Chicago, IL - House Of Blues
December 31, 2002

From: Maggie, r-ette

Ok, I haven't heard the broadcast, so I don't know what you all heard, didn't hear. I also haven't watched the tape of the wfld thing, but I did find out all of us from here were on quite a bit. Thank you to Kris, Vampyre1225 for encouraging me to get the dinner package and setting up the rooms. bIG shout out to Chrissy, Kathy, Paula, and my roomie Laurie (sorry if I spelled your names wrong) for a great time. Also sorry if I missed any one. Soda, nice to see you again too! So, maybe something you missed - during Name, when John said this is him being less serious, he grabbed 2 balloons (from the big balloon drop) and stuck them in his shirt so he had a very large rack. It was fun watching him try to get his guitar around his new chest. After he finished the song he grabbed them and popped them. Big ballon/confetti drop like I said. Balloons all over the place. Most of them pooled in the area between the barricade and the stage. At one point Robby gestured to me to grab them and get them going again, but the barricade was up to my chest and I motioned my trying to grab them and not reaching, I'm too short. He laughed and went to the security guard and had him go through the pit and push them all back into play. Lots of eye contact with Robby and the crowd. What a hoot he is. John was cool as ever as was Mike and Greg and Jason. Miroko was out in front passing out stickers and I ran into her after the show and she gave me some more. Really nice lady. Also rode the elevator with Greg at the end of the night and just thanked him for a really great show. We stayed up until 5 am and I just got home. I'm dying. I'll let the others fill you in on everything else. - Maggie

I think a lot of the stories got covered. I do remember that Robby jumped down into the pit between the stage and rail and was kicking the balloons around. When he was jumping back up on stage, he slipped and almost fell. I instinctively stuck out my hand to try to catch him (although I don't think I would've been much help LOL). I snuck in a disposable camera, but I didn't take pictures for awhile because I didn't want to get busted and get kicked out. There was no way I was leaving the rail! After a while, though, I tried sneaking a picture. The flash went off--oops! All the security people saw me do it and didn't say anything, so I kept on taking pictures. I'll let you guys know if they turn out OK. A few small details--Robby was right in front of me and he is so amazing to watch! He has so much energy and eye contact with everyone! It was hard to see Mike way in the back. Jason's sax solo during Broadway was awesome! It was hilarious when John had his huge "rack" and couldn't reach the guitar strings. John's microphone fell over a couple of times. John threw a big bag of confetti over the audience on his side of the stage. A lot of it landed on the stage--I was glad to see no one slipped and fell. We had a chance to meet them, but it didn't work out. While were in the hotel restaurant eating today, the guys left. We did see Jason, who was sitting a couple of tables away from us, and Kris ran into Greg (and Maggie had also run into Greg in the elevator). There's probably a lot more I could remember, but I'm so tired! It was such a blast! - r-ette