Sometimes all it takes to stand out in a crowd is one thing, one small little seemingly insignificant thing, and the rest is history. This is a story of just that. A tale of intrigue and excitement, a whirlwind adventure of how one time, I got to go backstage to hang out with my favorite band, all because of my phone case.
Let me explain…
A few years ago, I was at a concert for Young The Giant. Now, they are not a crazy successful band, with screaming fans mobbing their private jet, but they are just big enough that there is security at all of their shows. I was packed into a fairly large venue that was completely sold out. I mean we were standing shoulder to shoulder from the front of the stage all the way to the back wall. That’s the magic of one of these mid-level concerts. They’re not quite big enough to play the mega-venues, but just big enough that the smaller venues get packed like sardine cans.
ANYWAY, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this story…
The concert was amazing, and as a large 6 foot tall man, I was able to somehow force my way to within about 5 to 10 feet from the stage. Of course, I was screaming my lungs out and recording almost the whole concert with my phone… which we all know is pretty much a useless thing to do because the audio on that will be unbearable later on in a quiet room… but I digress. The concert ends, they play their encore and we slowly start to unfill ourselves from the theater.
As the entire theater spills out into the street and begins the desperate search for a Lyft, I happen to catch out of the corner of my eye some loading and unloading happening on the side of the theater into a van. A lightbulb goes off for me and I think, “that must be someone from the band or at least one of the stage managers. Unfortunately, right as I noticed that, so did about 15 – 20 other people, and before I could even catch a breath, a whole new crowd was forming around the unloading area.
Now, I understand that the band does not want to be bothered while they are loading and unloading, and if it was anyone else, I would have just continued on my journey home by booking that Lyft like I had intended to… HOWEVER, these 15 – 20 people were way less than the hundreds in the venue and I couldn’t help but make my way over to catch a glimpse of my favorite artists. So I did.
I walked over there and took my phone out, and with my 6 foot 4 inches stature held up my phone to take another picture to add it to my concert videos, when suddenly, one of the band mates turned around and stopped dead in his tracks. He looked right at me, and beckoned for me to come closer. I could not believe what was happening. There was no mistaking that he was talking to me, because there was nobody else he could have been pointing at around me. I walked closer thinking that this was the moment that I would be asked to be a part of the band just because of my dashing good looks.
The sea of people parted as I walked towards the van, they all understood that I was the chosen one in this moment. I walked up to the guitarist and he looked at me and said the following words that I will never forget…
“Hey man, where did you get your phone case. It’s pretty cool, I saw it from the stage and was hoping to ask you.”
Yeah. He saw my phone case from the stage, and wanted to see where I got it. I told him. He said “Cool, thanks man.” Gave me a signed picture and went back to loading. I would never have believed that such a thing would get me noticed by my favorite band. For those of you curious, the phone case was from this site … get one and get noticed at concerts… I’m living proof that works!
Sure, it’s not the stardom I had initially thought would be thrust upon me by this bandmate, but Hey… I got to talk to the guitarist from my favorite band just because I have some taste in cell phone accessories!
