Here are my notes from the event. Enjoy:
Pre-Taping:
5:53 - I'm squeezed in the back of the "TRL" room like a sardine. It's so much smaller than it looks on TV! Also, there are three full band platforms set up, which is crimping into my "jump around" space. There are tons of MTV-type kids here though, which is rad I guess.
5:55 - I'm wishing my buddy didn't bail on me. Apparently early morning funerals make people un-psyched about rock competitions. I'm about 10 feet from the judges couch, which means I'm going to have a lot of Pete Wentz in my face. Personally, I will be keeping my eyes open for Ashlee and her daddy. We all know Papa Joe is the real hero!
5:58 - The three mid-pubescent girls standing in front of me are singing Spice Girls songs and discussing their exuberance over the prospects of appearing on TV. Looks like Ginger, Baby, Posh, Scary, and Sporty have doubled back for the souls of another generation. In other news, it looks like I remember the code names of all of the Spice Girls. It might be a long night ahead....
Taping?
6:01 - The intro of this programing seems to have been pre-taped. It's like I'm in a weirdo bizarro land seeing bands rocking out on the screens but standing painfully still in front of me. I wonder how long they've had to wear these same clothes...
6:05 - Pete Wentz just walked passed me. My he's tiny! Contrary to what you might have expected, my world remains unchanged.
6:07 - The smell of soon-to-be hipsters has filled my nostrils and rendered me barely able to think clearly. On the other hand, watching some of this pre-taped footage has me juiced up to hear these bands live.
6:09 - I'm going to need to invest in a sweet camera. Some press peeps took some cool pix of the judges.
6:11 - This show's about to go live.....after 3:45 of comercial break. Damn, that's a lot of advertising. Pete just warned the crowd that, no matter how excited they get about the bands, they should try not to say "F*** yeah!" when the camera's are rolling. That Pete Wentz, always lookin' out for the big guy.
6:22 - The band all just finished their cover performances -- the most impressive was a band called The Material, a group with a chick that sounds sorta like Paramore meets No Doubt. A bold cover of Eurythmics' "Would I lie to you?" from Them Terribles was pretty exciting too.
(At this point I entered a conversation with two of those afformentioned soon-to-be hipsters and discontinued my minute-by-minute journalistic accounting of the event. The rest is part dramatization, part recollection.)
6:29 ish - The winner is declared. "The Myriad" got all of your votes, and then proceeded to rock and roll the house down. They sound pretty sweet, but I'm distracted by how their guitar player looks like the poor man's Jared Leto.
Post- Taping
6:35 ish - As they crew prepares to film a live video for The Myriad, a fair number of people try to sneak out to the right, myself included. We're prohibited from exiting by the corporate hand of MTV. Unwilling to mess with Viacom, I accept my fate, step back, and start clappin' along to the Myriad. Wohoo!
6:40 ish - I realize that I've been standing right next to supper-blogger Maura from Idolator. It's nice to have someone to commiserate with.
6:45 ish - I'm starting to blend in now that I've mastered the "dance of the emos". It entails staring eagerly at the stage while clapping on each, and every, downbeat. If you skip a beat, you're a loser and will be ostracized accordingly.
6:47 ish - Having spent the last 12 minutes clapping along to this song, I can no longer feel the palms of my hand. I've been indoctrinated to this cult called The Myriad though, and can't wait to check out their album!
7:00 ish - The Berlin Wall of television security has crumbled and we're free to exit the building. Freedom has never tasted so sweet! I'm going to miss the house that Carson Daly built though.
End.
