April 9th 2012 = One of the GREATEST nights of my life.
It started out like any other day. I woke up, showered, picked out the perfect outfit and we were on our way. My boyfriend Hunter, and I were on our way to see our most favorite band ever, Hawthorne Heights. They were playing a rare acoustic show just a few hours away in Cape Girardeau, MO. It was extra exciting for me for a couple of reasons. Number one I’d never been to MO and we got to drive over the Mississippi River which is huge by the way. Number two I was toting around a super special crocheted plushie of JT Woodruff (lead singer of HH) and I absolutely could not wait to give it to him. I had worked so hard on it trying to get it to look just like him.
When we got there we were surprised to see a huge line down the block waiting for the doors to open, luckily we had gotten our tickets in advance. Since we bought our tickets online we got to be at the front of the line. Upon entering the building we both had to show ID and I got my hand X’d. It will probably be the last time I ever have my hands X’d at a concert since I’ll be 21 in June. I also had to pay a $3 fee for being under 21. I thought that was pretty sucky. :/
The club was pretty cool, other than the whole $3 minor fee. The name of it was Pitter’s. They had a food truck vendor parked on the street that they kept promoting. I thought it was a little strange because the truck didn’t open for business until 10 pm. The food looked really good but I was too excited to eat. I’d seen Hawthorne Heights 4 times before but this time was gonna be super special because I had the plushie to give to JT. I originally planned on making the whole band but business on my Etsy shop had picked up and I didn’t have enough time to make everyone. It was okay though because JT was the only one I saw after the show.
First some local guy played, he seemed really nervous and had to chug 2 beers just to get through his set. I don’t remember his name but I didn’t really care for him. Plus he sang about the 7/11 convenience store in almost every song he had. Then Sandlot Heroes came on and they were AWESOME. I even bought their CD after the show and had them sign it. After them Mark Rose came on. I didn’t really know anything about him but when he came on stage he explained that he used to be in Spittlefield. He was pretty good but his music was really mellow compared to Sandlot Heroes so the crowd wasn’t really feeling it. Everyone was talking through his set and I felt really bad. I danced around and took lots of pictures of him to try to make him feel better. 
After him it was time for Hawthorne Heights. By the time they came on basically everyone in the crowd was wasted and falling all over each other; It was actually really embarrassing. JT opened up with a quote about life. It was pretty deep. He said something about how you shouldn’t spend your life worrying about stuff. I tried to remember it because it ties in great with my life right now. I even repeated it about 100 times in my head. I was going to text it to myself but I didn’t want the people behind me to look over my shoulder and say, “Look at that girl she’s such a freak she’s writing down every word he says…I bet she has a crochet plushie of him in her purse.” haha. We were at the front, right by Matt. Matt was playing a keyboard and he was super skinny compared to the last time I saw him. Micah was on the other side of the stage playing a super pretty sparkly blue guitar. JT of course was front and center with his guitar. Eron wasn’t there though. I’m not really sure why he wasn’t there and I forgot to ask JT when I met him. They also had another guy named Mark playing with them and it was his birthday. Some drunk girls from the crowd yelled some slurred obscenities at him. Even Corndog, their merch guy got on stage and played guitar with them for one song. They sounded really good. The acoustic was super cool, but I felt like I was missing something. I just wanted them to play a hard song so we could all dance and jump around. They promised next time they come back they’d play a regular show. My favorite was when they played “Gravestones.” I was actually surprised that it ended up being my favorite because Skeletons isn’t really my favorite record by them.
After their set we asked that Mark guy if we could have the set list and he said yeah. Then I asked him for a guitar pick and he gave me one of those too and we headed for the merch table. We sat at a table and waited for the line to die down. It practically killed me to wait, especially when JT was standing right there meeting people. Finally, it was our turn. I was so scared and it suddenly dawned on me…what if he thinks I’m a creeper for even making this? I almost didn’t give it to him but Hunter told me it would be fine. I gave it to him and he LOVED it. He immediately showed Corndog and I took a picture of him with it. Then he gave me a hug. It wasn’t like one of those normal fan hugs like with one arm while cheesin’ it for the camera. It was an honest to goodness hug. It was great. Then I got a picture with him and he signed Hunter’s set list. When we asked him to sign the set list he said “You got that set list huhhh” and it was kinda funny how he sounded haha. And then we left. We totally forgot to sign up for the license plate guitar giveaway and I was so mad that I forgot. But it was okay, I still had a great time.
Later that week Hawthorne Heights posted this photo on their Twitter. It’s so cool to think that something I made is going on the rest of the tour with them. Who knows where my little plushie will end up. It’s like a little piece of me is riding around in their van. 
