MICHAEL, OSCAR'S NEPHEW TESTING OUT RENE'S DRUM SET
PART .001: TRAVELING WITH MUSICIANS || PART .002: RELAXING BEFORE THE FIRST GIG & THE RAVER GIRL THAT LOVES BOB MARLEY || PART .003: GIG #1 AND MEETING ALEX LORA || PART .004: OUR VERSION OF THE AFTER PARTY || PART .005: THE RIDE HOME AND MEETING THE FAMILY
While we were at Oscar's home, I met his nephew, Michael. He's such a sweet kid, though a bit on the antisocial side like myself. He's been here in Seattle for a year and is a rocker at heart, much like myself. It turned out that his birthday was the day we were in Portland, so Oscar decided to take him to the concert and put him on the guest list so that he could meet the bands and such.
One thing I noticed from Michael is how much he admires Oscar. He's so proud of Oscar and admires the fact that he's in this business, as well as always looks out for Michael's best interests. Among a few things he was telling me, is that Oscar will teach him to play the drums. It seemed that every interest that Michael had, was another reason to admire his uncle. He would talk about soccer, and mention that Oscar was great at it (considering the fact that I've watched Oscar play soccer before, I can agree to this!)
One of the moments that I could truthfully say I understand why Oscar wanted Michael to come to the concert, was that Michael is a fan of the headlining band, and of course, a fan of the way his uncle plays. I was asking him whether he had seen his uncle play with the band, and he said that he never has actually seen him play, but has heard him practice back at home from time to time. Oscar had come over to check on Michael and gave him money to buy some merchandise from the headlining band. Since the band was doing sound check, I took it upon myself to hang out with Michael and keep him company for as long as I could.
PART .006: SODO, FAMILY, AND LAST MINUTE ARRANGEMENTS
I wish I could say that I enjoyed the concert as much as I enjoyed the one in Portland. I had incoming texts from my friends letting me know that they were showing up and wanted to see me, I had texts from a family I know that was bringing their son to the concert and might have needed help with getting the kid in without paying (there was some rule about kids under 10 years not paying) and just about everyone that I knew would be at the concert, was asking me if there was a chance that they could meet the band and take pictures with El Tri, especially with Alex Lora. As if I didn't have enough on my plate trying to get past security on the topic of photography and being able to figure out how to be within eyesight of Michael. I didn't want to leave him alone, but I was brought along to take pictures of the show too.
Dulce, her husband, and son arrived a little shortly after S.O.S. was playing. I enjoyed a good portion of their set, since there was no need for me to take pictures of them again as a group. I ended up having to get them into the concert, figure things out on their end as to what they needed and wanted to do, take pictures for her husband of him in his 'luchador' mask and such, as well as trying to cater to what their son would enjoy. I figured the best thing was to introduce the boy to the band, so as soon as S.O.S. finished their set, I took the boy with me on stage to meet the guys and he ended up watching them play from the sidelines on the same stage. Dulce and her husband ended up buying an item set from the headlining band, since I couldn't guarantee that they'd be able to see Alex Lora and take pictures. While that happened, I went back to where Michael was located and started to take pictures of Callejero playing.
MANNY, CALLEJERO'S KEYBOARD PLAYER.
During the time that Callejero was playing as well, I ended up going on stage to rest a bit. I wasn't feeling well during S.O.S' set because of lack of sleep and I had been on my feet constantly for two days straight with little time to rest. I also hadn't had much to eat over the weekend, so I was just losing it. While I was resting on stage watching the band play, I got a text from one of my friends saying he saw me and that I looked gorgeous. On top of that, I had already received a message from another friend asking where I was because he stopped by the concert - First instinct was to avoid him entirely for personal reasons.
When I was going to say hello to the friend that saw me on stage, I went towards security and bumped into Dulce and her husband. She mentioned how they were going to see Alex Lora now but that they weren't letting their son in to see him. If there's one thing I don't agree with no matter what security says, is when they have to separate a child from his parents, so I swiftly went past security, took the kid with me, and told security that I wasn't letting him be separated from his parents. Security ended up letting the boy be with his parents, but still wouldn't let him see Alex, so I stayed behind talking to the kid while his parents went to meet him. The highlight of that whole ordeal was hearing Alex Lora come out and yell, "well, if they won't let the boy up to see me, I'll go to him!" and the boy ended up seeing someone he admired. He had the biggest smile on his face when taking pictures with him, and all I can think is Dulce was telling me how her son had been asking her the whole night if he was gonna meet Alex, and if Alex still looked the same and everything.
I left with Dulce and her family back to the concert and received a text from Oscar after they finished playing, asking me where I was. Once I told him and he found me, I introduced him to Dulce and her husband, and they decided to get their picture taken with him. Afterwards, I left Dulce and her family to hang out with Oscar at the bar. We ended up seeing some of his family at the bar enjoying the concert, and they all were excited to see Oscar again. They praised him for how well he did (and honestly, this was the first time I ever hear anyone in a band getting so much praise and applause from the audience) and that's when some random man pushed me out of the way and congratulated him. Once Oscar mentioned I was with him, the man looked at me as if apologizing and bought us drinks as well as took a picture with us.
Eventually, I felt like I needed to sit down asap, so I asked Oscar if he wanted to grab a seat at the bar with me or if he preferred hanging out on the floor. He said he was fine with either and would follow me if I wanted, so I led him to the bar's seating area with me and we started talking again. He proceeded to tell me after a while that it hurt him to see me cry the other night (drunk conversation + talking about the past = unstable Dani holding back a lot of tears), and that I was noticeably happier tonight. I apologized for being emotional the night before. Since the lights were turned off the night we were having our conversation, I was hoping he hadn't noticed that I was crying over what we were talking about, and I told him that I very much needed this weekend, and if I was happier, it was because he had a helping hand in the situation.
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