The Most Incredible Trip Ever Part V: "Pale Blue Dot"

So, I lieu of the fact that it has taken me absolutely forever to finish these posts about Brandon Kelly, Josh Henderson and I's trip to Boston in May of 2010, I have compiled a list of the links below for you to refresh your story experience as you read this new, and hopefully final installment in this epic saga. 

PartI:
http://thecoldword.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-incredible-trip-ever-part-1-smoke.html

PartII:
http://thecoldword.blogspot.com/2011/05/most-incredible-trip-ever-part-2-then-i.html

PartIII
http://thecoldword.blogspot.com/2011/05/most-incredible-trip-ever-part-3.html

PartIV
http://thecoldword.blogspot.com/2011/06/most-incredible-trip-ever-part-iv-stay.html

So, we begin at the close of the final show of The Receiving End of Sirens. Josh was dripping in sweat, Brandon seemed okay and I was almost at dehydration. Utter and complete exhaustion was beginning to set in as we pushed our way to the front for this picture:

The security guards were having a hissy fit to leave, but we still rebelliously took this.

Anyway, we began to funnel out and saw Michael yelling about All the Day Holiday to sell some merch and stuff, so we asked him if they were staying with us tonight. Nathan was beside him, and they both seemed excited to stay in our room. As we passed them, we saw Mark, whose nose was still running like some toddler and he asked, "Yo, we getting crazy tonight!?" Oh silly Mark.

So we told them to call us and I could give them a parking pass for the hotel lot and escort them to the room. Once we got back, we took a quick set of showers so they could have them for the morning. We lounged around the room for a while until Daniel called. We met them in the lobby, looking like a crazy rag-tag group of punk kids in this super nice (3-4 stars maybe?) hotel. I handed Daniel the parking pass, and helped carry stuff to the room. Josh, earlier wanted dinner, and like a good gluten intolerant person, wanted pizza. So just before they came we got 8 large pizzas for 40 dollars delivered to the room.

1 large pizza for every man.

They were delivered to the room as soon as they got there, and believe me, that room was packed. But we just all laid around wherever, on tables, chairs, the floor, the bed... maybe the bathtub. They brought up a few brewskies and we just generally had a good time joking, talking and enjoying one anothers' company.

So the pizzas... we literally had 1.5 pizzas by the time we finished. I know I ate half of one, considering I hadn't eaten since 10:30, but Josh, who, remember is allergic to wheat, so that's bread, at an entire large pizza. 

Inconceivable!

But everyone had a slice for breakfast in the morning.  As the night drew on, people got a bit silly. Josh and David both decided it'd be a great idea to prank call the other rooms. This was horrifying to me at first, but now, knowing we'd get away with it, it's rather hilarious.

Josh would call this random room and just ask, "Hello, is Batman there?" To which people would ask either, "Who is that" or "No, I don't think so." We had caught these people right in REM sleep and were totally taking advantage of their grogginess. But the shenanigans stopped, and we got ready for bed.

All the Day Holiday gave us the beds, which was very gracious of them. And they slept on the floor. However, there was one space in the bed open, and Mark managed to get it with Brandon. Since the two of them were both having major allergy problems, it figured they should sleep together. As they got under the covers and the lights went off, I heard Mark turn over to Brandon and said, "Hey, I've got to sleep naked....It's my allergies."

Which, just thinking about it makes me laugh, if you knew Mark it would be 1,003 times more funny, but I'm really writing this for myself, Brandon and Josh.

So we finally went to sleep...


Then we woke up!
The guys got ready, we packed up, I got some of their Merch and packed it up in my bag. We said our goodbyes, I checked out. We got this awesome picture and prayed over one another before they drove off. They offered us a ride to the Greyhound station, but it was such a beautiful day, we figured it's be a nice mile walk.

So we began our trek to the Greyhound through the beautiful Worcester, MA. This was seriously one of the nicest towns I have ever been to in my life. Clean, elegant, well laid out and very very pretty. As we walked Brandon told us about this church service he went to that morning at a Methodist church we could see from our window. He said it was pretty, but didn't really have much of a spirit to it, which made us all a bit sad.

Anyway, I'll show you some pictures:

It took like 100 tries to get this!

As you can see, it's just nice and eclectic

Clearly not a bus

Their beautiful transportation center was being renovated

Anyway, we got our Greyhound tickets to Boston for about $15 and got into downtown within an hour. It was a sleepy ride. I read most of the time and by this time I was over halfway through with Camus's The Plague.

So we wandered around, and decided to go to Chinatown where it was Buddha's birthday celebration going on! Weeee! Well we saw they were giving away some free stuff if you poured water on some crappy porcelain statue, so we did it and got these little hanging things with some Chinese lettering on the back held up by a very pretty knot. I got the crappy one, which made me angry!!!

If you could zoom in, you'd see a sun disk (a reverse Swastika) on Buddha's chest

Anyway, lucky us, we got escorted to talk with this big name Buddhist Priestess about Buddhism. Lucky us. She was bald and had on an orange robe and spoke very good English with only a very slight accent and was very polite to us.

So she asked us about ourselves, and Brandon did most of the talking.

She asked our names and we went around: Brandon, Josh ... Cameron. She had a tough time with my name.


"Cameron? That's a very unusual name!"

A little later she found out we were Christian and tried to show us the similarities.

"Now you believe that if you do good, then that will get you to heaven right?" she asked.

"Well, that's not what we believe. We believe you can't do enough good to ever get to heaven. That's why we need Jesus," retorted Brandon wisely.

"Ah!" she exclaimed, "you are reformed!"

First of all, I was amazed that a Buddhist new that term, when 9 out of 10 American Christians have no real clue about reformed theology.

So in spite of the fact that she knew the differences, she went on with her self-help drivel, full of pithy statements and the importance of cleaning one-self up. She would talk about how people would seek advice from her, and this is straight from her lips, "I cannot help you, until you help yourself."

It made me sad to think about all the people who seek salvation from their own broken-ness but don't know about Jesus and his work to save us from ourselves. That's why I love Jesus, he's not an ambulance driver or some motivational speaker, but a heart-changer.

So we wrapped up conversation there, being happy about Jesus.

We walked away downtown in Boston, and Brandon and Josh were making fun of how she didn't know my name, and I went, "I should have said, 'Yeah, well Buddha's a dumb name." I haven't heard Josh laugh that much in my life. He literally squatted on the ground and laughed into the ground like he was vomiting happiness. Luckily, it was a holiday Sunday and almost the whole city was empty.

Perfect Band Picture

Anyway, we walked around for a while taking in the sights and such. We went to the site of the Boston Massacre and other nice places around Boston whose names I cannot remember. It seriously is the most beautiful city I have ever been to. It is the only city I would ever move to in the North. We went around to the Holocaust Memorial in Boston. It was very sad, but hopeful and every bit of its architecture taught a lesson and told, unabashedly about the horrors committed. It was a place of deep sadness and memory that just came down hard on all of us.

A plaque in the memorial.

We moved on to the Old North Church where Paul Revere did his thing with the lanterns alerting the Colonials about the approach of the regulars. Then we went on up the hill to Copp's Burial Ground which has graves that are hundred of years old. It is a very well kept place and is just astonishingly beautiful and peaceful.

Next we went to some dessert shop Josh recommended to us for a snack. That place was incredible!!!! I got some slice of chocolate cake, and I hate cake, but this was brilliant!

Just a smidgen of Boston Commons

So then we moved on to somewhere else, I believe it was Boston Commons, which is this incredible park right in the middle of downtown Boston. That place is beautiful. This park puts Central to shame. It is pristine! There is literally nothing out of place, all the gardens are well maintained and all the fountains were completely clean. There was a wedding shoot going on there, and it was incredibly touching how beautiful it was. We walked through there into some rich neighborhood and stopped in front of some nice clothing store for a while. And by a while, I believe it was about an hour. Our feet were killing us, we had to have walked around Boston for 5 hours taking in all the sights, and were planning on walking to Fenway soon, so we decided to rest. And, wow did we look like homeless dudes. Dirty, stinky, poorly dressed with backpacks.

They had many pretty sewing machines, though!

We sat outside and just waited for someone to tell us to leave, but no one did. As everyone walked by we just said thinks like - "Asians are number 1" "Dresses are number 1" "Being fat is number 1" "Being skinny is number 1" "Being white is number 1" "Being snooty is number 1" "Heels are number 1"

This spawned a huge amount of jokes about everyone who walked by and is forever immortalized by the three of us for just about everything.

So we walked on to Fenway, and then met some homeless guy and got dinner with him at McDonalds. I don't remember his name, but I hope he remembers us. We told him about Jesus and why we fed him. He seemed to ignore us, but I'd like to think that it meant something to him.

We got to Fenway, and there was a game about to go down. It was absolutely packed, and it smelled like beer and hot dogs like all baseball games should.  Then we caught a bus to downtown, then to the airport where we hoped to get inside the gate. Which didn't happen. By this time, my feet began to hurt very badly. I was suffering from tendonitis at the time, but didn't know it. It didn't hit me until I had sat for a while outside the gate.

So we did our usual shenanigans. Made collect calls to people under names like "Batman" and "Bilbo Baggins" [what's with all the B's?] and no one answered but instead said "This isn't real!" It was funny for a while. We grabbed some wheelchairs and some Arab lady took them from us saying that other people need them.

First of all, it was midnight. There was no one outside the gate at all. And what old people are going to use those wheelchairs at midnight!? But we gave them up. I stole another later and used it to get to the bathroom since I couldn't walk I was in such terrible pain. We pulled together some benches and tried to sleep. Josh went over to some restaurant and slept on their booths. I had no clue where he went. Brandon and I seriously thought he may have been arrested. But, being good friends we didn't do anything about it.

Sleep didn't really happen. It sucked. So when the gates opened at 6, we got our tickets and went through and waited for our flight for a few hours. Dawn came up and reminded us how tired we really were. We got on the plane, where I finished The Plague. I can't sleep on planes, so I just read. We had no ride from Raleigh to home, so we made calls and texts as soon as we landed, and luckily the incredible Caitlin Stevens offered to pick us up. We just crashed when we got back. Josh got Cookout, ate, and slept for 23 hours. I had an exam the next day and just spent about an hour studying. I got an A.

That was it. One of the greatest memories I have ever had. Now, leave comments, and tell me how awesome this story was. Here are some more pics.

Our favorite picture

This trip was number 1

The Most Incredible Trip Ever: Part IV: "Stay Small" Also, the climax of the journey

So, friends, and family, please accept my many apologies for failing to update this story blog for so so long. Anyways, let's just jump right back in...

We left our heroes, Josh Henderson, Brandon Kelly and me, as they recuperated from the rigors of an insane 24 hours. Is that really all I've covered!? Geez. Sorry, sorry, sorry I digress...

Daniel and David

So we got an awesome meal and nap before we left to go see All the Day Holiday's set, which happened at about 2:30. It was really great! Those guys do a great job of rallying the crowd and making them feel appreciated and part of the show. They really produce a lot of energy for the scene they play, which is helped a lot by Mark's exciting drumming at the very front of the stage.

Nathan, Mark and Daniel

A funny detail about Mark at this point. He was suffering from some major allergy problems. He had taken several pills to try and loosen the incredulous amount of snot jammed in his nasal passages. So in the middle of the set he was just pounding away on those drums and throwing his head around swinging spit and sweat and not to mention a massive snot rocket or two everywhere. I mean it looked like those old nickelodeon shows with the exorbitant amount of slime. In the picture you can see him holding his head up, this is not because he's getting into it, but because he's keeping the snot from dripping onto his lap.

Fun stuff. But, these guys were great! They played really well, and did a great job with only half and hour of playing time. So after them, we left and walked around Worcester for a while. We had 2 hours until we had to return to the concert hall, so we wanted to see the city.

The Van we rode in. Nice Bumper!

Brandon. No clue.

Anyway, these were a few of the pictures I snapped. With this little lull I have a bit of time to meditate on a funny story the guys told us about that van. To begin, they were in the process of finding another van, a bus rather, which would give them more space and more storage room so they wouldn't be completely miserable riding around from concert venue to concert venue. And this van, was miserable. It was falling apart at the seams. There was rust in ever corner, dings on every door, and the bumper had just completely snapped from the body.

I was curious, so I asked what became of the elusive bumper. Well, they had been driving for several hours one day and decided to pull over and stop for a bit at some gas station. Something like that. They got out and slammed the door closed. The jarring force of that slam was enough to snap the hair or rust holding that bumper on, and it fell off in a terrible crash. Imagine if that had fallen off while they were on the highway. They would have been done.

So, to continue with the original story. We headed back in and saw this band called Moving Mountains, which All the Day Holiday had toured with at one point and become good friends with in that time. Michael, the manager, literally begged us to come see them. And I must say, I was thoroughly impressed! They were very good and their drummer blew my mind. They had this heavy presence in the room, which was probably emphasized by the heavy bass chords and drops throughout the songs. 

Another band that stood out from the rest of the guys there was some random stupid guys at the beginning. Their music was terrible, vocals - uninspired, music- again- terrible. What made them stand out was this:

dresses...

Anyway, they sucked. Moving on...

So Brandon, Josh and I sat up in the balcony for a few hours, catching maybe a few winks until the moment came for TREOS to play. In the meantime we saw some dumb emocore bands who couldn't hold a candle for the eucatastrophic beauty that was to come that night.

Dear Hunter was pretty good though, and we got a great look at the stage and got a good sit down break because, as you can guess, we were exhausted.

Josh is so tireds

 So finally, the concert commenced. We went down about 2 bands before TREOS was to come on, and tried to force our way as far to the front as possible. I managed to get on the second row just behind this chick who said she didn't even know who The Receiving End of Sirens were. WHAT!? And she wouldn't move. I was ready to punch somebody!!! I had to sit through some guidolicious bands until TREOS, which probably made their experience so much better than it would have been cold. We literally waited in there for an hour and a half for TREOS to come on, and I had to be crushed between strangers and sweat and flesh and ew it was so gross. Ugh. but I will not complain. I did get a nice picture of my misery, though. And another thing that made it so endurable was the fact that EVERYONE was there for TREOS and not for anyone else. There were people from Boston, from Maryland, Indiana, and Texas. It was awesome. One guy I talked to, which I'm sad I forgot his name, was telling me that TREOS was the only bad that suitably described our human condition and the cycle of misery we are constantly put in. Man, I wanted to tell him about the Bible, but being shoved in between 800 dudes is not exactly good for protracted conversations. Neither is the band setting up and drawing everyone's attention to the stage.

So they began...

It started with the old favorite: Planning a Prison break and jumped between both albums pretty well. They did probably all but maybe 4 or 5 songs. I mean they were just unloading their music on everyone. After listening to two songs up front and snapping some awesome pictures, I had to go back and really enjoy this concert. I wanted to dance and sing and play with everyone else that was there. I wanted to find Josh and Brandon and scream, "Is this real life!?"

Here's a video from the concert:

But I had such an incredible time. I danced like crazy. I sang every song. People were throwing each other around, dancing together, screaming in each other's faces. I loved it. Josh and Brandon sat stoically watching from the back, I don't know why they didn't dance, especially Josh, geez. But he came out as sweaty as usual, even though he didn't do hardly anything. (I <3 you, Josh) Anyway, here are a few pictures:

 So, that was the concert, the climax of the trip. It was definitely an event that I will never forget, but the journey didn't end here, we still had a night of fun and excitement, and another day of travel and another night of experience. But, for now, the story must end.

The Most Incredible Trip Ever Part 3: "Wanderers"

So as I said before, this blog series "The Most Incredible Trip Ever" was only slated to be 3 parts. At this point, I may have to revoke that statement and let the story unfold as it will.

Now, where was I?

The concert ended, and all seemed lost for the fellowship. Our choices were narrowing down on places to stay, and we had few options left. I spent a moment talking to All the Day Holiday's lead singer: Daniel Simmons, and pitched our story to him. He was a great guy, but didn't really offer us a place to stay. Oh well. So, we decided to leave the concert hall/ bar and journey back to Barbara's hot dog trailer and share company with her and Slim (the homeless guy I mentioned in Part 2). But, serendipitously, I noticed the drummer from All the Day Holiday was sitting near their van outside and playing drums on their equipment drawers.

I thought to myself, maybe just maybe he will offer us a ride. But I shrugged it off and we kept walking. As we got to the end of the block I told Josh and Brandon, "That's the drummer from All the Day Holiday; we should tell him our story and see what happens." We turned around. "If worse comes to worse, he'll say no, but at least we asked."

So we awkardly walk up to Mark and introduced ourselves. He was a cool guy, really laid back. We told him our story about possibly staying in a homeless shelter and after hearing that he was like "No way, that's crazy!" We agreed. We continued talking to the band members and met the bassist David and the rhythm guitarist Nathan. They were awesome guys.

We chatted and talked and joked around. Their manager Michael raved about the merits of Parliament cigarettes (quite the oxymoron), and we watched drunk guidos shamble up and down the blocked off street for some guido-licious bar hopping holiday between flashing blue police lights. We joked about it for a while, and Daniel, who had come out at this point to talk to us, talked about how they don't know anything better for themselves. This sounded like something a fellow believer would say, but we didn't say anything at first.

Then Nathan mentioned that he was reading a book about Jewish history, and I asked him "Are you Jewish?"

"No, I'm just curious about the roots of my faith."

We had our proof. So I up and asked him, "Are you a believer?" He and the others confirmed and we embraced. It was great to find believers outside of Gastonia or Boone or Raleigh. It's weird to think outside of those spheres, that the gospel flourishes in a real way outside of our realm of understanding. We continued talking for a while and mentioned that we may stay in a homeless shelter.

Enter high homeless man named "Richard." This guy was quite a character. He asked for some money, which we refused at first, having walked by once earlier that night. He came back a second time, which we refused again. Obviously, he was on something if he didn't remember something that happened 15 minutes prior, and came by a third time and asked. Daniel, I believe, asked his name, to which he unloaded a cesspool of unrelated and violently ejaculated ideas. There was something about respecting your parents and how we're all like trees growing off our parents or something weird like that. He walked away for a moment and proclaimed "I am... a philosopher."

How lightly people use that term. He continued talking and raving before he finally saw a crowd he wanted to beg from and walked off. Josh Brandon and I looked at each other nervously and Daniel said words that were sweet honey to my ears, "Yeah, you guys can ride with us, we can definitely make room."

[Let me take a moment here to thank God for answering prayer in a way that goes above and beyond our requests. He granted us, not only a place to stay, but transportation to it, free bed and safe fellowship with believers. He does answer prayer]

So we packed up the van and helped them load their stuff like a giant complicated chess set. We crammed in the van and just thanked the crap out of those guys. It was an awesome ride. Mark called a buddy of his that turned 21 that night and in the middle of his conversation yelled, "You aren't drunk!? Are you okay!?" Probably a lot funnier considering it was 1:30 in the morning at that point.

They offered to let us stay with them in a hotel outside Worcester (which, you will remember, is where the concert was to be) and to take us to the concert hall the next afternoon before it started.

Anyway, the car ride was fun. Mark was sassy. David was sarcastic. Michael whined. Daniel had civil conversation, and Nathan stayed mostly stoic, discussing modernist literature with me in the back seat. [Which was great; I will talk anyone's ear off about that period.] We stopped momentarily at a McDonalds, which, strangely, didn't offer any dollar menu items at all after 2 a.m. Why!?! I remember I got a quarter pounder, and it was possibly the best McDonald's food I ever got.

A lot of the details get fuzzy after that, since it was so late. But we arrived at the hotel room, which was huge - more than big enough for all of us. They gave Brandon and I the pull-out couch. Josh slept on couch cushions and the rest of them shared the king. Daniel slept in the van with Nathan. I slept like a baby. I just left my earplugs in and slept like the dead.

His smile not = fatigue

So we wake up the next morning around 8. I remember Michael saying something about having to leave at 8 and so I rushed up and washed off a little and got packed. Josh was happy to wake up as you can see from the picture here.

I was just talking to the guys as they were getting ready. I asked Michael if I could help doing anything, since we were leaving later than we needed to.

"Let me tell you a secret: I tell them we need to leave 30 minutes before we actually have to. That way, we are always on time."

Ingenious, Michael. Ingenious.

The ride to Worcester

Anyway, so we go out and get in the car. A light rain met us as we walked out, bu no big deal. We drove to Worcester, and the guys stopped at the concert hall in Worcester. We got there at about 10, and helped unload in the rain. They gave us their stuff and we walked it inside. Yeah, we were roadies. Yeah, we went in the Palladium before the concert. Yeah, we set up gear.

Left: Michael // Right: Brandon

Yeah, we're awesome. Question answered.

[I should also mention: I never got how to say Worcester. Turns out, it's pronounced 'whis-ter' not 'wor-chess-ter.' Don't worried, I was heckled most of the time for it.]

Anyway, we set up, the inside was awesome, and it was huge, and perfect for the awesome-ness of the upcoming concert.

But the guys let us go after set-up, told us what time their set was (if I remember correctly, it was 3). So, Brandon, Josh and I go to the Crowne Plaza hotel to fulfill our reservations. This place was nice! I mean clean, chandeliers, roaring fire and tiled flooring. The clerk was nice and welcoming and told us about the Breakfast Buffet.

Elation

Excitement

Joy

...All from a Breakfast Buffet.

So we shower stupid fast, get keys for everyone, and rush down to the breakfast buffet. That was the best 13 dollars I have ever spent. I have never eaten that much bacon, sausage, biscuit or egg in all my life. The consumption was unparalleled. I om-nom-nommed the crap out of that food.

Josh at a lot of gluten, which all of us suffered for later on.

So we went and took a nap until All the Day Holiday's set that afternoon.

To be continued...

The Most Incredible Trip Ever: Part 2 "Then I Defy You, Stars"

We began our trip on May 7th, a day before Skatefest and the day of their Secret Show: "The Real Eve of Skatefest." Our plan was to leave arrive at the airport around 2 pm. Josh and Brandon were to pick me up from my apartment an hour and a half before our take-off time, which is standard procedure for that kind of thing. As 12:30 began to draw close, I became anxious and worried about arriving on time. I did NOT want to miss. So I called Josh and they told me they were on their way. I was so anxious and excited that I got my bag and packed my few little things in it - MP3 player, wallet, phone and charger, a few pairs of undies, T-shirt and an undershirt. I knew I'd sweat a ton on that trip, so I remembered to bring deodorant of course. I remembered of course that I'd be buying shirts and things, so I left room for that as well.

Anyway, details, details.

I went to the main street in front of my apartment complex, so they wouldn't have to bother to park and pull out and all that silly junk. The seconds that drew by felt like hours, but finally I saw them riding up in Josh Carroll's glorious Saturn. Its gleaming silver blue shine glinted in the sunlight and danced across the open pages of my memory. From out of that glorious chariot, Josh Henderson hung from the window, brandishing a glorious wooden sword, which I later was told came from a dumpster at App. State that he found just before he drove to Raleigh. He nearly smacked me in the head with it as they screeched to a halt at my feet, and it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen.

When I got in we just started screaming and hollering like there was no tomorrow. The Receiving End of Sirens was just blaring and we could feel the ecstasy which was to come slowly impressing itself on our minds.

We arrived at the airport with no problems. Nothing amazing to speak of. We got our JetBlue tickets and went through security. No problems with that either. We got through in literally 5 minutes. We had an hour or more to burn before the flight, so Josh and I went to an overpriced bookstore near our gate and browsed for a while. Josh (Henderson, let's make this clear) bought The Plague by Albert Camus and I bought No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (who, in my opinion, is the greatest fiction writer alive today).

Josh and I in Boston. Day 1

We boarded the flight, sitting in separate seats, and read or slept for the 2 or 3 hours we were on the plane. We arrived in Boston and charged off the ramp onto the ground of Boston. We bought a bus ticket into the heart of Boston to get a Greyhound to Providence. Brandon wound up having to pay with a 20, and got 19 shiny gold coin dollars in change. He wasn't sneaking up on anyone the rest of that trip.

We got lost briefly in Chinatown trying to find the Greyhound hub, but Josh got directions from his iPhone and we departed for Providence.

Let me take a chance to say something about Greyhound. People romanticize buses as something for hipsters, or people on identity crises or poor hobos going from place to place. They're actually not. There were people from all walks of life on that bus. Our one to Providence was nearly full. I had a seat to myself, luckily, and Josh and Brandon slept together. I was too enamored by the book to take my eyes off of it. But I sat there and charged my phone in the plugs they have at every seat. The seats were comfortable and gave you plenty of space. There is also an AC unit above you that you can control. But, I didn't venture into the bathrooms.

So we arrived in Providence, which was a beautiful city. It was very open and inviting, with tall glass buildings and other small monuments with an old-world feel shining from their granite facades. We walked about 5 blocks to the small concert hall where TREOS was to be playing. This road took us through a cobblestone walkway flanked on either side by small trees lite with lights. It was beautiful and calm that night, and we walked by a park, where we planned to hang up an ENO hammock to stay for the night.

We had no way of getting to Worcester, MA that night since the buses stopped running at 12, and we knew we'd be in that concert until possibly 1. But, being young and foolish, we didn't care one bit.

We went up into the concert hall, got our tickets approved, our ID's checked and went on in. It was a neat place, with a big bar in the very middle and a lot of scantily clad women who we knew would leave soon after that rock music would start playing. We stuck around for a bit, and got super excited when we saw Brendan Brown and Alex Bars. Our fears were dashed away in that moment, and we squealed and shouted like little girls. It was great.

Well we sat around for a bit and listened to a band called All the Day Holiday. They were really good - a good start up for an awesome night. Their frontman was really nice to the crowd, saying things like- "We love you guys. This is the reason we play," or "Come talk to us after the show, we'd love to hear your story." He was very gracious to the crowd, and seemed really sincere.

About three-quarters of the way through their set we left and decided to walk around Providence a bit more. It was a good night, and we needed to scout out places to camp in the city. We arrived again at the square where we arrived and went into the hot dog TRAILER that was there. I mean you could literally go inside this thing.

Well, we grabbed a hot dog, since we only had a hamburger in Boston and talked to the owner named Barbara. She had a homeless pal who was sitting in there, interrupting at times to tell us about how we could stay at some strip joint. We humbly declined and Barbara told us that "white boys like [us] would get robbed staying in a park." She went on to say "They [the homeless] can tell you aren't one of them, and around here they fight a ton. There was a fight out here not too long ago and the cops were called." At this point we began to get nervous and asked her for advice on where to stay for cheap. Again the homeless dude told us to go to some place and she yelled at him and told him to shut up.

The only place she recommended was the homeless shelter, which we got directions to pretty easily, but nonetheless were anxious about that idea. So, on our way back, I began to pray that we would be provided with somewhere to stay for cheap and without worry about being mugged or whatever.

Anyway, the time for CONCERT 1 came and we hustled back to the concert hall.

After waiting through some crappy post-hardcore bands, The Receiving End of Sirens finally came up to set up their equipment. It was time.

My Excitement

Brandon's Excitement

Josh's Excitement

Suffice to say, it was one of the most incredible concert events ever. Literally everyone sang along to every word of every song. There were no fights, no petty quarrels about who hit whom in the mosh pit. Everyone was excited to be there and happy to be there. TREOS was happy to be there, encouraging everyone, thanking everyone repeatedly and fostering the general sense of camaraderie.

I'm not really sure how many songs they played, or which exactly, other than their big singles and some of the more popular ones, but every second of it was so much fun. Brandon and Josh stayed near the back to watch while I dove in the pits and had fun dancing with everyone and singing along with the group.

After the show itself we went and talked to TREOS and tried to plug our story in, ya know, just to see if we could stay with them or anything, which didn't work... sadly. So we got a picture or two with them, and stood around, looked at merch. Brandon bought a shirt with a unicorn on it for TREOS, but other than that there wasn't much to snatch.

And, we still had no place to stay.

TO BE CONTINUED...

The Most Incredible Trip Ever: Part 1: "Smoke and Mirrors"

Let me begin by saying that every college student should have one amazing story to tell from their undergraduate career. And, let me tell you, this one tops about 87% of those stories. That might sound cocky, but please, bear with me as I unfold to you the most incredible series of events that could only be dreamed of. 

So, ever since high school, Brandon Kelly, Joshua Henderson and I have loved this band called The Receiving End of Sirens. They are a post-hardcore, ambient, progressive rock band from Boston Massachusetts. Their lyrics center around themes of relationships and the brokenness of humanity, while still remaining upbeat and hopeful. The last album "The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi" takes its title from Johannes Kepler's book Harmonicus Mundi (translated: The Harmony of the World). Here is their take on it from Absolutepunk.net 


"The title, The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi was taken from a book written by a late 16th century astronomical theorist by the name of Johannes Kepler [Harmonices Mundi] and the publication just fascinated the band. Kepler’s theory suggested that each of the 9 planets in our solar system produced tones as they orbited the sun. Throughout the orbit, Venus would stay a consistent note that was considered the 6th in relation to the rest of the planets. As Earth would shift its tonality, it would create the effect of the notes moving from the major 6th to the minor 6th and back and forth. This is where the “Mi Fa Mi” comes into action, symbolizing the corresponding syllables when singing a scale in relation to the notes of the earth {Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do}. Kepler further concurred that the Earth “singing” Mi Fa Mi could truly stand for Misery, Famine, Misery and ultimately, that is the song the Earth and Venus continued to sing. Misery, referring to an empty place and Famine, referring to the appetite or thirst for things."

Suffice to say, there are many reasons for me to like them other than the sound of their music. 

Sadly, TREOS (The Receiving End of Sirens) broke up in May of 2008, which came as quite a sad surprise and shock to Brandon, Josh and I. Luckily enough, Brandon was surfing the web one day in November 2009 and came across some exciting news: TREOS would be playing a single reunion show in May of 2010 at a yearly concert festival called Skatefest. That, to us was incredible news, but there was only 1 problem...


It was in Worcester, MA, which was a 12.5 hour car ride. 700 miles away. 


However, that didn't deter the three of us. In spite of our tight budgets and limited resources, we decided to buy tickets that December and nabbed a cheap $100 plane ticket to Boston out of RDU the Friday before the concert, which was on that Saturday. 


Closer and closer the day came for us to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Josh, the ever eager, would periodically text Brandon and I a countdown. 


70 days


30 days


24 days


10 days

2 days


At about this time, Brandon came across some EVEN MORE AWESOME NEWS. Before the concert Saturday, some bands whom were to be playing at Skatefest were playing a show in Providence, RI on that Friday which was called "The Real Eve Of Skatefest." Their headlining band was called only "special guest appearance," and upon further investigation, Brandon discovered the acronym for the concert was TREOS. Brandon, the sleuthful, deducted from purely circumstantial evidence that TREOS was playing. 


(side note: congratulations on being so awesome at looking up stuff, BK)

 So Brandon calls me, and it goes something like this:

*ring ring*
Cameron: Hello?
Brandon: Hey, what's up?
C: Nothing, just readi---
B: I just found out TREOS is playing another show before Skatefest - a secret show!
(He proceeds to explain)
B: So should we go? It's all the way in Providence.
C: (thinks momentarily) Yes. I'll buy and print tickets for us now.


So that was it, we were going to be seeing TREOS twice, but there was 1 problem, we had nowhere to stay in Providence, RI, and I had already booked us 2 nights in Worcester at a place 1 block from the Palladium (the concert hall they were playing). So I called the Crowne Plaza Hotel and cancelled our Friday Night stay in Worcester. We had no where to stay, but I figure we'd just handle that later.


The Day of Departure:
To Be Continued....