Ben Jelen
May 10, 2004 - Toad's Place
New Haven, CT

Michael Greenburg, Lourdes

I call Sarah, to see if she can drop me off/pick me up from the Ben show since she had class and couldnt go and she said she would if I could get to UNH at 6. This point its 5:30 so I throw 2349083290 things in my bag, and leave for school, again haha.

Can't find parking, finally do, find sarah and off we go.

She drops me off and I know a couple of girls that are there from the Hartford Hanson show, they were at the movie theater too.

There was maybe 10 of us outside, I bought a ticket off of a girl and we're all just waiting around.

BEN WALKS OUT.

theyre all like "OIMG OMG ::SCREAM:: AHHH" and im like wtf. So he goes in his van, I get my camera out cuz hes in a wifebeater. He comes by and im like BEN! and wave. He stoped... looks at me confused as all hell.. goes "hey!" and waves back, and walks in the building.

I called Sarah and was like GUESS WHO SAID HI TO ME! lmao.

I also called Cath to see if she was nearby to come hang out, but got her voicemail.

Lalalalala theyre screaming "COME TO THE CONCERT TONIGHT! BEN JELEN! ONLY $10 ITS CHEAPER THAN A HOOKER" and im just like oh my gooodddddd shut up.

7pm they let us in and one of the opening acts is warming up, michael greenburg i think his name was. SO adorable. (Reminded me of Isaac and Mayer, but now that I got the pics back, he looks like jason biggs...) and the annoying girl from outside is front and center flirting with him and hes just like going along with it. I was going to go meet him and see if i could interview him for hnotes (or erin and is up and coming mag) but i didnt want to lose my spot.

8pm he comes on for real, sings til like 8:30ish and that was fun.

9pmish Lourds comes on, and they were really good. Or she? I dont know. Her name was Lourds but she had 2 guys in the band too. I didnt think I was going to like them, but I did. Lourds was right in front of me and kept looking at me and smiling haha we both had pigtails.

I'll say like 10pm Ben got on stage. 16 song set. Every song on the cd but 1, and 4 other songs. Hes done about 11:30 or so. He makes the creepiest faces though. Like Mayer makes faces and all, but theyre amusing. Bens are just scary as hell and the fact that I didnt have nightmares about him last night amazes me.

He was in a wifebeater the whole show too which was exciting and I got some really nice pics when he wasnt at the piano.

Then afterwards everyone mobs the merch stand, and the fan pass means nothing. I get at the end of the line, I hate crowds. Hang with the girls from Hartford, and they say theyll take my pic w/ Ben and all that.

buy the shirtless poster LMAO and a tank before meeting Ben... then i go to meet him and am like hold up lemme put down some of my crap first. Then hes like "whats your name?" "katie" "K-A-I-T-E?" "K-A-T-I-E" "::laughs:: thats what I meant" "Hey close enough, its been a long day right?" and he laughed. And signed on his forehead and cheek on the cd cover which was just great. It looks like it says Ben JHEN like even more so than my other auto does. Then I got a pick w/ him, he thanked me for coming and i said i would hopefully see him tomorrow and he was like oh i hope you come lol

I got the set list too. HA I stole it before the show was even over because I wanted SOMETHING and picks and drumsticks didnt look like they were going to work out.