The Biggest Rube in Austin...

Story Time:

So, it's Friday afternoon and Third Eye Blind are playing at the Austin Convention Center in the Lone Star Lounge, which is one of the SXSW Live! venues, which I mentioned in the previous post as being a venue used to broadcast various groups live on DirectTV.

This is what the place looked like:


















Back to the story. Other than Lone Star, there was one other venue, directly next to it, that they used for the same purposes. Outside the two rooms, it was chaos. There were probably 5 or six different lines depending on if you had a badge, wristband, were part of the general public, and which show you wanted to go see. Problem was, no one knew which line was for what, and there were no SXSW or Convention Center people around to ask. I did see, though, a bunch of people with headsets further down the hall in the opposite direction of the venues, so I figured I'd go over and ask them what the deal was, and at the very least they could direct me to who would know, even if they didn't specifically.

I go up to the little group and ask which line is for Third Eye Blind. Right away one girl is staring at me kind of slack-jawed, while another starts giggling. Something's up. They ask me how much I like Third Eye Blind, now all of them kind of smirking/laughing to themselves. Great, music snobs. Whatever, I just want to get in the right line, so I say, 'Yes, I really like them and I've got all their albums, blah, blah, blah, now where the fuck is the right line!' (okay I may have just thought that last part to myself). Now one of the girls starts taking pictures of me. I have no idea what's going on, so I appeal to the guy standing to my left, he seems almost like he feels bad for me, and tells me where to stand. As I thank them, one of the girls with the headsets standing behind the guy, points to him and silently mouths, 'don't you know who this is?'

Embarrassment swept over me as I realized that he must be part of the band. I quickly thanked them and turned tail and walked to the back of the line, only to have the same headset girl who clued me in come over to me in line to make sure that not only was I talking to someone in the band, but it was the lead singer! Oh boy.

In my defense, I stand by the fact that I'm a big fan of their music, and for that very reason I don't feel that bad about what happened; I'm a fan of their music. I never really payed attention to what they looked like, and never having seen them in concert I never had a chance to see them up close and personal. Still, I think it makes for a pretty funny story.

Has anyone else had any embarrassing/awesome stories of running into musicians/celebrities? If so, comment away!