This post is a little delayed, but I've been really busy lately. God, where do I even begin? It was a crazy night, and Irving Plaza is now officially my favorite venue on the East Coast (although I'll admit I haven't been to that many). I guess I'll do the *logical* thing and start from the beginning
As I mentioned in my previous post "music virginity", Mikey, Joe, Danny, Kyle, and I didn't think we'd be going to the show at Irving Plaza. We were under the impression that all the tickets had been bought out by private companies. A few days later the rest of the tickets were released though, and we managed to snag five of them. So this time we knew we were really going. After being let down once that week, we were excited that we were going to be attending after all.
The day arrived. September 15. It was a Saturday, and it was gorgeous out. Hints of the upcoming autumn season were in the air, and the sky was that perfect blue, with only a few streaks of clouds to break it up. That afternoon was Ally's bridal shower (Mikey's brother Scott's fiancee). Naturally, I would be in attendance. So I woke up, and got ready and Mikey and I headed over the the clubhouse where it was at. It started at 1:00pm, and for once, we were there on time. I ended up leaving early to catch my bus, but it was a really nice gathering and I'm glad I was able to go!
At that point we still weren't sure how we'd be getting to and from the city. We were under the impression that Kyle's dad would drive us from Jersey, but he was already in Manhattan, so he just ended up meeting us at Port Authority.
At about 4:30, all five of us boarded NJ Transit bus 139. It was the quickest ride into the city I've ever experienced, but despite that, the excitement was still building up and I couldn't wait.
We arrived in Manhattan close to 6:00, and as promised, Kyle's dad was waiting. We were all hungry, so we headed over to an Italian restaurant and ate, hopped on the subway over to Union Square Park, and before we knew it, we were waiting in the will call line (all the tickets had been will call), at the Irving Plaza.
Irving Plaza was almost like a mythical place to me. Green Day has previous recordings from Irving Plaza, and I remember my 6th grade Nebraska-dwelling self thinking "wow, Irving Plaza is so far away, it must be so cool if they recorded there." And I was finally there. It was unreal.
While we were in line, this cool guy who had lived in London but moved to NYC was talking to us. He had seen Green Day countless times and told us all these crazy stories, so wherever you are, London turned New Yorker stranger, you're rad.
The doors opened at 8, and we were still in line during the opening band. We didn't really mind though. We were all so excited that it didn't even matter.
It was about 9:25 when we finally started getting close to the doors. We weren't worried. Green Day was going on at 10:00, so we definitely had plenty of time. They had will call arranged alphabetically, so when we got close enough and they called R-Z, we were able to go right up to the window.
This was it. I was about to see my favorite band of all time. The band that started it all.
"Last name?"
"Rosen, r-o-s-e-n."
"Okay, can I have photo ID and the card you purchased your tickets with?"
***Mikey hands her his license and his card***
***She slids a pair of tickets towards us***
"Wait but we have five tickets"
"No, you only have two..."
What the actual fuck. We had our receipts, and long story short, apparently there was a two ticket limit per card. Too bad Ticketmaster took our (Mikey's) money for five tickets. We had five receipts after all, and his bank had processed the transaction. The people insisted that Mikey would be refunded for the three tickets, but there was nothing else they could do.
There were only two tickets.
Two.
And there were five of us.
The disappointment and anger that we felt was immeasurable to say the least. The guys were pissed, and rightfully so. I myself was near tears.
So I convinced them to go outside, before we got ejected off the premises or anything.
There we were, after travelling all the way into the city, short three tickets, watching a thousand people shuffle into the venue. It was fucking awful. We had people coming up to us left and right trying to buy our two tickets, and at one point we were very close to selling them.
We were clearly upset. The boys had resorted to just sitting right down on the NYC sidewalk (something I wouldn't necessarily condone, hence the reason I chose to squat). It was about 9:50pm and the people without tickets had gotten their tickets or left, and the line had dwindled to a few people.
A woman from the AT&T came over to us, and asked if we were just hanging out or what. Naturally, we started to lament and told her about our devastating and disappointing evening, including how we had the five receipts.
What happened next is the greatest thing that's ever happened.
(Well maybe not the greatest of all time, but it's certainly way up there)
She simply said "come with me". And she asked if we had the two tickets we were given earlier. Thank god we hadn't sold them to scalpers.
We proceeded to follow her into the VIP line. She told her manager the situation. Then, all of a sudden, her manager pulled three tickets out of nowhere. They handed them to us and said "these are on behalf of AT&T and Nokia. Enjoy the show."
AT&T and Nokia saved the day. And if for some reason the woman who gave us those tickets sees this... thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We owe you big time.
(A side note: Walking past the people working at Ticketmaster was so gratifying.)
Green Day blasted us with an intense 38 song set, and seeing my favorite band of all time was better than anything I could have imagined.
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