All Time Low - A Rocket to The Moon

Why, hello there!
This episode, I'm gonna try to re-live and (of course) blabber slash fangirl over this one event where I first did... things, I guess? Don't really know how to explain this, so, please, just read! Also have fun while doing it!

You do know that I grew up in this small beautiful city called Bontang because both my dad and mom work in two of many factories there, so, yeah. I was also stuck in that little city, didn't really have much to experience with. Like I said, it was small, and it's also... cloistered. And being a big fan(girl) of many bands, it's really hard to get to watch their concerts, especially because most of it are held in our beloved capital city, Jakarta and I'm, well... you know. You could read my really old post where I cried myself to sleep because I couldn't go to the You Me At Six's gig. So, I'm really thankful now that I've moved to Jakarta and yeah.

From the title, you could've guessed, yes. I did watch All Time Low and A Rocket to The Moon on 23rd of August, 2013.

I literally freaked out when I heard the news, jumped around my room and threw myself to my bed out of happiness. When the tickets were sold, I got the pre-sale one which indeed, costed cheaper than the normal ones. I've planned the whole thing, I planned to go with like 3 of my friends. Everything was perfect.
On the 22nd, a friend of mine and I planned to actually greet them in the airport. You see, the 23rd of August 2013 is a Friday and the 22nd is a Thursday which means... school. BUT. Amazingly, when I asked my mom's permission to skip school, she allowed me to. That's why on the 22nd, I woke up really late and went to my friend's house. Let's just call her A. Another friend of A and I was actually going to watch it also, so she skipped school, too. I'm naming her Y. When I arrived there, A was still unprepared and Y was already there. Not long, another friend of A's that I only knew by name (let's just say uhm G), came and said that he was also going to greet them at the airport. So, there we were. A quartet of (mostly) ATL fans, and this is our (creepy-ish yet epic) story.

G drove the car, A sat in the front while both Y and I were sitting on the back. Since G was the one who drove the car, it is very necessary to put your seat belts on, even though you sat on the back. Once he took us home after the Atomic Fest concert and I almost flew across the car, spilling Slurpee all over his car. ALMOST. We first went to get A and G's tickets, Y hadn't bought it and mine was with a friend that I said I was going to go watch the concert with? After we got it, we went straight to the airport, hoping we hadn't been late. I've been checking flight schedules from the internet, trying to predict on which time they'll arrive in Indonesia, so, yeah. Around 12-ish in the noon we arrived at the airport and tried to guess on which terminal they're going to come off. There were already like 10-ish people that were also waiting for them. We literally ran from terminal to other terminals. On this one terminal, we thought that they'll be arriving at this terminal because there were a lot of cameramen and people with posters lining up, waiting for someone or some people. On a second glance, we saw the posters that actually have the picture of some random Indonesian that's in this particular contest and thought, 'hell naw, this can not be the terminal' and continued to search for the right one.
We finally did, though. On this certain terminal, we saw a bunch of dudes wearing snapbacks and band merchs, and the first thing that popped to my mind was 'this is definitely it. finally'. We weren't wrong! We waited there for a while, got inside the terminal and after this particular plane landed from Hong Kong (if I'm not mistaken) and there they were. Some dudes, so tall that we could see them through all of the people that were also waiting for people passing out of the terminal. We got on our feet, got out of the terminal and to see that indeed, we've encountered with A Rocket to The Moon! They came out, people started attacking them for photos and autographs. I went to, of course and right before they entered their cars, I got everyone's autographs except for Nick's. 

After all the ARTTM members have entered their cars, we felt hungry so we took a break and ate something. We ordered some snacks to fill our stomaches and after we finished, we went back to the terminal and nobody else was there and some of the people that waited for the bands said that they came out of a different terminal.
Now, this didn't stop us at all. We were all big fans of All Time Low and we didn't just want to stop there. Fortunately, I have a friend that worked for a magazine and he was assigned to interview the dudes at their hotel and he gladly told me where they're staying at, so we went there. The hotel itself wasn't exactly that far from the venue. When we got there, we could see some fans sitting patiently as if they're waiting for some miracle to happen. Now, these mates of mine were anything but patient. We went to the elevator section that's located in the middle of the lobby and saw that the lifts need room card keys to operate. We improvised as if we were waiting a lift to open, and luckily... G saw some guys that carried a box with a drum company's name written on it and of course, it's the drum kit that Rian uses to perform. They literally stopped to wait next to us and when the lift in front of us opened, we hopped on it, along with the crews that carried the drum kit. One of the crews punched the number they want to hop off on and we obviously saw it. The crews were getting rather suspicious because we didn't exactly hit a floor number on the lift, so when they got off the lift, they stared at us... More like glared at us. So the lift went down to the lobby again, we hopped off and we freaked out. Most of the words that were said: "OH MY FUCKING GOD THEY'RE ON THAT FLOOR WE SHOULD REALLY GO UP AGAIN."

So, we kinda did. We smoked for a bit on the pool area first, though, trying to think of a better, easier way to meet them, but nothing came to mind, so we tried going up the elevator again. HOW FUCKING FORTUNATE WERE WE TO FIND THAT THERE WAS THIS ONE BELLBOY WHO HELPED US TO GO UP RIGHT AFTER WE WENT INSIDE THE ELEVATOR. Like, literally, we went inside an opened elevator and this one bellboy got out of it, only to ask, "which floor?"--probably assuming us as residents of the hotel. Of course, we took the chance to get back to the floor. We went up only to find the hallway very empty, as if nobody's been there before. We also tried to check in on each rooms, getting near the door to hear whether it contains two full grown men who act like children nonetheless, but nada. Walking to one end of the hallway, we got on the balcony to see the sightings outside. How very lame, I know. Since we didn't know what to do anymore, we did anyway. We hung out for a bit, that until one of us saw one of the crews of the promoter coming our way. We tried to stay calm as best as possible, though I was kind of the one who ruined everything. The crew opened the door to the balcony and I asked right away, "ada apa ya, Mas?" which apparently was a big mistake because the dude was a girl. She had this really short, spiky hair, big glasses, and she was--I must apologize first before I actually say this--flat-chested, so, yeah, I was confused and thought of her as a dude. Her smile was gone right after the words come out, and she told us to go back to the lobby or whichever room it was that we were staying in.
On the way down, once again, in the elevator, all A, Y and G mocked me for ruining it, but in a playful way since we were all laughing like maniacs. And that was pretty much how the first day of hunting All Time Low went. A very tiring, fun and eventful day.

On the next day, the journey continues. Yes, I skipped school again, and fortunately, the chemistry test that I was supposed to be having that day, the teacher cancelled. It was like the universe actually encouraged--wanted me to skip school to hunt for the boys. The same pupils also skipped school, all A, Y and G, so once again, we went out together. First destination? The same hotel that we visited yesterday. I remember it already being midday, so the place's already somehow crowded with fans that actually also know that ATL and ARTTM stayed in that particular hotel, most of them just got out of school also. I met a friend of mine that I've known for a long time, but never actually met in real life, let's imply her as R. R and I are best friends and we met from twitter, hence the never meeting part. She joined in the hunt, though it was pretty much... a waste of time. We ended up with a dead end, not knowing what else to do. Instead, we went straight to the venue and I was actually able to meet up with my friends that I've known for so long but have never met in real life. One of the best days of my life, to be honest. 
When we finally got inside the venue? Oh God, the pure ecstasy of being in a concert euphoria. My heart fluttered at the little thoughts of actually seeing them standing approximately 5 meters away from me, them actually being in the same environment as I am, them being real, in human, flesh form. 
Now, I would explain to you how--this might sound ridiculous--All Time Low, this particular band have helped me go through everything, but I'm pretty sure it'd be a damn long passage that I have no time to write about.

The first band to go on stage was A Rocket to The Moon and since they were breaking up, this will be their last gig ever, together as a band, in Indonesia. I knew the lyrics to some of their songs, so I went along with everything. The Indonesian fanbase for ARTTM printed out these signs saying 'Thank you for everything, A Rocket to The Moon!' that they passed on to the whole crowd before the gig, so when they played Like We Used To, if I'm not mistaken, the whole crowd lifted the papers up, and to see Nick, Justin, Halvo and Andrew that amazed was really something. I also wrote "You'll never walk alone, ARTTM!" since Andrew was a Liverpool fan, too, but I doubt they noticed it.

And when All Time Low got on stage... Boy, was it beautiful. They were beautiful. Their dirty jokes were even more beautiful. Do I have to point out how I screamed every lyrics at the top of my lungs, jumped up and down until my legs can't take it anymore? From the start of their performance, we somehow had made our way to the front row, and boy, seeing them standing there, right in front of me, was magical. Somehow. Even writing this got me all pumped up again, so I'm just gonna skip to this one moment where this one particular lady poked me in the back, saying that she was dizzy. So, of course I let her get in front of me, thinking that she'd get picked up by the security behind the barrier to get her out of the crowd, but no. This girl then stepped up in front of me and unclasped her bra. If you don't know, All Time Low is famous for getting bras thrown at them whenever they're on stage, and they'd all hang them onto their mic stands. So, yeah, that's a thing. Back to this girl, she unclasped her bra and threw it to the stage, though it didn't exactly land on the stage, instead, the bra made its way to one of the security's guys heads, and that cracked me up more than I think it should. It was also Kurily's (ATL's guitar tech) birthday when they were performing in Indonesia, so they celebrated it on stage by giving him a toast in front of all the crowd, so guess it was pretty special.

Right after the gig ended, we ran straight to the hotel, knowing damn well that they'd be there. When we arrived, the place was only crowded with businessmen, but as time stretched, more fans swarmed in front of the hotel. It wasn't long until a bus dropped in front of the hotel, revealing the crews of the bands. G and I were right there, so the first one to got off the bus was Grieco, the drum tech, which I hadn't known it was him because he kind of dyed his hair blonde, but he came running to the hotel, while shouting and giving high fives to the fans that waited there, including me. Now, looking back to the memory would bring a face-eating grin to my face. Kurily passed beside me and I shouted him a 'happy birthday' that he replied with a smile, but it was simply because I was aiming to take photo with Matt Flyzik, All Time Low's tour manager who also happened to be a total cutie. So I went up to him, already gave G my phone and a command to take my photo with him. I stopped dead in front of him and asked, "sorry, uh, can I take a photo with you?" which he thought about at first, then declined politely by saying, "I'm sorry, I don't take pictures."
There's a slight pang in my heart when he said that, but all is good because seriously? Meeting him was rather good enough. Which is weird. Because he's just a human being that got a job to control 4 giant babies when on tours. But he's a very attractive human being, so I'd like to think I'm excused.
After that, we found out that they probably had escorted All Time Low back to the hotel from the basement, which made our effort pretty worthless since we were waiting in the lobby. Even though we didn't get to meet the guys, seeing them alive, breathing, standing exactly like 3-4 meters away from me was enough. The experience of getting kicked out from a certain floor by the staff, getting rejected by Flyzik, even basically touching Jack's shoe when he went crowd surfing was something that I'd do all over again if possible. To say that it was fun would be one hell of an understatement.


Bottom line, this was another experience and event that I would like to remember my entire life. My first adventure of stalking a band that I have obsessed since my middle school. Damn, what a bright future I'll have.