OH MY GOD RYAN!

On June 25, 2006, I went to a Yellowcard concert. One of the opening bands was Matchbook Romance. I decided to buy a Matchbook Romance t-shirt; the guy working at the merch stand asked me if I wanted to buy a CD, too. I bought the CD, and he gave me a free sticker (which I put on my guitar) and a poster (which I hung on my wall, right next to my desk). The poster has a picture of the band, and the Matchbook Romance logo.

Over a year later, in July 2007, I went to Power Chord Academy. On the first day, the counselors were introducing themselves, and I noticed that one of the counselors looked familiar. Then he introduced himself as Ryan Kienle, former bassist of the band Matchbook Romance. I realized that the reason he looked familiar was because his picture was on my wall, and I had been looking at his face every day for over a year. It turns out Matchbook Romance had broken up.

Just over two months ago, my good friend from Power Chord Academy informed me that Matchbook Romance was going on tour, and invited me to a concert in their hometown of Poughkeepsie, New York. I bought my ticket, and made a tshirt. We talked about the concert almost every day, and hoped to meet up with Ryan.

Yesterday, I drove up to meet my friend, and then we drove to the venue in Poughkeepsie. We were early, so we walked around and got drinks at a convenience store. It was sort of a "sketchy" area of Poughkeepsie.

The entrance to the venue was in an alley. We had a perfect view of the bands loading equipment into the venue. We saw some cute guys, some really cute guys, and some not-so-cute guys.

Eventually, we got in line. Doors were supposed to open at 5pm. We had been waiting for awhile, when some guy announced that Just Surrender (one of the bands that would be playing) was starting to film their new music video that night. So everyone gets in a straight line, and we all go crazy as some guy runs down past us, filming the whole thing.

We got in to the venue a little after 6. It's a small venue. Of course, my friend and I wanted to be up close. So we stood right up against the barrier. Right next to us was a guy wearing a wristband signifying that he was older than 21s, who appeared to have taken advantage of the beverages at the bar available only to those that are of age. He was kind of creeping us out, so eventually, we moved.

The first band was The Hill Valley. They were okay. Then there was Searching for Skylines, and they were awesome! Their keyboard player was barefoot on stage, which was kind of weird. But they put on a great show.

After that was Show Me The Skyline. Show Me The Skyline was AMAZING. After their set was done, my friend and I went to their merch stand to buy a tshirt and CD. We saw their bassist and lead singer, and got the lead singer to sign our tshirts (!!!). Yeah, it was awesome.

Next was Crush the Everlasting. They were good- not as good as Searching for Skylines or Show Me The Skyline, but better than The Hill Valley.

After that came Just Surrender. I hadn't heard any of their music before, but they were good. A mosh pit formed, and my friend and I were at the back. We didn't get thrown around, but the people that were getting thrown around did get thrown at us. It was somewhat painful; a few times, people slammed into me so hard (I was standing with my back against a barrier) that I felt like I couldn't breathe momentarily. I got continually stepped on by god knows how many people.

Finally Matchbook Romance came on. Yeah, my friend and I screamed when we saw Ryan. Matchbook Romance was amazing live- possibly better than the last time I saw them. The mosh pit during Matchbook Romance was less violent. Also, I started getting into self-preservation- rather than just stand there, I shoved people around when they got too close (although I myself didn't actually get shoved around).

After Matchbook Romance was done, my friend and I waited outside of the venue- we wanted to say hi to Ryan and see if he remembered us. We waited for awhile and didn't see him, but the drummer from Crush the Everlasting said he liked my hoodie. We saw guys from the other bands in the show, and even one of the other members of Matchbook Romance, but we were waiting for a long time before we finally saw Ryan.

Finally, we saw him. He was cursing a lot, and appeared to have taken advantage of the bar- one of the other musicians asked him if he had consumed a certain beverage often made in Mexico, and he said, "Yes, I did!".

Anyway. Then my friend and I talked to Ryan for a few minutes. He did remember us, and it was good to see him again.

When we got in the car after midnight, I was still feeling the effects of that minute amount of Red Bull. When we got home and I got in to my pajamas at 1:30am, I was still feeling it. Then, at 1:35, while brushing my teeth... I crashed. I was tired and went to bed.

All in all, I had an awesome time.