First of all, I owe a big thanks to both my dear Andreas for putting up with me and being there, also Tattoo Mike & Tim Cook for doing so much more than they had to, and to MikeG, Kris, Artice, and Ryan for showing Andrea & I a great “Nawlins” time.

We got to the show in the afternoon and P.O.D. didn’t go on until 7:15 and they were scheduled to play for an hour. We listened to Ludacris & 50 Cent while hanging around and looking at all of the booths. I got a pin of the Satellite logo and a patch of the TFEOS logo with the dove in the middle. As P.O.D. was scheduled to go on we had to take care of some business but got back to hear them play several songs. The “old” songs they played were Boom, Southtown, YOTN, and Alive. They played Sleeping Awake in about the middle of the set. I heard them play Space as well, and they closed with Alive and then Will You. Mike and friends told me that the first two songs they played were "Execute the Sounds" and "Set It Off."

The show had TONS of pyrotechnics. All sorts of colored things were flying into the air and making noise, and lots of fire everywhere. The lights danced on stage in perfect beat with the music. At the end of Alive they shot off tons of confetti into the right side of the stage, and then when they finished “Will You” they shot it off all over the place; it looked beautiful as it all drifted down. All of the guys were awesome as usual. The stage was enormous and every time Traa touched his bass I could feel it thump and vibrate in my chest. Jason played the songs perfectly, even all of the old stuff. He did a lot of the screaming, such as “Will You” in the chorus. Sonny had a catwalk for him to walk around and jump around to. He interacted with the crowd much, much more than other bands did. Wuv, as usual, was rocking the drumset perfectly. The crowd absolutely loved them. All kinds of people were singing along in harmony to “Alive” and “Will You”, it was beautiful to see people coming together.

After the show the guys were just hanging out backstage. I talked to Tattoo Mike for a while and then I said hey to the guys and had some small talk with them. Wuv said it felt weird to have played last week in Europe, take a break, then have to play again. He was wearing the necklace he is wearing in all the promo pictures. I told Jason about how great he was in concert and we talked a little bit more. While backstage I got to talk to Jason’s best friend Matt, and he was very cool. He told me some more about the history of Living Sacrifice and about Jason. And last but not least, I got to meet the man who started it all… Papa Noah/Big Noah/ aka Wuv’s dad! He was very cool to talk to and it was great to meet such an important P.O.D. guy. I talked to Rachel, Tim Cook’s secretary, for a while, and she was very nice. As the band was getting ready to leave I got to talk to Tim Cook for a while too and he was cool as always. There were tons of Zion Noiz shirts all over the place, it felt like Andrea and I were the only ones not wearing one.

On Saturday my friend Andrea and I met up with MikeG, Artice (bishop on thesouthtown.com boards), Kris (supafly), and Ryan at the “Nanchez” in “Nawlins” and we went and and then to the Virgin Megastore where Kris & Artice introduced me to zydeco music, the local music in Louisiana. I bought a compilation of zydeco songs, which I rocked out to for a while in the dorm room.

Then we went to go eat some beignets at Café Du Monde.

“You like cranberry juice?” asked Artice.
“Beignets are nothing like cranberry juice!” Kris exclaimed.

The beignets were absolutely delicious. They’re like a type of doughnut with sugar piled on top. If you inhaled while eating them you’d end up inhaling sugar into your nose, so I’m glad I listened to the guys and didn’t inhale, even though I got the sugar all over my hands. We went to Bourbon Street (which as a very wide variety of stores and restaurants).

Then we went to the local 3D IMAX theater and went to a show titled the “Haunted Castle” but it turned out to be this weird story. At least we got to play with the 3D glasses. Then we went to eat at a place called Mulattes which was very rich in the Southern Louisiana culture. There was a live band playing some cool zydeco music and there were people Cajun dancing, which was amazing. After I ate my first meal of alligator, Kris took me to the dance floor and tried to help me to learn how to dance too. We must have hung around for at least an hour and a half just talking and joking around. We went back to Bourbon Street, in the middle of the French Quarter, and saw tons of people having a mini Mardi Gras. There were many amazing street people, such as some people freezing for minutes on end and this one man who painted amazing pictures with simple spray paint cans. Sadly the night had to come to a close, so we all said our goodbyes and headed off to the hotels.

Elizabeth (NonConformist22) *looking like a dork* and Andrea on Bourbon Street

 

Ryan, Kris, Elizabeth, MikeG, Andrea, & Artice

Mike and Elizabeth making sure the beignets are dead

Mike and Artice looking goofy in their 3D glasses

Kris & Elizabeth dancin'

the spraypaint can artist

Pieces of the confetti on the crowd