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Submitted to Guster.net by Dan Lange

05-02-2003
Rutgers University, North Brunswick, New Jersey


Such a good day. School was fine enough. But it's post-school that was wonderful. Miles and I sped out of Gulati's class at 2:50 to meet Mari and get rockin' down to Rutgers for GUSTER. We found her, made our way to the lot, and as we were pulling out got a call from Linda, who said she was going to go. So we picked her up, stopped by my house real quickly to pick up some CDs (all Gus, of course), and we were on our way. About a half hour later, we were driving down Hospital Road to park.

I knew it was him from so far away. The hair gave it away. Everyone in the car was talking. "Guys, it's them!" I said. No one heard me, "GUYS! IT'S GUSTER!" and we pulled up beside them. Ryan and Brian were hanging out in the back of the athletic center with some of King of France. Not knowing what to do, and stopped next to them with the window down, I just waved. Ryan waved back, and laughed.
A transcript of the conversation follows:

Me: Hi!
Ryan, Brian: Hi!
Me: Brian, we talk online!
Ryan: starts hysterically laughing
Brian: What's your name?
Me: Dan Lange.
Brian: Oh yeah, you're on the guestlist.
Me: Oh yeah, about that - think you can stuff my three friends on it with me?
Brian: Yeah, I put you on their. I put DanLange........... + 0. It's too late, I already handed it in.
Me: Oh, okay. We'll just sneak them in then.
Ryan: Yeah, cool. We'll kick the door open for you.
Me: Nice, where should we park?
Some random person: Park in the yellow lot.

And off to the yellow lot it was. We parked, went to the front, and were told "the guest list entrance is around the side... where it says MEDIA." So good. We went around, entered, and I was given my ticket envelope.
Upon seeing four of us, the lady said, "There's two tickets in there."
Me: Uhhh.....yeeeeeeeeeah. There's four of us. Think you can throw in two more?
Lady: Let me check.
Me: We were just talking to the band, they said it was okay.
Lady: That's fine, let me just make sure first.
She gets on the walkie talkie and says some of Gusters' people are here, and they need two more. Ask if its okay. She hands the walkie talkie to me and says to tell them who I am.
Me: "I'm Dan Lange. We were just talking to the band and they said its fine if there are extra tickets."
After a little delay...
Voice on walkie talkie: "Fine with us. You're in."

So there we were. We went in, not thinking about the fact that once you're in, you can't leave and come back. Oh well. So we get in, find our seats. They're way up on the side of the stage (I had better ones, but since we wanted 4 together, we sacrificed).

So we sat there for a bit, it was around 5PM now. I then brilliantly remember that in a recent road journal entry, Brian had suggested that someone write Adam a cheesy poem to steal him from his fiancee. And that's just what we did. We spent the next ten minutes coming up with an overly cheesy poem, of which I can't remember right now, but I hope that Brian posts it on the road journal for all to see. We even drew pictures and everything.

After that, we stayed and watched some random bands for a while, got food, etc. I wanted to give the band the poem before they went on, so they could possibly call us up to read it, or they could read it, or whatever. I saw Ryan, but didn't get to him in time. He walked behind the stage, and was gone. A while later, he emerged again, but stayed pretty close to the side. I decided this was the time.

I went to the entrance to the backstage area thing, and tried to get in, but was denied. So I asked the security guard to call Ryan over (he wasn't too far away). He did, and I interrupted Ryan's listening to Finch.

Transcript of the conversation with Ryan:

Me: Sorry about pulling you away.
Ryan: No problem, man. What can I do for you?
Me: Following with Brian's suggestions, we wrote a poem for Adam. I was wondering if you could read it on stage or we could or something.
Ryan: I'll give it to him, sure.
Me: What about if someone read it on stage?
Ryan: That's really up to me.
Me: Clearly. It's up to you. Just wondering if you could.
Ryan: No promises, I'll see if we have time.
Me: Cool, thanks. One more thing - think you can sign my tshirt?
Ryan: Sure. I don't have a pen though.
Me: Hold on, I'll get one. You know what - I'll just get it later. Thanks again!

We shake hands, and depart. Go back to seat, listen to more random music, until I see Brian walk out. I go up to him.
Transcript of conversation with Brian:

Me: Hey man, what's up?
Brian: Not too much. Oh - it's Danny, right?
Me: Yeah, I wanted to thank you again for getting me in.
Brian: No problem, no problem. I went through lots of shit for you. They were fucking paging us and shit about the extra tickets.
Me: Well, thank you so much.
Brian: No problem. It's really cool.
Me: I gave Ryan a poem for Adam to convince him to leave his fiancee.
Brian: Gives thumbs up
Me: Gives thumbs up
Brian: When we go on stage, we're going to have people come up and eat twinkies out of our asses.
Me: That's hot! Let me be the first.
Brian: Alright, man, haha. See you later.
We shake hands.

(Note: The twinkie comment was because the band before had done just that. Brian was kidding, obviously.)

So we wait a while longer, Finch finishes. We decide at that point to go up and stand in front of the stage in preperation for Guster. As we're walking up, a guy comes and questions us for our tickets. After arguing for a while, we eventually went back to our seats, then attempted to go to the front from the other side, but the security guard wouldn't let us in on the other end. So we went back, and I tried to reason with the guy. Transcript of conversation:

Me: I'm not trying to give you a hard time. Do you think you can make one exception for us?
Man: You want me to make an exception for you?
Me: Yeah.
Man: No.
Me: Please? We're on Guster's guest list, and we've been waiting all day to see them. It would be really cool of you.
Man: You're on their guest list... and you're sitting over there? They must not think very highly of you.
Me: No, that's not true. Listen, they had the wrong number of tickets set aside, so they had to put us there so we could be together. We had much better seats before.
Man: How do I know you're even with Guster?
Me: My ticket envelope says 'Dan Lange - Guster' on it. I show him envelope.
Man: Okay, let me check.

He walks away, we should have just walked into the crowd, but we waited. He comes back, and tells us there's nothing he can do. Oh well.

We return to our seats. Soon, Guster comes on. We can see everything, but it's just from the side instead of the front. And it was really hard to understand when they were talking on the mic. We stayed where we were for a few songs, belting them out, clearly. Finally, the guy left and we went down to the front for the rest of the show. We were some of the only ones singing. It was a wonderful show, but a little short because Rutgers cut them short. Stupid Rutgers. But overall, the show was great. A really good time was had by me, and I think also by Miles, Mari, and Linda. We got some merchandise, etc.

Set List:

I SPY>jam outro
BARREL
Ben Folds' NOT THE SAME
RAMONA
WISH
HOMECOMING
AMSTERDAM
HEAVEN
AIRPORT
BURY ME>tease of Jimmy Eat World's THE MIDDLE>tease of Goldfinger's HERE IN YOUR BEDROOM>BURY ME
TWO POINTS
EITHER
DEMONS
FA
-------
HAPPIER*
*They didn't actually leave the stage for the encore, and although "Mona" was listed on the setlist as the first song of the encore, they didn't play it due to time constraints.


After the show, I met Sarah, who I'd been talking to online and the phone for the past few days. I met her on the Guster message board and she's friends with lots of Columbia people I'm friends with. Then, Miles, Mari, Linda, and I walked around the back of the buulding to the Gus bus and waited for a while for them. Eventually, we decided not to wait any longer and just left.

What a wonderful night.