Friday, April 17: Pre-Gig Celebration
Friday night was the first time I met Muse boardies Christina, Aurora, Lisa and Cris. Christina is from the Netherlands but attends Arizona State University. Aurora flew in from El Paso. Lisa brought along a couple of her friends and flew from California, while Cris and her husband drove from San Diego for the gig.

After receiving a text message from Aurora with their room number, I walked downstairs to hang out in their hotel room, a.k.a. Franz HQ. The first thing I saw was a mass of blankets. I soon realized it was a small portable gazebo covered in sheets—the “fort” Christina and Aurora talked about building in the Franz Ferdinand thread in the Muse boards. Sure enough, as I entered the room and walked around to the right of the fort, I spotted its entrance.

That's "Lucky lucky yeah!" in German

Hanging from the top, inside the tent, was a small disco ball that you could shine a flashlight on. We talked about people potentially being able to see the disco ball-lit gazebo from outside the hotel room. It only meant fun!

When Cris and Lisa and her friends arrived, we hired a cab to take us to the nearby Mill Avenue district. We had a Mexican dinner at Macayo’s, where performers were singing lame acoustic covers. At one point, we launched into singing mode, with Muse and Franz songs, of course. It was pretty obnoxious but way more entertaining than the restaurant’s “entertainment.” Ha.

Afterward, we walked along Mill Avenue. Lisa really wanted to go to Fat Tuesday so we went there. The atmosphere reminded me of Waikiki on a weekend night. Loud music, college-aged kids, a few of them dancing. We found a seating area on the sidewalk and took over a corner area. We proceeded a picture-taking spree—it didn’t matter whether they were good photos, just that they were candid and random. We talked to a couple of guys who were ASU students and told them about our upcoming Franzy adventure. Neither seemed very familiar with Franz Ferdinand, though one of them very obviously pretended that Franz “was his shit.” Uh huh. We suggested they check them out the following evening but of course they made excuses about not knowing what their friends were up to that night. We had Mr. “Franz is My Shit” go check with the DJ if they had any Muse or Franz songs on deck. He came back with a no. Of course. Shortly afterward, we left. Lisa later apologized for bringing us there.

Back at Franz HQ, we hung out and blasted and sang along with—yup, you guessed it—more Muse and Franz songs. We also learned the choreography during the chorus of the “Dark of the Matinée” video, so we could perform it during the concert the following evening.

Saturday, April 18 (late morning/early afternoon): Lucky lucky
After a quick stop to the nearby Safeway for some snacks and ice for our line party cooler, Christina, Aurora and I arrived at the venue at around 11:30 am. We were planning to arrive earlier to ensure we were first in line, but road blocks from a charity run this morning prevented it. It didn’t matter though because we were still the first ones there. And perhaps this arrival time was meant to be because not too long after we got to the venue, we met Bob Hardy (bass) and Alex Kapranos (lead vocals and guitar)!!!!

So here’s how this happened. We noticed the tour bus parked behind the venue, so we nonchalantly sat by a parking lot median, underneath the shade of a small tree. It was the only spot that had decent shade anyway. It was near the buses but not too close that it made us look suspicious.

We waited in the shade for a few minutes and caught a glance of Bob walking from the bus. After a few moments he emerged and stood by the neighboring curb. I waved and he jutted out his chin in casual greeting. Christina said “hi” as Bob walked over. Aurora and Christina had me present the bottle of tequila they had purchased for the guys, since they were afraid they would drop the bottle out of nervousness. He was really appreciative of the gift and said Paul would especially appreciate the gesture. Bob also said they’ll drink it after the gig… not such a good idea to indulge beforehand. Then we talked a little bit about Coachella the day before. Aurora asked if the shoes he was wearing were the new ones he mentioned in the official blog and he said they were indeed. We took photos with Bob, and we both made sure not to trip over the tequila bottle we set down on the asphalt. We thanked Bob for coming to talk to us and he departed with the tequila bottle.

Me and Bob Hardy, Franz Ferdinand's bassist.

A few minutes later, Alex emerged and made a beeline towards us! He asked us if we were the girls who gave them the tequila. We said yes and he thanked us. We were amused that he introduced himself, even though we knew who he was, but appreciated his manners! He talked about Paul McCartney and said something like, “Who isn’t a Beatles fan?” Then he talked about a strange comment that Morrissey made on stage about how he could smell burning flesh (hamburger meat is what Alex thinks Morrissey was talking about) and how he hoped it was human flesh. (Morrissey is vegan.) I commented that it sounded like he needed a cookie and some water, and Alex suggested maybe he needed a veggie burger.

Christina told Alex what she was going to write on the back of her SUV with glass chalk: she said, “We came here to see Franz Ferdinand” in German and Alex was able to translate it to English. A consequence of being around Nick, he said. Speaking of Nick, Alex told us he was getting his x-rays done at a nearby hospital, so he wasn’t at the venue yet.

Afterward Alex asked where we were from. He repeated it back to us: “You’re from Texas, you’re from Holland, you’re from Hawaii, and I’m from Glasgow.” The “I’m from Glasgow” line we found amusing because it was something we already knew, but it’s something Alex likes to say. (We proceeded to use it as a running one-liner joke throughout the rest of the weekend.) He graciously signed some items we had with us: Aurora’s copy of Sound Bites, my Franz Ferdinand CD sleeve, and Christina’s dollar bill. We wanted to take a group photo but we were the only ones in the parking lot. Alex suggested we put one of our cameras on timer mode and place it on one of the few cars in the lot. He genuinely got excited that the idea would work.

Me, Alex, Christina, and Aurora. Photo from Aurora's camera.

We took individual photos with Alex. For my photo, I taught Alex how to do a shaka sign—something I was planning on doing in the event I ever met him! Again, Alex seemed to take genuine interest, as he was learning something new!

Me and Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand vocalist and guitarist.

After our photos, we each hugged Alex and thanked him. He’s tall and I’m quite petite so I had to tiptoe to hug him!

After he returned to the bus, Aurora noted that Alex’s lips were stained purple with wine. Someone’s been drinking wine in the afternoon! (Doo doo doo doo-oooh-oooh!) We also noted that Bob and Alex both complimented Christina’s Bavarian hat.

A little later, we witnessed Alex, Bob and Paul board a white van, presumably to get lunch, visit Nick at the hospital and/or go back to their hotel. On its way out of the parking lot, it passed behind Christina’s SUV, where the girls already wrote their German message. Aurora waved and through the tinted windows, she saw the guys waved back. She was ecstatic.

Part Two coming later