Before I get onto the MEGA ANNIE UPDATE I just wanted to note that I have 250 extra army points 
I guess that's a reward for writing the SG Army FAQ 
Anyway sorry for the delay in the Annie update! I neglected to inform you all that my friend and I stayed the night in Jersey, and thus didn't get back until 3:30pm or so!
OMG I HAD FUN SEEING ANNIE
We got to the gig at 9pm when I thought the doors were opening. We were shooed away from the downstairs stage area repeatedly because they were not ready! BUT THE FIRST TIME WE LOOKED DOWN THERE ANNIE WAS ONSTAGE CHECKIN' HER MIC!
A lady who looked a lot like Annie and may have been her came up to the bar area for a while but went outside and wasn't really hanging out with people! If I had felt braver maybe I would have said "hello!"
Finally around 10:30 (yes we waited around doing nothing for an hour and a half) they let us in, I told them "will call", they had my name down, and they drew a blue X on my and my friend's hands! I went STRAIGHT to the stage and secured a spot front row center! No way could anyone squeeze in front of me and I was GUARANTEED to be only a few feet from Annie at all times!
Here are the dudes that were spinnin' for AN HOUR AND A HALF before Annie came on!
Then near midnight Annie's sound guy friend Timo Kaukolampi came out wearing THE RADDEST SHIRT EVER NOTE THE SIMILARITY WITH MY PROFILE PHOTO edit: I ORDERED A SHIRT JUST LIKE THIS FOR MYSELF THANKS
(You may notice a piece of papery thing hanging off the table to the right, it is a paper plate with, I'm assuming, the set list written on it! Some jerk got a photo of it but I wasn't in a place where I could do the same! And I was so tired after the show that I didn't think to jump on stage and grab it!)
Finally Annie herself stepped out of the stage door wearing a purple dress and looking lovely! (Note that in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE she has evil red eyes because I didn't think to turn on the red-eye setting on my camera which never works anyway!)
She had to pull up the top of the dress a bunch of times because it was slippin' and she is a proper Norwegian lady who doesn't want to flash her audience!
Notice she is also wearing lovely earrings!
She did these cute little grimaces a few times when she brought the mic too close to to the sound equipment and created feedback! (This is not a picture of such a grimace but she does have a funny look on her face and I felt I should inform you of her cute little grimaces!)
During an instrumental song with no Annie singing, Annie grabbed a weird plastic block sort of thing and a drumstick, and started hitting it, creating funky sound effects! Then she brought out an extra drumstick and handed it to an audience member to the right of my friend who got to make funky sound effects with Annie! Unfortunately the drumstick was not passed to me so I didn't get to participate
During a new song called "The Wedding" (I think) Annie pointed at random people in the audience each time she said "I do!" (The lyrics were something like "Will you? (I do, I do, I do) / Will you marry me? (I do, I do, I do)" SHE POINTED AT ME ONE OF THOSE TIMES! This would be a pretty rad picture if her eyes weren't red like a demon's!
Annie has a very high, tiny voice when she sings live! The music was BOOMING (when the dudes were spinnin' I could feel my entire body vibrate) so she got drowned out a little She looked to be having fun and was dancing around a bit as she sang. She did a few "WOO"s and stuff. A little banter with the crowd but it was mostly "thank you" and "it's great to be here" and "the next song we're going to do is _____".
OH OH OH! And she did ME PLUS ONE which is my FAVORITE... AND she said she had never done it live before last night! Can that be true?? Was I one of the first to hear her sing it live?
Anyway I had fun singing along and I think Annie noticed me mouthing the words because SHE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME AND SMILED a couple times. I couldn't see if anyone else knew the words but I want to believe she was impressed by my knowledge of her lyrics!
There were times she came pretty close to me! A couple times she couldn't have been more than 2ft away!
After she was done she exited backstage. My friend and I were tired and our legs hurt from standing around so we soon left. If Annie came out later and mingled with the crowd we left before she did! I don't think she did, honestly. If I find out she did though I will be sad I guess it's a shame I didn't try to accost the Annie-looking lady who came up to the bar but I bet she would have been irritated by my presumptuousness!
When we got back to the hotel (after traveling through a "clusterfuck" of NYC traffic, 5 lanes merging into 1 trying to get into the Holland Tunnel) I took a few photos:
I am never washing my hand again so I can remember my night seeing Annie in NYC!
It's a MIRROR PHOTO
From our hotel room we had a view of New Jersey (Joisey as I like to say) and not NYC:
The drive back home was a breeze but the drive up was a little trafficky at times. Bless my friend for driving 4+ hours each time to get us there and back! I would have helped but 1) I can't drive stick 2) she's done the drive a million times before to visit her parents. My friend has a nifty device called an "EZ-pass" which pays tolls magically, all she has to do is put it on the windshield (she wisely refuses to actually stick it on there so she pulls it out every time it is needed) and we go a little slowly through each toll booth and the toll is magically paid! And there are A MILLION toll booths to and from NYC!
Before the show we went to the Indian restaurant I had picked out based on glowing reviews and discovered it's a little hole in the wall with barely any seating to speak of! The food was decent, not disappointing exactly but not spectacular by any means. My friend did say the chicken was very tender and I think that is meat-eater language for "good"! I ordered too much food (the pakora was dry unfortunately) but I wanted to try a little of everything. I ended up wasting a lot and I feel bad about that
But back to Annie fun, I had a great time and it was a little surreal really! Being in a strange city to which I'd never been in an unfamiliar setting, and seeing a lady whom I'm CRAZY about, and her looking at me sometimes and smiling was all kind of dreamlike!
I HEAR SHE IS TOURING WITH A BAND IN SEPTEMBER and I hope any local dates don't coincide with our beach trip or else I will have to miss out! But I think last night's show will remain special-er because the September tour is bound to take place at larger venues I'd imagine! I doubt I will get to be as close as 2ft from Annie at any of THOSE shows.
Anyway I am so glad I got to go! It was an adventure and so worth it!
I guess that's a reward for writing the SG Army FAQ
Anyway sorry for the delay in the Annie update! I neglected to inform you all that my friend and I stayed the night in Jersey, and thus didn't get back until 3:30pm or so!
OMG I HAD FUN SEEING ANNIE
We got to the gig at 9pm when I thought the doors were opening. We were shooed away from the downstairs stage area repeatedly because they were not ready! BUT THE FIRST TIME WE LOOKED DOWN THERE ANNIE WAS ONSTAGE CHECKIN' HER MIC!
A lady who looked a lot like Annie and may have been her came up to the bar area for a while but went outside and wasn't really hanging out with people! If I had felt braver maybe I would have said "hello!"
Finally around 10:30 (yes we waited around doing nothing for an hour and a half) they let us in, I told them "will call", they had my name down, and they drew a blue X on my and my friend's hands! I went STRAIGHT to the stage and secured a spot front row center! No way could anyone squeeze in front of me and I was GUARANTEED to be only a few feet from Annie at all times!
Here are the dudes that were spinnin' for AN HOUR AND A HALF before Annie came on!
Then near midnight Annie's sound guy friend Timo Kaukolampi came out wearing THE RADDEST SHIRT EVER NOTE THE SIMILARITY WITH MY PROFILE PHOTO edit: I ORDERED A SHIRT JUST LIKE THIS FOR MYSELF THANKS
(You may notice a piece of papery thing hanging off the table to the right, it is a paper plate with, I'm assuming, the set list written on it! Some jerk got a photo of it but I wasn't in a place where I could do the same! And I was so tired after the show that I didn't think to jump on stage and grab it!)
Finally Annie herself stepped out of the stage door wearing a purple dress and looking lovely! (Note that in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE she has evil red eyes because I didn't think to turn on the red-eye setting on my camera which never works anyway!)
She had to pull up the top of the dress a bunch of times because it was slippin' and she is a proper Norwegian lady who doesn't want to flash her audience!
Notice she is also wearing lovely earrings!
She did these cute little grimaces a few times when she brought the mic too close to to the sound equipment and created feedback! (This is not a picture of such a grimace but she does have a funny look on her face and I felt I should inform you of her cute little grimaces!)
During an instrumental song with no Annie singing, Annie grabbed a weird plastic block sort of thing and a drumstick, and started hitting it, creating funky sound effects! Then she brought out an extra drumstick and handed it to an audience member to the right of my friend who got to make funky sound effects with Annie! Unfortunately the drumstick was not passed to me so I didn't get to participate
During a new song called "The Wedding" (I think) Annie pointed at random people in the audience each time she said "I do!" (The lyrics were something like "Will you? (I do, I do, I do) / Will you marry me? (I do, I do, I do)" SHE POINTED AT ME ONE OF THOSE TIMES! This would be a pretty rad picture if her eyes weren't red like a demon's!
Annie has a very high, tiny voice when she sings live! The music was BOOMING (when the dudes were spinnin' I could feel my entire body vibrate) so she got drowned out a little
She looked to be having fun and was dancing around a bit as she sang. She did a few "WOO"s and stuff. A little banter with the crowd but it was mostly "thank you" and "it's great to be here" and "the next song we're going to do is _____".
OH OH OH! And she did ME PLUS ONE which is my FAVORITE... AND she said she had never done it live before last night! Can that be true?? Was I one of the first to hear her sing it live?
Anyway I had fun singing along and I think Annie noticed me mouthing the words because SHE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME AND SMILED a couple times. I couldn't see if anyone else knew the words but I want to believe she was impressed by my knowledge of her lyrics!
There were times she came pretty close to me! A couple times she couldn't have been more than 2ft away!
After she was done she exited backstage. My friend and I were tired and our legs hurt from standing around so we soon left. If Annie came out later and mingled with the crowd we left before she did! I don't think she did, honestly. If I find out she did though I will be sad
I guess it's a shame I didn't try to accost the Annie-looking lady who came up to the bar but I bet she would have been irritated by my presumptuousness!
When we got back to the hotel (after traveling through a "clusterfuck" of NYC traffic, 5 lanes merging into 1 trying to get into the Holland Tunnel) I took a few photos:
I am never washing my hand again so I can remember my night seeing Annie in NYC!
It's a MIRROR PHOTO
From our hotel room we had a view of New Jersey (Joisey as I like to say) and not NYC:
The drive back home was a breeze but the drive up was a little trafficky at times. Bless my friend for driving 4+ hours each time to get us there and back! I would have helped but 1) I can't drive stick 2) she's done the drive a million times before to visit her parents. My friend has a nifty device called an "EZ-pass" which pays tolls magically, all she has to do is put it on the windshield (she wisely refuses to actually stick it on there so she pulls it out every time it is needed) and we go a little slowly through each toll booth and the toll is magically paid! And there are A MILLION toll booths to and from NYC!
Before the show we went to the Indian restaurant I had picked out based on glowing reviews and discovered it's a little hole in the wall with barely any seating to speak of! The food was decent, not disappointing exactly but not spectacular by any means. My friend did say the chicken was very tender and I think that is meat-eater language for "good"! I ordered too much food (the pakora was dry unfortunately) but I wanted to try a little of everything. I ended up wasting a lot and I feel bad about that
But back to Annie fun, I had a great time and it was a little surreal really! Being in a strange city to which I'd never been in an unfamiliar setting, and seeing a lady whom I'm CRAZY about, and her looking at me sometimes and smiling was all kind of dreamlike!
I HEAR SHE IS TOURING WITH A BAND IN SEPTEMBER and I hope any local dates don't coincide with our beach trip or else I will have to miss out! But I think last night's show will remain special-er because the September tour is bound to take place at larger venues I'd imagine! I doubt I will get to be as close as 2ft from Annie at any of THOSE shows.
Anyway I am so glad I got to go! It was an adventure and so worth it!
VIEW 12 of 12 COMMENTS
Oh...I want Timo's shirt.
I'll expect a full report later