Thunderstruck Chronicles P.2

For Those About to Rock... You Know the Rest (Day 47)

Any concert where you come home with signed drum sticks is a good day!

My wife has warned me that if I continue pulling strings to arrange meet and greets and backstage passes, our daughter is going to begin to assume that it’s a normal thing. I’m going to have to sell my soul (and my 401k) for her to meet Taylor Swift.

But as long as she’s enamoured by long haired, 70s hard rock and metal bands, I should be fine.

When we had arrived, the band had put aside three guest passes for us. This impressed the girls. Now, we were waiting near the stage for someone to come get us.

The girls were discussing important things like ordering cheese fries and wondering which member of the band liked what flavor of lollipop. I, on the other hand, had visions of classic rock Led Zeppelin dressing rooms with half dressed denim-wearing rowdies smashing TVs and chugging back gallons of vodka.

“Hey are you Dan?” It’s Chris Wood, the bassist of the band. “Come on back, the guys are waiting for you.”

Chris walks us back stage and as we pass, a bunch of fans start cheering and saying “aww lucky” which makes the girls happy. He lets us into the dressing room, which is a sort of staff kitchen type of room with a fridge and table. The band is lounging about but they all jump up when the girls walk in.

Turns out I had nothing to fear except a mound of cupcakes on the little kitchen table, and what appears to be some energy drinks. (To be fair, the fellas could have hidden more “rock and roll” snacks knowing the girls were coming in, but my impression of them is that they are decent guys.)

They crowd around them and absolutely overwhelm them with gifts. Drummer Corey Baetz hands us three signed drum sticks and I see my daughter’s face light up. She had watched a video of her other favorite band, The Warning, where Paulina the drummer tossed some drum sticks into the crowd and she’s been absolutely obsessed with getting one herself.

Rhythm guitarist Kevin Feller comes over and shakes my hand and takes all the posters we brought and starts the guys signing them for us. Little Bean gives the band’s lead guitarist and Angus Young look-a-like Kyle LaPato the lollipops, and then lead singer Bobby Lee Stamper does something pretty memorable.

“Hey, check this out girls,” he say holding up his phone. “We just finished a reel we’re gonna post right now, would you like to be literally the first to see it?”

They nod and they huddle around him to have a look.

“Ok, here it goes,” he says. He presses a button on his phone and off the post goes. “You were the first to see that!”

In case you’re curious, here’s a link to that reel: Girls Get a First Look

Bobby Lee shows the girls a brand new reel before sending it off

They load the girls down with swag; stickers, a dozen signed picks and the signed pictures.

"Ok, what’s your favorite song,” Bobby asks.

“Thunderstruck,” the girls say in unison and the band laughs.

“I think we might manage that,” Kevin says.

The band is respectful, funny and treat the girls with an amazing amount of kindness. Like our meet and greet with The Warning a couple months ago, or like the photo-ops Little Bean had with Studio Two, the experience is positive and I’m very grateful.

It’s about 30 minutes to show time, but we have one more task. All five members of the band gather around the girls and everybody raises rock horns for a final picture. I realized much later that I never got a selfie with myself in it, but that’s fine.

This was about the two little Metal students and so far they were learning a lot!

Chris ushered us out and I felt like I couldn’t thank him enough for giving the girls that experience. On our way back to our seats, the girls proudly showed off their drum sticks. One guys said, “Nice! How long have you been playing drums?”

“About three minutes,” I said.

The first part of the night had been a success. But it was the second part that we were here for.

“Daddy,” Little Bean says as soon as we sit down, “what about those cheese fries?”

She knows what’s important.

Tomorrow: Part 3 as Thunderstruck melts our faces off. But in a good way. You can read Part 1 here: Thunderstruck Chronicles Part 1

Thunderstruck Chronicles is a series of short episodes detailing our trip to see Thunderstruck at Tupelo Hall in Derry, N.H. and meet the band. First, go give some love to the band, link here: Thunderstruck. Little Bean and I, along with her friend, Di, 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

The band was very generous! Thanks for the back sage passes guys!

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