Third Eye Blind Band • Page 80

I love it. A great, great song. I just think it needs to be at the end. That entire album is about a tough breakup, and that song feels like the "trying, finally, to move on" moment to me.

 

Gonna try to go to this in-store performance/signing tomorrow!

 

Tiny tour tonight was good! His voice was a little rough though, he said this past week he’s had the worst flu of his life. Which is unfortunate cause they’re recording a tiny desk on Wednesday. Hopefully he sounds better for that

 

The meet and greet portion of the signing tonight was nixed, but the band is still planning to do a short acoustic set this evening at 6 PM. I was able to get my copy of Blue autographed (the record store staff is setting purchased vinyl copies aside until after the set), but looks like I won't get to meet the band to get the rest of their discography signed...

 

I don’t remember if I ever shared the story of how I partied with Third Eye Blind after their DC/Silver Spring show like 10 years ago.

 

How creepy was SJ?

 

Let’s hear it.

 

Spill it!

 

Tiny Tour leads to Tiny Desk appearance…

 

on tour they said this was going to be their tiny desk setlist

Slow Motion
Motorcycle Drive By
Dust Storm
Like A Lullaby (new song)
Jumper

 

So I just looked it up, it was a Tuesday night in October of 2017. It was slated to just be Third Eye Blind with no openers. So my then girlfriend (now wife) and I thought it would be a great night and that we'd be home by 10pm. The show was great and I had brought my self-titled LP to hopefully get signed by Stephen and Brad after the show. We were waiting around the back of the venue and found it odd that we literally were the only two people waiting there. The venue we were at usually has a decent crowd of people waiting around back in hopes to meet band members.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, these blonde twins walk up towards us. One of them says "are you single?" while talking at me. I look at my girlfriend and chuckle and say "no, I'm here with her". No "hello" or anything, just straight to asking a man standing RIGHT NEXT to a girl if they were single. We ended up talking with them for a while and they turned out to be super nice and friendly. At some point during this talk, Kryz their current guitarist, comes outside to smoke a cigarette. He notices the two blonde twins and says "hey xxxx, how are you doing?" The girls and Kryz are catching up and it's apparent they know each other pretty well. He eventually says "do you girls want to come down to the greenrom?" and they turn and look at me and say "only if we can bring our new friend ChampsMusic". At this point my eyes get big and look at my girlfriend and we just start chuckling.

We make our way through this barricade and one of the crew members says "ok, the girls are OK to go downstairs, but I need to talk to the guy for a second" (pointing at me). He goes on to say that in the past, male fans have had experiences where they "geek out" around Stephen and don't maintain their cool. I assured the guy I'm totally fine and he eventually let's us in the back of the venue. We make our way downstairs and see the band (minus Brad) and crew in the common room area drinking and relaxing. Kryz does a half-attempt at introducing us broadly to everyone and tells us to feel free to grab a beer. Mind you, we had decided this was going to be a chill night with work the next day and we were already excited about an early night to relax. That drastically changed when we were in this new atmosphere. We both grabbed a beer and began chatting it up with one of the crew members. My girlfriend and I are both extroverts so getting to know new people is something we enjoy so this experience definitely was pretty thrilling. We had tons of questions about the current tour and overall production and the crew members were so cool about it.

I eventually got to talk to Stephen for a split second and he signed my vinyl record. Not a long chat, just a "thank you" and "this is one of my favorite albums" type thing. I didn't want to over-ask any questions based on the past crew member's warnings about "geeking out". At that point I thought my night was complete and was happy to at least have his signature. A few moments later, the venue crew came downstairs and stated that curfew was in 5 minutes and that we all needed to vacate. Right then, Stephen stands up and says "does everyone want to go on the tour bus?" I look at my girlfriend with wide eyes with both of our minds going "is this real...?" Everyone agreed that going on the bus was a good decision so we left the venue and walked up the stairs onto the bus.

On the bus, more buckets of ice-cold beer helped quench our thirst for whatever adventure we were getting ourselves into. From the back room, Brad walks out and said he was just on the phone with Dave Grohl talking about how their daughters go to the same school. Brad sat directly next to us on the bus and he was very happy to sign my record and chat with us. We talked with him about Dave and their relationship and more about the current TEB tour. At some point, one of the blonde twins went in the back room with one of the members and we found out how they knew the band (no judgement!) The time seemed to fly by as we were just having so much fun talking with everyone and hanging out. We figured we'd eventually get kicked off the bus and go home. That was until Stephen once again stood up and said "Do you all want to go out?"

Keep in mind, this is a Tuesday night in a Silver Spring, Maryland where EVERYTHING was likely closed. Nevertheless, we all departed the bus and trekked along following our leader, Stephen, who walked knowing exactly where to go. We walked up to an Irish Pub that was very visibly cleaning off the bar and putting bar chairs away. As we approach the door, a man opens up the door and says "oh hey, Stephen. Let me open the upstairs bar for you". Que another wide eyed look shared between my girlfriend and I as we were just mystified as to how all of this was coming together. I still have no idea if Stephen actually knew this man or if the man just knew who Stephen was and decided to reopen. Regardless, a private bar on the third floor of this building held the crew members and band as we continued drinking and hanging out. At one point, we were joking and laughing and Stephen came over and it kind of seemed like he was jealous we were laughing without him which was pretty funny. He made some funny remark and walked away. It was absolutely surreal just hanging out with the band and the crew as if they were all old college friends.

We left around 1:30am and I know for sure that group of people kept partying onwards late into the night. Our walk to our Uber was so silent as we were just soaking it in and repeatedly asking "did that really just happen?"

I have the bar receipt in my signed LP jacket.

 

That’s amazing! Was that Irish bar McGinty’s by any chance? I live about 10 minutes from the Fillmore SS and am pretty familiar with the area. Awesome story, and thanks for sharing it.

 

Haha I believe it was. A quick google shows me a stair upwards so I'm inclined to believe so. I will have to do a field trip and revisit.

 

man being an extrovert must be so nice lmao

 

They look so happy together!

 

At least they didn't have the other guys sign them. Small victories!

 

Haha indeed, the signing was all done "behind the scenes" so I didn't know what to expect until I picked it up after the acoustic performance.

 

I’m horny and burned out and sleepy now.

 

Listened to the S/T and Blue in full for the first time today (I was only familiar with the singles). Better late than never I guess

Incredible stuff. I am now a fan

 

everytime stale azzwater does do do dooos I get reminded of my days loving third eye blind

 

Fine, I'll go on a discog run-through of TEB

 

if I must!!

 

Oh no. Did Jenkins get someone pregnant?

also what happened with their tiny desk concert. Does NPR bank those for several weeks before they go up?