Okay, so, I had this typed up once and then…POOF! Gone. Technology is out to destroy my life. And make it better all at the same time. *sighs* So be it.
So, now I am doing the smart thing and typing this up in word and copy and pasting so it doesn’t happen again. But then something stupid like my computer crashing will happen or something. hahahaha! And now I’m going to have carpel tunnel for sure after retyping this and all in the name of Mister Benjamin Graupner. As I said: So be it!
Okay, enough whining on my part…on with the blogging!
Spencer Bell Legacy Show Re-Cap!
I want to start in the middle, because it’s really exciting, but I shall start…at the beginning!
First of all, just want to mention to remember that this was for Spencer and The Spencer Bell Memorial so please go check out the website where you can donate and learn about what happened to him and what you can do to help.
You may check out Spencer Bell Memorial Here: http://spencerbellmemorial.ning.com/
Also, thanks to 100 Monkeys and Tin Tin Can, Spencer also has a myspace page, please go check it out and add him and listen to his music, it is awesome! Link here: http://www.myspace.com/spencerebell
And check out the Memorial page where you can learn more and donate here: http://www.spencerbellmemorial.com./
Lastly, if you would like to be kept updated on future concert info, CD’s, and what have you…email Bill Bell at wmpbell(@)yahoo(dot)com and get added to the list!
Okay, so, now to recap our events.
Well, Friday we find out about the live feed due to Wanda’s superstalker powers. (Which is not weird, AT ALL, because she gets us great info and we’ve made lots of great friends!) Okay, so it wasn’t THAT secret. I mean, it was posted on Spencer’s myspace page. hahaha. Wanda is still our super stalker though and we love her. So, that night, we cancel all our plans to stay home and hang out on ustream. *bursts out laughing* Okay, so no plans were cancelled. We were going to be in writing anyways. Of course, with a new Ben video to watch we got ZERO writing done but…Oh well. So, we hang out on ustream all night and we get to talk with a lot of people we know from Twilighted and this page and we had some fun times that night. I think I got Wanda’s blood pressure up to at least 160/100 at least once. hahahaha!
That night, Ben G and Shawn for the Stevadores were having a birthday party! (I’ll get to how we know that in a minute) We got to talk to Shawn for like two minutes but I think we scared him off. We were all off our meds that night. Wanda and Vicky drugged my up double time for the live stream. Anyways, we were all agonizing over the video that wouldn’t play (But it was fixed the next day, Thank God!) because we wanted to see Ben G with the cute little puppy whose name is Bailey and Ben wants to take her home with him. Apparently they are having a love affair. (Again, we’ll get to how we know that in a minute) So Dean the kitty…you better watch out!
We practically had to hit our friend Nikki over the head with a 2x4 and then drug her to get her to go to bed because she had a ten hour drive the next morning to get to the show and take us awesome pics and all that jazz. She was excited though, and who can blame her? I probably would have been awake for a week straight! Anywho, so, we hung out there until midnight before we hit the sheets to rest up for the show the next day.
Next morning, I get up, grab my caffeine IV and hook it up before texting Wanda and warming up the computer which is slowly stealing my life away…not that I mind. I check the email, check out Twilighted, and log into the Ben page to get it dazzled up for Ben’s birthday (Which was Saturday, by the way!) So I get all the stuff done for the Ben page, approve the new friends, reply to comments, blog comments, and photo comments…you know, all that. Then I sign into ustream and there’s a couple anonymous streamers there and me. Then Wanda comes on-line and we hang out on ustream, completely ignoring the rest of our lives and letting them fall into disrepair. Okay, I did get some cleaning done…around my desk. We were there around 10 A.M. EST. (And no, it was not creepy or weird to be there so early. We are dedicated to supporting the band and Ben, of course, so no time is too early for us!)
But, because we were there so early, we got to chat with some AMAZING people! First there was Deb, Spencer’s step mom and she did the live stream, she is incredibly sweet and nice and I love her to death! She is how we know about the birthday party and her dog Bailey that Ben wants to steal and Ben was staying at her house. She was incredibly nice to us and we hope that she stays in touch because we really think she is too sweet for words! We also got to talk to Amy D, who took the pictures of the Monkeys that are on their myspace. (See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil) She is really nice as well and has written some awesome articles that you should read! (If anyone has the link for those, let me know, I lost all the links in the craziness last night!)
So, slowly the chat filled up as the day wore on and Vicky was able to join us. We patiently waited for the show to start and talked with bunches of great people and we had tons of fun!
First we heard from Bill Bell as he started out the show and was followed by a great slide show of pictures of Spencer while “Tourist” played.
Next, 100 Monkeys and Shawn came out to kick off the show and give their tribute to Spencer. They played The Monkey song which was awesome and Benny J. sang. We were all gob smacked. Literally. We had never heard Benny J sing and he is good. Damn Good. Like: Get in front of that mic a little more you silly boy, good!
Next Christy Howard Band came on and did a number of songs. Our sound wasn’t great on the live stream because of the bass but what we could hear was good.
After them, Tin Tin Can came out and...were awesome! Seriously! Their music was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it as did everyone else in chat! (Quick shout of to Alynn for all the info of the band and for texting the BF during the show to tell him about the Monkeys fans and giving us the shout of from Jackson. Awesome!) (Oh, by the way, during the seven o’clock show, Alynn texted her BF in Tin Tin Can and told him about the Monkeys fans and he told Jackson and Jackson said “Hiya and you guys are awesome!” By which he meant everyone in chat and not just us three. LOL) Check out Tin Tin Can’s music! It’s really good and currently free. Go to: http://www.myspace.com/thetintincan
Last for the three o’clock show were the Monkeys and wouldn’t you know I had to step out and eat? I had to run back and forth from the table to my computer to watch. It was madness. Ben started it off with Wings on Fire (And Ben, we love what you’ve done with it! Of course, we’d love it no matter what. You could burn it, pour battery acid on it, and drag it through the dirt and we’d still love it. But we know you wouldn’t do that so it’s all good. Seriously though, the song was awesome and so were you!) Then they sang some other songs, Ugly Girl, Wasteland, Orsen Brawl, and Smoke were in the mix! During the 100 Monkeys show it was so crazy in there that Deb stood on a chair and held the camera up so we could see…and she managed to get awesome close ups of the boys for us at the same time. God bless her. We truly do love her. Again, our sound wasn’t great but there was a really great moment at the end of Ugly Girl that you just have to see on youtube. Jackson is hilarious. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx_uSgyZDgU
Check out Ben singing Wings on Fire because…how could you not want to see it?
(Edit! That video was deleted or suspended or something so I took the link down!)
So, Monkeys finished up and it was break between the shows. We had about an hour and a half to kill. Deb left the camera on and we people watched for a while. Deb comes out in front of the camera to tell us hi and thanks for watching and then Bill comes over and talks to us too. Then…Dun Dun Dun….Jerad comes out and talked to Deb for a minute before getting in front of the camera to tell us hello! So of course we get excited and say hello and, ever the opportunists, the three of us (After saying hi to Jerad, jeez, we’re not rude!) say…tell Ben G. hi from us! He laughs off camera and says “Oh no no no” well, then we say screw it and we tell him to go get Ben G and bring him out to us! Jerad laughs again and…GOES TO GET HIM!!!!
So…we’re flipping out and then Benny J and Shawn come on the camera and tell us hello! We shout out our Happy Birthday’s to Shawn and tell Benny J that he did a great job singing! They say bye and depart and then Tin Tin Can comes on and we say hi to them and tell them what an awesome job they did! (Seriously guys, show rocked, check them out!)
Then…we can hear Deb talking in the background to someone. We hear something along the lines of “Monkeys” and “Ben” and “The tall one” and “This is great for the fans” (Which it was…thanks again Deb!) and….BAM! Ben G jumps in front of the camera and yells… “HELLO USTREAM!” he was mostly all dark and he looked like a huge bat which was hilarious but we were so psyched we didn’t really give a damn.
So, Wanda and Vicky and I scream, I swear I could hear them both even though we live very far apart. VERY far apart. And start posting like crazy on chat. So, Deb tells him that his fanpage is on the chat and he says, “Is it?” and he started to step forward and then stops and goes, “But wait, if I come and look they won’t be able to see me!”
How damn sweet is that? AHHHH!!! But he comes up anyways and goes out of view and is looking at the feed from the camera on the computer screen and says “They can’t see me! They only see my hand!” Then we talk to his hand…which is hilarious! We all tell him happy birthday and all that and Deb asks him about the crowd and then the girl in the background says “Is today your birthday Ben?” and he says “It is my birthday and…” Oh my God, take a deep breath, you’ll need it, “Thank you Wanda (And the rest? We’re a little iffy on that part but Vicky and I like to think that he was thinking of us too. haha!) for the pictures, Robot Monkeys rock!”
Okay, quick catch up here, for Ben’s Birthday Wanda drew him a picture of a Robot Monkey and we all signed it and I wrote him a nifty little poem about Robot Monkeys to go with the pic and I hope he liked it!
Back to the story, and the girl in the background says right after that “Did you hear that, it’s his birthday!” And Deb says “They know, they made him something!” and then the talk about that for a second. Then Ben has to leave and…take another deep breath…before he leaves he leans into the camera and says “Thank you! You guys are so sweet! I love you! See you soon!” And he waves and heads off. I am 99.9% sure that my heart stopped right then for a second. Seriously.
Wanda was already dead the second he said her name. So, after he leaves, madness ensues. Wanda and I get calls from Vicky in Liverpool…....ENGLAND....! She runs up a huge phone bill just to scream with us! (She has the most adorable accent, by the way!) So we flip out about that for a while. Literally. I think we were all clinically dead at one point. Lucky for us, I was quick and grabbed the video it got recorded on before it disappeared and it’s on our page and you can go watch the whole thing for yourself. Jerad comes on about 9 minutes and Ben G comes on around 13:50.
We want to say… “THANK YOU BEN!!! You are awesome and we love you too!”
*deep breaths*
So, we finally somewhat calm down in time for the next show to start. That’s when Nikki makes her appearance. Deb had heard Wanda and I talking about her all day long so she says tell her to come on over and say hi and she does and comes on camera to give us all shout outs! Check it out when the final vids are up! (We made so many new friends last night! I love it!) Deb also told us that we will have footage to look forward to from the Green Room at the break sooooo..YAY!!)
Bill starts it up again with and then the slide show and once again 100 Monkeys come out to kick off the show by singing the Monkey Song and the others the performed at the three o’clock show. Then Erich Gloebel Band came out and played because they had to run to another gig!
Christy Howard Band came out next and played for a good hour at least along with another artist whose name is escaping me at the moment I was still in a daze at that time so I couldn’t focus on much. But they were all really good and you should check out their bands as well. I am sorry but I don’t have links for them. I couldn’t grab them fast enough on chat last night. If anyone has them please post them.
Then, Tin Tin Can came back out and rocked the house again. That was when we were talking to Alynn. Thanks again! They really are good…check them out!
Next up…Stevadores! They were awesome as well and it is now required of all Ben G fans to run over and check them out on their myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/thestevadores Benny J sang again as did Shawn and they were great! Shawn was the lone Stevadore that made it to the show but Benny J and Ben G helped out and it was awesome!
Last, Jared and Jackson came out on stage to finish up the show with 100 Monkeys! They played quite a few songs. Long Distance Phone Call, Wasteland, Sweetface (Thanks again to Deb for the WICKED close up of Ben for the song!) Orsen Brawl, Ugly Girl, Wings on Fire, Poison Oak, and possibly others but I can’t remember exactly. I was ummm, slightly buzzed….*bursts out laughing* okay, I was slightly drunk and exhausted so I might have missed a little here and there.
The 100 Monkeys wrapped up the wonderful show and headed off for a while. I was going to try and stick around for the jam session…until I passed out at my desk. HAHAHAHA! So I missed it but I hope it will be up on a video soon so I can watch it because it was awesome from what I hear! Our photographer friend Nikki yelled out Jello for an improv song, (we won’t get into the details of what prompted THAT! haha) but ....Jackson.... misheard her and ended up doing something else.
I’m still a little out of it today from everything that happened yesterday but I had a great time, got to meet a whole bunch of great people and had fun chatting with you all!
Nikki has pictures for us and they will be up soon! (We all get our own prints but we won’t brag about that! hahahaha) If anyone has any pics, vids, recaps, they want to share with us…let us know!
Derek, Nikki’s awesome friend, get a special shoutout from me because he is sending me his signed 100 Monkeys poster! AHHHHHHHHHH!! *MAUH* Thank you so much Derek!
Also, Ben G has had his left ear pierced twice, he has four freckles on the left side of his neck and jaw that line up in almost a perfect line. Are you all looking back and forth and going…how in the world does she know that? Did she kiss and not tell? Damn, don’t I wish…but no…I know this and other little details because of the AMAZING photography at www.intoxicatingscent.com of the boys. Go to their photo gallery and click on 100 Monkeys and check out he pictures. They are AMAZING!!!
The Monkeys have another show lined up at The Mint. Chelle has already planned on going and we hope she can get right in front of the stage again! WOOT! Also, they will be on VampRadioOnline on March 4th. Wanda has been invited on to talk to Ben and I’m crossing my fingers that I can call in too! *crosses toes too*
The boys will be back in LA and playing at the 24K Lounge on Tuesday! It’s our girl Tasha’s birthday then too so be sure to tell her Happy Birthday if you see her!
I think that’s all my news and recapping of the show last night…I’m still in shock and I’m sure I forgot something but this is long enough already! hahaahah!
Thanks again to everyone for joining us in Ben love and stay tuned for our next crazy blog post!
Much love again to Deb and all the great people we got to chat with last night! Hugs for everyone!
Jess, Wanda, and Vicky reporting from The Graupner Den of Sin.