With her sizzling release "Like a Feather" Nikka Costa was storming the Billboard charts and winning over countless fans, including us. She was touring for her new album and just happened to be making a stop in a town about an hours drive away. We weren't 21 yet so that ruled out going to the concert and as a result the only thing we could hope for was getting an autograph from her. This was going to be a risky autograph hunt because it would suck so bad to drive this far for nothing, so we kept our fingers crossed.
When we finally found the venue it was funny because so did the tour bus because it was just coming in as well. Another funny thing was that the tour bus trapped us in the back entrance of the venue as it was backing into the parking area. This was the first time we had ever visited this venue so everything was so new to us and we had no idea where celebrities enter/exit. There was another bus on the other side of the building and our answer to this was splitting up- each of us keeping an eye on a bus. The worst thing about this day was the weather... it was FREEZING. It was so cold in fact that we didn't last very long outside and retreated back to the car. We also moved the car close to the silver bus in the backstage area and figured this had (or better be) to be her bus.
After finally finding a good spot to see the backstage door and tour bus, we thought we saw her go inside. It turned out that it was indeed Ms. Costa but we didn't recognize her in time. She was wearing a black beanie and her red locks couldn't be seen. We heard her singing inside and knew that she must've been doing sound check so we prepared for her departure and quickly went to the car to warm up yet again.
After a reasonable amount of time passed we went back to the doors to freeze some more and wait. The music had stopped and the backup vocalists left but still no sign of Nikka. I asked a nearby "backstage" person and he went to go check where she was. He returned and said she had left to go eat and wouldn't be back until around her performance time -which was at 10:00pm, boy did this news suck! She must've snuck out of the front entrance and we figured she got in a car to get food. We decided we'd watch the bus to see if she would return and in the mean time try to warm ourselves off in the car.
It seemed like it was taking forever and time really dragged as we waited for her return. Earl finally spotted her along with her guards walking across the street with doggie bags, but they got into the bus before we could get over there and ask. Now we knew she was in the bus and we would be sure to watch the door like a hawk for her trip to the venue. A lot of time passed and Sterling and Earl had a couple of scares of seeing her but nothing happened. The windows were fogging up like crazy and it was just sooooo cold and unbearable.
Finally we saw her back-up vocals come out and head into the venue so we knew it was almost time. We got out and noticed Nikka coming out of the bus with a guard and started her way to the venue. The whole night everyone went inside the back entrance of the venue so we quickly ran over to it in order to beat her there. We waited and waited, but she wasn't coming -what gives? We ran around the corner to see that he was ushering her into a door that was next to the back entrance (kitchen?) so we missed her yet again!!! We knew she wouldn't be out for a while and we got in the car and headed to McDonalds because we hadn't had dinner yet. This gave us some time to warm up a little bit and get some food in our bellies.
We left after 30 minutes and parked right in front of the bus and knew this would be our last chance with Nikka. Earl went to watch a little bit of the concert through the venue's window, which was cool, and then he headed back to the freezing car. Crowds started to leave at about 11:00pm and we knew the concert was over. Earl ran to go look into the venue's window and on the way he noticed Nikka and her guard coming out of the back door. There wasn't much time to prepare so Earl ran back to Sterling and we waited patiently by the bus for their arrival.
Their silhouettes got closer and closer and it was now or never. Before we could say anything the guard told us not right now and he'd be back down to get our stuff. She looked pretty tired and was still holding her guitar. She didn't say a word and kind of smiled before she headed into the bus. This sucked, we waited this long and it was going to end like this. Fortunately the guard was true to his word and came back down and agreed to take only one thing of ours to get signed. After a few minutes passed he came back down with the goods autographed. This was really cool, but at the same time a little disappointing because we didn't get to meet her. This was way better than nothing and we headed back home.
