WE WILL RUN & SCREAM

Justin Young // 30th November 2014

Nh7 Weekender

despite having exams the next day, i went to see the vaccines on the 30th of november last month. something i’d planned to do since they tweeted about it. you can imagine my reaction when i firstt saw it, i screamed and was in a daze for hours. however i had last minute second thoughts and convinced myself that i’d survive if i meed this one because i survived not seeing roo last year and Mumford&sons. ( i probably wouldn’t have survived though)

anyway i figured i’d never done anything reckless in my life before and here was my chance so i took it.

we reached the location 90 mins before their showtime so we hung around the stage they were to perform in and secured front row - Dinosaur PileUp was playing before them so it was pretty cool. my cousin somehow spotted justin and pete backstage and we got all riled up. we waved our arms like crazy to get their attention, which made them smile and we died. 

minutes before they came on stage. the whole thing dawned on me. there i was at 9pm, far from home, about to see one of my favourite bands live. i turned to jelly and idk how i managed to stand throughout their performance.

we were front row and centre and i swear justin looked in our direction a few times and even pointed at us during the “finger pointing…” part in wreckin’ bar. or so we thought.

they played 3 new songs - “want you so bad” is amazing, hypnotic actually. “dream lover” is pretty cool as well (you can check it out on youtube) and i don’t remember a thing about handsome. hmm.

the crowd went wild when they played “wetsuit” and “norgaard”. J kept beating his chest during the chorus of wetsuit — his expressions and hand gestures are so adorable. between songs when it got quiet, i called arni a few times and he was too shy to even look up. he just stared at the ground and smiled. aw.

i’m so glad they played “i always knew” though. thats one of my fav songs of theirs and it gives me this magical feeling and lets not get started on how amazing the music video is. i love the idea of two strangers getting on a ride together and just letting go like that.

the show ended too soon and before we knew it, they were already leaving the stage. we stood there, dazed, unbelieving what had just happened. when the crew cam on stage, we asked them for the setlist and one guy agreed to get it signed for us. during our wait, we randomly started calling their full names and this must have looked desperate or maybe convinced them we really were drop dead fans and deserved a meet and greet. cause between our wails and shouts, this guy came up to us and asked us to follow him. he led us to the entry to the backstage and made us wait a while. my mind was blank the entire time — i should’ve come up with good questions during that time but flabbergasted as i was, my mind was nada, gone to wonderland. so basically we got a free backstage pass. pete was in his super majestic black overcoat and arni was smoking and J was as awesome as a porcelain doll. somehow we found ourselves taking a group photo with them and we were running around for autographs. pete is a good conversationist, he asked us where we were from, said my polaroid was really cool and stuff. when my cousin asked him about his son. he was quite open about it. what a gentleman! he patiently stood when my cousin clung to him for pictures lol. to my friend’s delight, he spilled beer over her sweater and shoes during the group photo.

then somehow i found myself asking arni if i could touch his hair, to which he gave me a weird look and agreed ( i think so, i don’t remember ) it was quite messy from all the head rolling.

then our time was up and somehow my feet carried me to J and i asked him for a hug, all the while thanking them for coming to india and what not idk. then i found myself hugging freddie. i had my arms around his neck/shoulders and he had his around my middle back. and oh my freddie he pulled me so close and hugged me tightly i died!!! my first proper man hug!!! then i somehow ended up hugging arni and saying all kinds of shit like safe journey. idk what happened to my brain. i had so many good questions in my daydreams but the reality of meeting them was a blur.