My Great Adventure: Day Three, Part 2
Sep. 10th, 2017 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
outsdrFirst, a video I forgot to post last time:
Jaysen, DC, and I followed Marian into the green room upstairs. Once again, Marian turned into the perfect host, offering drinks to everyone. I had a glass of white wine, while Marian held onto his vodka bottle.
(I wish I had a recording of the night, to remember it better and more clearly. I'll jump around a lot, I'm afraid. I hope it all still makes sense.)
Marian and I chatted a bit near the drinks, but I don't remember what we discussed. Small talk, I suppose.
Marian, Alexandra, Christian, and Carsten in the green room.
We found some chairs, and the conversation continued. I asked Marian a few questions about his songs.
"Red Rose," I said. "I was looking over all the albums to see which songs had been part of a set list or played live, and i was surprised that I couldn't find a live performance for Red Rose"
Marian looked thoughtful for a moment, and a little puzzled. "Red Rose is a great song, When the band gets together to plan a show, we all make suggestions of the songs we'd like to do," he said. "We always forget about Red Rose!" He laughed.
"I was also surprised that the only song off of Forever Young that's never been performed is To Germany With Love. Why?" I asked.
"It's a great song, and I'd love to do it live," Marian responded. "But it is difficult, and I'm not sure how we would do it. Some songs are like that. Fever ..."
"That's one of my favorites from the new album!" I interjected.
"Mine too, but it can't be done live, just because of the way the vocals change."
I told him how DC and I had bonded as friends in college, and how we'd been together in Camelot Music at the mall when I found and bought The Singles Collection. Marian listened closely.
"Tell him about the show, the one on TV, where you saw Alphaville's videos for the first time, and heard the music."
"It was a show called Color Sounds," I said. Marian nodded. "It was on public television, and they'd show music videos with the lyrics, to help people learn to read." Marian smiled at that. "I think they just got videos that weren't as well known or something ..." Marian frowned a little. Oops, hello foot- meet my mouth! Poor choice of words.
While we were talking about videos, I mentioned how cool it was to see the video for Song for No One projected during the song in Houston's encore, and how I hadn't realized it was him in the TVs on top of the transvestites until I'd seen it project that big. I said it was one of my favorite videos. He nodded.
"It was made by a company that did it very fast ... and very cheaply!" We talked a bit about Polari, and I talked about a video by the German band ASP, where it was animated, and how surprised I was when the singer, thin in the video, was much larger in real life. Marian laughed.
"When they were making the video for Song For No One, they made me very thin! They were surprised when I ask them to make my stomach a bit bigger." He laughed again.
Yeah, I'd be asking them to make me smaller.
(Marian smiles and laughs a lot. Again, everyone involved in the shows seemed to be having a great time. Even Christian, who at one point I had asked if he was having fun, and he said yes, but wondered why I asked. I explained that I just figure he had a lot of hard work to do during the tour, and that I hoped he was finding some time to enjoy himself. He told me that most of his hard work was done before the tour, and now he could just watch it all come together.)
Marian mentioned how he wasn't always happy with the videos, like the one for I Die For You Today. "I had this idea of a man and a woman, and he puts the ring on her finger, and then it shows that the ring is the pin from a hand grenade, like what was done at the end of the video; but it never came together. I didn't really like the rest of the video." His brow furrowed a bit. "I liked your video for the song much better."
This caught me off guard. I'd never known that Marian had even seen my video, let alone liked it!
Here I am ... dying.
I'm sure throughout much of the night, I babbled like an idiot. It was a combination of sheer exhaustion by this point, and emotional overload.
Uncomfortable?
Like I told DC the next day, the same question kept running through my head all night: How did I get to this point? How was I lucky enough not only to find a band when I was 14 that touched me so thoroughly that they remained my very favorite band for over 30 years, to go to having a song with lyrics I wrote recorded by my favorite band, to having that song released as a single, to now, sitting down and hanging out with one of my heroes and greatest influencers; my literal teen idol? (Those clothes! That style!)
The gravity and gratitude of the situation made my mind reel. That Marion treated me as an old friend, and talked with me as one, made it all seem even more surreal.
Star-struck?
"Something's been bothering me since Houston," I said. "Now, I know as well as everyone else how much you hate Universal Daddy." Marian made a face and rolled his eyes. "But ... at one point, you liked it well enough to put it on the album ..." I trailed off with a puzzled look on my face.
Marian began to explain. "Universal Daddy started out as a short story, about a boy being raised in a house by a robot, never seeing the outside world or other people, and I tried to make that into a song, and it just didn't work. And I couldn't figure out the chorus for it. I got so frustrated, I went to our manager at the time, Monica, I think, and she quickly wrote out a chorus, and I went and recorded it, and it was awful!" He laughed again. "But we'd already planned on putting it on the album, so we did."
We talked a bit about Beyond the Laughing Sky. I told him it was my favorite song from the album.
"So many songs about beautiful women sound like they could be about drugs, instead," he said, looking thoughtful. "Or maybe it's the other way around ... songs about drugs are really about beautiful woman!"
People wandered in and out of the green room. I mentioned to Marian how some people were discussing whether he was lip syncing during a concert, and how obvious to me that he was not. Kristoff and Reiner (I never did know if I got his name right. Every time someone said it to me, it sounded different!), the sound men, overheard me and laughed. Kristoff said, "That's great! If someone thinks it's a lip sync, that means we're doing our job. It's a compliment!" They laughed.
Christian came over and sat down. He pointed at DC and me. "How did you two meet?" he asked. DC and I simultaneously pointed at Marian, and we all laughed. I told the DC story once again, and how I'd been waiting ever since to go to an Alphaville concert with him.
We talked a bit about how bands get noticed this day, and Christian seemed frustrated with how few people seemed to know about Alphaville these days. "Yes, but they know the music," I said. "Forever Young - it's a song with a cult people. Even if someone doesn't know the band, they know the song. I have a friend on Facebook who didn't know who I was talking about when I posted about going to these concerts, but when she looked up Alphaville, she knew Forever Young."
We discussed Forever Young, and the covers of it that have been done. I mentioned I didn't care for the Jay-Z cover, and Marian mentioned how beautifully Beyonce covers it.
I mentioned that I didn't always care for the covers and duets that get done. I said I really didn't like the duet he'd done with Bell, Book and Candle. I couldn't remember the song. "Oh that one!" said Marian. "She's beautiful. I really like her." Oops, I guess I chewed on my foot a little more. "She played the bride in the video for I Die For You Today."
I nodded. "She is very beautiful."
I told Marian about riding the New York subway the night before, how incredible it was to see all the different people and different lifestyles.
"I was listening to my music on the subway, watching everything go by, and Ariana came on," I said. "If you ever did Ariana live in concert, it would blow peoples' minds!" Marian laughed. "No, really!" I said.
"Ariana was a birthday present to my girlfriend or manager ... one of them. We just wrote it and recorded it quickly. Probably the only birthday present song ever done!"
"You could also open a show by having Alexandra walk out in the dark," I said, " and just say '... Night.' And then, after the encore, all the lights could go out except for hers and she could sing Lady Bright." Marian nodded and laughed.
We talked a bit about I Die For You Today. "That one line, I die for you today, it stood out and stuck with me," he said, holding his hands up like he was holding something precious. "I'd never heard anything like it. It's the chorus, all by itself, just repeated. That's all that it was needed."
I think it was Jaysen who asked how I'd written it, and I told the story of how, way back in 2001, the members on the e-mailing list (alphaville@yahoogroups.com) were writing songs that sounded like Alphaville for every letter of the alphabet that didn't match a song title that started with the letter. Doug asked if Alphaville really didn't have a song starting with the letter I, and I said that it was actually written for the letter K; the title was originally Kiss Me Kill Me.
I told Marian how it was so strange of a feeling when I found out that the song meant something to someone, even it meant something different to them. Just to know that ... what an amazing feeling it was. "There's a video on YouTube, for example, " I said. "I'm an atheist, but this woman made a video for the song that reflected the meaning the song had for her, and it was all about the death and resurrection of Jesus." I shook my head. "Just knowing that someone can feel so deeply about something I wrote ... how do I wrap my head around that? It's amazing." I nodded to Marian. "I'm sure you know what I mean; I'm not explaining it very well."
"I don't mind having friends who think differently than me, with different opinions, or being around people who do, " I said. "I don't want to talk to people who are exactly like me."
Marian laughed. "That would just be ... masturbation!" he exclaimed.
Someone asked how I'd found the video. "I have a Google alert set up to email me anytime someone posts a video for the song," I admitted, sheepishly. "There have been some really good ones out there ... like the one cover done by some members of a marching band." Christian and Marian laughed. "I want to see that one!" Marian said.
We talked somberly for a few minutes about Martin, and how we missed him.
I said that my favorite song was Romeos, the eight-and-a-half minute remix, the one Bernhard told me he hated. "Oh, I like that one!" said Marian. I also said my second favorite was the extended remix of Jerusalem. Marian shook his had and said, "I don't like that one."
"I met the man who did the Romeos remixes, in New York," he said. "I was surprised because for some reason, I was thinking he was a black man, from the way he talked and sounded. But he wasn't!"
"The new album is going to be called Thunder Baby," Marian said.
"That's better than Baby Thunder," I replied. Marian laughed loudly. "No ... that's much better!" he said. His face became serious. "It will come out much sooner than this one."
I wish I had asked him what he meant, but he pushed on.
"There are three songs right now that I want on the album." He said two names which I didn't recognize and can't remember, "and I definitely want Because of You on the album."
I nodded. "That's an amazing song," I said. "It's powerful."
"You've heard it?" he asked, "Oh, it was on Dreamscapes, the live version." I nodded.
"It shouldn't be hard to find material for a new album," I said. "You've already released online enough studio songs to make one." Marian looked at me quizzically as I started listing songs. "London Sky, Criminal Girl, Fur Diche, and I know I won't pronounce this right ... Kalt Asche ..." Marian nodded thoughtfully. "Oh!" I said, pointing my hand towards Marian, "Templehoff!
"Easily enough for an album ... or maybe it's time for another Dreamscapes box set?" Marian nodded again, thoughtfully.
I looked over towards David and Jakob. "So everyone has a mic on stage except these two," I said. "I can understand why Jakob doesn't have one, because it would just get in his way, but why not David?'
David looked at me with false indignation. "Have you ever heard me sing?" he said, Britishly. "No one wants to hear that!" He made his voice croak a little, and we all laughed.
Marian mentioned that he always had this idea; he wanted each band member to record a song, like Martin did with Call Me Down. "Wolfg ... Ricky wrote the words to Paradigm Shift and Parade," he said. "I'm not sure anyone knows that ... I wanted him to record them, to sing the songs, but he wouldn't."
"I don't think I've ever heard Ricky's voice," I said.
We talked a little about Bernhard, and I discovered I'd been pronouncing his name incorrectly since ... forever. I've always pronounced it the American way, I guess ... Burr-nard, with hard emphasis on the second half. Marian pronounced it more like Burner.
"I wish he'd do more," I said. "I really liked the Atlantic Popes album, and I keep hoping for the second one to come out."
Marian nodded. "I've heard it; it sounds great," he said. "But Bernhard is such a perfectionist ..." He laughed, shaking his head.
"But the Beatles did it," he said, returning to the previous conversation, "They each sang at one point on an album, and I want to do that with everyone. Everyone in the band ... it's important to me that they all fit in, so we become a family." He looked around the room and smiled. "We're all a family."
I felt it too. Alexandra, who'd felt sick before the show but was feeling better now. Kristoff and Reiner. Engell and Christian. Jakob, who greeted me like his best friend whenever he saw me. I witnessed first hand how they all got along, and how much of a family it really was.
Lili and Noa walked in, and I witnessed, astonished, Marian switch into dad mode, as they argued over whether they would answer the phone when he called them later. "But we'll be asleep, and won't hear the phone ring!" cried Lili.
Marian was having none of it. "You'll hear the phone ring, and you'll answer it," he said sternly. Lili and Noa left for the hotel, brushing off Marian's concerns.
Marian looked exasperated. "It was so much easier when they were little!" He threw up his hands. "What happened?" We laughed.
Jaysen and DC were talking to Christian about other bands when Jakob rolled a smoke and everyone decided to go outside and join him.
Everyone in the alley. Reiner, Carsten, Kristoff, Christian, a giant blond man whose name I did not catch, Marian, David, Engell, and Jakob.
DC and Jaysen wandered off down the alley to get some food at a Subway. I wasn't even sure what time it was, but the hours were weighing heavily on me. David and I joked about a few random things.
With each minute I became more and more punchy. I leaned against the wall and just listened as everyone talked.
I asked Jakob how to pronounce his name, because I'd heard different people saying it different ways. "It depends on where I am," he explained. "If I'm in America or somewhere they speak English, it's Jacob. But in Germany, it's Yaycoob." I shook my head. I knew I'd never pronounce it correctly, so I figured it was okay just to keep calling him Jacob.
We talked a little about what everyone was going to do until the shows next weekend, and they all had plans to go to San Francisco, because they'd never been there.
Kevin the fantastic security guard and some of the venue staff came out and started shutting down the venue. I still didn't know what time it was, as the band and crew got up and started walking down the alley to head back to their hotel rooms. I walked the other direction towards the Subway where DC and Jaysen were.
I turned around and waved. "I'll see you all again Friday!" I called out. A few of them waved in return before disappearing into the night.
Jaysen and DC were finishing off their subs when I arrived. DC said I looked stunned. I shook my head.
"I don't know how to explain it," I said. "I'm sorry I kept you two out so late."
They both waved it off. "This ... this has been one of the best days of my life."
I've forgotten half of the conversations we all had in the green room, and probably mangled my retelling of the rest. But I felt happier and more inspired than I had for years. I felt alive again.
And tired. I was bone tired.
DC and Jaysen got me back to the car, and I drifted in and out of consciousness as we returned to their house. I awoke when the garage door began to open, just in time to see a huge brown shape scurry out from behind their trash bin, across the street and behind another trash bin.
"Was that a rat?" asked Jaysen. "yes, yes it was," I replied, shuddering.
I hate rats.
We got inside and I settled heavily on the couch, pulling off my boots with great relief. My right foot was throbbing from the blister.
Once settled on the couch, I quickly fell asleep, waking up 11 hours later. DC and Jaysen had picked up some of the best donuts I've ever had, and DC and I played a card game for a bit.
The best donuts I've ever had.
Later that day, they showed me around Chicago. I saw just enough to know I'd like to return one day, especially to ride the amazing elevated trains. That evening, with their two friends Leo and Dan, we had some of the pizza that Chicago is famous for, with good reason. It was, like the rest of my trip, amazing.
We returned to DC and Jaysen's home after a day short in time but long in experiences. My head still spun from everything I'd been taken in.
At 2 in the morning, we woke and left for the airport. I said my goodbyes and returned to Albuquerque without incident.
I promptly fell into bed and slept for 17 hours straight, then went to work. Not a great choice.
The first half of my great adventure was completed. I could not have asked for more since I started, nor for better people to experience it with, friends old and new, old friends met for the first time, and older friends seen once again after too many years apart. For all the my mind was reeling, my heart was even more ready to burst with happiness. I achieved fantasies I'd always been afraid to have or tell to anyone.
At that point, I'd been to every concert Alphaville had ever done in the United States. In just a few more days, I'd be off to see the remaining two shows, as the second half of my great adventure would begin.
Best. Picture. Ever.
I could hardly wait.
Jaysen, DC, and I followed Marian into the green room upstairs. Once again, Marian turned into the perfect host, offering drinks to everyone. I had a glass of white wine, while Marian held onto his vodka bottle.
(I wish I had a recording of the night, to remember it better and more clearly. I'll jump around a lot, I'm afraid. I hope it all still makes sense.)
Marian and I chatted a bit near the drinks, but I don't remember what we discussed. Small talk, I suppose.
Marian, Alexandra, Christian, and Carsten in the green room.
We found some chairs, and the conversation continued. I asked Marian a few questions about his songs.
"Red Rose," I said. "I was looking over all the albums to see which songs had been part of a set list or played live, and i was surprised that I couldn't find a live performance for Red Rose"
Marian looked thoughtful for a moment, and a little puzzled. "Red Rose is a great song, When the band gets together to plan a show, we all make suggestions of the songs we'd like to do," he said. "We always forget about Red Rose!" He laughed.
"I was also surprised that the only song off of Forever Young that's never been performed is To Germany With Love. Why?" I asked.
"It's a great song, and I'd love to do it live," Marian responded. "But it is difficult, and I'm not sure how we would do it. Some songs are like that. Fever ..."
"That's one of my favorites from the new album!" I interjected.
"Mine too, but it can't be done live, just because of the way the vocals change."
I told him how DC and I had bonded as friends in college, and how we'd been together in Camelot Music at the mall when I found and bought The Singles Collection. Marian listened closely.
"Tell him about the show, the one on TV, where you saw Alphaville's videos for the first time, and heard the music."
"It was a show called Color Sounds," I said. Marian nodded. "It was on public television, and they'd show music videos with the lyrics, to help people learn to read." Marian smiled at that. "I think they just got videos that weren't as well known or something ..." Marian frowned a little. Oops, hello foot- meet my mouth! Poor choice of words.
While we were talking about videos, I mentioned how cool it was to see the video for Song for No One projected during the song in Houston's encore, and how I hadn't realized it was him in the TVs on top of the transvestites until I'd seen it project that big. I said it was one of my favorite videos. He nodded.
"It was made by a company that did it very fast ... and very cheaply!" We talked a bit about Polari, and I talked about a video by the German band ASP, where it was animated, and how surprised I was when the singer, thin in the video, was much larger in real life. Marian laughed.
"When they were making the video for Song For No One, they made me very thin! They were surprised when I ask them to make my stomach a bit bigger." He laughed again.
Yeah, I'd be asking them to make me smaller.
(Marian smiles and laughs a lot. Again, everyone involved in the shows seemed to be having a great time. Even Christian, who at one point I had asked if he was having fun, and he said yes, but wondered why I asked. I explained that I just figure he had a lot of hard work to do during the tour, and that I hoped he was finding some time to enjoy himself. He told me that most of his hard work was done before the tour, and now he could just watch it all come together.)
Marian mentioned how he wasn't always happy with the videos, like the one for I Die For You Today. "I had this idea of a man and a woman, and he puts the ring on her finger, and then it shows that the ring is the pin from a hand grenade, like what was done at the end of the video; but it never came together. I didn't really like the rest of the video." His brow furrowed a bit. "I liked your video for the song much better."
This caught me off guard. I'd never known that Marian had even seen my video, let alone liked it!
Here I am ... dying.
I'm sure throughout much of the night, I babbled like an idiot. It was a combination of sheer exhaustion by this point, and emotional overload.
Uncomfortable?
Like I told DC the next day, the same question kept running through my head all night: How did I get to this point? How was I lucky enough not only to find a band when I was 14 that touched me so thoroughly that they remained my very favorite band for over 30 years, to go to having a song with lyrics I wrote recorded by my favorite band, to having that song released as a single, to now, sitting down and hanging out with one of my heroes and greatest influencers; my literal teen idol? (Those clothes! That style!)
The gravity and gratitude of the situation made my mind reel. That Marion treated me as an old friend, and talked with me as one, made it all seem even more surreal.
Star-struck?
"Something's been bothering me since Houston," I said. "Now, I know as well as everyone else how much you hate Universal Daddy." Marian made a face and rolled his eyes. "But ... at one point, you liked it well enough to put it on the album ..." I trailed off with a puzzled look on my face.
Marian began to explain. "Universal Daddy started out as a short story, about a boy being raised in a house by a robot, never seeing the outside world or other people, and I tried to make that into a song, and it just didn't work. And I couldn't figure out the chorus for it. I got so frustrated, I went to our manager at the time, Monica, I think, and she quickly wrote out a chorus, and I went and recorded it, and it was awful!" He laughed again. "But we'd already planned on putting it on the album, so we did."
We talked a bit about Beyond the Laughing Sky. I told him it was my favorite song from the album.
"So many songs about beautiful women sound like they could be about drugs, instead," he said, looking thoughtful. "Or maybe it's the other way around ... songs about drugs are really about beautiful woman!"
People wandered in and out of the green room. I mentioned to Marian how some people were discussing whether he was lip syncing during a concert, and how obvious to me that he was not. Kristoff and Reiner (I never did know if I got his name right. Every time someone said it to me, it sounded different!), the sound men, overheard me and laughed. Kristoff said, "That's great! If someone thinks it's a lip sync, that means we're doing our job. It's a compliment!" They laughed.
Christian came over and sat down. He pointed at DC and me. "How did you two meet?" he asked. DC and I simultaneously pointed at Marian, and we all laughed. I told the DC story once again, and how I'd been waiting ever since to go to an Alphaville concert with him.
We talked a bit about how bands get noticed this day, and Christian seemed frustrated with how few people seemed to know about Alphaville these days. "Yes, but they know the music," I said. "Forever Young - it's a song with a cult people. Even if someone doesn't know the band, they know the song. I have a friend on Facebook who didn't know who I was talking about when I posted about going to these concerts, but when she looked up Alphaville, she knew Forever Young."
We discussed Forever Young, and the covers of it that have been done. I mentioned I didn't care for the Jay-Z cover, and Marian mentioned how beautifully Beyonce covers it.
I mentioned that I didn't always care for the covers and duets that get done. I said I really didn't like the duet he'd done with Bell, Book and Candle. I couldn't remember the song. "Oh that one!" said Marian. "She's beautiful. I really like her." Oops, I guess I chewed on my foot a little more. "She played the bride in the video for I Die For You Today."
I nodded. "She is very beautiful."
I told Marian about riding the New York subway the night before, how incredible it was to see all the different people and different lifestyles.
"I was listening to my music on the subway, watching everything go by, and Ariana came on," I said. "If you ever did Ariana live in concert, it would blow peoples' minds!" Marian laughed. "No, really!" I said.
"Ariana was a birthday present to my girlfriend or manager ... one of them. We just wrote it and recorded it quickly. Probably the only birthday present song ever done!"
"You could also open a show by having Alexandra walk out in the dark," I said, " and just say '... Night.' And then, after the encore, all the lights could go out except for hers and she could sing Lady Bright." Marian nodded and laughed.
We talked a bit about I Die For You Today. "That one line, I die for you today, it stood out and stuck with me," he said, holding his hands up like he was holding something precious. "I'd never heard anything like it. It's the chorus, all by itself, just repeated. That's all that it was needed."
I think it was Jaysen who asked how I'd written it, and I told the story of how, way back in 2001, the members on the e-mailing list (alphaville@yahoogroups.com) were writing songs that sounded like Alphaville for every letter of the alphabet that didn't match a song title that started with the letter. Doug asked if Alphaville really didn't have a song starting with the letter I, and I said that it was actually written for the letter K; the title was originally Kiss Me Kill Me.
I told Marian how it was so strange of a feeling when I found out that the song meant something to someone, even it meant something different to them. Just to know that ... what an amazing feeling it was. "There's a video on YouTube, for example, " I said. "I'm an atheist, but this woman made a video for the song that reflected the meaning the song had for her, and it was all about the death and resurrection of Jesus." I shook my head. "Just knowing that someone can feel so deeply about something I wrote ... how do I wrap my head around that? It's amazing." I nodded to Marian. "I'm sure you know what I mean; I'm not explaining it very well."
"I don't mind having friends who think differently than me, with different opinions, or being around people who do, " I said. "I don't want to talk to people who are exactly like me."
Marian laughed. "That would just be ... masturbation!" he exclaimed.
Someone asked how I'd found the video. "I have a Google alert set up to email me anytime someone posts a video for the song," I admitted, sheepishly. "There have been some really good ones out there ... like the one cover done by some members of a marching band." Christian and Marian laughed. "I want to see that one!" Marian said.
We talked somberly for a few minutes about Martin, and how we missed him.
I said that my favorite song was Romeos, the eight-and-a-half minute remix, the one Bernhard told me he hated. "Oh, I like that one!" said Marian. I also said my second favorite was the extended remix of Jerusalem. Marian shook his had and said, "I don't like that one."
"I met the man who did the Romeos remixes, in New York," he said. "I was surprised because for some reason, I was thinking he was a black man, from the way he talked and sounded. But he wasn't!"
"The new album is going to be called Thunder Baby," Marian said.
"That's better than Baby Thunder," I replied. Marian laughed loudly. "No ... that's much better!" he said. His face became serious. "It will come out much sooner than this one."
I wish I had asked him what he meant, but he pushed on.
"There are three songs right now that I want on the album." He said two names which I didn't recognize and can't remember, "and I definitely want Because of You on the album."
I nodded. "That's an amazing song," I said. "It's powerful."
"You've heard it?" he asked, "Oh, it was on Dreamscapes, the live version." I nodded.
"It shouldn't be hard to find material for a new album," I said. "You've already released online enough studio songs to make one." Marian looked at me quizzically as I started listing songs. "London Sky, Criminal Girl, Fur Diche, and I know I won't pronounce this right ... Kalt Asche ..." Marian nodded thoughtfully. "Oh!" I said, pointing my hand towards Marian, "Templehoff!
"Easily enough for an album ... or maybe it's time for another Dreamscapes box set?" Marian nodded again, thoughtfully.
I looked over towards David and Jakob. "So everyone has a mic on stage except these two," I said. "I can understand why Jakob doesn't have one, because it would just get in his way, but why not David?'
David looked at me with false indignation. "Have you ever heard me sing?" he said, Britishly. "No one wants to hear that!" He made his voice croak a little, and we all laughed.
Marian mentioned that he always had this idea; he wanted each band member to record a song, like Martin did with Call Me Down. "Wolfg ... Ricky wrote the words to Paradigm Shift and Parade," he said. "I'm not sure anyone knows that ... I wanted him to record them, to sing the songs, but he wouldn't."
"I don't think I've ever heard Ricky's voice," I said.
We talked a little about Bernhard, and I discovered I'd been pronouncing his name incorrectly since ... forever. I've always pronounced it the American way, I guess ... Burr-nard, with hard emphasis on the second half. Marian pronounced it more like Burner.
"I wish he'd do more," I said. "I really liked the Atlantic Popes album, and I keep hoping for the second one to come out."
Marian nodded. "I've heard it; it sounds great," he said. "But Bernhard is such a perfectionist ..." He laughed, shaking his head.
"But the Beatles did it," he said, returning to the previous conversation, "They each sang at one point on an album, and I want to do that with everyone. Everyone in the band ... it's important to me that they all fit in, so we become a family." He looked around the room and smiled. "We're all a family."
I felt it too. Alexandra, who'd felt sick before the show but was feeling better now. Kristoff and Reiner. Engell and Christian. Jakob, who greeted me like his best friend whenever he saw me. I witnessed first hand how they all got along, and how much of a family it really was.
Lili and Noa walked in, and I witnessed, astonished, Marian switch into dad mode, as they argued over whether they would answer the phone when he called them later. "But we'll be asleep, and won't hear the phone ring!" cried Lili.
Marian was having none of it. "You'll hear the phone ring, and you'll answer it," he said sternly. Lili and Noa left for the hotel, brushing off Marian's concerns.
Marian looked exasperated. "It was so much easier when they were little!" He threw up his hands. "What happened?" We laughed.
Jaysen and DC were talking to Christian about other bands when Jakob rolled a smoke and everyone decided to go outside and join him.
Everyone in the alley. Reiner, Carsten, Kristoff, Christian, a giant blond man whose name I did not catch, Marian, David, Engell, and Jakob.
DC and Jaysen wandered off down the alley to get some food at a Subway. I wasn't even sure what time it was, but the hours were weighing heavily on me. David and I joked about a few random things.
With each minute I became more and more punchy. I leaned against the wall and just listened as everyone talked.
I asked Jakob how to pronounce his name, because I'd heard different people saying it different ways. "It depends on where I am," he explained. "If I'm in America or somewhere they speak English, it's Jacob. But in Germany, it's Yaycoob." I shook my head. I knew I'd never pronounce it correctly, so I figured it was okay just to keep calling him Jacob.
We talked a little about what everyone was going to do until the shows next weekend, and they all had plans to go to San Francisco, because they'd never been there.
Kevin the fantastic security guard and some of the venue staff came out and started shutting down the venue. I still didn't know what time it was, as the band and crew got up and started walking down the alley to head back to their hotel rooms. I walked the other direction towards the Subway where DC and Jaysen were.
I turned around and waved. "I'll see you all again Friday!" I called out. A few of them waved in return before disappearing into the night.
Jaysen and DC were finishing off their subs when I arrived. DC said I looked stunned. I shook my head.
"I don't know how to explain it," I said. "I'm sorry I kept you two out so late."
They both waved it off. "This ... this has been one of the best days of my life."
I've forgotten half of the conversations we all had in the green room, and probably mangled my retelling of the rest. But I felt happier and more inspired than I had for years. I felt alive again.
And tired. I was bone tired.
DC and Jaysen got me back to the car, and I drifted in and out of consciousness as we returned to their house. I awoke when the garage door began to open, just in time to see a huge brown shape scurry out from behind their trash bin, across the street and behind another trash bin.
"Was that a rat?" asked Jaysen. "yes, yes it was," I replied, shuddering.
I hate rats.
We got inside and I settled heavily on the couch, pulling off my boots with great relief. My right foot was throbbing from the blister.
Once settled on the couch, I quickly fell asleep, waking up 11 hours later. DC and Jaysen had picked up some of the best donuts I've ever had, and DC and I played a card game for a bit.
The best donuts I've ever had.
Later that day, they showed me around Chicago. I saw just enough to know I'd like to return one day, especially to ride the amazing elevated trains. That evening, with their two friends Leo and Dan, we had some of the pizza that Chicago is famous for, with good reason. It was, like the rest of my trip, amazing.
We returned to DC and Jaysen's home after a day short in time but long in experiences. My head still spun from everything I'd been taken in.
At 2 in the morning, we woke and left for the airport. I said my goodbyes and returned to Albuquerque without incident.
I promptly fell into bed and slept for 17 hours straight, then went to work. Not a great choice.
The first half of my great adventure was completed. I could not have asked for more since I started, nor for better people to experience it with, friends old and new, old friends met for the first time, and older friends seen once again after too many years apart. For all the my mind was reeling, my heart was even more ready to burst with happiness. I achieved fantasies I'd always been afraid to have or tell to anyone.
At that point, I'd been to every concert Alphaville had ever done in the United States. In just a few more days, I'd be off to see the remaining two shows, as the second half of my great adventure would begin.
Best. Picture. Ever.
I could hardly wait.
