Chicago, IL, Virgin Records Superstore 2/4/06

[penny74]

Posted by:Shuckra


We stood in line Saturday morning between locals- some who grew up in the same neighborhood as the hammers and some that were long-time fans. They were SO nice to us "newbies", though they all thought we were crazy for driving so long - I'm cool with being crazy

The store performance was acoustic and fantastic! They played Call of Distress, Tunnel, Wish You Were Here, Trees, Rain on the Brain, Hold On. I think that's it. The audience was around 150 people. I loved that there were little kids, teenage kids, adults, parents, grandparents, all sorts of people there. I called my hubby during the performance and it was like he was there too. Everyone seemed relaxed and happy to be there, it was fun.
Then the autograph signing - I didn't think it would besuch a big deal because hey, I pre-ordered the autographed CD, what do I need another one for, right?
I stand on my wobbly knees corrected.
It was an assembly line sort of thing that was happening very quickly, so if I was going to actually say something clever to Marty, I had to be on my toes.
So as he is signing my cd, he asks if I am going to the show that night, and I say no, but we did drive from North Carolina to see the show at Joe's. He paused for a second and looked up at me and actually processes what I said, and then smiled and stuck out his hand to shake mine. He said something like 'wow, thanks for coming, it was a great show wasn't it?' like he ACTUALLY thought it was cool that we came so far!
I then said something like "bdlfpejwwqpdkvvlpsth!" and I made my way through the rest of the line as my brain continued to melt. I think that Bobby and Dino remebered us from the show and said 'we'll see you in a couple weeks!' and I said something unintelligible to Billy, trying to say that I thought they all rocked - who knows what they heard My friend had them sign one of Radioclash's postcards that I have been handing out and it looks awesome! I believe she is going to frame it.
I walked out into the magic that is Chicago and floated off into outer space.

I feel so lucky and so blessed to have had such an amazing weekend, to have returned safely, and to have such a great community on the internet to share this with. Now I can count the days until the Charlotte show, they will not know what hit them!

Spread the love and make it happen!

[chk]

posted by chk

(in Aussie thread)

So we have a day off to recover from Joe’s and do some house hunting. My sis and I take train to Wheaton to do just that and find a nice article on MC in the morning paper – which really helps the commute. It was a long but fun day but once again I didn’t sleep a wink. I was awake all night trying to figure out what to say to Marty and boys at the signing. I really wanted to hand Asia gift bag to MC, but was afraid that he’d be sitting at end of table and I would be carrying it front of other guys in order to hand to MC. It seemed too rude. So, we could each bring one thing to be signed. I hemmed and hawed –cd, Tshirt, photo? – but eventually chose the color promo picture and made two copies so Dawn and I could each have it signed by band. Friday comes and we’re layering up cause it’s cold. The salesman at Virgin had told Dawn and me on Thursday that we should come early cause they were expecting a lot of people. But there were two issues we had to deal with. One, my frickin right leg was not cooperating very much and 2) it was actually beginning to snow. The store opened at 9:30 but the event was slated for 1 p.m. We decided that showing up at 11:30 was fangirl enough for us. We walk around the corner on Michigan Ave and the crowd is already lined up down the block. Dawn went to the end of the line and I sort of entered the twilight zone, passing all these people I thought I knew – other mc.org fans whose pics we have been looking at . Met chitown, slh, Karen, tons of others, saw that Den and Liz had good spots. It was fun but weird “Oh you’re chk?!?”
Behind us in the queue is this lovely old lady and her daughter. She is 78 and doesn’t miss a LH gig – she tells us that Marty and her son lived in the same apartment building and that Marty used to come over with his guitar and sing to her grandkids. Her 7-year-old granddaughter would say she had to fix her hair if Marty was coming over cause he’s her guy. It was so sweet. She said, “Marty is a nice boy. And so talented!”
Okay after more than an hour in line, they begin letting people in 20 at a time. We are about 7 or 8 “rows” deep, dead center. The store is playing the cd and we’re all humming along. Denise puts her scrapbook into my ACP (Asia-Aussie care package) and we wait for band. It’s packed, but the fans are all very civilized –so much so that the Virgin staff comment on how well behaved everyone is. There is a small stage with drums and three stools set up. Bobby comes out and once again I can see him, but no one else can. Dino and Billy come out next. Dino is wearing sunglasses, Billy a hat. Marty then comes out wearing his sunglasses. He looks hot, but damn I want to see those eyes. Billy says something about “This is a little early for us. That’s why we’re wearing hats and sunglasses.” Marty is of course too hot to describe. He says they didn’t expect so many people. He asks how many people are from Chicago and how many are from out of town. It’s about half and half and he looks pleasantly surprised. They do an acoustic set, six songs, I think including The Riddle, Call of Distress (which is amazing live cause Marty really includes the audience in it), Rain on My Brain, then Marty says. “let’s try a little Tunnel” and he also takes acoustic guitar and plays. I have to admit this was my first fave LH song and I feel totally validated every time I hear them do it – It’s great, the crowd loves it, sings every word. He then says, “We’ve avoided doing stuff that I did on TV—until today.” He says he asked the band ten minutes before they came out to try this one. They play WYWH and crowd swoons in unison. Last, they play Trees, and finally Marty stands up so people can see him. The funniest bit was toward the end of the song when he very intentionally did a little Mad Conductor move for the crowd. It looked like he was going to laugh. Probably the most fun during any/all of the shows is singing Trees. It’s just too damned catchy. The entire crowd really yells YEAH YEAH YEAH!
Once the set is over, the band goes and takes a breather while the autograph thing is set up. The Virgin people tell us that there are a lot of people, there will not be any personal pix with band, you can have 1 thing signed, and show your wristband. We all start snaking our way thru the store and now the butterflies are building up. Dawn and I sing Clouds (it’s on the system at the store) and feel a bit calmer. She is feeling strange cause she doesn’t know what to say to the band – she’s a fan of the music and thinks MC is hot, but isn’t on the board or anything. She asks me what to say “Hi, great show last night” ? I am having problems of my own forming words so cannot offer any advice. At least she is sensible enough to take pix before we reach the table. (Interjection to say that Tony, the hot guitarist from Black Maker, turns up with his little girl and joins the end of the queue. We told him what a great job they did at Joe’s and ask why he doesn’t just go to the front!?)
Okay, so it turns out Marty is the first one at the table, then Dino, Bobby and Billy. Dawn got a GREAT shot of the four of them so I’ll pester her for that. She also got one of Dino and Marty with ACP. So for some reason I go for first and it’s quite out of body. I smile, put the ACP on the table and say to MC and DK, “This is a gift from all your fans in Asia and Australia.” I really hardly looked at marty. It was like I couldn’t or something. I hear Marty saying something like “Wow, that’s so cool” and I say something about flying in from Hong Kong. The Marty takes my arm and looks me straight in the eyes and says “Oh, you’re the one who talks to my sister on line. It’s really nice to meet you.” I almost peed my pants – Jen tells Marty about this? OMG what has she told him???!!! Marty Casey knows who I am??? WTF? I am seriously in parallel universe now. I look at him and say it’s nice to meet him too and that I keep asking Jen to tell her little brother to play Clouds, but he hasn’t done it yet.
Then I am in front of Dino and I recall that he once said something in a PM to me about Beef Chop Suey. So I say, “Hey Dino, I was going to bring you some beef chop suey, but nobody in Hong Kong eats that crap.” He laughed and I told him that we’d take him for a good meal when he came this way. Then I said hi, nice to meet you to Bobby then I was in front of Billy, who was talking to lots of family. I noticed that he had lots of guitar picks piled up and I said, “Hey Billy, I’m going to take one of your picks,” and he said “Help yourself! That’s what they’re for! (it says Lovehammers on one side and Billy on the other)

So I wait at end for my sister, who is having a grand time. After Marty said something to me about Jen, then Dawn says to him, “Well, if our sisters are becoming friends, maybe you and I should continue the trend.” He just looked at her. It was hilarious. Then Dino says to her, “Oh, you guys are sisters? Are you twins? (lmfao) She says “no, I’m the younger one.” OK, so I did call her a nasty name after that. The Liz and Den came thru the line – I didn’t see them at all talking to guys. We were all so jazzed and excited that we couldn’t stop talking, giggling or thinking about how hungry we suddenly were. So we walked to Uno for some deep dish pizza and to look at our pix and recount the days’ events so far.
After lunch Dawn and I decide to walk back to hotel past the Chicago Theater, where the busses are parked. We saw the INXS busses earlier but now the LH green machine with trailer is there, too. We take some stupid fangirl pix in front of bus and decide to go into Chicago Theater to ask what the deal is with bringing cameras. We see Jeremy in the lobby unpacking LH T-shirts and we shout out to him. He says hi but has no idea who we are or why we know his name. It’s pretty ridiculous, really. So we ask the box office dude about cameras and he says not to even try to bring them. But we’re only half paying attention because INXS is doing their sound check and we can hear JD singing Suicide Blonde. Either that or they were playing the record really loud cause it sounded EXACTLY like Michael Hutchence singing.
We listen for a minute then decide to leave our cameras at the hotel – it’s literally one bock away...

[chk]

Posted by dlh

(in aussie thread)

At the Virgin record signing I could barely see.
It was so great to hear the acoustic version
of the songs plus he sang Wish You Were Here....OMG!
It was amazing.

He was so sweet at the signing. Dino said that
they are working on getting a tour together to
go to OZ; and I believe it will probably be without
INXS.....woooohooo!!!.
(I sat through about 5 songs of INXS and had to leave...I tried my hardest to stay
and show my respect for they have been treating
the boys so well.)
Here is chk giving them their Aussie/Hong Kong
gift at the signing. They seemed very excited to
get the gifts from her. I threw in her bag the pics
of all of you and some of the posts on the aussie thread for them to read.
They only allowed one item to be signed
so I decided to get the Lovehammer shirt signed
for Dani...since she has been so good about taking
care of the bar for us
There was no long conversation with Marty.
There were so many people at the signing we only
had a few seconds to talk. I told him that the shirt
was for someone from the Aussie Street team named
Dani. He asked how to spell your name and wrote
what you saw in the picture. He then said that they
were so grateful for all of the work that we were
doing. He was very soft spoken and so very nice.
That was it. I told Dino that I appreciated his replying to my posts about
when they would come to OZ and he told me that they are working on it. He just doesn't
know when. I told Bobby and Billy that their
performance at Joe's was fantastic and that was it.
It was very short, but very memorable. You can't put
into words how much you can tell this band really does
appreciate their fans and all of the hard work that we
have all been doing.
It just makes you want to work all that much harder for them. It is so amazing.

[chk]

posted by lovingmxc

hey Hammerheads!
I went to the Chicago Virgin MegaStore and got my LH cd Signed! guess it was well worth the 3 1/2 hours of waiting! the concert was AMAZING! i clapped the WHOLE TIME and sung too! When i got my CD signed, i was like shaking because i thot Marty would b like CrAzY! but he was so calm and nice! i dont think ive ever met a nicer guy! well, thats it and post on your stories of the Chicago Signing!

[chk]

Posted by ajbryant89

wow! what a fantastic day! it started out at virgin for the performance and autograph session. the performance was AWESOME! 'wish you were here' live, how cool was that! then i got to meet all the guys but in typical fangirl fashion, i choked and sounded like a moron but it's all good. then the chicago theater was fantastic. they totally rocked the joint, everyone was on their feet the whole time rocking out it was so great. then got to meet dino & bobby at the base bar afterwards. they were so gracious and nice to come and hang out with us. it was very relaxed and everyone was just kind of hanging out. then we heard Marty was over at Rockit and some crazy fangirls (you know who you are) convinced me to go with them and i got to see him. no picture or hug but i can't be sad about that because it was such a great day in everyway. i had such a good time hanging out with all the hammerhead fans i met (melanie,kim,carol(stinky sharpie sheet) & her friend,___jordan,patricia,rachel,penny,nancy,nancy's hubby,karen,candace,imdreaming & friend (hope hubby wasn't too mad at you,and everyone else that i met that night. thanks to all for adding to such a special day. hope we get to do it again.
Peace
Amanda