The concert that sparked tattoos?
We think that our first official post should be the night that inspired us to create this blog, and that would be the night that we met and saw Hippo Campus live. The whole week that these events took place was guided completely by the universe.
This story begins on October 15th… We had GA tickets to see Hippo Campus at the Orange Peel in Asheville. We left school and work and made the drive up to North Carolina. On the way, we listened to our mix of Hippo Campus and true crime podcasts. Keep in mind that we weren’t avid listeners of HC.
When we reached the venue, we got in line and managed to get a spot right near the left part of the stage. The openers (The Districts) performed (more to come on them in later posts) and shortly after, Hippo Campus made their way to the stage.
They opened with Bambi and the entire crowd went wild. This show was pure magic. They played through their setlist and after the concert, we left with a feeling of absolute excitement and happiness.
Fast forward to a couple days later. We had become OBSESSED with Hippo Campus and were experiencing post-concert blues. We had concluded that that was the best concert we had been to and were seriously missing it. We had a sleepover later that night and as we were scrolling through Instagram, Jenna looked up and said: “Yo, what if we got tattoos for Hippo Campus?” I just looked up at her and laughed “That would be really funny!” But then, we got that look in our eyes that said that we weren’t joking. The next day we made tattoo appointments…
We had already figured out what tattoos we wanted but I (Britt) was deciding what font I wanted to get it in. I searched on Google for any of the members handwriting and I found myself looking through their Twitter account. As I was scrolling, I clicked on a picture of their tour dates, just curious as to see what other places they were traveling to. As I was scanning the dates, my eyes fell upon another North Carolina show! What are the odds that they would be coming back to play in North Carolina?! I immediately screenshotted it and sent it to Jenna. There was no doubt in our minds, we were going to this concert. As we went to buy the tickets, we realized that GA was sold out- the only option was to buy VIP. We bought the tickets and had a week to prepare for the best day of our lives.
We finally managed to make a tattoo appointment, the day right before the concert. After school, we met up at the tattoo shop and got these bad boys.
Meet and Greet and Yoga
Monday night (the day before the concert), we posted these pictures on Twitter and wished each other sweet dreams.
We woke up on Tuesday morning around 9am to discover that Zach @espocampus and Decarlo @decarlojackson from Hippo Campus had liked our tweet! We showered and got ready for the day. The concert was in Carborro which is about a four- hour drive from us, so we got snacks from the gas station and hit the road around 12. The drive there was scenic and beautiful, we listened to a mix of The Districts, Hippo Campus (obviously) and the Lemonade Mouth soundtrack.
Fast forward to when we arrived at the venue. As we pulled in to Cat’s Cradle, we spotted Zach and Jake from Hippo Campus chilling outside on the sidewalk. As we drove down the street to find parking, we also saw some members of The Districts, Rob, Braden, and Pat walking along the sidewalk. We were PUMPED. We found parking and made our way to the venue.
After waiting outside for about 45 minutes, the doors opened for VIP and we were instructed to get a carpet square to prepare for the pre-show acoustic performance. We obviously got in the front row, and the boys came out. The very beautiful boys. They played three songs acoustically, the first one being Sula. Honestly, we were in such shock over their angelic voices, and the experience we were having that we didn’t even think to take out our phones until the second song. They played Tuesday next and Boyish last.
After the intimate set, we began to line up for the meet and greet. Jenna and I were in the middle of the line and noticed that everyone before us were just smiling and taking pictures with them, not really talking or having a conversation with them. I leaned over and told Jenna that we should stand at the back of the line, that way we can spend more time talking with them. We quietly crept around to the back and waited our turn.
When our time came, we hugged each of them and let me tell you, they give the greatest hugs!!! When we hugged Zach and Decarlo, we thanked them for liking our picture on Twitter. Zach said and I quote, “Oh yeah, those are f***ing dope!”
After we got our hugs in, they asked us what kind of pose we wanted to do and we looked at them and said: “We think we want to do like yoga poses?”. Keep in mind that EVERYONE before us was just smiling and posing normally. The responses we received were priceless; “Oh because we’re SO great at yoga!” and “I’m not flexible!”. I turned to Zach and said, “You can just stretch or bend or whatever, it’ll be fine!” And then he contorted his body in a way that I will never understand. Here are some pictures of the results:
I had laid my purse down to take the pictures, and as we were finishing up, Jake asked whose purse it was, and kind of guarding it. I raised my hand and Jenna and I walked over to him.
Somehow we got on the topic of height, specifically Nathan’s height. Jenna asked Jake how tall Nathan was and Jake said: “You can ask him if you want, he’s around here somewhere!” Before we turned to Nathan, I asked Jake how tall he was and for some reason, we spent at least 5 minutes discussing everyone’s height?
We turned to talk to Nathan as he was trotting away to go backstage and talked to him for a couple of minutes before he got bombarded by other people. We left the conversation feeling that we had made an impact on them. Mainly because we were the only ones there that treated them like regular people. Because you have to remember, that’s exactly what they are.
After the meet and greet, we had to wait outside for about 45 minutes before we could go back inside for the early entry. We made some friends outside and chatted about our favorite bands and who we had seen live.
Showtime
Let me just start off by saying that we have NEVER sweat or danced as much as we had at this concert. Hippo Campus has a way of making us want to shake our asses and jump up and down like maniacs! We were front and center with Nathan and Jake standing DIRECTLY in front of us! While we were at the concert, we realized that we weren’t really taking pictures or recording the songs. We were solely listening and dancing to the music. I think we were more preoccupied with living in the moment. We were truly experiencing the concert as it was happening, and not watching it through an iPhone screen. They put on a beautiful show (as always) and there were many times when we got teary-eyed because we realized the immense love that we have for this band.
At the end of every concert, Whistler throws his drumsticks into the crowd and we made it our mission to get one of those damn drumsticks. He had thrown one to the right side of the crowd and he was walking towards the side that we were standing on. I (Britt) looked that man dead in the eye, made eye contact with him and yelled: “YO WHISTLER OVER HERE!”. And that man tossed that drumstick right at us! (Whistler, if you’re reading this, we love you and thanks for the souvenir),
So needless to say, this day was full of surprises and excitement. Hippo Campus, thanks for putting on a bomb ass show(s) and creating an atmosphere that was so welcoming and energetic. We hope that we can see you again sometime in the near future. Thank you for allowing two best friends from a small town the opportunity to grow closer and rock the hell out!
“Sometimes they call it a Tuesday, sometimes I call it the best day of my life.”
As always, stay groovy!
All the love,
Britt and Jen
Hypnotic Bolt 