Tour Diary: New York – Irving Plaza

Woke up from my power nap and grabbed a cab to meet Arnold at Irving Plaza …

… we hung out behind the scenes while the band did sound-check and pre-show interviews.

Then Arnold, his wife Sharon and I ran up the street to Pure Food and Wine for a quick bite to eat before the show. Arnold had never eat vegan food before and here I was asking him to eat RAW vegan food. I’m so proud of him. 🙂

Then we ran back to the venue so we could find a good spot to shoot (he was shooting photos and I was doing video).

I found a spot to shoot videos but this crazy lady beside me got all in my face for taking her spot. She was so “Jersey Shore” about the whole thing that I started laughing at her. I thought she was joking when she was waving her finger in my face and telling me to “step off” … when I realized she was serious I tried to get her to settle down.

I politely let her know that I worked for the band (showed her my laminate) and that I was only going to be standing there for the first song. Then I held out my hand and told her my name and she took offense to my being nice and waved her long fake fingernail in my face and growled “To me – you have no name.”

As she was freaking out and I seriously thought she was going to pour a drink on me or pull my hair and try to fight me … finally her husband came by and told her to calm down and she got into his face instead of mine. When she stormed off – I leaned over to the husband and introduced myself and shook his hand. I apologized for making his wife so upset and he said (imagine this in a thick New York accent) “Fuggedaboutit”.

I died a little it was so awesome.

The show that night at Irving Plaza was probably the best show I’ve ever seen The Go-Go’s play. The venue was small and packed to capacity and the band was ON FIRE!!

GG’s were having fun. The crowd was having fun. I had goose-pimples the entire show …

I think my favourite part of the night was when Gina came out from behind her kit to do band introductions and the crowd started chanting her name.

After the show I went backstage to the dressing room where the band was having a little after-party. Jane informed me that the band had to cancel the next show because Belinda’s voice was starting to go and her doctor advised her to go on vocal rest. Bummer.  🙁

After the party at Irving Plaza we all piled into the band van to go to an after-after party at the Gramercy Hotel. I have never been an a more beautiful hotel. I felt like I was in Cher’s living room…

The concierge quickly escorted our rock-and-roll entourage up to the rooftop terrace. Smart move because at that point we were a little loud.  🙂

The terrace was insane.

I felt like I was in an episode of Entourage. I don’t think I had to open a single door or pay for a single drink. Wait. Was I supposed to pay for my drink? Whoops? 🙂

After a few hours of hanging on the roof we moved our little after-after party down to the bar for an after-after-after party.

The downstairs lounge was bizarre. I think the Gothic decorations made me feel this way but the people who were at the bar when we walked in were so creepy.

I felt like we had walked into an episode of True Blood and all the creepy people sitting around on the sofas were going to flash their teeth and bite my neck.

Thank goodness I was with my friend Doug from Big Gay Ice Cream. He protected me from all the vampires … OR DID HE??

I didn’t take many photos backstage or at the party because I was having too much fun but I did manage to photobomb Jane and Susan. *laugh*

I think I look a little like BatBoy in this photo.  🙂

I looked at my phone and realized it was 4:30am. Holy shit! I said my good-byes to everyone and grabbed a cab back to my hotel.

In the cab ride back to the hotel – I came up with this a cockamamie idea: Since the band’s next show was cancelled I thought I would try and change my plane ticket and go home a day early. At this point I had been away from home for over 2 weeks and I was feeling REALLY homesick.

I called the airline at 5am and they couldn’t help me find a ticket without it costing me $600. Then I started bawling … what? Why am I bawling??

I was so upset – that I called and woke up Gerry. I told him about how I tried to change my plane ticket and how homesick I was and that I just couldn’t wait another day to come home. I wanted to see if he thought spending $600 to come home was a good idea.

Gerry laughed at me and said “Sarah, you’ve been awake for over 24 hours. You’re exhausted. Go to sleep and you’ll feel better in the morning.”

He was right. I went to bed. Slept like a log and woke up with my wits about me. What the hell was I thinking?? I also woke up to my period. That explains all the bawling.  🙂

So my final day in NY was spent laying around in bed eating Coconut Yogurt and watching bad TV. Yes I could have gone to a museum, sight seeing or gone out to eat … but I was BAGGED and needed some self-care.  🙂

The next day I packed up all my new shoes I bought at MooShoes and headed home!

Thanks Go-Go’s for the time of my life!! See you on the West Coast! 🙂