Last week was one hell of a week. My sister and I were on the Street Team Crew for Rockaway and we had to sell tickets for them. I spent hours and hours on the internet trying to promote our ticket sales on twitter, tumblr, facebook and other sorts of places. The reason why we were so determined to sell tickets was that if we sold a specific amount of tickets we would get to meet The Used. How can I begin to explain my love for The Used? Let's start with this, I've been listening to them ever since I was in sekolah rendah when my sister first let me listen to The Taste Of Ink. Little did I knew I had fallen in love with the band, this love lasted until now. I still am a big fan and always have been, just the thought of them finally performing in Malaysia was surreal. And I never thought I would get to meet them! I even had my first ever super duper celebrity crush on their guitarist, Quinn Allman. Let's just say that I was crazy obsessed with him. His hazel eyes & that gorgeous blonde hair, I mean come on, he's a beautiful thing isn't he?
Since then I know every single song from every single album they've ever released. My personal favourite song is I Caught Fire. That song was beautiful, the melodies, the lyrics, just the whole thing to me was fucking amazing! Years have passed and I finally get to see them perform live right before my eyes. Ticket sales were hectic as fuck. But in the end we managed to sell about 130+ tickets which was a hell of a lot of tickets. After all that hard work of selling tickets it was all fucking worth it. I got to meet my favourite band of all time. That day of the meet & greets we went to their soundcheck and I got a little sneak peek of what was to come the next day. We had to watch from a very far distance because they were still working on the stage & the whole thing. Oh and did I forget to mention that they didn't bring their own guitar so they had to borrow my guitar for the show? I brought my guitar that day because Rahul was in need of a Taylor Cutaway which coincidentally I had. Thanks to my dad for that haha. When I heard Bert say 'alright, we're gonna go with On My Own right now' and I immediately turned around and I saw Quinn strumming my guitar. My jaw dropped and my eyes glimmer with joy. I know, I sound like a psychotic person who saw the sun for the first time, well it's pretty much equivalent to what I was feeling that day.
After the soundcheck we headed out for lunch, then we went straight to the Palace of The Golden horses where the bands were staying and they were having a press conference there. When we arrived at the lobby we bumped into Bert and Quinn, but I was too star-strucked to even utter a single 'hello'. Quinn looked at me for a second then went to the counter. My knees were shaking as if I was some sort of saltshaker. After that we met up with Nikolai who was one of the organisers for the event, he brought us to the conference room where they were about to have the press conference. There I saw a bunch of familiar faces, some of my friends too. Rahul told me that my guitar was with the band in their room and they loved it. A smile just stretched across my face, just the thought of them touching it makes me tingle haha. About 5 minutes in waiting, Bert, Quinn, Jepha, their manager/handler, Dan and his girlfriend walked passed us and I saw their manager/handler holding my guitar and bringing it with them to a room across. When the conference started they had an impromptu performance with, you guessed it, my guitar! HAHAHA sorry, just a little excited. At some point in the conference one of the interviewers asked them if they had learnt any Malay words, Bert just went "umm, Pukimak" and the whole room started laughing like mad including myself. Such a prick that man :')
After the conference we had to wait for almost an hour and a half to meet them. When we finally went in the room to meet them, my hands and feet started to shake as if I was about to fall off a cliff. The first person I met was Bert, he was such a nice dude, very down to earth too. I asked him to sign my Artwork CD cover and he drew a little alien like thing on it. He was about my height though he did lifted his feet a little when we took a picture together LOL. Then I met Quinn. Quinn oh Quinn. After all these years I finally get to meet my first crush, though with a slight balding spot on his head. How I wish he had his longer blonde hair back. But what to do right? he's a married man now LOL. He was such a sweetheart, he talked to us for a while and even asked my sister what lens she was using. After that I met Jepha, he's a really nice dude, when I asked to take a picture, he instead took the camera and asked us to pose so he can take a picture of us. He noticed my sister and I looked alike and asked if we were related which we obviously were haha. Then I met Dan, who was a little more quiet than the other members, he was with his girlfriend the whole time so I felt kind of awkward talking to him. They even went to the bathroom together LOL k.... Afterwards we took pictures with the whole band but Jepha went to take a crapper so he was MIA in our picture. I told Quinn that he was using my guitar and he said that "it's a sweet guitar! I love it! Thanks" and I smiled the whole time. I even gave them all I ♥ MY so Quinn and Bert asked for my name, I said "Syaza" and Bert just went and shout "SYAZA!! Thanks so much!". Though it was brief, it was priceless. When we said our goodbyes, Quinn and Bert shouted my name and it was freaking awesome!!!
Matt Asti's (MGMT), Jeremy Davis' (Paramore), Quinn Allman's (The Used), Alex Gaskarth's *pixie's* (All Time Low)
The day of the concert was super hot, I don't even know how some people could wear sweaters and super thick wool beanies to the concert. We waited for about 10 hours for The Used to perform and when they did I was smiling the whole time. They played lots of old songs and I was such a happy child. When they were about to perform their last song which was On My Own, I shouted to Quinn "Hey Quinn! Nice guitar!", he immediately looked at me and waved, I told him I wanted a guitar pick so he pointed at me and threw it to me. But unfortunately it got lost in the rain because it bounced off the barricade. I still think one of the guards took it thought... But thankfully, Rahul took a guitar pick of The Used for me :) We met backstage and he passed me my guitar and that little souvenir he got for me. It was such an awesome night which I will never forget. I still haven't changed the tuning of my guitar that Quinn used. I know. I'm weird. But what the hell?! It's a once in a lifetime opportunity! Thanks so much Livescape and the people at Rockaway! The people who bought our tickets! My parents! This was the best two days of my life.
xoxo,
syaza
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