I really, really, really, really love theSTART. But you knew that! Last night's show was mind blowing. We got to Denver ridiculously early but we'll just skip right to 6:30 when we met Stormi and her amigos at the Bluebird. The doors didn't open until eight, so we walked up to the park where Stormi's friend became convinced we were going to freeze to death and built a little match stick fire. We looked like bums. Good times. We walked back up to the Bluebird and ran into Jamie and ENO! Jamie looked stunning in all his eye make up, as most males do (but fail to realize). Then, we stood out in line for an hour or so until they let us in.

I bought all kinds of merch. Fiona is coming to recognize me as the girl who spends all kinds of money on the band. I did buy Lennon's new CD to balance it out slightly.

I met four other theSTART fans right away - Juliana (?) and some people who's names I didn't catch. It seemed like a lot of people were there for theSTART and that made me happy. I found Philip (who had his oh-so-official photo pass) and we parked up at the stage, front and center. He was jealous of my Human Waste Project jacket. Most people are. :D

Lillix played first. They really all are talented musicians - the drummer, especially. The bass played rocked too. The strap on her bass broke during one of the songs, though. Philip leaned over and said, "theSTART wouldn't pull that shit!" Ha. So true. So true.

Lillix left and a lot of people moved back further from the stage. Such crap. Juliana and I started jumping around once we realized theSTART was next. WE ALL LOVE OUR LITTLE BAND! Finally they came out, and all of them looked wonderful. Aimee looked especially gorgeous. BUT DOESN'T SHE ALWAYS? They burst into "The 1234" and we all went wild. No band has as much stage presence as theSTART. After watching Lillix just sort of stand there, and then seeing four people going insane right in front of you...it's a big difference. "Los Angelos" was next. This song sounds so amazing live. I think it's one of my favorites to hear. They had a few technical difficulties and Aimee's mic cut out. She threw it down and grabbed Erick's, which didn't work either. So she prompted us all to sing while the crew rushed to solve the problem. They fixed it pretty quick. Aimee got right down and the ground and sang to Philip a little bit..."It's falling on the ground, I wear my weakness when you're around." Then she held our hands. We love Aimee.

"Death Via Satellite!" Erick had some problems with his bass but they fixed that pretty quick, too. I turned around at this point and saw that a lot more people had moved toward the stage. YAY. SUPPORT THESTART AND DANCE ALONG. "Hi Flyer" was next...always so intense. Aimee got in my face at the end while repeating "look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me." My heart stops every time she does that....

The new song, "Peacocks," was awesome. AWESOME. I can't wait for the new album. I honestly can't tell you how the song goes but it was wonderful. I closed my eyes for a couple seconds and got whacked in the head with the cord of Aimee's mic, since she was down in my face again. Next was "Gorgeous," and hey, everyone loves "Gorgeous." That was followed by "Nemesis," in which I ONCE AGAIN nearly got killed by someone attempting to mosh. That happened in June, too. Let's not mosh, let's just dance.

They closed with "Shakedown!" which got everyone going just like always. Unfortunately, it always leaves you wanting so much more...but that was it. :( We all went up front to talk to the band and all that. I gave Aimee her little Siouxsie pin..."It's really small, but I thought you'd like it..." I said, and Aimee got a great big smile on her face and said, "It's really wonderful! Thank you so much!" Then she saw my HWP jacket and went on to tell me how weird it is that I found one of those since there are only about 30 of them. She signed it for me the way she used to sign things back in the day and put "HWP forever" on it. How ironic...

Then I went to go introduce myself to Billy, who got all wide-eyed and went on about how I looked exactly like his cousin. Anyway, we talked for a few minutes and he ROCKS. I love Billy. He's such a great addition to the band and I hope he stays in it. I kept looking for Erick but he vanished. Maybe next time. Jamie greeted me with a great big smile which made me very happy. I didn't get to talk to him much but that's alright.

I watched a few of Lennon's songs...I missed about half of her set since I was talking to theSTART. I loved the acoustic thing she did, up until "Property of Goatfucker," which was not meant to be acoustic. I went up to her after the show and she signed my copy of 5:30 Saturday Morning, but I got really nervous around her for some reason and crawled back to theSTART. I'm not sure what freaked me out. I've been listening to her for ages and I've been trying to catch one of her shows for almost as long, and meeting her was something I really wasn't prepared for. Hopefully I'll catch her again someday and won't be so nervous.

I listened to Brassy, but I didn't get to watch them since I was still over by the merch booth talking to everyone else. They were good. The drummer was also the DJ and that was pretty good. Philip and I saw Muffin, the lead singer, walking to the bus after the show and he yelled, "You're crazy!" at her. She didn't take it as a compliment and looked really pissed off. Whoops. So. GREAT SHOW. Everyone was full of energy and I miss them so much already. Aimee told me they'd be touring again by February, I promised to be there. I took a few pictures but I have no idea if any of them were any good. I'll post them as soon as I get my film developed. Any of you who still haven't listened to theSTART suck. Go support these people. I can't wait until 2004...