It was a crisp April day. With only the fourth day into the month a concert was already here. I didn’t have much excitement over this concert, due to it was the fourth time seeing this band called The Used. I thought that they were good but I was a little tired of their live performance. Anyway, my friend Christa loves them so I agreed to take her.

“Please, Brett, go and see them with me please, please I get you.” She moaned
“Ok, I will, who is opening for them.” I grunted
“Some band called theSTART and uhhh…” She trailed off in her speech.

Christa had informed me that The Used was also going to have a signing in downtown St. Petersburg at Park Side CD’s. I regretfully agreed to take her to this. So as soon as school was done, I had my mom pick her and me up and hurry down there. We stood in line for a good forty-five minutes. My mom was rushing us to get out of there. Which I could understand cause she had, had a long day at work. Finally out time had come to meet them. We took our pictures and got our autographs. After this encounter with the band Christa started talking nonstop about them. She would not stop. I must admit I was a little excited too.

Christa babbled “Oh my god, did you see Bert (lead singer of The Used) touch my hand?”
“Yes, they are so cool, really good people.” I scrambled

After this encounter we went back home and got ready for the concert that night. So two hours after we arrived back home, we went back down to St. Petersburg to the concert venue called Jannus Landings. On the way down there me and Christa still pestered about the meeting of The Used. Finally we arrived at the venue. We rushed out of the car and bought our tickets. We were a little late so I was a little upset that I might of missed the first performance. When we got inside we saw no band on stage.

I asked a man “Has the show started yet.”
He yelled back “No” then shouted, “Lets get this thing started.”

Funny words considering the first bands name, TheSTART. Finally fifteen minutes after we arrived TheSTART came up and on stage. From the first chord to the last I was floored. They were absolutely amazing. They had captured every ounce of strength into their songs. You can imagine how saddened I was when they stopped playing. I could not believe that I saw such a great act perform. They lead singer was a chic and the band hailed from Los Angeles.

I yelled to Christa, “I love them.”
“They are good,” she cried back.

So next was S.T.U.N. and then The Used. That night no one could have compared to theSTART. So after the show I met Sarah, theSTART’s temporary bassist. I soon became in good acquaintance with her.

So dumbfounded I told Sarah this “I love you guys, you know I travel a lot I might be coming to California this summer. So if I do I will try and check you guys out”
She happily spoke “Awwww, thanks so much. Yea that would be awesome. Hope to see you then.”

Finally after waiting about 10 minutes I got the courage to go and speak to Aimee Echo and Jamie, the lead singer and the guitarist. I told Aimee the same thing that I said to Sarah. She just said that they tour a lot so they are always on the road. I am sure in the back of her mind she was thinking wow how creepy. I still think that the whole band was the most down to earth people who you can talk to. They will listen and very fan oriented.

That night I bought so many of theSTART’s merchandise. I believe a tee-shirt, poster, a cd, and a pamphlet. I got to take a picture of me, Jamie, and Aimee. I even got their autographs. All I actually wanted was to meet them. So I got both and now I have been to two other theSTART shows and everyone keeps getting better and better. Aimee even remembers me every time. So that always make my night. So the moral to this story is that if you go with the flow, you just might find yourself pleasantly surprised. Just like I didn’t want to go to The Used concert. I ended up going and had a great time and met a great band named theSTART.