quite possibly the coolest thing ever

man, where the crap do i start? well, i guess i should start at the beginning of the whole deal. a great friend of mine Tayler and i went to see The Streets in Minneapolis at the Fine Line Music Cafe (a sweet freakin little venue downtown). we had a nice little drive and despite the crummy directions provided by the ticketmaster web site, we got there about 45 minutes before the show. luckily, there weren't many people out on the floor so Tayler and i got right up front, right to the stage. we met a couple of people who were also right up front, so we talked to them until the opening band, Tapes and Tapes, started; they were prettty cool people. the opening band was a local band and i must say that they were pretty good. i don't think they could fall into any peticular genre, they were comparable to Modest Mouse; boy, was their drummer ever good, a total animal. so, they got done and The Streets' crew started setting up their stuff. now, you know that a concert is going to be wild and fun when the crew, in addition to all the music equipment, they bring out a six-pack of beer and set up two taps on the front of the drum kit, one with a bottle of vodka, the other with a bottle of first class brandy. they have a song on their first CD about Mike's (the rapper) body telling him to stop drinking brandy, so when they played it the singer of the group, Leo, handed out little plasctic cups of brandy......so, you know i had to get one; man, was it ever good and smooth. so, after about an hour of playing, they shuffled off stage and of course we all yelled for an encore. after a few minutes, they finally heeded our call and came back on stage to do a couple more songs. in great style, they finished up with my favorite song of theirs "Don't Mug Yourself"; it was frickin' brilliant. so, during the last song Mike and Leo started handing out little pieces of paper. so, out of a deep desire to be included, tayler and i started yelling and motioning at Mike to give us one. he must have heard us right away because just after we started petitioning him, he walked right over to us and asked us if we wanted one, "frick yeah" was the response, so he got two and handed them to Tayler (he seems to be a sucker for pretty girls). so, we look at them to read what they were and they turned out to be passes to the after-party they were throwing; blankin' awesome!!!!!!!!

we went up to the lounge where they were having it and sat and waited for the band to come up; it was so cool just sitting there in the VIP area waiting to hang out with The Streets. while we waited, we met this guy, Matt, who was having trouble with his girl.....wait, let me back up. during the concert, between songs, Mike was talking with the crowd and locked eyes with this prissy girl that was standing right behind us. he stoped everything and was like, "damn you're fit, do you got a boyfriend?" or something like that and she said, "no", in a sort of weak-kneed, high school girl, teenu bopper way. Mike reply to this was, "would you like one?" or something like that. well, he didn't really wait for an answer and turned around and they started the next song. so, back to the after-party, the we were talking to was, as it turns out, the boyfriend of the girl who said she didn't have one.....needless to say he was pissed. to top it all off, when the band came trickling in, Mike went right over and started talking to her (she was obviously up there) for a couple minutes, then they left and went downstairs to the dressing room. that pretty much was the breaking point for Matt and he was going crazy, so Tayler, being the great girl she is, took him aside and talked him down a little bit; which took a great deal of the night. so, while Tayler was talking to him and various members of the band, i hung out at a table with 4 college students, 3 girls and a guy, who attend a college just north of Mankato, MN; they were really cool people and very easy to talk to. after a while it was just me and Gustof at the table; the guy mentioned above, who is from Sweden. we talked about church, God, music, London, Sweden....all sorts of things. it was really one of those situations where after the fact you look back on it and think, "man, you're way cool God to allow things to just be brought up", which further reinforces the fact that God will use you where ever you are, you just have to ready. i talked to Leo a little bit, but mostly i just hung back and let everyone else talk to the guys from the band. Tayler, though, talked to the keyboard player quite a bit, as well as Leo and Mike a little (he wasn't up there as often as the others). well, the night was drawing to a close and we decided to call it a night, seeing as though it was 1:15 and we had a three and a half hour drive ahead of us. so, i said good bye to Gustof and the girls i had met earlier and the said it was nice to meet me and to drive safely. i returned the sentiment and Tayler and i headed down the stairs to leave. well, who comes walking up the stairs whhile we are walking down them but Mike himself.......freakin cool. he looks up at us and says "you guys ain't leavin' yet are ya?" or something like that and we respond "yeah, i think the party's over and we have quite a drive ahead of us" or something like that. so, we end up talking to him for about 5 minutes or so, i shake hands with him, telling him the show was great and he gives Tayler a little kiss on the cheeck and proceed to walk down the stairs and out of the place not freakin believing the night we just had. the drive home was hell, but we made great time, making it back in about 3 hours. so, we got back to CF at 4:20, i dropped Tayler off at her place and headed home, making it to bed at 5. even as i write all this stuff, i still can't believe it actually happened........the whole experience was quite possibly the coolest thing ever. frickin' awesome!!!!!!!!