Semi-Charmed Kind of Night

Last night Val and I took a trip in the wayback machine, circa year 2000, age 16, and saw Third Eye Blind. Jealous? You know you secretly love that band. Don't be ashamed to admit it.

Val is certainly not ashamed. Girl has been crushing on some Stephan Jenkins since we've met, and can you blame her?


And guess what? He's 45 YEARS OLD. Ridiculous.

Anywho, I was a little late to the 3EB party (that's what us true fans call the band) but Val showed me the way. I've always liked them, but two years ago she begged me to go see them in Richmond with her. I obliged; little did I know what that night would hold for us.

We were hanging out at the bar before the show when some guy came up to us and asked "You girls want some backstage passes?"

Well, duh.

We played it cool (for once in our lives) and accepted. Needless to say, the show was awesome that night. The afterparty? Not so much. Things got weird. We bailed. Stephan Jenkins was attractive. That's all that needs to be said.

Flash forward to two years later and I see 3EB is visiting my fair city. I let Val know and she's on board, despite the show being at 8 pm on a school night. Val arrives, checks out the new house (loves it by the way) and we head out. Dinner and drinks later, we strolled into the venue, snagged some sweet seats and were ready to rock. We tried unsuccessfully to take pictures of ourselves when some creepsters offered to take the shot for us. This was the result:



I guess we're lucky they even got our faces in it, right?

After an opening band and a much delayed sound check, the crowd started to get restless. 3EB decided to take over:



That place proceeded to rock out for the next two hours. Hit after hit after hit (yes, there are that many) the crowd sang along to every word. It was amazing:




3EB did a great job of mixing the new songs with the old. As soon as they finished the last chord on some random new song I didn't know, they were tearing into 'Graduate' and I was 18 years old again. Except this time I had a drink in my hand.

They ended with 'Semi-Charmed Life' and of course the place went NUTS. This is literally after the crowd had sung the chorus five or six times, and they're still feeling it:





(No, that is not Val or I singing in the background. Thank you.)

Insane. Love it. Love them. Still love Stephan Jenkins.

We headed home after the show ended; no backstage passes this time unfortunately, but perhaps that was for the best. Although as we were leaving we did hear some random chick yelling to her friends about how she had just gotten passes. Val decided that girl was trashy, and we left. We've matured over the past two years, no?

All in all, it was totally worth the 4 hours of sleep I got last night. Oh, I didn't mention that I had to be at work at 6:00 am today? Yes. But I made it through. 25 years old and I've still got it. Let's see if I can do it again in two years. I'm game if Val and Stephan are...