Though it may have been a short show, or a “mini-concert” if you will, Straight No Chaser’s performance at Origins at South Coast Plaza (located in Costa Mesa, California) was not lacking by any means. It was a great performance!
Let’s see… Where to begin? I found out about the show exactly a week before the event; I was on my way to Disneyland to meet up with two of my suitemates from USC, and I got a tweet via text saying that SNC would be at South Coast Plaza. That name sounded familiar, and my mom confirmed that it was, in fact, in the OC. Made my Disneyland day ten times better.
Fast-forward a week. Sarah and I head over to South Coast Plaza around 2:30pm, and we get to the mall about an hour later. As we search for the restrooms, the sound of ten guys singing the opening bars of “Africa” ring out throughout that area of the mall, and we know we’re in the right place. We also heard them working out "Tainted Love" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You.” As much as I was tempted to go upstairs to peek at their sound check, I didn’t, and we continued to the restrooms and then went upstairs just as they finished up.
We browsed in a couple of shops, but the first store we went to was Papyrus, so I could get a cute bag and tissue paper for the gift for Baby Hayden to give to Charlie. WOW, the stuff in that store is cute but expensive… Sarah offered to pay for the bag (thanks again, Sarah!), and I got the tissue paper, then we went outside to wrap it. I noticed that they were starting to disperse from the stage area, right next to Origins, so I asked Sarah to “cover me” as I wrapped up the gift, two onesies for when the baby is a few months older. She kept watch, and just as she said, “Oh, there’s a guy over there that looks a lot like Seggie,” Seggie Isho himself comes up the escalator. Sarah sees him, quickly turns around and tells me that he’s literally right behind her. He’d been looking in her direction, and she sees him turn into GAP, and we hoped we weren’t just compromised… Haha.
I finish wrapping the gift, and then we go shopping around the mall (catching a glimpse of Randy and Korby still hanging around Origins as we popped into Steve Madden), and then we spend another hour and a half wandering the shops in the near vicinity. At about 5pm, we head over to Origins and “stake our claim” at the planter, since there weren’t really any other stores close by that interested us and we were kinda tired from walking anyway. Sarah’s brother Andrew then meets us there, and we basically just sit around and talk for a while.
Then, at about a quarter to show time, the guys start showing up, one by one. In the meanwhile, Sarah’s mom arrived, as did my friend Mary from high school that goes to UC Irvine, about ten minutes away. We’re all waiting anxiously, I set up my tripod, a crowd starts to gather, I chat with the older gentleman next to me (he used to sing barbershop and will be rubbing this in his daughter's face, haha), and then… It starts. A lady from Origins begins to speak, and then out they come!
They started off with "Heard I Through the Grapevine," with a modified version of their full on choreography. Then Don steps out, thanks the people at Origins, explains that they were having facials around 3pm ("Which was a first for most of us. If we have a particularly healthy glow about us, that's why.") They then went into "Tainted Love," which we had heard earlier as they were soundchecking, then they launched into the Jackson 5 Medley (the first time us West Coast Chasers had heard it live)! Then Ryan steps up to introduce "Under the Bridge" (by a band from Los Angeles, "which is Spanish for 'los angels'") while also talking about how travelling is one of the perks of being a member of SNC. After that, Walt reintroduces SNC for the people that just arrived ("walking aimlessly around the mall" is what I believe Walt said), and then he introduces "I'm Yours," the winner of the Origins poll.
After they sang "I'm Yours," Seggie lays down the beat for "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and Jerome kills the solo, like always. At the end of the song, Jerome and Mike “flirt” with one of the older ladies up front (so funny), and then they segue into "Billie Jean/Poison" with snips of choreo and Jerome's suh-WEET dance moves, including the moonwalk! After that, Walt steps up again and says, "That's the first time someone's done the moonwalk in the mall since the 80s, man!" Then he makes a plug about Foursquare to check in and be entered into a ticket drawing, thanks Origins ("They are kind to the environment, and we are kind, too." Hahaha.), and then introduces their final song, the song they opened with at the O2 Arena, "Joy to the World."
And of course, throughout ALL of that, I had my camera on my tripod recording the show, though during “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” the low-battery indicator was flashing, so I had to quickly play switcheroo. As they closed up, they got a standing ovation (most of us were already standing anyway, but the people at the planters stood up and applauded), and then it was announced that people could go inside the store for food and goodies and get autographs and pictures with the guys. Of course you know what we did…
I was so tempted to get a cupcake inside the store, but the line was SO LONG, so we waited in line for the meet and greet instead. Haha. After a few minutes, a line formed along the storefront, and the guys sat down on stools that stood behind them during the performance. In true Chaser fashion, we let others go in front of us so that we’d be at the end of the line, and me, Sarah, Andrew, Mrs. Twilley, and my friend Mary all stood and chatted in line (Mary’s friends had run off somewhere to “get picture prints” or something like that).
Korby was regulating the line, letting people know when they could go, and when we got up there, I asked Mary to snap a picture of the two of us. After we took a picture, he told me to go over and say hi to the guys, but Seggie was first…
So, in true antagonizing fashion, I said, “Seggie? Seggie??? Ehh, I don’t want to…” So he responds to me, saying, “Oooh, I’m sorry, the line ended after her…” (referring to the girl in front of me). Then he turns to the Twilleys and Mary, saying, “Come on in, guys; no, we’ll squeeze you guys in… But YOU…” (of course referring to me). I say, “Well, excuse YOU,” and he responds by saying, “Shouldn’t you be in school or something?” Nope. I got out of school last week. Ha. “Harassing somebody over there or something?” “No. Just you,” I replied snarkily. Mary wanted a picture with them, so I snapped one, then we switched. I go over to get my picture with Seggie, Mike, and DR, and Seggie decides he won’t look at the camera and instead is pretending to sign nothing on his clear clipboard. Mary says, “Really? REALLY?! Come on Seggie, be nice!” He doesn’t budge, so I turn to him and say, “I’m gonna smack you across the head!” “NO, you wouldn’t.” “Yes, I would.” The pictures are snapped, and I compliment those three (mostly DR and Mike, not so much Seggie anymore) on the performance, saying that I can’t wait until I see them next. I turn to DR, and he asks me if our FanChat interview is live yet (we recorded it the day before), and I told him that it would be up on the 25th, whenever THAT is. (I’ve since lost my perception of what day of the week it is. Summer, you know.)
Sliding over, I greet the next two in the line, Tyler and Walter. Of all things, Tyler and I talked about the weather, California versus Iowa. “People freak out when it rains here, don’t they?” He loves the consistency and sun here. And then, he asked me how school is going and asked if I’ll be working this summer (I’m FREE! And yes, research with my professor.)
Next is Walt, who pretty much yells “Hi!” to me. So I yelled “HI!” back. And I gave him a high-five. Heehee. Chatted for a bit… Sun tan cheater; he went to Cabo. He asked me how school is going, so I told him that I’d moved out the previous Wednesday, and Ryan chimed in, “Officially a sophomore,” which kinda freaks me out. Then we get a picture with those three, and as I step in to get a photo, Ryan says, “Shaina, is this your first time to a concert?” Hahahahahaha. NEVER. I’ve NEVER been to a Straight No Chaser show before. Teehee. Walt then chimes in after the picture was taken, “We were gonna do the FanChat theme song tonight, but the Airtight couldn’t make it…” Then Tyler and Ryan start imitating the Airtight recording of that song (HAHAHAHAHAHAH), and I tried to convey to Walt how thrilled we were when we first heard it. (“OMG, WE LOVED IT WHEN WE FIRST HEARD IT, SERIOUSLY YOU HAVE NO IDEA.” “I think we have an idea.” Haha.) “The Airtight are HERE, but they’re just not at the show.” “Yeah, they’re around here somewhere…” (By the way, Tyler’s still singing the FanChat theme song as we’re talking.) And then the Origins lady behind us asks us if they could interview us. But I won’t harp on about that since it’ll probably be online anyway.
After the interview, we stand where we were, then, feeling uncomfortable with cutting in line, we just move to the end of the line again. Seggie says to me, “So, you saw me go into the Gap, I see.” “Yeah,” I reply. “Sarah saw you actually; I was trying to wrap this” (while holding up the elephant bag with sparkly tissue paper). “What’s that?” “It’s something for Charlie.” “Probably a baby gift.” Seggie continues, “You know what’s funny about elephants, the lady that did Ryan’s facial was in the circus, and I swear to God, she has an elephant.” I seriously thought he was pulling my leg, so I said, “Yeah, right,” and RIGHT as I say that, the Origins representative that was handing out Origins ad cards for the guests to take and get signed says, “Yeah, she does” and IMMEDIATELY, Seggie gets a triumphant look on his face and says, “Ooooh, don’t you feel bad now? I don’t lie, Shaina, I don’t lie.” -SNORT-
Mary’s friends, who had disappeared a while ago, finally call her back, and while she’s asking them what they’re doing, I turn to DR and Mike and ask them when they’re flying back (the day after). Then, moving on down the line, Jerome seemingly appears from nowhere and gives me a hug, asking me how I’m doing and how my group’s going. He’s so sweet. Then he kinda disappears… So I turn to Randy, and we chat for a bit about school. He tells me, “Enjoy college; you will miss it!” Then Don chimes in: “Stay there as long as you can. We’re kinda still in college.” Yeah, my parents would not be happy if I had a longer-than-planned stay at USC… Randy tells me that he thought of me when he saw the Microsoft Store in the mall (WIN). I was happy about that, but was unhappy about there being an Apple store there too. Boo.
Then Mary goes up for a picture, and asks if she can sit on the stool with them (Jerome’s empty stool, since he went to go get food inside), and Don goes, “Oh no no no no no…” Of course he was kidding, and when Mary goes up to sit down and picks up the clipboard, Don makes a “freaky fan freakout” face, which cracks everyone up, and I get a photo of that epic moment. Then Charlie says, “That’s the way he looks every time he sees ice cream.” -giggles- We tried to get Charlie in the picture, so Don calls him “Charles.” I take the picture, then Charlie says, “Don’t call me Charles. It’s weird.” Heehee! Then Jerome returns, with cupcake recommendations (the white cake ones, but they’d all disappeared by the time I got there).
Charlie’s at the very end of the line, and I need to give him my gift! He gives me a hug, saying “Good to see you, April 12!” I ask him how being a dad is treating him, and with a laugh, he says that it’s tiring. When he got here, it was the first time in two weeks that he’d gotten a good night’s sleep. Wow. Anyway, I gave him the gift (Hayden’s first Chaser gift, haha), and then we get ready for a picture, but Tyler gets in the way… We get the picture, and then I go inside to get my cupcake!!
Chocolate with chocolate frosting, yum. I reach for a cupcake, and on the other side of the glass walls, Don makes a face and yells at me to stop eating all the cupcakes. Then he comes in and asks how they are (amazing), and I mention that the frosting is REALLY good (and I hardly ever eat the frosting on cupcakes, unless they’re homemade). Then, as I’m stuffing the cupcake in my mouth, Ryan comes up to me and asks how I’m doing. Can’t say anything, though, since my mouth is full of chocolatey goodness, so I quickly swallow and say, “I have sugar. I’m doing GREAT!”
The food there, besides the cupcakes, was stuff that was either not good for me, or stuff that I wouldn’t eat. I got something that looked like an egg roll, but it turned out to be something else… Bleh. Then a lady comes up with a tray of red velvet and Funfetti cupcakes, and I simply can’t resist the red velvets. I grab one, knowing I’ll regret it later when we go grab dinner, and scarf it down. Sarah says that I eat the cupcakes like she does: frosting first, then the cake. How else would you eat it?
Before we leave, Sarah and I grab sample bags, and an Origins lady (apparently, it’s the lady that did Ryan’s facial, HAH) comes up to the two of us and talks about how she saw us outside waiting and staking out our spot for the show. She thought we were cute. Hahahahaha. Then someone comes up to Sarah and tells her that they want to interview her for Origins. So we get our sample bags and head on out to wait for the people that want to interview Sarah.
Then I get extremely curious because they’re not interviewing Sarah yet (the camera people were focused on SNC, who were all grouped together for a group shot). They looked so cute all standing there, so I say out loud, “Oh, I’m gonna have to get a shot of this!” An Origins representative heard me and encouraged me to go up and take a photo. I ended up taking three; my flash takes the LONGEST time to charge, so the first one was okay, the second one not so much (blurry and Tyler blinked), but third time’s the charm!
I went back to Sarah, and then they talked to her and another girl about what they were going to ask them, then the camera man asked if I could redo some of the interview questions as well. (Uhh, okay.) They get Sarah to interview first, so I chat with the other girl, and then the guy I’d met before the show started popped up. He’d run across the street to get With a Twist, and he had everyone sign it. And when I say “everyone,” I mean EVERYONE. From what he was telling us, he apparently got the guys PLUS Korby PLUS Britz to sign it. Crazy awesome. I wish I’d thought of it first.
Finally the camera people are done with SNC, so they’re starting to disperse as Sarah interviews. Charlie leaves and tells me he’ll send a picture when Hayden fits into the onesies I got him (squeeeeee). I refuse to let Seggie pass, again, I get lazy from standing, so I sit on their stools, and chat a little bit with Ryan before he leaves. It’s after he leaves that the other girl, Jordan, asks me if I know any of them personally… I say yes… Umm, all of them? Then Seggie walks by, so I say, “Especially him. But he’s annoying.” He looks at me and says, “What??” I reply, “I’m telling it like it is!” and shrug. Heheheheh. I love to annoy him. It’s fun.
The interviewers finish with Sarah, and then I go up to re-record some of the stuff (they had me redo a question THREE TIMES), then we (me, Sarah, Andrew, and Mrs. Twilley) head down to Boudin for dinner, where we chat about the awesomeness that had just ensued. It was a fun ride home, too… Heheheheh.
