After forging a friendship with rock band Papa Roach, yes another bug band, was able to sign with Dreamworks SKG for their first studio album ANThology. Their cover of the Michael Jackson song, "Smooth Criminal" was an instant #1 hit worldwide and they toured heavily in support of it, that's where we come in. 311 was strolling into town and the best news was that they were playing at our favorite autograph hunting ground.
We had a bad feeling about 311 because they refused to appear at the autograph booth at Rockfest a couple of year's prior. When we found out that the hot new band, Alien Ant Farm, was the opening band we were definitely not going to pass up this chance. When we arrived at the venue there were many tour buses all over the place and we had no clue to which one was whose. There were only three bands playing that night, but there were probably about five buses outside of the event. The only question now was where to go?
We noticed two 311 fans getting autographs from somebody, but couldn't get a good look at him. After asking who they had just met, the two 311 fans told us it was drummer Mike Cosgrove from Alien Ant Farm! We were mad that we missed out on meeting him, but thankfully he returned shortly. Mike was very nice and had no problem signing autographs (he even gave those same 311 fan's free passes to the show later that day).
He signed our pictures and posed for pictures with both of us. Mike must've thought we were ebay sellers because when we asked to get a picture with him he took our autographs and held it to the camera, as if saying "I signed these pictures and here's the proof". From there we met some band members of 311, but we'll leave those stories for their sections.
We eventually got a good idea to where Alien Ant Farms bus was located after meeting some members of 311, so we knew where to stand. Bassist Tye Zamora was the next member of AAF we had the pleasure of meeting. Tye is Sterling's favorite member so he was really stoked about this encounter.
He was really nice and took on some funny poses for the pictures he took with us. He was just an all around great guy and we thanked him for stopping to sign. It wasn't long after meeting Tye when guitarist Terry Corso showed up. Terry immediately signed our pictures and couldn't have been more approachable. Before he left, we thanked him and were so happy because now all we needed to complete our Alien Ant Farm autographs was the main man himself Dryden Mitchell.
After meeting the rest of the guys of 311, Dryden was clearly the only person we now focused our attention on. Earl finally spotted Dryden coming out of the venue with a hood on and some fans called over to him, but those calls fell on deaf ears and he quickly went inside.
We were beginning to think that he must be a real jerk. Two people with us were trying to get AAF to take their demo, but couldn't get Dryden's attention. So they put the demo under the windshield wiper of the tour bus. Right after they did that and began to walk away, the roadie of AAF yelled at them crushed the CD with his hands and threw it to the ground with authority. I can understand why the roadie was mad, but crushing the CD and slamming it to the ground is a little extreme.
The band had to go to their sound check and the roadie told us not to bother them going in and we knew not to piss him off, so we accommodated his request. We saw all of them head into the venue and hoped that Dryden would come out after the sound check and sign. After some time passed they started to come out one by one and we looked for Dryden. Dryden finally appeared from within the depths of the venue, but nobody was calling him over (I guess we're just all shy fans).
Fearing he was just going to leave, Earl called him over for an autograph and he was more than willing to. Dryden wasn't a jerk; he was just shy like us fans. Although he is very shy, he's a nice guy and was more than willing to take care of the small crowd of fans autograph requests. He also has great poses for photo ops which makes the experience that much better.
Friend Mr. Ao decided to join Sterling and Earl on this outing to try and meet Alien Ant Farm once again. We were not just autograph collectors on this occasion, but also concertgoers. Since the last time we met AAF we became big fans of theirs and decided to give their show a try. We arrived and found out from fellow collector Newt that they were in sound check.
We waited outside the door and they soon came out one by one (deja vu). Dryden, ironically, was the first band member to come out and was once again a pleasure to meet. As you know last time it took us forever to get his autograph, so this autograph hunt was already looking promising.
Terry and Tye soon emerged and signed for us as well. We were mad because we didn't talk to any of them very much and it was kind of awkward. All of us decided to do a little more talking when Mike exited. When Mike came out we talked with him a bit about the "Movies" video and we had a good little chat with him. Soon he was off and that left us with all of their autographs again and in such a short time span too! We didn't even try to get the opening bands autographs (Dislocated Styles and The Apex Theory).
Now it was time to see the concert. The concert was very good if you ask Earl, but it was a little ruff with some mosh pits and Sterling and Mr. Ao almost got sucked up a few times. One lady (who was really big) actually tried to trip Earl during the show so she could take over his closer spot, yikes. She would also try to bump us out of our spots, an interesting individual to watch.
Sterling didn't have as fun of a time because the bassist for The Apex Theory hocked a lugee on him during their performance; yeah you heard that right. It was really sick and has caused Sterling to have a little hostility for The Apex Theory, would you blame him? "It was the sickest thing I've ever had to deal with in my life," Sterling says jokingly. "Lets see how you would like the biggest lugee to hit your face during a show and try to enjoy the rest of the concert." Alien Ant Farm did put on a great show though and we're glad we got to see them live.
After the concert we wanted to see if we could actually get some pictures with AAF and for them to sign our CD (earlier we got the CD jacket signed). As we waited we saw many interesting things. Such as the lead singer of Dislocated Styles being so wasted that he peed on the side of the building right in clear view of the city streets.
Earl got two members of the Apex Theory to sign an index card while Mr. AO and Sterling waited for AAF. Terry, Tye, and Dryden were the members that eventually showed. Terry didn't stay long and we didn't get him to sign the CD, but that's all good because we are just going for triples. Tye and Dryden did a photo op with us and signed our CD's as well. This time around Dryden was more outgoing and friendly, which was interesting to see. I guess he's learned how to deal with fame a little better.