deal... until he reached the last verse of their last song, when alvin tapped me hurriedly on my shoulder and gasped,
'he's bleeding!!'
and so it was, with blood spraying onto his guitar with every single strum. i was so disturbed, while alvin was desperately shouting at the lead to draw attention to the fact that he was bleeding, but he just kept going on!
gahhh. thank goodness it was already the last song of the set.
next up was vertical rush, which i didn't have much of an impression of because the lead's mike was faulty. oh and they have a drummer who's pretty showy, which made a few girls behind me snigger loudly because, well, he looked kinda retarded. eep. i'm not mean, it's true!
which led to this odd situation at the end of the concert... the opening bands were helping out in crowd control for the autograph session so i was actually quite weirded out when vertical rush's drummer came up to alvin and i, and told us politely that we were cutting queue and that we ought to move to the back of the line in perfect, normal, english. with a very straight face, too.
heehee.
oh marchtwelve was not fun for me at all, it just reminded me of any random bad local band i must have been exposed to when i was 16 and not liking the local scene. they had this 'creative' use of a 'DJ' who seemingly did nothing but use his laptop to play annoying sounds while the band played.
i'm sorry, too arty farty and 'creative', miss loon don't get. *shrug*
then, a 30 minute interval. damn long lar... everyone was obviously not too happy.
then copeland came up!! XD
alvin had sent me their songs beforehand, but i totally forgot they were to be performing in today's concert, which is an Anberlin/Copeland showcase, not an Anberlin showcase. completely slipping my mind, i was a Copeland noob in the crowd of about 200. haha.
wah they are goooooood. after their first song, stephen christian (lead of Anberlin) came out to watch Copeland from the balcony. i was one of the first few to notice, and kept prodding alvin rather enthusiastically, then pointing to the balcony. i tried waving too, but to no avail.
oh well. i'm such a groupie.
anyways! copeland was good, and i am looking forward to finally listening to their album which has been sitting in My Music folder for ages. heh.
oh, oh, before i get on to the Anberlin set, i need to talk about the concert crowd.
they were so young. i even saw fcbc's drummer and joel (yes, rachel and joanna's bro) there, with separate groups.
alvin was so tickled just by watching the kids and kept on poking me and sniggering, 'hahaha look what he's wearing hahahaha.'
well, yeah all the emo kids were there with their cousin id hair-dos and plastered fringes. *rolls eyes*
then i was also rather annoyed with a pair of chicks (one in a diluted goth get-up and the friend attempting to dress nerdy fashionably, but kinda ended up just looking nerdy without the fashionable bit) who kept going on and on, at the top of their whiny voices, '*gasp* there are so many kids! yucks! look at all the 16 year olds!'
they couldn't have been more than 20. most likely 18. *rolls eyes again*
and that silly goth one kept squealing at the cute guitarist/drummer in Copeland/Anberlin. VERY, VERY, LOUDLY. *sigh* she didn't even know their NAMES.
hurhur, here's where i got abit vengeful for all the ear-splitting shrieks: i separated the watered-down goth from the nerd during a particularly rowdy part of the concert, and made sure they had to get out of the crowd just to reunite. at some place FAR FAR AWAY FROM ME, WAH LIAO EH.
when anberlin came on, it was... raucous. and it got really rowdy.
it was as if everyone was saving their energy JUST FOR anberlin's set which was around 930-11pm. a lot of energy right? so guess how the crowd let it off?
BY BLOODY MOSHING.
it was bad. it started off when Anberlin played their high energy songs which got the crowd going, but some idiots started to push people around, which obviously pissed people off who then retaliated by pushing BACK. so push here, push there, like yo-yo, cannot enjoy my music, extremely irritating and unnecessary.
there was even a really angry confrontation where one of the guys got so peeved, he had his hand wrapped around the other's throat. but wah lau eh, by then i was so fed up, and so darned angry i turned to both and quelled them with my 'look'. it's the same dangerous no-nonsense look that i give my kids.
wah, quite handy man, coz they stopped, thank goodness.
but the moshing resumed. sian. then kena push until suddenly! i see joel! in front of me! then suddenly! joel's friends disappear! then suddenly! joel gives up and leaves! mosh, mosh!! mosh somemore! glasses go askew!!
actually, a lot of people left halfway, for safety's sake. which provided us with more space, and more non-moshing areas in which alvin and i could take refuge, and bloody listen to Anberlin, which i came for.
i have to say man, alvin really took care of me. he was the one-handed security guard of miss loon, and rather like an immovable boulder at certain points. but it was really ok for him too, because he could also tell i could fend for myself (elbows! all out!!!) so he could do his video-ing/ phototaking/bopping/singing along.
wah he sings damn loudly. at the Anberlin set i let him have full rein, but before that i had to do damage control before the people around him became deaf. heh-heh.
ok, enough about stupid-ass moshing.
anberlin... was GOOD!! high energy, crazy singing along (apparently the lead was surprised and stoked that the crowd could sing along to every song), and they chose good songs!! i loved the set simply because they played Dance, Dance, Christa Paffgen, which is my favorite track in all 3 albums. yeah, i just needed them to play that, that's all.
hmm, they played 'Ready Fuels', 'Dance, Dance, Christa Paffgen' (encore), 'Godspeed', 'Hello Alone', 'Dismantle.Repair', 'Adelaide', 'The Feel Good Drag' (encore), 'Time and Confusion', 'A Day Late' (it's me and alvin's song! we held hands, but didn't sing it to each other because it is a song about regretting not coming clear about feelings, hahaha), 'A Whisper and A Clamour', 'Never Take Friendship Personal', and 'Paperthin Hymn'. that's... 12 songs, without break, with an insane amount of adrenaline.
when they played adelaide, everyone went nuts, and i had an exceptionally great time shouting 'adelaide! adelaide~!' and swinging my head, hence plastering my hair all over my face.
i will remember this day. for all the moshing and blood spray, and most of all for the great show Anberlin and Copeland put up.
*heart*
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edit: haha, i forgot to mention this bit. i was hanging around the end of the autograph table, waiting for alvin to be done, so i guess i was looking a little odd standing there with nothing to do.
it so happened that Stephen Christian, the lead of anberlin, was just waiting around too (we were both waiting for alvin) so he looked up, saw me standing around and extended his hand. :D
i was abit flustered for a moment. sorry la, 24 years old already; i wasn't about to scream and die because i touched his hand etc. but it was a good firm handshake, and with a very broad smile he thanked me for coming. then i thanked them for coming and we both expressed abit of 'wow' because i couldn't believe they came, and stephen was like, 'hey we are so welcome here and the crowd knows every song!'
haha... they are such nice people man. very grounded. can't wait to have them perform again! XD
