Steam Powered Giraffe at the Calico Ghost Town

This is a story of friendship and music. I went to Steam Powered Giraffe's concert in Calico Ghost Town on Oct. 18th with my little brother. I arrived early enough to watch their sound check and I was shocked at how good they sounded, especially in an outdoor arena. 

I mean, I knew Steve Negrete was talented at his job, but I've never seen them live and fan videos' sound are often a bit distorted because cell phones aren't always the greatest recorders. I listened and the excitement I've been putting off for days began to flood and I was getting toward a full fangirl meltdown. They even had a new song (I think from their new album coming out this fall)!

That's when I met the other fans. 

They were delightful, lovely people! I made so many new friends, I'm still in a bit of a shock.

Most of my friends in the fandom before I went to this show are friends I had before I was a fan and we've been intent on corrupting each other with our own hobbies since we all met.

 These new friends were already corrupted into the joy that is SPG. 

I didn't have to do anything; they already knew and understood! 

They were even willing to save me a spot in line with my brother (he has ADHD and cerebral palsy, so getting him to stand still for long periods of time is quite a feat) so we could get great seats (and we did)! 

So, a shoutout to Stacy, Jessica, Amber, and Sean for being truly awesome! I made more friends throughout the night, but I'll get to them soon.

After the sound check, I managed to snag a photo with Matt Smith and Michael Reed, who were great and very kind, and somewhat amused that they could be tall book ends for me (so I'm short, that means all my love is concentrated for potency!). 

I meandered about the ghost town, squeeing internally, and finally decided watching the show distracted by hunger was a very bad idea.

I went to find food and saw that Beth and James Riley were there setting up their booth outside a restaurant. 

I couldn't resist and went over, and Beth really is twice as cute in person. I mean, you think she's cute in the photos, but no, she's so lovely in person, too.

I actually blurted that out and James was like, "I know right? That's why I married her!" I applauded his choice and slunk away so they could finish their setup. 

I went into the Calico House Restaurant behind them (featured at the beginning of this post). 

I also desperately needed to charge my phone and they had the only free outlet I had found. 

The food was not bad and the server was nice to me as she served my brother and I. 

He had reappeared when I mentioned food.

I bought a ton of swag from GeekShot and the Walter Girls, then returned to my seat at the dinner table.

As I sat there charging my phone (it was half dead from the GPS to get there and wouldn't make it to the concert), I heard voices getting louder and coming up behind me, so I turned, and saw Rabbit and GG, with their backs to me, doing a photo op!

I immediately ducked, not wanting to photobomb people. I then packed everything up and came down the nearby walkway and got a turn at taking my own photo with Rabbit and GG, who were lovely and delightful and I had no idea how to interact with them in character, LOL.

I can converse easily with people and with people I admire I can usually get one or two coherent things out that are more natural, but with the actual characters... I lost all sense of coherency and grinned like a loon.

I hope they accept that as my compliment to them, bringing that out of me after a week punctuated by bad things happening to my family.

I got my brother to take photos with Rabbit and GG, who remarked on my brother's Star Wars rock band shirt.

Rabbit: Oh I like your shirt! It's from Start Trek, isn't it?

Brother: No it's not!

Rabbit: Eh well, same director!

Brother: What, no! *Laughing*

I giggled at my brother's scandalized laughter and Rabbit's reference to J.J. Abrams as I took their picture, which came out blurry. T_T

I then found my new friends mentioned above from the sound check. My brother began doing his favorite thing, which is make scared faces at things he isn't afraid of, then cackle maniacally.

I love him so much.

Here I am showing off my new shirt and bracelets.

We continued to hang out in line and enjoy ourselves.

We finally got in and I took pictures through a couple skits, but my phone fritzed out on a video and wouldn't let me do anything media related the rest of the night, citing memory trouble. (None of the shots I got before this happened came out good, but I am posting them anyway!)

Which is fine, actually. 

I grinned through every song, laughed through every joke, cried a little, and danced as best I could to their new song, Ghost Grinder (hard to dance when you're surrounded by people holding still on every side, but I tried and no one got hurt). 

I got to sit and focus on the show and be reminded all over again why I fell in love with them.

My brother became a fan and begged to watch the DVD I'd bought the next day (I told him maybe, but he did see it before I went back to the Frozen North, have no fear).

I was going to have him get Halloween buttons in the autograph line for a friend, but he was now a fan and I hadn't the heart to even ask him.

We waited in the autograph line for an awfully long time (seriously, that line and show had sooo many people!), but I enjoyed it, because who should be behind me but the lovelyfanbot Rivet (Gabi) and her delightful friends: Treasure, Caitlin, and poor guy whose name I forgot (so, sorry)!

Picture taken by Rivet with me!

I got a photo with her on her phone, which she was kind enough to post on tumblr for me a few days later. We had a ton of fun with me now surrounded by even more new SPG friends and I had a good laugh about a certain crocheted scarf. I won't reveal the story here, sorry!

So, I was shaking and grinning like a loon when I finally got to the band for autographs. They complimented my SPG shirt (I changed into it for the show) and were very kind from my mumbled Thank-yous and blurting of finding them through my knitting group, LOL. They were in character and I swear, it makes me lose any plans for what I had to say fly out the window. I really have no idea how to talk to the bots. My brother had them sign his Angels baseball hat (which is signed by a baseball player from that team, no less), stating it was his autograph hat. I know how much he treasures that hat, so I was very impressed.

I got my pictures signed and the Halloween buttons and squeed my way down the steps and out of the way. Some ink from The Spine's signature came off in the sheet protectors, but all of the signatures and photographs remained perfectly legible, so I'm glad (one of the pics was a present). I kept chatting with my new friends and eventually drove my brother crazy, so we finally left for our two hour trek back home. Overall, I traveled a total of 15 hours to get to the show (Utah to San Diego area to Orange County to Calico). No moment was regretted. None. Except maybe my blitzed out, overjoyed mumblings to the best band ever, but I hope they understand how happy I was just to be near these performers I enjoy so much.

Picture taken by Rivet, I was standing next to the photographer while she posed. They were the best!

I think the best part was it being my brother's birthday a couple days before, so I'd given him an iTunes gift card and no way to spend it until I helped my mother with her computer. Guess what he's buying! *evil grin* I regret nothing!