The acoustic set at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Let me start this off by saying THANK YOU to WFNX and the Museum of Fine Arts for having this whole session and allowing me to be apart of it.

So, the email I got said to be there promptly at 12 with my +1. My friend dropped me off about 10 minutes early. I went in and they asked my name and if I had a +1. “Uh…no…I…couldn’t get anyone to come with me.” “Awww, well, they’re missing out on something really special.” BOY DID THAT MAKE ME FEEL SPECIAL FOR BEING LONELY. 12:15 came around and a good group of winners and their +1s were all waiting in the lobby. …then 12:50 came around and we were finally led down to one of the galleries ad there were two seats, two speakers, two mics, a handful of weird ‘hammock chairs’ and a bench sat in front of them. [Didn’t trust the hammock chairs. I’m a big girl. So I sat on the bench.]

THIS IS WHERE THE AWKWARD BEGINS…

So one of the DJs from the radio station came out and started giving a short introduction…ALL WHILE JUSTIN AND FREDDIE ARE LIKE…NOT 10 FEET AWAY FROM ALL OF US…JUST STARING FROM THE DOORWAY. And once the DJ was done and introduced them, they just walked the short distance over to their chairs and sit down with their guitars. Freddie goes “How’s everybody doing?”

…COMPLETE SILENCE.

They just look at each other and jump right into ‘If You Wanna’. …NO ONE MOVED WHATSOEVER. I WAS THE ONLY ONE SITTING THERE LIKE AN IDIOT BOBBING MY HEAD AND TAPPING MY HANDS ON MY LEGS. Then, a short round of applause…THEN SILENCE. They looked at each other again, then went into ‘No Hope’. Again, I am the only one even slightly moving. Then they tried to say something like, “Oh we love Boston…” or something random like that, AND GOT NO RESPONSE FROM THE CROWD. AGAIN. Eh… Then they played ‘Teenage Icon’. And before they played ‘Wetsuit’, Freddie broke a string on his guitar and Justin had to do it alone, and he said that it was tricky to play acoustically because of the rhythm. He started…then stopped and said he was gonna start over.

When they finished, there was applause, then the DJ came back over and asked them some questions. One of them being “So your new album’s doing pretty great, huh?” To which Justin awkwardly answered with, “Well…in some places.” AKA NOT SO MUCH IN AMERICA, UNFORTUNATELY. Then the DJ asked them about how they felt about their big show in London in the following months and Justin replied with, “Yeah, that show’s gonna have about 19,985 more people there and yet this is gonna to end up being a lot more nerve-wracking than that show is going to be. …all I could focus on, aside from all these people right in front of me was this giant bust and worrying about it falling over onto people.”

There were a few more questions, pretty usual questions. All awkward. THEN, after the short Q&A, LIKE MORE THAN HALF THE PEOPLE THERE JUST BOOKED IT OUT OF THE GALLERY. THERE WAS ONLY ME AND ABOUT 6 OR SO OTHER PEOPLE THAT REALLY STAYED TO MEET THEM. I was probably the 4th ‘in line’ to meet them, and right as I was about to approach them the girl behind me was kind enough to ask if I would like her to take a picture. And while I was turned around to show her how the camera works, SOME DUDE JUST SCREENED ME AND WENT UP TO THEM AND HANDED THEM EACH A MAGAZINE AND TOLD THEM TO READ SOME ARTICLE AND SIGN THEM WHEN THEY WERE DONE. LIKE WHAT? SO NOW I’M JUST AWKWARDLY STANDING BEHIND THIS GUY, PEN AND TICKET IN HAND, READY TO GO, JUST STARING AT THE BACK OF THIS GUYS HEAD. After a short while, Justin saw me waiting and sneaked around the guy to talk to me.

The first thing I said was “SO WOW THAT WAS THE MOST AWKWARD SET EVER, HUH?” And he agreed and laughed and said that he hopes the show later that night goes a lot better than that and I reassured him that it would. He still thought that the fans would tear them apart and that it was such a strange start to their first ever headlining tour in America and that he hopes its not an omen or anything [because TECHNICALLY that WAS their first ever show on their own in the US], but I kept trying to reassure him that it would be totally fine! [POOR BABY] Then I asked him if he would sign my ticket, he said sure and signed it. THE OLDER GUY WAS STILL IN FRONT OF FREDDIE AND ME AND JUSTIN ARE JUST LIKE AWKWARDLY SMALL TALKING WHILE LOOKING AT THEM INTERACTING. I told Justin how it was taking everything out of me to not bust out singing along to the songs, and he said “That’s alright…are you going to the show tonight though?” “OH YEAH. OF COURSE.” And he made the happiest face it was so funny.

The older guy was gone and I was standing there in front of Freddie…AND HE WAS JUST STANDING THERE READING THAT ARTICLE. AND I DIDN’T WANNA BE RUDE AND BE LIKE ‘YO BITCH, SIGN THIS. …NOW.’ So I just stood there and waited awkwardly. Then he looked up and said “Oh wow! Sorry! I didn’t think anyone was still here! You should have…stabbed me with your pen of something.” “No! No! It’s fine! Would you mind signing my ticket though?” “Yeah sure, no problem.” “And would you mind if I got a picture with both of you?” “Yeah, yeah let’s do it.”

And we did, then I overheard the next conversation they had with the two girls behind me. One of them asked Freddie if Justin was a Panthers fan because he was wearing one of their shirts. He said “Oh yeah. Big fan. Ask him about them.” And they were like, “Really??” And Freddie laughed and said “No, no, it’s strange, in England everyone wears sports shirts from America and no one even knows who they are, what sport it is, where they’re from or anything. It’s funny.” Then the girls asked Justin if the beanie he was wearing was at least intentional, as it was a Boston Bruins beanie. And he said “Oh! No. …is this even a sports team? I had no idea. Who is it? I just really like this hat.”

Summed up in two words: ADORABLY AWKWARD.

[Sorry for the length. I’ll make a post about the ~actual show~ tomorrow.]