The Story Behind a Picture

Just like every picture has a story, every person has that carefree, coming of age, road trip, movie story. This picture represents one of those.



It's not often that I throw caution to the wind, but on The Get Up Kids were playing their 10th Anniversary Show in Lawrence Kansas. Not only was the show going to be recorded for an upcoming live album, but there had been rumors that the band was fighting and weren't enjoying touring anymore. Although none of us wanted to believe it, the Get Up Kids were on the verge of breaking up, and with their break up, the end of an era.

The show was completely sold out within minutes of being posted. I unfortunately wasn't lucky enough to purchase any before they sold out.

There wasn't a stub hub yet for us to scalp tickets, so our only options were blindly drive 2.5 hours and hope to scalp tickets, or not go.

Allie, Megan, and I decided we were going to try to get tickets. We were going to brave a drive we hadn't done before and go to Lawrence Kansas and see if we can scalp three tickets. It was all or none. We could end up spending $40 on two tickets and not beind able to get in because we couldn't find a third.

That week happened to be one of those epic 10" of snow, 5" of ice storms in the middle of winter, but still we pressed on.

On January 7th, 2005, we piled into Allie's Merker Scorpio, and headed west.

We got lost right around the Missouri/Kansas border because some engineers decided that Kansas City would have 23 exits within a two mile stretch. (I'm not kidding, There's an Exit 3M and an Exit 2G.) We got lost, turned into a Denny's for directions, and then couldn't get the car started again. After struggling for half and hour, the car finally started. We continued toward Lawrence... to find a toll road.

Luckily, we only had to drive on the toll road for a mile or so, and didn't occur any real toll.

We showed up outside of the Granada Theater with $30 a piece, two hours before the show, and immediately started pressing the line for tickets. Allie quickly scored one. We had found another, but the seller was reluctant to sell just yet. Just in case their friend showed up.

The line started lacking any fresh faces. There was no one new to ask for tickets. Doors were in twenty minutes and we were still two tickets down and we were getting desperate.

I went back to the reluctant potential seller, and she decided that her friend wasn't going to come anymore and sold the ticket to me for $10. We started offereing $30-40 for a ticket. People were ignoring our eyes. I now knew how it felt to be one of those people at the mall trying to get people to take surveys.

There's something I've noticed more about Get Up Kids fans more than any other fan on the planet. They are all excited and extremely loving when it comes to their music. As one of the most beautiful displays of Get Up Kid-ness, a girl came up to Allie and Megan as people were filling into the doors, and gave them a ticket for free. We tried to shove money into her hands, but she just wouldn't take it.

Success!

And there's only one more picture that sums the day up perfectly.

We were front row, staring into the eyes (and sometimes butt) or Matt Pryor, lead singer of the Get Up Kids.