Some folks have been requesting more details on my day on Wednesday, thus rather than individually repeat…

Okay, I’ll admit it, I fan-boyed out on Wednesday. Definitely not a kosher move while running, but the band and I were getting along well on a few earlier runs so I decided to go for it.

I drove Paul, Daniel, & Pajo twice, once from RIMAC Arena to the hotel after their soundcheck, then picked them up from the hotel to take them back to the venue. Sam & Brandon must have just stayed in their tour bus/green room at the venue. We chatted about a bunch of topics including La Jolla (Paul asked whether or not it was a “college town” - which it is far from being), Dan’s man-crush on Blake Griffin, the Black Angels album I had playing in the van at one point (Paul approves), what they all had for dinner, and the new Ricky Gervais show that I must now start watching.

Anywho, it went something like this just before dropping them off before they were about to go on stage…

Me: “So do you all care if I do something completely unprofessional and ask for an autograph…or is that no bueno?”

Paul (in the passenger seat next to me): “No, it’s no problemo. Just give us something to sign…”

(I pull out the ready-to-go vinyl & sharpie)

Paul: “…well that was easy.” (lols, signs, hands it to Daniel, thanks me for everything & gets out of van)

Daniel (in the second row of my van, signs it, then looks up): “uhh so should I give it…” (looks towards Pajo, the new bassist who technically didn’t play on TOTBL, who is in the third row).

Me: “Well, up to you two…whatever you want to do.”

Daniel hands it to Pajo. Pajo signs it. I could have gone either way at the time, but now I’m glad he did; Pajo has his own impressive back history prior to joining up with Interpol, and I’ve respected his bass skills since the Zwan days…despite the awesome drama regarding the breakup of Zwan & Billy Corgan’s accusations of Pajo & other band members. Who knows who to fully believe, ultimately; all I know is that the dude was very kind & appreciative throughout the experience to me.

Dan’s signature is on the left, Paul’s on the top, Pajo’s on the bottom right. Quite an amazing day when you meet a band you’ve loved for 8 or 9 years, it turns out they’re super nice guys, and you get paid for doing it. Granted there were the typical runner annoyances/stress, but I’ve been used to working the 15 hour show days for free for the past 4 years…and I would have done it for free once more to spend a few minutes in the car with those guys. Watching Paul & their TM shoot some hoops in the arena afterwards wasn’t all bad either :).

My 200th post, yay!