Greetings Reader<3
My name is Bianca, also known as Skitty, and I am one of the admins for our online discord server community. I jokingly like to proudly state that I am a “concert junkie”. I got the niche from my mother who loves going to concerts to see her favorite artists/bands perform live at different venues.
A bit about me, I am from Southern California, born and raised here, and I do feel that people who live in SoCal are very fortunate to have the opportunity to get to see all the different artists/bands that come through when they tour near Los Angeles.
Last Saturday, November 11th, I happened to catch The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus at The Parish Room, which is a smaller venue located at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California.
This was my second time seeing the band perform live. I saw them last year at the Garden Amp venue in Garden Grove, California. They performed along with Escape the Fate and Hawthorne Heights (which was so rad as you can probably imagine as it was my first time ever seeing all three bands before).
However, this concert and VIP experience was so heartwarming and truly wholesome.
I am the type of individual who doesn’t mind going to concerts alone. I drove myself to the venue early since it was General Admission/Standing Only type of tickets and I wanted to get a good parking spot and get in queue. I did add-on the VIP experience which included a signed poster from RJA, group photo, and meet and greet with the band before they went on stage to perform for the night.
Once doors opened for the venue and we each got screened by security, I first went to their merch table to snag two t-shirts they had which I thought were cool designs. One t-shirt had the lyrics to “Face Down” on the front and back, and the other t-shirt I got was their name but in the Stranger Things font logo. The individual at their merch table let us know how VIP would go and provided instructions once we were inside the Parish Room.
I was with the first group of VIP attendees, and when walking through the door into a separate room (kinda like a Green Room) the band was already there, ready to greet each of us. It’s still surreal to me that I got to shake Ronnie Winter’s hand TwT!! The vibe in the room was so calm and they engaged in great conversations with everyone present equally.
In preparation for the meet and greet/photo opportunity moment, I made friendship bracelets to give to each of the band members. They were red/black/white and featured mini letters spelling RJA. Once it was my turn to get a group photo with them, I let them know of the friendship bracelets and Ronnie let me put it on his wrist (at this point my nerves were definitely calmed down more/less) and I tried to be courtesy/mindful with the time I had with them, so I kinda quickly let them each know that I am part of a emo server and wanted to also give them our stickers/mini postcards about us. In doing so, Ronnie said to me that he supports us and knows of us since he saw us on Instagram.
This is the moment where I felt the heartwarming and wholesome connection. Knowing that bands, such as The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, support emo communities, like us: EMO IS FOR LOVERS.
And that’s why I wanted to share this truly unforgettable experience I had with the wider community at EMO IS FOR LOVERS, because even though I went to the concert alone, I know I wasn’t alone as I was with many fans who loved singing along to RJA’s songs such as “False Pretense”, “Face Down”, “Damn Regret”, “Cat and Mouse” and “Guardian Angel” to name a few.
If you have any cool concert stories, let’s share them with each other and together. I would love to hear each and every one of them.
Love,
Skitty
