Darren talking to my mom, (yes, that's ME next to him), and getting ready to sign my CD and poster .
We left my house around 3:45 in the afternoon. The concert was to be in Clarkston, which is just outside of Detroit at the Pine Knob Ampitheatre. The drive took a couple of hours, since I live all the way on the other side of the state, and on the way there we listened to the Savage Garden CD and sang along. (Which drove my parents nuts!) The ride there was more or less uneventful, despite that fact that I was mildly worried. I was not very excited to tell you the truth. Little did I know how I would be in a few hours...
We got to Pine Knob, and my mom bought everyone, (everyone is me, my sister, her friend Blaire, and my two friends Alexis and Rebecca), a t-shirt and a poster. My mom went to guest relations to find out where we were supposed to meet to go backstage, and everyone else went to our seats with my dad, since we had about an hour to kill. At 7:00, my mom looked down at me, Rebecca, and Alexis, who would be going backstage, and said, "Alright girls. You ready?"
We stood up and walked over to the meeting point. We had to stand around for about a half an hour waiting for the Columbia Records guy, Howard Lesnick, to show up, then we had to wait another five minutes or so for him to check if the guys were ready. All this time I was getting INCREDIBLY antsy. I was fidgeting with my CD, and purse, and tapping my foot, (my nervous habit.) (While Howard was back there, another guy who was going backstage turned to us and handed us this poster thingie that Darren is getting ready to sign in the picture above. It was three perforated squares lined up in a horizontal line with the "Truly, Madly, Deeply" single cover, the CD cover, and the re-release single cover of "To the Moon and Back.") Finally, Howard came back, and we went down some steps, to the right, and entered a deck area with a tent over it with a bunch of plastic tables and chairs. We all sat down in one.
There were random people sitting around having dinner, I figured they were dancers, or background singers or musicians or something. At one point, Alexis looked over at me, and pointed, "Casey, isn't that one of them?" I looked over and just about had a heart attack. It was DARREN!!! I have no idea what he was doing just walking, but I think that he was gonna go onstage with Billie Meyers, who was the opening act and performing then, to give the audience a thrill. A few minutes later, he walked back and inside the building. I kept getting more and more nervous with each passing second. Then, Howard came out. "Ok, here's how this is gonna work. They're gonna come out, say a little hello, and go around from table to table doing autographs. Then, they'll do pictures after that." Howard vanished into the building, and moments later he came out with Darren and Daniel right on his heels.
Darren hopped up the step to the deck we were on and said hello. Daniel stepped up, said hello, and they both went over to the first table. I don't remember much about what they did at those tables. I tuned everything else out. I couldn't hear anything, couldn't think, couldn't speak. All my world was at that moment was me looking at Darren and Daniel in an absolute stupor. I must've looked incredibly stunned, because as they were moving to the second table, I heard laughter, and I was snapped back into the living world. It was Alexis, Rebecca and my mother laughing at me. Then, Darren and Daniel finished up at the second table, and Howard led them over to ours.
"Gentlemen, I'd like you to meet, Geri Jarvis who works at a radio station, her daughter Casey, and her two friends Rebecca and Alexis. They drove two hours from Grand Rapids to see you guys tonight." Darren stayed on the side of the table with the other three, and Daniel started to walk around to where I was. My heart jumped. Oh wow, oh wow. I cannot believe this is happening. I'm meeting DANIEL AND DARREN!! Daniel held out his hand, and said, "Hi, I'm Daniel. Happy Birthday, Casey." I was speechless. For the first time in my life, I was speechless. Daniel had the cutest accent and was dressed so cool! He had an Umbro shirt on, and Airwalk hat, and that's all I can remember. I was speechless. I didn't like it. I think I managed a smile and a hi. He said, "So. This is your 16th birthday, huh? Did you get anything good.?" I just looked at him, and was like, "Yea! This! Meeting you and darren is more th an I could possibly ask for!" Daniel smiled and signed my stuff, and I regained a bit of my composure. As he was signing, I looked at him and said, "You know, this is actually a pretty cool thing because it's exactly a year ago today that I got your CD." After he signed my poster and CD, he stood up and said, "Oh really! So you're one of our fans that's been with us since the beginning huh?" He smiled and I nodded. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him. Darren. Leaving them, and coming over to me. Darren. Daniel went over to the others.
Darren. Oh my God. Darren. He came over, and....wow. Darren. I thought I tuned everything out earlier. Nothing in the world existed to me except me and him. It was surreal! He held out his hand and did the same thing Daniel did. "Happy Birthday, Casey!" He leaned in and signed my stuff. While he was doing it, i told him the same thing I told Daniel about when I got his CD. I said I also have people in Australia that send me the B-side tracks that Americans don't get to hear. He asked me who I got them from, and my mind went blank. I couldn't remember the names. I felt horrible. But, I think that at that point in time, if he asked for my name address and phone number, I wouldn't have been able to give it to him. As he was capping his pen, my mom mentioned to him that I had this page. He was intrigued. "How do you maintain that?" And I told him everything. How I make it, how I hate HTML coding and use a program. He asked about the program, and I could tell him everything. "Do you get the web space from your internet service provider?" I told him about Tripod...pricing and all. (My friends later commented about this brief exchange by saying they thought I started babbling on about computers, but then they looked at Darren and were surprised by the look on his face. He actually was listening to me!!!)
After I explained all that, he looked at me, and said, "Well, do we want to do pictures, or what?" I was like, "YEA YEA YEA!!!!" in my mind. My mom said, "Sure!" Darren backed up and said, "Casey, you want to be in the middle here?" I almost FAINTED!!!!!!! I went and stood next to him, and he put his arm around me. Daniel stood off to the side. I don't think he thought I wanted him in the picture! =( I looked and said, "Daniel! Come on in!" My mom said that he looked really happy when I asked him to get in the picture. So he came in, and they both had their arms around me and I had my arms around them and my mom took the picture. I thought, "Wow. I am being held by Darren and Daniel. If this is heaven, kill me now!!!!! I want this forever!!" Then, my friends came in and got in another picture, and it was all over. They went around to the other tables. Although, when I think about it, they probably spent more time at our table than at anyone elses. That thought makes me smile.
When they finished with everyone they went back to get ready for the show. I was left in a state of shock. I buried my face in my hands and started crying. That had been my dream for so long, and it was over. It was the happiest moment in my life...and it had to end. Howard had to come over and ask if I was ok or not! I was perfectly fine, but so disoriented. My head was spinning, I was crying, I thought I was gonna hyperventilate. Some how, I managed to get myself to stand up and walk back to our seats for the concert.
The concert was so cool! (Click here to see pics.) Halfway through we go moved up to the fourth row!!!! Darren sang beautifully, and Daniel's playing rocked the pavilion. It was truly the single greatest experience of my life. One I will remember always and forever.