One-Eyed Doll

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READ ALL OF KIMBERLY'S TOUR BLOGS AND POST COMMENTS:
http://www.oneeyeddoll.com/forum/148

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A little history..

This all really started in March 2009 at Texas Rock Fest. We met a group of mad scientist rock and rollers from outer space called, "ARCATTACK", and fell in mutual fan-crazed infatuation. We stayed in touch, and they later invited us to Atlanta with them to open up for their show at Dragon Con.

Dragon Con is a huge carnival of freaky geeky awesomeness, a convention held in Atlanta every year. It's seriously rad - costumes, role playing, William Shatner, and anything and everything sci-fi/fantasy/pop culture/steam punk/gamer/comic book/anime. Anyway, ArcAttack are kind of the sweethearts of the Mad Scientist Ball that they hold in the Science Track every year. They've performed it many years in a row and are extremely popular.

I spent the entire night before we left at the studio with Jason, recording some of the coolest stuff EVER, so i didn't get one wink of sleep before the trip. I figured I'd sleep in the car.. Which I didn't, really.. Ah well.. The Threejinator and I joined Joe, John and Parsec in a big van with a trailer, and off we went. Joe helped me roll some fresh bleach shirts.. Something like 1,000 hours later, we were in Atlanta, and I had a full bag of shirts, ready to go. What a beautiful city.. After some time, we were able to get into a hotel room [thanks again, ArcAttack] and I got a couple hours of sleep on the floor in a corner. It felt great. I CRASHED. big time.

In the morning [a couple of hours later], we went downstairs and set up merch. ArcAttack was kind enough to let us share a table, and the con people were actually REALLY cool about it. Number Three and I were not invited by the con, and we actually bought our tickets to get in. We were actually expecting to get some flack for trying to sell merch there. Vendors pay $$$ALOT$$$ to get a spot on the floor at Dragon Con. We were not a paying vendor OR an official band. Our name was nowhere on the schedule.

I stayed pretty stuck to the table everyday, talking to people and telling them about the ball. I was really nervous that we'd be boo-ed off the stage, since people were REALLY anticipating ArcAttack. Like, they would be just waiting for us to leave so they could see their favorite mad scientists. I wouldn't blame them.. But I hoped for some kindness. Not only were we opening for ArcAttack, but also IVAN STANG himself of the Church of the SubGenius! OH MY GOSH how intimidating and awesomely cool at the same time!!!!!!!! SLAAAAAAAAACK!

Over the course of the week, I met so many nice people - many of which have posted their own Dragon Con stories on the forum already!!! I've REALLY enjoyed reading them all! We saw tons of SUPER COOL costumes [everyone dresses up!!] and had alot of fun. To my surprise, we actually had fans there!

We even got to meet a fan from the UK and his lovely little lady!! THEY WERE SOOOOOOOOO NICE!!! Hahah this guy walked up to the merch table, and I started telling about the show and our band.. He was like,

"I already have all of the albums."

I'm not sure if he knew at first that I was me, cause I was absolutely haggard from working 16 hour days on no sleep and probably wasn't looking too hot. :) Anyway, I freaked and jumped around all happy and probably made myself not look much like a rock star.

Yay!

I met a real ROCKET SCIENTIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Joe's friend who works at NASA or something.. He was SO AWESOME!!!! You all must know by now that I have a major thing for MacGuyver. I had him autograph my badge, which was Number Three's badge, but I was borrowing it. Mine now. ;P

Our merch neighbors were the crew of Netherworld, a horror haunted house craziness performance group.. They ran around spooking people in their insane outfits all week!!! Boozer the Clown. Ahh..

I met the DVD guy from TROMA!! YAyyy!!! Cannibal the Musical was my first favorite movie!

My beautiful and wonderful and talented and awesome Atlanta favorite rocker girl, Amy Dumas and the Luchagors boiz came by and MADE MY DAY!!!!! I wish I'd had the time to sneak off and cuddle with her!!! I WUV HER SO MUCH!

Ahem..

I also got to know a cool comic book artist chick, and she drew a picture of me!!! She also gave me some of her original stuff.. WOW. She's making a zombie comic.. I will definitely announce that here when it comes out!

On the night of the show, two nice boys helped me out big time when I was left to carry all of the merch and stuff like a quarter mile to the ballroom. They were my heroes. :) Justin and Muppet. These guys became my super roadies for the rest of the trip and even helped out at the show, when things got a little hectic!!

By the time we got everything up to the ballroom, I was absolutely rushed to get changed, make-up-ed and on stage.. I had VERY little time by then to be ready for the show. If I held things up, I may face some serious mad scientist fan wrath!!!! I ran to the bathroom [after some prompting from my new roadies] and did the fastest change/make-up job ever. Shoddy at best.

I ran to the stage and did the sound check... The beloved Shadow Fax was running the room, along with several awesome volunteers and staff. They were very cool.. We did a quick sound check, I ran back to the merch and set up some stuff.. Luckily I had a few minutes, while a dance team did the tango in goggles and lab coats. Sweet.

I wasn't finished by the time they ended, but I ran to the stage and started anyway. The nice announcer man did his thing, and maybe a third of the room came up to the stage, which was barricaded by chairs about ten feet back.

BAM we started, and these con-goers were rockin!! They were so cool in their costumes.. Never had I seen Darth Vader and Sailor Moon side-by-side head banging until this night. How cool is that?!?!

At one point, a guy broke the barrier to help untangle my guitar cable from the stage lights. I don't think I even finished suggesting that the fans destroy the make-shift fan-performer barrier before they came busting right through! This was perfect timing for Monster.

I think we only played like four songs, but it was such a great show. Those people were so open-minded and ready to rock. We signed lots of stuff and gave lots of hugs at the merch table. At one point, a really cool con-goer named Gary helped me sell tee shirts and stuff to people who were waiting.. Justin and Muppet also joined in to help, and I had to shoo them off so they could experience ArcAttack's set!

As the night went on, ArcAttack performed several times, and the ballroom was emptied and refilled maybe four times. Ivan Stang and several SubGenius revs did their killer rants, and I just had a great time.. Meanwhile, a few of our new fans who stuck around and weren't funneled out of the giant chaotic room were asking around to see what would need to happen to have us play another set..

Finally, after ArcAttack's last set, they announced that the show was over.. Almost everyone left, but a few stayed to see if we'd play again.. The really cool announcer guy decided that he would make it happen, by golly, and HE DID!! To the couple dozen people [out of a few thousand over all that night] who were left, he gave a proposal: If they'd help clean the room, we could play another short set! WOW!! And guess what - they DID!!! Everyone started picking up trash and helping out while we set back up!!!

The "encore set" was magical.. VERY punk rock - I had almost completely lost my voice in the first one, and after talking to people at the merch table, and I could barely sing at all, let alone sound good. They didn't care - so punk rock, these people, and they don't even know it. They were truly beautiful to me.

After the last song [a very intimate New Orleans], we signed more stuff and sold things at the merch table to those who weren't able to get through the crowd before. I ended up giving alot of stuff away, cause I was so overwhelmed by their kindness. I thought NO ONE would be left in that room to see us..

I was told that the ballroom needed to be cleared, so I had everyone follow me out.. Number Three took care of the gear inside while I stayed with the fans to sign more stuff outside the doors. They were so patient and nice.

The nice announcer guy came outside and said sorry, but that I just had to come back in and get our stuff cleared out.. I told everyone that I would be back, but it may be a LONG time, cause there was lots of work to do.. I came back out a couple of hours later, and what do you know? There were still people out there, waiting patiently!!! I sat in a little floor circle with the remaining ones, maybe ten or so people, signed stuff, talked a bit and even got to meet the maker of a SWEET online video game called, "Dragon Fable"!! He gave me a toy!!! It's a little stuffed animal version of one of his characters: ZORBAK!! Check it out:

http://zorbak.battleon.com/

He even autographed it for me!!!!!!!!!!!! I love my Zorbak so much!!!!!!!

All of these fine folks stayed for quite awhile and hung out with Three and me on the hotel floor.. It was like a slumber party! :P

The announcer guy, as it turns out, is a real scientist!!!! He gave me his real lab goggles!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were cracked from an experiment accident!!! Whoa!! AHHHHHHhhhhHhhHHH!!!! I wore them pretty much constantly until I got home. I had him sign them, too. :)

On the last day, I set up the merch table for a few hours, so people could come by and say goodbye, and get anything else signed that I might have missed in the chaos.. I'm glad I did! :P

We did alright on merch, so I treated myself to a run around the vendor rooms. I bought some awesome toys, a pair of fluffy magic dragon slippers and a dragon tee shirt. All on sale. YES. My shopping buddy was a girl I met at the show. She and her friends were so sweet! I was all dazed, so they kind of led me around and made sure I didn't get lost. :)

I was so sad when it all ended, and we had to pile back into the van. What a week!

So many stories.. You guys fill in the rest..

I'm hoping to be actually invited by Dragon Con next year instead of virtually sneaking in like we did this time.. If you'd like to help make that happen, post on the Dragon Con forum. There's a thread called, "One-Eyed Doll" and one called, "Live Music at Dragon Con" that you can post in. The only way they'd invite us back is by demand, so let them know what you think. :)

REGISTER AND POST HERE OFTEN:
http://dragonconforums.org/index.php?board=4.0

I'm thinking we can arrange a nationwide caravan for next year. Post also if you're interested in that! I'm curious to see how many people are down for the trip..

Thank you for a wonderful time.. All of the staff, volunteers and FANS were amazing. Thanks especially to ArcAttack for allowing us to cut into their merch space and set. Hope to see you all next year.

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READ ALL OF KIMBERLY'S TOUR BLOGS AND POST COMMENTS:
http://www.oneeyeddoll.com/forum/148

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