GET HAMMERED LIVE-A FANGIRLS STORY

[Diva]

Space, the final frontier.......wait a minute sorry thats a Star trek episode but thats kinda how I feel as my best friend Jodie and I are about to embark on what I feel is an adventure of a lifetime.

I won't go into here how I met Jodie through this board and her being my best girlfriend and all because it belongs in the friendship thread. But I will say its the love for Marty and the Hammers that brought us all here. What makes us so devoted? Personally I have never seen a fanbase like the one the Lovehammers have. I have analyzed it a million times and can spout my reasons but it doesnt matter. You all know why. You "GET IT" as I do and your all my people. A family so-to-speak. You all understand why LH is the best live rock show on earth! We want to see them again and again. They change it up from night to night and its always worth it and never boring.

These guys make us wanna do crazy things and fly across the country to see them live.

So this began as a journey to NYC to see them for Jodie and I. Being a travel agent has perks--free tickets--thanks American airlines. But at Cruefest when Jodie told Marty that we were coming to NYC, he told her that we should come a day early. They hadnt quite announced it yet but they'd be playing the previous night too. Then the next day they announced it--it was in Baltimore (doh!). But before I knew that, I tried to change our tickets go a day early: no, can do. But I could change the tickets to go a week early! Thats when the idea hatched. We were game to go to 4 shows instead of 2, we got the time off work and it was a done deal.

Then I posed the question to Jodie: what if we document this whole thing? What if we write about it, our experiences on the road. Not as an LH tell all or gossip, but as the traveling fangirls: our experiences, how LH has brought us together, meeting new fangirls through LH concerts in every city and STing along the way. What if we make a video documentary of it? Seeing LH an amazing 4 times in new cities on vacation is icing on the cake. Then we just needed a name to call our little road diaries/documentary. And Jodie came up with it: Get Hammered Live: A fangirls story. Woot!

We hope to entertain you and give you something to read each day in our travels and we'll try not to be slow on posting stuff to you. Just know that we will be checking in/out of hotels and driving around just like the band will and its a whirlwind. We hope to have alot of good stories

But kick back, grab a beer, a glass of wine. Suspend disbelief, have an open mind and remember what its like to be young again. Basically come join this journey with us. It starts for us on a red eye flight to NYC tonight.......and a drive to Philly upon arrival, from there its the wild blue yonder. And this is a quest...to see the best live show on the planet!

What makes one live show better than the other? Hell if I know, but I plan to find out. As with all quests though, its usually not the end result, but the journey that counts. I cant wait to get started. Looking forward to meeting all my new friends along the way. Philly, Jersey, Baltimore, NYC here we come!

, Kellee

Until our next installment.........

[rockfan]

Looking forward to your stories, Diva/Jodie . Be careful out there and stay safe.

[Amy]

We're looking forward to hearing from both of you! I hope you were able to get some sleep on the red eye.

[greeneyes]

rockdivagirl said:

Suspend disbelief, have an open mind and remember what its like to be young again. Basically come join this journey with us.

OK, I started crying here.... I love this idea. Make us proud, girls!

[Joan S]

Can't wait to hear the adventures of Diva and Jodie! for shizzle they will be great!
Love you guys!

[Treed]

rockdivagirl said:

As with all quests though, its usually not the end result, but the journey that counts. I cant wait to get started. Looking forward to meeting all my new friends along the way. Philly, Jersey, Baltimore, NYC here we come!
, Kellee
Until our next installment.........

OMG, Diva and Jodie - the "road" trip to end all road trips! Coast 2 coast...

Hugs & to all the fan gals and guys along the way and just have a blast...

You'll be on sensory overload by the end of this trip! How will you 2 ever come back to reality (you might have to be debriefed or something NASA-ish like that. ;D ;D ;D.)

~ t

[chitowngirl]

Beyond excited for the two of you! Cannot wait to hear your adventures! Much love and fangirliness from me to you!

[Amy]

I think our fangirls got lost or are having too much fun to check in.

[raeski]

Yeah, don't get us all excited here.... and then leave us
hangin'

We're living vicariously thru you.... I do think I'm still 22!!

[Diva]

Hey everyone, it's Jodie on Diva's name...she's going to write in a few minutes I think, we're trying to get ahold of the NJ radio station to see if we can see the guys play there...we spent a lot of time getting pics on cd's to post & the business center doesn't have a CD drive!

more soon...

[ndavis021410]

rockdivagirl said:

Hey everyone, it's Jodie on Diva's name...she's going to write in a few minutes I think, we're trying to get ahold of the NJ radio station to see if we can see the guys play there...we spent a lot of time getting pics on cd's to post & the business center doesn't have a CD drive!

more soon...

Can't wait to hear the news......Be safe....

[velvet]

amy said:

I think our fangirls got lost or are having too much fun to check in.

I got to meet Jodie at the Stone Pony and can report that she was alive and well Did not get a chance to meet Diva tho, maybe tomorrow

[Diva]

Velvet, how did I miss meeting you? Hmm tonight in Baltimore--hope so!

Greetings from Baltimore 8/7/06. So sorry for the delay in posting, there truly was not alot of time and some technical difficulties on our part but we are as anxious to post as you are to read it! So lets start from the beginning.

8/3/06 overnight red eye flight--we flew first class! Woohoo my first time and you will be spoiled for ever after that..they actually serve you ceramic bowls of hot toasted nuts, food and free drinks. Our great idea was to get a wristband on every passenger in first class and take a pic for the traveling wristband blog of the whole first class cabin with all folks proudly holding up their arms showing the wristbands. But ya know on the red eye people just wanna sleep so that didnt happen.

But we did end up getting the Captain/pilot and 2 flight attendants with the wristband and Annette, the attendant actually knew who Marty was! After a little cajoling I think Jodie talked the Captain into coming to the NYC show too!

So we landed safe in NYC 8/4 DAY 1 and picked up our car and hot the road for Philly. After a 2 1/2 hr drive we checked into our hotel the Sheraton downtown. Let me just say this: Philly is old, historic and beautiful. But the people were rude and move about as fast a slug. Just saying. Sorry if offend anyone here but we encountered some severly rude people, at the hotel, downtown and elsewhere. I am a Cali girl and use to walking and talking fast and getting things done. I guess form now on I will have to learn to slooooooooow it down a bit. But we street teamed along the way at our hotel, downtown and hung fliers in our cab on the way to the club.

So the Philly show was at the World Cafe Live, a really nice club with some yummy eats. We had a blast meeting alot of folks, Shynomore is a doll, yakketyyak a sweetie and all the rest: Chayla, myohmy, madformarty, sjjo from Lh.com-Heide, and a girl who introduced herself to us as Wendy, a lurker who doesnt post--but knew Jodie and I from the site. She had apparently been tracking Jodie since the bus chase. Her and her hubby were sweet. If I forgot anyone I apologize, we enjoyed meeting and hanging with all of you.

Some how after arriving late, eating in the back of the club and sitting way back there during the opening band (Anthony Lattanza band--great music but didnt really fit the LH style), Jodie and I managed to work our way up to the front row on Dino's side, yay! I called Polar for a cellcert, I think she hung up on me or I lost signal but PF I hope you got it! They opened with a little mini movie on the screen behind the band of talking Barbies of the band like you see in Kristen's Trees video, only this was different skits and featured at one point a Barbie version of Billy taking a leak in the bathroom--sounds wierd but really hilarious!

Then of course the guys come out and launch into Ultrasound which was cut short and segued into Straight as an Arrow immediately. I just love that beginning to the show. They rock the house of about 350 fans and play for 90 minutes or so. One encore. The set list is pretty much the same everyone posts.

Marty did alot of talking at this show. He told everyone that he use to not tell people what the songs were about thinking he'd let them be a mystery but then he realized that it didnt get people involved with the songs so he explained how Eyes Cant see was about his former long distance relationship and that "if anyone out there is in a long distance relationship, to give it 2 years and no more, 2 years max. So now I'm single." Well of course the girls in the audience cheered that and he says "Yeah good for you but not for me" and they went into "Eyes" after that.

He also did the bit where in Low Life Insurance he picked one audience member (asked for volunteers this time) and it was playful--but for the whole audience to stare at this person. So we are all staring at this person and he's singing "I want you to feel, like I feel" blah blah so this person gets the feeling of what it's like to have all eyes on them during the show etc..basically Marty's eye view. During this time he pulled all the kids from the audience, about 15 of 'em onto the stage while he's singing and they rock out with him. You can tell Marty really loves kids, he acknowledged them at several times throughout the show, various kids. This is getting too long but I must say, it was a great show, but in my honest opinion, I have heard better. The sound wasn't as good as it shoulda been. The guys got caught in traffic and their GPS took them straight through Manhattan traffic to get there and so they had a hell commute and were late. They barely arived before the opening band was to start. No time for sound check at all!

After the show there was a formal meet and greet, the kind with a table and lines to get through and all that. I hate these things. But my mission was to get a photo with Billy. I am loving me some Billy more and more lately--especially when you see them live so much, you see how talented he is as a guitar player. I never get a photo with him, he's elusive so the only photo I have is the Vegas up all night party. Mission accomplished. Jodie will be the photo supplier for this blog and I'll probably be the blogger. So the photos may come in after and not interspersed here but you'll get the idea, we really want you to see these cities too.
Anyway so in the M&G I breezed past Billy after the photo op and got to Bob, he was very nice, we shook hands--very smiley and I didnt bug him for a photo or Dino either. Jodie told them we'd be here for 4 shows and that we were documenting this thing for the site and all that. Then I butted in and said "Really, I am just here for the Phily cheesesteaks", and he laughed and Bob said "Me too". We got to Marty and he seemed kinda subdued, tired and sorta trancelike. But he was nice and courteous as always and gave us some great pics.

Jodie took pics of Shy, Yak and basically everyone with Marty. Girls: sorry just know that you'll have to get those when we get back. That's pretty much our night. But we'll leave you this tidbit.

WE HAVE A SECRET MISSION ON THIS TRIP. And if we pull it off it'll be awesome. We took one step towards that mission at the Philly meet and greet--just purely by accident and chance so hopefully the karma will align for us to make it happen. Cross your fingers. Until next installment, ciao!

[rockfan]

Thanks for checking in Diva. A secret mission?? . Good luck with that. See you soon.

[Diva]

Day 2 8/5/06. We decide to forgo the meet up with the guys at the Jersey radio station and hang in Philly. We had two things to do...get pics of the traveling wristband on a historic landmark, the liberty bell. Look for those photos. Its sort of awe inspiring our history. Then my 2nd must do: get a Philly cheese steak sandwich, "wit onions and wit cheese whiz" which I did--yummy. Then on the road again, headed to Jersey, what a green state it is too. We arrive in Asbury Park and even though we were warned, we still werent prepared for it. We drove through a pretty scary area to get there and then its like this old, once glorious beach resort town that is rundown, old & dilapidated almost like I'd picture from a Steven King novel. Oceanfront buldings just closed down, and huge piles of dirt in the middle of town--nice. Telling it like it is. We get to our hotel--this crazy old huge brick mental institution looking kind of dump that all the other chicas were at too. It took us about a 1/2 hour to check in but we meet up with Lisafaith (love you girl) Myobsess10n, Yak and Chayla and then we get on our floor and who do we meet in the hallway on our floor but my fave snark girl Chifan and her purty-haired snark girlfriend--I forgot your name sorry!. Love those snark girls--they rule.

Stone pony the club is small, but way famous and we had fun taking pics of us in front of it--Thanks Dan, the doorman. Let me just say that this was THE best sounding show I have ever heard. I thought Roxy was a good sounding show but this was better. It was small and intimiate. They started with Ultrasound as they always do and just when you think they'll launch into Straight As An Arrow, they keep going, same drum sound in ultrasound, over and over and over for a long while--personally I love this as I wish they'd play the whole song, its a fave of mine. Bob told us later that Billy's guitar broke for a minute and they had to fix that or switch out and he was like "hurry up" because his arms get tired in that song playing the intro over and over. Hee.

They did 4 covers: Disconnected, Wish You Were Here, Paint it black, Ring of fire and it was such a great show. We were standing in the back of the crowd, oblivious, dancing around like loons and singing--voice lost that night. Marty was like "Did you all get enough pictures? All I see in the front row is click, click, click click. We want you to put your cameras down and rock out!" We were glad we were rocking out in the back!

The club was so dark here that our pics and video didnt turn out very good so we may not post alot of those anyway. There was no backstage at this club, no formal meet and greet--yay! It was the guys hanging out, outside in back and in the bar, just hanging around like friends with all of us. There are alot of conversations--mostly with Marty, and I hope to remember it all. Lisafaith was not feeling so good about her meeting with the guys earlier in the day after the radio station, but Marty gave her the biggest hug, the photo of that is so cute. She was redeemed!

Marty says to Jodie and I, "So are you guys staying at The Shining?" Until that moment I had not thought of our hotel as that but that is EXACTLY what it was like, it looked like the Shining movie. I said to him, "I have been calling it the Scooby doo haunted mansion all day." And he thought that was hysterical, belly laughs from Marty.

But we did get confo from Marty that AFTER Hammerjam they'll be headed south through the Carolinas (yay for Rockfan) and to Florida (Kelley you better have room for us at your house girl ) and then West to New Orleans and to Texas.

We got Bob to smile a really good smile for our photo with him--such a dear he is which was our mission that night. Actually talking to him was nice and getting him to smile. Both he and Marty talked about this with us, but basically Jodie thinks Bob doesnt have a clue who she is (yeah Right!). At one point he says to us "Now dont take this the wrong way but in interviews and whenever people ask us what was the craziest thing a fan's ever done, your bus chase is always what I tell them!" ;D ;D ;D He had me rolling! Marty mentioned it later too. ;D

The Stone Pony people were rude. They started kicking everyone out promptly at 2am which is fine...but the way in which they handled this was so rude. I am still drinking my full beer--that I had just paid for, and they let me buy. They are pushing everyone towards the door and as I am heading there, a waitress came and grabbed it from my hand and took it from me--even as I was bringing it up to my lips! The nerve. But the nice bouncer Seth let us back in specifically to go to the restroom before our walk back to the Shining. Thank God! Then it was just Jodie, me, Marty and Dino in the club and as we exited the restroom, we waived goodbye to Marty. Then Seth said "ladies you have to go" and Marty was like "No they're cool" so we hung a little more, walked over to where they were and managed to get Marty and Seth to take a wristband photo. This wristband thing is brilliant, its an excuse for all kinds of photos and secret missions. Sorry about not posting the set lists and stuff but I dont wanna ruin everything for you live concert goers so you know in which order everything comes etc.

The guys were staying in a ocean town away and had to get up early to head for NYC that next day. Kinda out of the way on the road to Baltimore the next city but Marty had to have a dinner with a friend in NYC the next night.

Lastly, we met the nicest guy and his wife---the Photographer Tony Fiore and his lovely wife Jean. He got the greatest shots of the guys at the Stone Pony. Thanks Cindy for this. Our job was to greet him, make sure he was taken care of and had wristbands etc. He is a dear and has already emailed us some photos. We cant post those but Cindy will most likely have them up right away and they will knock your socks off. Cant wait for those.

We drove to Baltimore the next morning and what a city. Well we got lost along the way and ended up on ML King Blvd..not a place to get lost in. But once we hit downtown, the inner harbor is gorgeous my friends. I love it here and it reminds me of San Diego. Mental note: Just dont pull into town at rush hour when there is an Orioles/Yankees game going on! We checked into our hotel--the Hyatt on inner harbor and after some prodding from Jodie, our front desk guy hooked us up. We are on the Top floor and have a panoramic view of the harbor--suuhweet!

We had a nice tapas dinner last night with about 8 diferent tapas overlooking the water and we got a phone call that put us hopefully one step closer to closing the deal on the Secret mission, woohoo. Stay tuned....show tonight and more later!
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PS: We are in kinkos now still and our disc of the Jersey Photos is not working so we hope to have those soon but those are way better than Philly, the best so far, some awesome ones of Marty hamming it up! We dont have internet access in our hotels or if there is it is like $10/minute so we are spending too much here at kinkos and we apologize in advance for not getting everything to everyone sooner. We were too ambitious thinking we could do everything but some parts of the trip were just concerened with getting from place to place in a timely fashion and feeding ourselves! Until later...

[ChiTownChick]

Diva,

Thanks for keeping us updated. I love all the little details you included in your review.

Secret mission? Good luck with the mission, ladies - can't wait to hear about it!

You and Jodie are an inspiration to fangirls everywhere

Looking forward to hearing more details from both of you. Have a rockin time at the next 2 shows!

[karensutera]

OH NO I'M ON THE JERSEY DISC!!! Hi all I'm new to the boards but very familiar w/being a bandaid type lololo and post on way too many boards at once.
I've seen LH a few times on the Switch tour and got my hubby hooked too.
They are by far one of the best live acts I've ever seen over my 30yrs of going to concerts.
SO WISH I COULD DO NYC but it's not in the cards this week.
Diva did we meet??? I kinda hijacked Jodi for a few min - my radar for finding superfans paid off and she snaps a great shot of me & MC. THANKS BIOTCHES YOU ROCK OUT!

[Trees]

Thanks for dropping in karen.... Your right about Jodi, she bumps into a lot of really nice people on her travels.

Enjoy the other threads.... you'll see her name once or twice with a lot of wonderful adventures of Marty and the Guys

Cheers

[velvet]

rockdivagirl said:

Velvet, how did I miss meeting you? Hmm tonight in Baltimore--hope so!

Beats me! Nope, not Baltimore, but I will look for you at the Canal Room.

Great stories from your adventure.

[beachgirl]

Diva and Jodie's excellent adventure! Thanks so much for your posts. It's like being there in spirit, do you feel all us fangirls with you?

You made my day with the Florida tour info! YAY! Thank the boys for me if you should see them around.

I can't wait to hear what happens next.