The Chicago Warped date was actually in Tinley Park, a good 40 minutes outside of Chicago. In the early afternoon, we were sitting on the bus just hanging out, when Coby and Alex from Say Anything came on the bus to say that Max Bemis was super sick and instead of cancelling their scheduled set, they were wondering if Justin could sing a song for them. They were going around the bus lot asking their friends for a solid. Which, apparently, everybody was up for. They said even some people they'd rather not have sing their songs were up for it (I should keep mum on who they were referring to).
The only real problem was that Motion City Soundtrack's set began half an hour after Say Anything's on a different stage - so it would be squeezing it in. Justin told the dudes he'd mull it over while MCS went to do a signing. When they returned from the signing, Beth uploaded "Alive with the Glory of Love" on his iPod, and Justin holed himself up in the back lounge trying to memorize the lyrics for the rest of the afternoon.
I spent the afternoon wandering around, trying to find my friends' tents to no avail. I caught Four Year Strong's fantastic set, and then ran into one of my good friends, Ben (I call him Supernice Guy), who is teching for All Time Low. Ben and I have known each other since we both went to college in Boston years ago, and were part of the Monty Are I fun times. It was nice to be able to hang out with him, even if only for a bit. It's weird seeing friends like that go from one context (college) to another (working on Warped). Kind of like how Jesse went from dude in a band I used to go see live all the time to, oh, hey, fianz.
Anyways.
The time came for Justin to open Say Anything's set, and he was a bit nervous. All the MCS guys were encouraging him with words and smiles. Backstage, Jesse jokingly told Bemis he owed MCS one. We all scurried on stage as Bemis explained to the crowd that he wasn't up to singing that day, but some friends would be singing their songs. And so began the first notes of "Alive with the Glory of Love" (a great, great song in my opinion) and Justin belted it out with aplomb. He was still nervous about the words (it does have a particular lot of them) and held the lyric book close. The crowd was amazing and sung each word along with him and pumped their fists and seemed to be having a good time. During the instrumental, Justin even did some dancing on stage. Everyone was having a blast.
Bemis telling the crowd he can't sing.
There's video of Justin's performance HERE!
After Justin sang, we made for an exit to get to MCS' stage, along with Aileen, who was visiting Warped that day (yay!). Everybody was telling Justin what an awesome job he did, and within a few minutes, MCS took their own stage and they rocked it as they always do. They were the last band to play that day, essentially closers, and the crowd was fantastic. Aileen, Luis, and I were singing, clapping and dancing around sidestage to their set. Luis got some great video of us during the first song, "Attractive Today," -
Oh we are so nerdy and we love it (and MCS, obvs). Aileen found it hilarious that I know all of Jesse's hand claps and did them in unison - uh, yeah. Fan and fiancee, fiancee and fan. Also, I recognize a lot of "things bands do live that I can too" in my favorite live performers (see also: No Doubt, Dashboard Confessional). I'm a dork, I love live music, it's what I do.
After the show, Warped was over for the day, and we hung out in the parking lot with the fun people. There was an early bus call and we headed out to a 24-hour Super K-Mart. Those boys like their frozen food, just sayin. It was another epic day, and Jesse and I were definitely exhausted again. I was just hoping time would slow down a little bit, because I knew I was leaving the next afternoon.
