#24032010

[youngveinsworld]

ryan onstage at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

– source

[youngveinsworld]

the young veins with a fan at the masquerade, atlanta show on 24 march 2010

– pictures from this Livejournal post

[youngveinsworld]

quotes from a fan's recap of the young veins' show at the masquerade in atlanta on 24 march 2010

(this is quite a long one but definitely worth it!)

We stood up close to the barricade- I guess second or third row if someone put it in a row perspective and it mattered. What mattered is it was ridiculously close and the venue is already tiny. Before the show started, I went over to see if they had merch even though I fully suspected that they probably did not. Turns out they had three shirts ($15 each) and I bought two of them because how could I not? 

While the next band was setting up, Ryan picked up an amp and carried it over to help. Everyone was mostly like, “He can carry that thing?” or “Show off” or “It‘s really hollow inside.”

Next was The Young Veins. They come out, Ryan wearing what he’d been wearing the whole tour so far and Nick Murray in a fresh shirt today, and start setting up the stage. I don’t think they got a sound check because it took a good fifteen or twenty minutes to get everything to sound okay -Ryan and Jon telling the sound guy what to turn up and down and so on. Most of us were just mesmerized enough to be cool with that.

Honestly, Ryan has more stage presence as a front man than I would have predicted (or probably given him credit for before this show). At one point Jon started talking about the album and then he told Ryan that he got the information off of their Wikipedia. Ryan obviously wasn’t expecting that answer because he cracked up. After listening to all the songs, I really think this album is going to be better than I was expecting. “Cape Town” is my favourite, possibly, but really, it seems like a solid, well-made bunch of songs. And Ryan has quite the lung capacity. I never saw it coming. There’s hope for our boys yet!

After the show, they were tearing down their equipment and some girls called him over to the side of the stage and Kelsey assumed they were going to ask for the set list. They didn’t though so she called out to Ryan and asked for it. He went over and got his for her and she handed it to me. He took Jon and Andy’s set lists and tossed them into the crowd where Andy’s was instantly ripped into pieces by vicious fangirls. It was a bit scary. When they were finished packing things up, Ryan went to head off the stage and tripped, but caught himself. 

Since the Masquerade is the coolest venue ever, I waited a few minutes, then walked right out back where the band had assembled. A few other fans went out back too and I walked out with Ryan’s gift basket.

“Ryan,” Kelsey called, then looked at me. “You wanna give it to him?” “This is for you,” is all I said and held it out. I was mentally flipping out because I’ve only been trying and failing when it comes to meeting this guy for years and now all of a sudden there he was. Ryan just smiled and said, “What did I do to deserve this?”

I told him I had just been trying to meet him forever so it was kind of like a gift to him because I had finally gotten to meet him and was celebrating. He’s a hard guy to get close to! I pointed to the fox in the basket and said, “That‘s your pet fox until you get a real one. This one will tour better.” He smiled and said, “I might feed it to my real fox when I get one. How‘s that?” I was pretty much like, “Fine with me!” because really, anything he wanted would probably be fine with me. He thanked me, all shy and sweet, and said he was going to set the basket out of the way.

Some other girls called him over and Jon, Andy, and Nick Murray were all standing around so I pulled out my bag and started handing out silly string. Of course the first thing Mr. Jon Walker does is shake it up and spray silly string all over Nick. Nick looked down at his shirt and got this very kicked puppy look about him. So I handed one to Nick and told him to retaliate. Jon ran off with his can and to some other fans, but he kept spraying people. In a few minutes, he had sprayed Nick, Will (tour manager), Andy, me, Kelsey, Ryan, and some people I didn’t know. Ryan saw his shoulder covered in silly string and proceeded to try to decorate his shoulder with it. I gave Ryan his silly string to retaliate and he forgot to shake it so when he sprayed it on Will it mostly just came out this watery liquid and soaked the guy’s shirt in a spot. FailRoss strikes again.

I asked if I could hug him and I’ve been anticipating hugging that boney kid for quite some time, but you know what? It was like the softest hug I’ve ever gotten. It wasn’t at all like I expected. It was delicate and fragile and soft. It was better than I thought though. Way better.

We saw Nick White and gave him his silly string. We told him the others had some so it was best to be ready to defend himself. He laughed and took it before running off with it in hand. A few minutes later, Ryan and Jon end up by the merch booth and a decent amount of fans gathered to meet them. We gave Jon his choice of the thread bracelets and he chose three of them and then said, “I can braid them together. Want to see me braid them?” He looked around for a moment then held the ends of the three bracelets up to me. “Here, hold these.” he said, so I did and he started braiding them really quickly. “Have you ever had braiding competitions to see who could braid the fastest?” he asked me, but honestly, I’d never even thought of having braid competitions. Apparently, Mr. Walker does this in his spare time or something. We then tied them around his wrist and got him to sign and take a picture with him. We gave him this green glow in the dark bracelet that he was excited about and instantly snapped it so it would glow and put it on. We got pictures with him and left him to the other waiting fans. One of the fans had a Foxy Shazam poster from the venue that had been up advertising the show and Jon drew himself into the picture as a stick figure. Pretty awesome.

We stopped Nick White before his family (who were at the show considering it was a home show for the Georgia boy) got to steal him away. He was awesome enough to sign three of my Bright Eyes liner notes that I had brought with me. I told him my mother was from Georgia and that her maiden name was White and he laughed and said, “Do we have the same mother?!” Pretty sure Nick White and I are unofficially family now. (Edited: Since then, we've found out we're distant cousins for real, but we fondly refer to each other as siblings. He knows us his sisters when he come to a show and we call him our brother so that's cool enough for us.) I asked him how they differentiate between the Nicks usually and he said Nick Murray commonly goes by Nicholas with the band. However, Andy and Will had also said earlier they call Nick Murray “Wildcard” and Will said he called Nick White “Peaches.” Take any of those as you’d like. We gave a glow bracelet to him too and he said, “Oowh, I want a pink one!” Dinosaur Grab-bag result: pterodactyl. It fit nicely into his pocket too with it‘s orangey-yellow head sticking out to confuse people.

Jon was now finished talking to the crowd he had had earlier and so we let him play Dino Grab-bag and he got a stegosaurus that he was quite happy with actually. (I don‘t even know what these guys are going to do with them, but they were too epic not to get them.) Kelsey mentioned his lack of flip flops and he said it had started when they were moving equipment because he has a tendency to tumble over his own feet a bit. He even volunteered to take his shoes off if Kelsey preferred, but the ground was wet a bit where people was tracked things inside so we let him keep them on. He said also something about how they didn’t get to shower as much since they were in a van. I said, “Yeah, and they only have one shower here.” Jon nodded and cringed and said, “And I don‘t want to use it after those dudes have been in there.” He said it like he was a pretty clean little girl and boys were yucky. It was fabulous. 

I gave [Ryan] a beaded bracelet. “Owh, it has my name on it,” he remarked, but almost instantly Jon appeared and held out his and said, “I‘ve got one too. Don‘t feel too special.” Ryan deflated a bit, but it was all playful as Jon wondered off again. I asked if it would be okay if he signed my Panic liner notes and he said, “As long as it‘s not their new album.” 

Kelsey immediately goes, “Are you going to ask him?” I’d forgotten my question so she had to remind me. “Birthday…”

“Oh yeah,” I remember, “Did you get the flowers I sent you for your birthday?”

Ryan smiled a little. “Yeah, I did. That was you?” he asked, “They came to the studio.” (It was the only address I had found that would reach him and it actually took some stalking in itself.) I told him my mom owned a florist so I got them wired out to California for him. He shrugged a little and looked down and said, “It was nice to get them. Made me feel like someone still cared.” My little Ryan Ross loving heart just broke. How could he think someone didn’t?! And if I remember correctly, all the card with them said was, “Hope your have a great birthday, Ryan! Can‘t wait to hear the new music! -Lindsey”

We let Ryan pick a thread bracelet and he looked over them and picked one that Kelsey had actually made on the way to the show with Ryan specifically in mind. It was turquoise, tan, and dark green and she thought it was so ugly that no one would want it. Ryan held it up to his pale yellow shirt and said, "It matches, see?" Who knew Ryan Ross was concerned with matching clothes?

When we left, our oh-so-awesome mother had parked next to their bus in the back alley (she always parks in that alley at shows so it wasn‘t like she was stalking them for us). We passed the bus and saw Ryan’s gift basket in the front seat and Ryan’s fort thing in the back seat (yeah, it‘s still there..ha!). Anyway, she had parked next to the bus and it was dark enough that they couldn’t see us so we sat there when they came out and packed everything in. My mom was all like, “That‘s Ryan, right? And that‘s Jon? Who is that?” and funnily, “That little guy is 24?!” and she seriously thought Nick Murray was like 14.

Over all, the entire band is humble and sweet and anything but self-absorbed like some people want to make them out to be. Each one thanked us multiple times for coming and for the gifts and for being so nice and everything. Really, they’re great guys. Go see them. Talk to them afterward. You’ll thank yourself. Seriously. Worth every minute.

(Also, the tweets about bracelets, plastic dinosaurs, glow sticks, play-doh, Ryan‘s puppy&kitty coloring book page, and the “vixen” were all gifts we gave them. Seriously, I don‘t ever want to hear about these guys being anything but amazing to fans. THEY.RULE.)

More information from the comments:

By the way I don't think it said it in there but before I left that night I walked past Jon and he was combing his hair with his dinosaur complain that it was all sweaty and curly. What a dork.

Haha...he was complaining about his hair all evening. I had no idea his hair was such a big deal to him. But if he wants to comb his hair with a dinosaur toy, who are we to try to stop him?

oh god @ me being in the bg of your picture with jon... anyway i was gonna tell you that we met jon right after you gave him the bracelets and he spent like ten seconds looking at it saying, "they gave me a bracelet, look!"

– from this Livejournal post

[youngveinsworld]

jon with fans at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

– source

[youngveinsworld]

quotes from a fan's recap of the young veins' show in atlanta on 24 march 2010

JON WALKER IS BEAUTIFUL. JUST BEAUTIFUL. RYAN ROSS IS A STICK MAN. JON WALKER'S GUITAR STRAP HAS OWLS ON IT.

HUGGING RYAN ROSS IS LIKE HUGGING A WARM TREE. ALSO HE SIGNED MY POSTER AND THEN DREW AN ARROW TO HIS BANDS NAME. WHAT.

JON WALKER HUGGED ME FOUR TIMES AND WOULD NOT STOP CONTINUING CONVERSATION. HE APOLOGIZED FOR HIS HAIR BEING SO CURLY WHEN HE SWEATS. I SAID "...WELCOME TO ATLANTA."

LATER HE COMBED HIS CURLY SWEATY HAIR WITH A PLASTIC TOY STEGOSAURUS THAT  A  GIRL GAVE HIM.

– source

[youngveinsworld]

ryan ross and jon walker performing with the young veins at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

photographs by Nicole Sisco

[youngveinsworld]

quotes from a fan's recap of the young veins' show in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

we had a lot of trouble focusing on the other bands playing because Ryan and Jon decided to watch part of the other bands’ sets sidestageish, which resulted in a bunch of rabid fangirls giving us the play by play of everything that they were doing. “Omg, he touched his hair, OH MY GOD, HE TUCKED IT BEHIND HIS EAR.”

Jon caught me taking a creeper picture of him while he was leaned down setting up his stuff. I was only mildly appalled at the fact that I got caught, but he just smiled and held it for my camera:

they had a really great set. The banter between the guys was really funny and entertaining, even though both Nicks and Andy didn’t really say much during the set.

I can’t remember which song they did this before, it may have been Capetown, but I could be wrong: Ryan: We have a new album coming out called Take a Vacation. You can tell them more about it, Jon, while I fix my guitar. Jon: We have a new album coming out called Take a Vacation. It’s coming out June 8th; there are eleven songs on it. We made it awhile ago. Ryan: Well, that's really boring, not exciting at all. Jon: I'm just reading it off the Wikipedia page, we have it pulled up back there.

Jon sang lead on two songs, before he sang lead on the second Ryan intro’d him as singing lead vocals. It went something like this: Ryan: Jon’s going to sing lead on this next one. Crowd: -semi silent- Jon: WHOOOOOOO GO JON!

I am now prepared to eat my words about Ryan Ross’ voice. His live vocals are really good. I actually prefer him live to any of the recorded songs that I’ve heard so far. I was pleasantly surprised that my ears did in fact NOT bleed at any point during their set. I found myself really enjoying his voice. I also loved the harmonies that they had going during Defiance.

We ran into Jon at the merch table and got to talk to him for a bit about Panic, the new album, and a bunch of other shit that I can’t remember. It was all a fucking blur, honestly. I actually feel a bit sad that I told him that I wasn’t expecting much out of them when I first got to the venue. His face looked a bit like this :( after I said that, but I followed up by telling him how completely blown away I was by their set and the new music, his face proceeded to change into this :D

We also talked about the split with Panic. Me: Panic was really my favorite band, I was really upset after you guys split, but I think that after hearing you guys play live, I’m glad the band split because now we’re going to have two incredible bands instead of just one. Jon: Yeah, I’m sad that it happened. I really loved playing with those guys and we made some really great music together. But you know, it just had to happen. Me: I actually think I may like Take a Vacation more than what you guys did while you were in Panic. Jon: -high five- That’s so great! I’m glad that you like the new stuff that we’re doing.

We talked for a few more minutes about random shit then we decided to go ahead and head out. My friend asked for a hug which he was totally into, he was a hugging machine that night. I’m not really into the whole, hugging band members thing, so I was ready to leave then Jon was like \o/ (that’s suppose to be open arms) at me, so who am I to refuse a hug from Jon Walker? No one that’s who!

After seeing the live show, I’m actually really glad that the band split. Ryan and Jon both seemed extremely happy. I wish that those of you who are still bitter about the split could have been at the show and had the chance to see the sheer joy they had on their faces while they played. All the guys are extremely humble and grateful. Jon was incredibly easy to talk to and he seemed a lot more at ease in that setting than at both of the Panic meet and greets I’ve had. Nick Murray and Jon actually thanked us 94582085 times for coming to show.

– original Livejournal post – Nicole's Flickr account

[youngveinsworld]

ryan ross setting up for the young veins show at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

photographs by Nicole Sisco

[youngveinsworld]

jon walker performing with the young veins at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

photographs by Nicole Sisco

[youngveinsworld]

the young veins at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

photographs by Nicole Sisco

[youngveinsworld]

the young veins performing at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

photographs by Nicole Sisco

[youngveinsworld]

jon walker performing with the young veins at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

photographs by Nicole Sisco

[youngveinsworld]

jon singing "everyone but you" at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

[youngveinsworld]

At the Atlanta show on 24 March 2010, a fan gave Ryan a gift basket that included a fox stuffed animal:

“This is for you,” is all I said and held it out. I was mentally flipping out because I’ve only been trying and failing when it comes to meeting this guy for years and now all of a sudden there he was. Ryan just smiled and said, “What did I do to deserve this?” I told him I had just been trying to meet him forever so it was kind of like a gift to him because I had finally gotten to meet him and was celebrating. He’s a hard guy to get close to! I pointed to the fox in the basket and said, “That‘s your pet fox until you get a real one. This one will tour better.” He smiled and said, “I might feed it to my real fox when I get one. How‘s that?” I was pretty much like, “Fine with me!” because really, anything he wanted would probably be fine with me. He thanked me, all shy and sweet, and said he was going to set the basket out of the way. 

– from this Livejournal post

Ryan kept the fox and you can see it in these photos shared by the young veins of them in their van during the spring tour:

The fan also ran a Twitter account for the fox called @Tour_Fox.

[youngveinsworld]

the young veins playing "change" at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

[youngveinsworld]

ryan ross performing with the young veins at the masquerade in atlanta, georgia on 24 march 2010

photographs by Nicole Sisco