So I decided at the beginning of the semester to volunteer to help out with Clarion’s Campusfest concert (which occured yesterday). This semesters show would feature Jason Reeves and Colbie Caillat, two artists I am fans of. Also performing was The Bravery, a band I began listening to once I heard they were performing. I had helped with Gym Class Hereoes last sem and minus it being extremely exhausting, it was a good professional experience. Especially since I don’t get all ga ga over musicians. I mean, they’re people too. And I’ve found the artist usually isn’t as cool as the musicians and/or crew backing them. But I digress, because what is essential is that I failed to really look at my calendar to see how probably really stupid it was of me to help. You see I have a final exam and a project for research due today and another final exam Tuesday for Assessment & Evaluation. So yeah, prob not a good idea. Nonetheless, I was assigned runner duty. Those of you not familiar with the music scene, a runner is a person assigned to an artist, in my case The Bravery, and drives them to and from hotels, picks up their lunch, etc. A fun job because it keeps you constantly going but also sometimes frustrating….as in yesterday. So now that I have set up the day for you I shall break it down..bre bre bre break it down.
So I arrive at Tippin Gym at about 9:45am (nice part about being a runner is a later start time, no 6:30am for me) and Mary Caitlin, Campusfest Chair, gives me the keys to my new ride, a sweet Dodge van, and all the essentials I need for my task (just a radio and a gas card…like how I made that sound more important than it really was?) So now that I’m fully equipped my job is to just wait around until The Bravery need anything….which didn’t take long. So we get a call on the radio that they need a runner cuz someone needs to go to the hospital, nothing serious apparently. The second runner, Megan, is already gone at Walmart (for the 1st of 20 billion trips she had to take there) and so that leaves me. I say well I’m The Bravery’s runner so if it’s fine with Mary Caitlin that I leave I can take the person. “The person is one of The Bravery” Oh well that solves that. So I go downstairs to find Mary Caitlin and Keith, the band’s manager, and who I later found out was the lead singer, Sam. Sam looked a little scruffy, expected after leaving on a bus…and modeling your personal style after British rockers. But he didn’t look like he needed to go to the hospital. Nonetheless, I pulled the van around and Sam and I were off. He was pleasant, asking me what time zone we were in (the day before they were in Detroit) and who was this Colbie Caillat dude?…”Uh Colbie’s a girl” After taking my number so he could call when he needed a ride back (which all the girls cooed about “he has your number? omg” yeah kinda wish he didn’t), I drop Sam off and head back to campus. The buzz of one of The Bravery going to the hospital spread quick and instantly the rumor mill of why he was there began too. He had alcohol poisoning everyone had deduced. (Later that night, I find out he just wanted to have his knee looked at..hmm go figure)
I swore as soon as I would go to eat lunch that Sam would call to be picked up, and sure enough he did. So back to the ER and picked up Sam, who looked a lot better (prob started waking up) but was less talkative. Took him back and found my sandwich and ate about half of it before The Bravery needed more assistance. I head downstairs and Keith hands me a keyboard pedal and asks me to find him another one. “Guitar Center or something should have it” Um Keith this is Clarion, we don’t have a Guitar Center. We have Zeller’s on Main Street but I didn’t even know if they’d still be open (it’s 1pm ish at this point). We call and find out Zeller’s may have what we need but they’re open only til 2pm. Let the adventure begin! So armed with a keyboard pedal, a pick (I also had to find picks the same thickness as their picks), and their Subway order, I left for Main Street. I go to park and realize I don’t have any quarters on me to pay and with my luck I’d get a ticket. So I find a spot that has some time left and then my phone rings. Mary Caitlin is calling to tell me the Colbie’s drummer needs to go to a music store too, he needs some drum sticks. So I head back to campus and yell for Mary Caitlin that I need a quarter, as the drummer hops in the van. I give Mary Caitlin the Subway order to call in so I can pick it up after the music run and we call Keith to ask him how he wants us to pay for his music stuff, a credit card over the phone (Mind you Keith’s number is on top of the lunch order I just gave to Mary Caitlin and we called him from her phone..this will come to haunt me later). So I flip the van around and head back to Main Street after all this place closes in like 20 mins. I finally get a chance to see who I just picked up and actually say hello. Colbie’s drummer is a guy named Mike, who’s undoubtedly attractive, but mostly just super duper chill. So we head to Zeller’s and find picks but no keyboard petal and no drum sticks. But the not super helpful girl does tell us that we can head to Fike’s Music. So after getting seemingly shady directions (“it’s out past Walmart in the middle of no where” well middle of no where is all relative isn’t it) Mike and I leave Zeller’s…mind you it’s begun to rain…and head over to Fike’s. On the way, I get a call that The Bravery’s food will be ready for pick up at 2pm (it’s now 10 til) and so as not to keep the princesses waiting I have the second runner, Megan, to go pick it up. We drive past Walmart and Mike sees the sign for Fike’s almost at the last minute and we pull in to someone’s driveway. Yes, Fike’s is in someone’s house. After Mike and I laugh at the local, we go inside. I hand over the broken pedal and luckily, Mr. Fike (who knows if that’s his name but go with me), a funny old man who talks a lot and couldn’t seem to get the fact I wasn’t actually in the band, has a new pedal and the right size picks. Mike finds the sticks he needs and a bag for them (unfortunately, the sticks were apparently waaayyy expensive and Mike isn’t too happy but I reminded him not to be a jerk and consider it as contributing to the Clarion community. Touche.) All is well right? Wrong.
You see as I mentioned earlier I don’t have Keith’s number. So I have to call Mary Caitlin to get a credit card number from Keith. After waiting awhile, Mary Caitlin calls and I write out the number and expiration date on my hand…cuz of course I didn’t have anything else to write on. Mr. Fike is in the back- I think messing around with the pedals to make sure it’s the one I brought in was broken. Mr. Fike comes out with a new pedal and explains to me the difference…still not aprat of the band, Mr. Fike, nor do I care. Mike gets his stuff and I go to purchase The Bravery stuff only to realize I don’t have a name for the credit card. Ugh. I call Mary Caitlin back and tell her I need a name while talking to her I see the sign for what cards Fike’s except and American Express, the card I was given wasn’t one of them. So I tell Mary Caitlin she has to track down Keith again and get us a new credit card, preferably with the name this time.
I felt super bad for Mike having to wait around through all this. By now it’s 2:25pm and we began this adventure together almost an hour earlier. Who knows how long it would take to get a second credit card. I offer to take Mike back so he doesn’t have to wait but he says he’s fine and that it would be likely we’d leave and I’d get the call with the new credit card. So we spend the time shooting the shiz. He tells me the story about how he learned to play the drums (a rather cute tale about sucking at the recorder and crying in class because of it. The class bully actually feeling bad for him “He had a soft spot that day” And his teacher sitting him down with a drum set and a Poison cd. It was 5th grade, simply precious). We talk about Clarion and California (where they’re based out of- yay!). How I’m moving soon and where they’re playing to next. In the mean time, I get a call that one of The Bravery wants to go to their hotel. Yeah- I’m a little busy. So the other runner, Megan, did it. Eventually, Mary Caitlin calls with the new credit card number and Mr. Fike starts ringing me up. He then realizes he needs a zip code to verify the card. So…(I know-seriously!) I call Mary Caitlin back and she runs and gets me the zip. I purchase The Bravery’s crap and Mike and I head back campus.
I drop off Mike since he now only has about an hour or so before mic check (I know- he hung through this for an hour and a half, what a trooper!) and park the van. I grab all the purchases and go to find Mary Caitlin or Keith to hand over the goods. Mary Caitlin is who I run into first and she’s talking to the merch girl. I hand the stuff to her and she begins to tell me what The Bravery need next. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! A bunch of stuff from Fed Ex. I had to get air bills and envelopes, bring them back to campus, have them fill them out and drop them back off at Fed Ex. She walks off and I start talking to Mary Caitlin about where a Fed Ex even is in Clarion and the merch girl walks back up and reminds me this has to be done before the last pick up at like 4:30pm (Really!?! I didn’t know that!) Which gives me about an hour….ugh. After calling around, we discover there’s a Fed Ex drop box in Clarion but not a Fed Ex location. So I find the merch girl and let her know and they decide it wasn’t important and they could just send the stuff tomorrow in Allentown. It was so unimportant I had to get it done by 4:30???? (since this is the last time I had to run for The Bravery it also should be noted that my last responsibility would be to take them to the hotel after the show but instead they just wanted to go to the bar. Unfortunately, for them, we aren’t a bar serving shuttle.)
I watch Colbie’s soundcheck and finally get to eat dinner. And am going around helping Mary Caitlin when I walk into the backstage area and right up to Mike and Colbie’s guitarist, Tim. ”Heeeeyyyyyyy!” This excited welcome could only mean one thing- Mike wanted something. And it turns out that Mike and Tim wanted to go to their hotel. While technically, Megan should have been the one to drive them…I wanted to give her a break. Ok I lie. I was super glad to take them since it meant not only I wouldn’t be able to do anything for The Bravery but I’d get to chill with Mike and get to meet Tim. No waiting around in fear that The Bravery would want goat’s milk or something. So while Tim grabs his luggage Mike and I hang around. During sound check Mike tossed his drumsticks into the air and I gave him crap for it as we couldn’t go anywhere else to replace them. But Mike let’s me know that the drumsticks he got were horrible. (I know- aww!) So after all that he couldn’t even use the ones we got. Fortunately, another drummer gave him a set so he could play. Tim walks up and Mike realizes he needs to get his stuff and I realize I still need to get the van. So by the time I pull back around we’ve added another Colbie bandmate, the other Mike. And the boys pile in and we head off. The guys are super nice and super chill. Cracking jokes about The Bravery, finding different ways to use Fike in a sentence (“Fike off!”), and just chit chatting. I had no problem running around Clarion for them cuz they were cool people, def not primadonnas.
Well the show went good. I saw most of it from backstage which is harder to enjoy cuz of the sound. But still fun. And when Tim passed by he was like “What’s up Nicki?” and Mike gave out gummi bears. After the show, Mike talked with me and Mary Caitlin outside their bus until he had to go to bed. He said bye and thanked me for the help. Basically, all The Bravery issues woulda made me extremely pissed had I not had Mike there to keep it entertaining. He could even handle me totally making fun of him. These are the kind of guys I’d not only run around town for, but I’d have them over to my house to bbq.
But what more do you expect from people from California?
