The Warning Chronicles P.2

Little Bean Pulls a Fast One On the Band

My daughter is literally jittering as we settle ourselves into the Meet and Greet line to meet the band. There’s a lot of feelings at play here.

First, obviously, she’s feeding off my own excitement and the circumstance of getting her out of YMCA camp early, getting all dressed up, driving to the city and getting pumped up in the line by other fans. This was a big production for us, and exciting for an eight year old. Why wouldn’t it be!

Second, there IS a different vibe to all of this - by different, I mean from other live show I’ve been to. There are kids here. Many of the fans know each other, there’s general good cheer in the air - palpable excitement.

Finally, these musicians are young, sisters and girls. Ale, the bass player, is 18. There’s videos out there of her playing bass that Little Bean has watched where she’s as old as my daughter is now. All this means something, even if she’s unable to express it.

These aren’t celebrities to her (unlike Pentatonix for example). These are a group of sibling girls who play music together. I’d add that she’s also old enough to recognize that music comes first. Sure, they wear make up and get their hair done (Little Bean loves Dany’s new two-color hair) but there’s nothing I have to monitor ahead of time.

Anyway, she’s excited, there’s a buzz in the air as we get close to the Meet and Greet table and Little Bean is trying to decide what to have signed.

“How about my hat,” she says. She’s referring to her bright pink The Warning beanie.

“Might be hard to sign material,” I say. “What about your VIP pass.”

Her eyes light up. “Yes!” She slips it off her neck.

Finally it’s time. I click the video button on my phone, telling her to “Wait, wait, they’ll tell you when!”

Finally, Dany waves and motions for Little Bean to come over and I follow behind recording. What I don’t realize is that my daughter has decided to surprise them.

She holds the MORE Box behind her back and the first words out of her mouth as she approaches the band are, “How many MORE Boxes do you guys have?” To their very great credit they understand what she’s talking about and Dany says, “Oh, like the one in the video? I think just that one.”

Assured that her craft is the only one, my daughter triumphantly unveils the box she made for them, and the three ladies gasp in delight. They heap an enormous amount of praise on her, and I couldn’t be more grateful for a reaction that Little Bean will hopefully remember for the rest of her life.

You can watch the video here, it’s really something to behold:

After a bit, I hand my camera to Luis, the band’s dad, and first Little Bean and then the two of us get our pictures taken with the band. Little Bean throws up the Rock Horns and the Meet and Greet is complete. The MORE Box stays on their table.

On the way out I manage to get a selfie with Lois, the person I really wanted to meet. I thank him for helping to raise role models for my daughter and he smiles and shakes my hand. My guess is that he gets that compliment a lot.

The kid can throw horns with the best of them!

At any rate, we’re done. We go to get a glass of water and use the bathroom, but as we come back and approach the stage, we realize there’s a crowd in front, two or three people thick. Even though the General Admittance public hasn’t been allowed in yet, the Meet and Greet crowd has staked out the front of the stage.

Then we hear, “Hey over here, over here!”

There’s a group of fans near the left side of the stage waving to us.

We walk over and one of them says, “We saved you a space, get her in here.”

These are strangers, people we’ve never met. They part and Little Bean squeezes right up in front with me behind her. The group closes behind us.

“I can’t thank you all enough,” I say. I’m dumbfounded.

The woman to our left - who would end up being one of our fan companions for the show, says, “Of course, the kids have to be up front.”

And there we are, about three feet from where Ale’s thunderous bass will shake our brains, surrounded by our new family. The band has her MORE Box. We have our autographs. We made it.

Then one more thing happens. Someone is tapping me on the shoulder. I’d learn later that he’s one of the band’s new guitar techs. He hands me a The Warning pick.

“The band wanted her to have this,” he says. Little Bean grins wide and slides the gift into her pocket. The next morning, the first thing she’d show her friends would be that pick.

How could this night get any better? But yet it would…

Tomorrow: The Warning melts our faces off. But in a good way.

The Warning Chronicles is a series of short episodes detailing our trip to see The Warning at Brighton Music Hall in Boston and meeting the band. First, go give some love to the band, link here: The Warning. Little Bean and I had been preparing for this day for months and we thought it would be fun to give our readers and music fans a little taste of the wonderful, chaotic, unexpected day we experienced. Hope you all enjoy!

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