Empires and Jon Walker at The Beat Kitchen, 5/21/11

[rsadelle]

A note to those of you who have arrived here via Google Alerts: I am the fan fiction writing variety of fangirl. The plot bunny section of this post is wholly imaginary and meant for fun, not as either reality or an insult.

We show up early to hang out at the Starbucks down the street to meet autumn__leaves. My cheeks start to hurt from smiling before we even leave for the venue, which is actually a bad thing - it means I haven't been smiling enough recently.

The Beat Kitchen has food, so we show up there early too - so early there isn't even a line for the show - so we can get a booth big enough for five of us. They put us at the booth that has an auxiliary piece they slide into it that sticks out into the aisle to make room for the fifth person. Every time Jon Walker walks by, our entire table bursts into laughter. We see Tom through the window. He looks like a werewolf. Then he turns around and his hair is even worse from the back. Members of Empires drop by to hug lakeeffectgirl and smile at the rest of us. Sean is very good at eye contact. Ryan flirts. (He's already sweaty, and he tells us he's sweaty all the time, right from when he gets up in the morning: "I sleep as hard as I drum.") Tom says hi and has to dash off. We assume Max is hiding in the van. We overhear both sound checks. Empires plays "The Night is Young," "Hell's Heroes," and "Shame." Jon Walker's check makes us all laugh and make faces.

Fashion interlude: There is a guy with fluorescent shoes and an "Art is the Weapon" shirt accompanied by a woman wearing a Gaslight Anthem shirt. They end up in the front. There is also a woman in a dress that looks polka dotted from far away, but the dots turn out to be hearts. She's wearing a plaid shirt over it and a large bow in her hair. She and her group of friends end up right behind us, which is how I learn that her name is Phoebe. They are the only people I can see who are truly excited about Jon Walker.

We go in right when they opened the doors and put lakeeffectgirl's very short sister up against the stage with the rest of us behind her. Jon Walker takes the stage just a minute or two late. His first song (the set list with large writing that we can easily see calls it "Alone") is just him on guitar and Cassie on tambourine, with the rest of the band waiting at the edge of the stage. We spend most of Jon's set making what the fuck faces at each other and trying to stifle our giggles. Cassie is adorable. The rest of the band are Jon's brothers Mike (guitar) and Andy (bass) and his brother-in-law whose name I've forgotten (drums). There is an obvious Walker sibling continuum from Mike to Jon to Andy. Mike looks kind of like the type of guy who might work some kind of solid Midwestern blue collar job. Andy looks like an unwashed hipster. Jon is right in the middle. I will say this for Jon Walker: if you like forearms, you want to see this guy. Even I noticed them, and that's saying something. Max plays slide guitar on a song after Jon tells us that he's been recording in Max's studio. (Max's parents, he tells us, even made them dinner.) They close the set with "Growing a Beard," which has a beat. Very few of us are clapping. I am one of them. I may not be into this set, but I know how to do audience participation.

Then there's Empires. They are fucking amazing. Remember that emotional/religious experience I didn't have at MCR? Empires don't quite get me there, but it's a close thing. Max is so incredibly happy to be playing music on a stage. Every time his hair is out of his face, he's smiling. Tom is still not an overly emotional guy on stage, but he's a lot less closed off than the last time I saw them. (That was two years ago today, by the way.) He also has a habit of occasionally crouching or kneeling on stage. I hope someone got good pictures of that. Harrison is a little one of these things is not like the others - he's good, but he's more put together than the rest of the band's rolled out of bed in these clothes aesthetic. Ryan bangs the hell out of his drums. And then there's Sean. Sean fucking owns the room. I have to keep reminding myself that there are other people in this band and I should look at them because otherwise all I will see is Sean. I know people who want to make out with him, and I finally understand that, because when he leans over us doing la la la las, even I want to make out with him. By the time they do "Hello Lover," Sean looks like he's been fucking for hours, and he keeps up the seduction throughout the song. When they close with "Spit the Dark," all I can do is stare up at him adoringly. I hope he never decides to start a cult, because by the end of the show, I would have taken his hand and followed him anywhere.

Set list (complete and in order because lakeeffectgirl stole Tom's off the stage after the show): The Night Is Young, I Want Blood, Hell's Heroes, I Know You Know, Hard Times, Damn Things Over, Hello Lover, something the set list calls "Runaway," Shame, Voodooized, Bang, Midnight Land, Spit the Dark. "Midnight Land" and "Spit the Dark" are the encore, and before them, Tom steps up to his mic and says, "We're supposed to walk off and all that shit, but we're just going to keep playing." The song I came out of this loving more than I ever have before is "Hard Times." I've listened to it a couple of times, but it never quite clicked for me. I loved watching Tom chime in on the "gloria," and I woke up with the song in my head this morning.

Now, the plot bunnies/fic I want section of this post. There are times when Tom, Harrison, and Max all play to Ryan, leaving Sean out front with us. (With a couple of exceptions when he goes over to Max, like at the beginning of "Hello Lover," Sean's energy is all for the crowd.) I would love something about how Sean just trusts them to do what they're doing so he can do his part. (I really want a space AU, but then, when do I not want a space AU?) There should also be some gsf. As they came on stage, Sean touched every member of his band. What I really want is a story showing us the varying pairings/threesomes within their gsf. The Sean and Ryan section should be about the two of them just fucking, hot and sweaty. I would also read some Sean/Max. The most disappointing thing about the show is that I realized that Sean couldn't hold girl!Tom up against a wall to fuck her. Tom is just too substantial.