smooch Blog and Journals

  The opening bands were Josephine Collective at 7:20pm, Army Of Me at 8:15pm and The Bled at 9pm.

  The Used came on about 10:15pm opening with The Bird And The Worm.  Bert was wearing all black, t-shirt, shorts and shoes.  Jeph, black jeans and b/w checkered shirt, Quinn, black t-shirt and either black or very dark blue jeans, Dan, an orange shirt and I’m guessing dark jeans.

  The next song was Take It Away and a bra flew up on the stage.  After the song Bert picked it up and put it on his head then on his chest and holding the cups did what he called the ‘titty dance’.  Several more bras ended up on the stage and were gathered up and removed. 

  Liar Liar and Taste Of Ink were next and Bert grabbed himself during both songs.  All That I’ve Got was next, morphing into Buried Myself Alive then finishing up as ATIG.  Bert then put on a black wig, which presumably someone tossed up on stage. 

  Paralyzed (another crotch grab) was next and Pain followed.  Bert then broke into Achy Breaky Heart, encouraging the audience to sing along if they knew the words… and after a few lines he finished up by singing the line –‘ Teenagers scare the living shit out of me’ (there was laughter from the audience). 

  Pretty Handsome Awkward was next then Bert did the band member intro’s starting with Jeph then Dan ‘motherfucking’ Whitesides and lastly Quinn… at which point he got down on his knees and proposed and damn if I didn’t just look away for a moment and missed seeing them kiss.

  Hospital rounded out the set… with Wake The Dead as the encore.  The show ended about 11:15 and was really all I had hoped for.  The Used are amazing in concert, Bert’s vocals were tight and they are energetic and play together perfectly. I had a great balcony seat pretty much center stage so I had a totally unobstructed view of Bert and for the most part could see all the rest of the band with only the occasional lean this way or that if someone moved in my line of sight.

  After the show we joined the line out by the buses about 11:25p.  We talked with several people in the line near us while we waited hopefully.  The line moved a little as some people dropped out.

  After some time Dan came by.  Stopping to talk on cell phones, sign autographs, give hugs and take photos.  I got an autograph and a photo taken and he stopped and talked to us for a short while.  I asked if they would be playing Nashville at some point and he said they had just got their confirmed schedule and he was pretty sure Nashville was on it. 

  Some time later Jeph came down the line, also stopping as Dan had.  I got his autograph and a photo taken and talked with him for a few minutes. 

  More time passed and gradually more people gave up and left.  By the time the two small portable barriers (between the line and the alleyway) were removed and security left, the line was considerably shorter but rumour was that Bert wasn’t coming out or at least if he did it wouldn’t be for some time.  We stayed in line.

  By about, what I would guess was now around 1:30am or so the line sort of dissipated and those of us who remained just gravitated to the bus we then believed Bert was on.  Dan came to the door at some point and when asked, said he really didn’t know if Bert was coming out.  Most of the people were waiting right by the bus door, we and two other people that we were chatting with moved away a bit towards the back of the bus.

  J*** spotted Bert in the back of the bus through a window and someone looked out.  (We found out later that it was April, Bert’s personal assistant).  I had a gift that I wanted to give to him.  We asked if she would give it to him (since we still didn’t know if Bert was going to come out) and she said she would, so since we knew he was right there I handed it up through the window.  Also the two other people we were talking to had drum heads they wanted signed and one was small enough to fit through the window and Bert signed it using one of my sharpies that I handed up to April.  She returned it afterwards.

  A short time later April came out of the bus and sat in the parking lot a fair distance from the bus, on one of the short concrete borders round a tree or flower bed, talking on the phone.  Then Dan and his girlfriend came out and sat on another border between where April was and the bus.  We were still hanging in there, continuing to chat with the other couple.  We’d waited this long and I was going to stick it out till he either came out or the bus left.

  J*** went over and started talking to Dan and his girlfriend and I joined him shortly and the four of us chatted… then they moved off.

  Not long after that, roughly around 2:10 – 2:15am Bert came out of the bus.  By now there were probably only about 20 of us left.  (April had been wandering around so we speculated she was head counting).  Anyway… Bert began signing, hugging, taking photos etc.  Right after he came out I was standing behind him and I must confess I was unable to resist the urge to touch his butt.  It was a brief, light touch of his left butt cheek but I must say it felt damn good. 

  Well, I got my first turn at him.  I got a hug and while he was signing something for me, I asked if he’d seen the gift and he said it was awesome, then in addition to the autograph he drew me a picture.  I asked for a kiss and got one on my right cheek practically immediately so I asked him if we could do it again so I could get a photo.  He said to hang on a moment while he signed something for someone else then he gave me another kiss and we got a ‘squishy face’ picture taken. 

  I told him we had come 5 ½ hours for the show… and he said, “the two of you… came 5 ½ hours… just to see the show?”  I replied that yes we had.  His reply was… “you guys fucking rock” and he insisted on taking a photo with both of us.

  At some point, someone asked to borrow my black sharpie to have something signed and Bert continued to use it to sign this and that.  He asked if I wanted it back and I told him, just when he was done so he continued to use it.  Then someone wanted something dark signed and I told Bert I had a silver sharpie, which he borrowed.  When he gave it back he ‘knuckled’ me (you know, where you make a fist and press knuckles against someone else’s as a sign of ‘awesome’, ‘cool’), “for bringing sharpies”. 

  He was telling us about something he had fallen against or into and he lifted his hoodie and shirt to show us his right side-back area.  He had at least 2 large dark bruises and I touched his side lightly.

  Also I got to smell his neck (it smelled clean, no cologne, no soap or shampoo smell, just clean) and touch his hair.

  I did get my black sharpie back when he was done with it and when he wrapped up the ‘meet and greet’ (around 2:50am), making sure everyone had been taken care of, as he was about to return to the bus I asked him if I could have one last hug.  He gave me the hug and then Bert kissed me right on the lips, saying something about sneaking that one in on me.