The Odeon 
Cleveland, Ohio
July 24st, 1999

I had never seen Julian in person, much less in concert, before the 24th. Needless to say, I was incredibly excited! My friend Lisa and I had started making tentative plans the day the tickets went on sale and started counting down the days! Ironically, it was not until the night before that we made many definite plans. On Saturday my other friend, Heather, came over around three and Lisa arrived a few minutes after her. We left my house with six cameras between the three of us, a sign reading simply; "WE LOVE YOU, JULES", frozen bottles of water, sunscreen, our PS CDs, pens, and so many other things that we thought we might need. From there we went to a couple of stores to buy flowers. The first place we went had a lot of flowers, but most were already started to turn brown around the edges, so we didn't get any there. However, it was a lot of fun speculating out the balloons they sold. We were joking about getting him a huge helium balloon of a laughing pear when Lisa seriously suggested a different one and pointed to it. I looked at the one I THOUGHT she had meant to discover a pink one that said "You're Like a Mother to Me." We lost it. (Although the one she was really pointing to just said "Thank You.") We left without any balloons and went to another store that didn't have any flowers. Finally we found some and we each selected a rose, which we had wrapped and wrote a short note on the cards. 

We listened to Photograph Smile on the way down to the Flats. (It took us about a half hour.) None of us had been to the Odeon, so we actually expected to get lost at least once. When we were almost there we decided that if we made it without getting lost that Jules was "guiding us." We got there without getting lost! :) I was really (pleasantly) surprised to see that there were already people waiting when we arrived! We got out and joined the group outside. It was a really hot day, but everyone was in good spirits, and it was great to meet some of you from the list! Unfortunately, soon after arriving we were told that we couldn't have cameras, so we had Lisa put the big camera in her trunk and we continued to talk and wait. I couldn't say when exactly since I didn't take a watch, but I think it was around 5.30 when Jules showed up for Sound check. I think I was talking to Rachel when a cab pulled up with him in it. I looked up, and for a second I thought it had to be just my imagination or something. I couldn't believe that he was there! He looked so NATURAL like it was totally routine for him (which I suppose its sort of becoming) and like he had no idea what he was doing to all of us. After he got out, his grin betrayed him! I was totally gaping at him, as he strolled past us into the building, but that grin he had on his face--he looked just like a little boy about to play a trick on a teacher. I cant think of a good way to describe it! It was basically innocent, but with just a touch of something else that wasn't so innocent. All I can say is he KNEW! And, he did seem to be glad that there was already a line. :) 

A little after that Heather was going back to the car when she passed by a large door about 25 feet away from where we standing. It was a tannish-pink color and it looked more like a garage door than anything else. She called to me in line and I came down to see what it was all about. If you stood next to that door you could hear sound check going on! It was so great when he would mess up! I kind of thumped the door...almost like I hoped it would magically disappear or something. Less than a minute after that, it started shaking from someone on the inside doing something to it! Then that stopped, and we could hear sound check again. He kept saying "number two"! Ha! Okaaaaay. 

There was a security guard that kept going in and out, I'd assume checking on how things were going. We were told that Julian would be leaving soon, so I got ready and moved closer to the door, so I was standing right beside where Jules would have to walk to get to the waiting car. I kept looking behind me, almost scared that he was going to come out of the garage-style door, and I was surprised to see most of the people still waiting in line, but Ryan had also moved towards the door. I was so nervous and I had a death grip on my necklace (engraved with the words "No Day But Today") and I silently lectured myself on how true that was. If I screwed up I didn't have another chance. Then, he came out! :) People cheered, and I was dumbfounded. All my brain seemed to register was "it's hiiiimmm!!!" I don't remember taking any pictures, but when I got my film back I discovered that I had. (The one good thing about taking way too many pictures is that now I do it without thinking!) As Julian was passing by me, I was trying to tell myself to do SOMETHING, so I stuck my hand out, and Julian paused, looked at me, smiled, shook my hand (he had a really firm grip) and kept on going. Then Ryan was really smart and just came out and asked him for an autograph. I think I was still unable to form any words, but since he was stopped and signing, I held out my CD and Julian signed started to sign for me too. I had a silver pen for him to use (due to a dream I had, and I just thought it would be fun) and he looked up and said it didn't work! (And, as a result I have faint Julian scribbles where he tried to get the pen to work!) I was so scared that he wasn't going to sign it then, but he used Lisa's marker to do finish it. When he got the marker he saw what she had for him to sign and said that he "had" to sign that one. Aww :) (Lisa had a picture of Jules as a little boy with John and Cynthia, that Cynthia had signed for her about 4 or 5 years ago.) After signing a few more things, he apologized and explained that he had to go do an interview, then got in the car and left. 

We went back to our spot (and noted that the flowers we had been so picky about were quickly wilting) and returned to what was fast becoming a habit of waiting. A boy near the front of the line (whose name I never did catch) had a guitar he was playing and several times some of us started singing. ("Saltwater," and an attempt at "Get a Life.") With no warning the sky suddenly clouded over...it was a VERY welcome break from the sun, but soon it got really windy and it was very nasty-looking. Some people started to get worried that it was tornado weather, but I was still too Jules-Zapped to think rationally. 

Around 7.30 or so everyone started standing up, getting their things together, and most importantly--hiding cameras! For about ten or fifteen minutes all I heard was "Can you see where my camera is?" as people tried different hiding spots. At ten till eight it started to rain, and since the doors were supposed to open at eight, I assumed that they would take pity on us and let us in early....WRONG! As though out of spite they made us wait and extra five or ten minutes! Finally we filed in and there was only one person taking tickets. As it turned out he probably wouldn't have blinked if someone walked in with a video camera! He seemed rather oblivious, but I was grateful for that rather than them being thorough. We rushed up towards the stage to begin waiting once more. It was nice to finally be inside and see what it actually looked like. The whole place is basically one large room with a bar at the sides and a stage in the back. There was another smaller room to the side when you came in where they were selling shirts and posters. In front of the stage was a wall that was probably about four feet high. There was an area about three or four feel wide between the wall and the actual stage (which was risen up to the height of the wall.) The bar stools way off to the sides were the only chairs in the place. We stood up as close to the wall as we could get and to some other people until the Push Stars came out around 9:20.

 The Push Stars seemed really nice and they talked to the audience between songs. Their songs were their own and they were good. If it had been in almost ANY other circumstances I probably would have really gotten into it! I was going to take some pictures, but I wasn't sure what their policy was going to be since there were signs that clearly read NO CAMERAS, so I decided if I was going to get in trouble for taking pictures, it would be for taking pictures of Julian. Unfortunately I was so eager to hear him that I didn't really give the Push Stars a fair chance. However, I expect to be hearing their name a lot more soon.

When the Push Stars finished their set I'd guess it took a good twenty minutes to a half hour for things to be set up for Jules to come on. The rest of the band came on and took their places before he came out. At least the moment came when he stepped out on the stage. In keeping with the other concerts, he was dressed in black--black jeans and a black sleeveless tee shirt with a bit of a V-neck and a watch on his right wrist. His hair was brushed back, and he entered smiling. Jules started with "Get a Life," followed by "And She Cries," then "Day After Day." After "Day After Day" he said he thought it was about time he said hello, "It's good to see you all here" and that he tends to talk a lot about the songs because he wants us "to understand where they came from." He then added that if he talks too much to tell him to shut up. (That comment was met by "Don't Worry!" and "Never!!!" from several audience members.) 

He said that the next song ("I Should Have Known") was a relationship song written in the theme of love. Then "three of the songs on the album are very much about (in a DEEP voice) business relationships...(back to normal voice) between record companies and managers." He continued talking for a bit, then said "evil! Evil! evil!" jumping back as if to get away from it, and that was met with a lot of applause which continued when he said his soul was "taken away to the devil for a good ten years." After everyone calmed down a bit, he then went on the say that at the end of the day the last thing he wants to sing about is record companies, and "there's more important things to sing about, but that in essence is what it's about and it's about putting too much hope and faith in other people and in the end realizing that if you want to get the job done that you've got to do it yourself." 

All of that was met with cheers and screams. Then he was about to start when the drums came in too soon or something, so he turned around to Manny and said not to surprise him like that. It was darling.

Continue to Part 2