New York October 15
We got into the city the afternoon before the shows and ended up wanting to get Italian and decided to go to Becco, owned by Lidia and Joe Bastianich. The food was absolutely delicious and to our surprise, Lidia herself was there and dining as well! We had hoped to continue the celebrity sightings and were not disappointed as the days went on.
New York October 16
Before the show we ended up going for Italian again, since we weren’t able to get any pasta at Becco. This time we tried Carmine’s and got some pasta and chicken parm.
Then it was time for the acoustic show. For this show I opted to sit in the ADA section once I saw I’d be able to have a pretty decent view of Zac due to the acoustic setup. Shortly after Hanson’s set started I saw Kate McKinnon make her way up to the balcony and join 3 friends. The venue was a service black hole and somehow the only message that came through was that Liam from One Direction had died. Not sure what to do with myself I ended up just watching Kate enjoying herself. I had gotten a lot of questions about if she really was a fan or not and based on how many songs she was singing along to, I would say that yes, she is legitimately a fan. Hanson added “Go” to the setlist for her after she had mentioned on the Today show it was her favorite song of theirs.
This was also John Calvin Abney’s first show subbing in for Matthew Sweet who couldn’t continue the tour. He joined the guys on harmonica for Dressed in Brown Eyes. The set was pretty similar to Baltimore – but Zac solo’d Broken Angel and Taylor solo’d… Crazy Beautiful? Which was an odd choice since they’d likely be playing it the next night.
After the show was Taylor’s after party where they left me in ADA all alone and were actually telling my friends they couldn’t stand with me. I’m all for following the rules but… for the after party? We stayed for almost an hour and spotted Natalie Morales. We hit Times Square to see the 11:57-midnight art gallery which was pretty cool! There also seemed to be way more people around late night than on our afternoon pass through.
New York October 17
For the electric show I decided it would probably be best to sit in the seat I had paid extra for. Except no one knew how to work the lift. (Might I add my seat was sold as being “accessible”) one of the staff carried Toaster up the stairs and told me to “sit anywhere” by the time Phantom Planet was over, another staff member told me I needed to be in my assigned seat – which I had asked about when I was told to sit anywhere! I also got asked 4 or 5 times if I wanted to go to ADA. If the platform didn’t completely block my view of Zac when they are in their traditional set up maybe I would have considered it.
Before Penny and Me, Isaac needed to tune, and I think Zac is getting a bit fed up with it so he started singing “The Tuning Song” while Isaac tuned his guitar. Again the setlist was pretty similar to Baltimore – but for the encore they added a mic to center stage and taped down some lyrics. I got excited thinking it would be something new, and technically it was, as they had all of Phantom Planet join them for Lost Without Each Other – the lyrics were for Alex. Also of note, Andrew from Phantom Planet played Zac’s left handed drums even though he is a righty and the bass player that I had seen previously, while at the show, was not playing, they had Sam who played bass on Underneath performing with them.
After the show we waited outside for a bit, saw Zac leave and get on the bus, then we believe attempt to open the bus window, which led a guy near us to immediately put his phone up by the window and the window then closed. We left before anyone else had come out. Then I had a strange encounter with a man in a red Elmo skin jacket who came up to me with his arms out and then started blowing a whistle. Only in New York…
Oh! I almost forgot, I had another celebrity sighting – Mark Hudson! AND STILL NO PINK MOON.
Katie 
