Phoenix 2011; My Diary: Long Live Our Band!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011. The most important day of the year--- well, close to it, sort of.

Normally, I would have been crazily nervous, but in my mind, I was like, "It's just another practice... with a catch". Not to mention, that "catch" was forty plus people as an audience. But that's nothing... I'm sure Relient K performs in front of thousands every week, so how hard could this be? I'm still mad that I didn't get to see Relient K... they checked into my hotel the day after I left! They betrayed me even though I'm sure they don't know I exist!

Anyway, back to the subject. We put a lot of practice into this.

We also put our blood, sweat, tears, and prayers (as you see above) into this. Not many people bled and/or cried, but we put that into it too.

BLOOD: ("If I was out for blood..." Ah, I love Farewell Flight) Chris and Brian had blisters that they covered with green medical tape. Were they bleeding? I have yet to find out. 

SWEAT: If there was anything put into this, it was definitely sweat. You may think, "All you guys did was play guitar, drum, and sing. Why were you sweating???" Well, let me answer that for you. Sometimes, it was a little hot in the room we practiced in. We started practicing in March, while heating was still on. Then, there was a lot of movement involved... sort of. The drummer (Brian) sweated the most, I think he'd even agree. Plus, this is Arizona we're talking about. Sweat is one thing to expect from there--- I moved to Ohio from the state, Utah, above it (I was four, but whatever), so I'm guessing I should know.

TEARS: Um, I think there were some tears put into it. Mainly tears from laughter, though. See, if the funniest kids on Earth are in a band with you (Josh and Mark), you're doomed to tears from laughter. I cry pretty much every time I laugh. I cried last night from laughter, actually.

PRAYER: We didn't always remember to pray before practices. BUT! When we did, it usually ended up being a great day (or night, depending on whether or not it was a Sunday practice).

See! I wasn't kidding when I said we put blood, sweat, tears, and prayer into it! One thing we didn't exactly put into it was stage presence, but next year, we'll remember that.

We The People... (Not in order to form a more perfect union... I don't know what they were for!)

It was scary enough to think about performing at Nationals. It was even scarier thinking about watching other bands. But one band reassured me that it would be alright... WE THE PEOPLE!

The band that went before them, It's Just A Matter Of Time (long band name, I know), was great. They weren't VersaEmerge amazing, but they were good enough. I'm hoping they got a callback.

Now, the band that went before us was We The People. If by any chance any of them are reading this, I'll say that they had stage presence, evidently. Why did I mention them? Why did I care to remember them? Here it is. Their song had a lot of instrumental filling, not a lot of vocals. Whoever the lead singer was, I wanted to hear his voice a little more. Now, here comes my favorite part (you might laugh)!

Our band was joking earlier in July that we needed to put presents on the stage--- we'd have to buy stage presents, so that the judges would say we had stage presence! And if they didn't think we had good stage presence, we'd open the presents for them and they'd have something awesome like a net book! Knowing me, I'd give them a notebook... so much you could do with one, but writing stories is my favorite, writing math problems being my least favorite.

So, with this stage presents/stage presence thing, here we go: They had both stage presence AND stage presents! There was a lot of jumping around and such, and then, towards the bridge, they were waving a flag around with a skull on it! A legit flag! Not a tiny one, either. I'll admit I was cracking up, but thanks to them, it made me a lot less nervous because it made me very happy! This one dude was like, "If they set that flag on fire, it'll be awesome!" I'm pretty sure they would have been disqualified, though. And, they threw their drumsticks. That's stage presents--- unwrapped.

Don't Forget The Lyrics!

Ever been in a group, the group was told to do something, but you knew no one would do it? That's how printing out the lyrics was. When we got there, one of my Eckleys (Nathan--- he's to the left with the blond-ish/brown-ish hair. He's the same skin tone as me, and I'm black, so that's a little scary) said he forgot to print the lyrics so the people were a little shaken up, but I was like, whatever. I had the lyrics on Microsoft Word for months and I brought the lyrics with me, because OBVIOUSLY, NO ONE WAS GONNA DO IT. I have that in caps because... I don't know, I wanted to put it in caps. I'm not mad at anyone about it, though, despite hitting Lauren (I was asleep, so don't judge me) and slapping Josh (now, I was awake that time). Since I had printed the lyrics, it wasn't a big deal. But, DON'T FORGET THE LYRICS!!!

Showtime!

Now, it was our time to shine. Our three minutes of fame--- or four, maybe. Without stage presents, we got on that stage and did our best, although we've done better, that was our best at the time, and I don't regret any of it.

This one's for the boys (and girl)!

Mariah, Brian, Nathan, Mark, Chris, Josh. You guys are awesome.

So, here's what I'll say. You guys are awesome, and anyone would be lucky to know you. Too bad most of my blog readers haven't really had the chance to meet most of you, because anyone would be lucky to even attend the same church as you. So spending an entire week with you? That goes beyond luck. You guys rock (literally, and you're multi talented, especially in the music world), and I love all of you! Same for Drew and Lauren--- you weren't in the band, but you're the bestest kids!

Another note to the band: Believe it or not, I'm gonna miss practicing with y'all. "Does that make me crazy? Possibly".

National Youth Ministries, our band didn't get a callback this year, but that doesn't mean we won't rock next year. We're comin' for ya, Sherman Mountain Boys, the band with an album out that shouldn't be competing against us but they are. We're marchin' on, and we'll have the scars to prove it.

Thus concludes the blog post.