1 little, 2 little, 100 little Monkeys

Due to my ever vigilant bestie, Tammi, she sent me a tweet that 100 Monkeys were going to be playing in Louisville. She sent me the link to buy tickets and then I started looking at the venue they were playing at and whether or not it was a place I could find. I am not familiar with Louisville at all and was a little hesitant to go. But that hesitation didn’t last long. As a birthday present, I decided to take Jayson with me. He too is a big 100 Monkeys fan. So I told Jayson I’d take him and he could invite a friend. So he picked his friend, Jay.

So Monday afternoon rolled around and we headed out to Louisville (lue-vul ) — listening to 100 Monkeys on the way. I had directions printed out to Uncle Pleasant’s and said a little prayer that we wouldn’t get too lost. Needless to say, we got lost, but thank goodness for GPS on my phone. We found the venue and then parked. We waited maybe 20 minutes outside before the doors opened. There were four local bands playing before 100 Monkeys took the stage. So below are some pictures in order of their appearance. They were all pretty good.

Uncle Pleasant’s sign*

After the night was over, I realized they put the bands in order from the bottom to the top.

Since I’m a big fan of Twitter, I found some fellow Monkey fans online and found out a few of them were going to be at the show. One girl named Stefanie was actually on a 4 day roadtrip and had seen them in Chicago, St. Louis and then Louisville. So I tweeted her at the show and asked where she was, I described my outfit and then I hear, “Are you AquaRuby?” Twitter is a wonderful way to connect to people, but yeah to meet someone in person based only on a screenname feels funny. Hers is 100MonkeysIndy, but from here on out she’ll be known only as Stef. *giggle* Jayson took a picture for me.

The first band to play was called Totem Spirit Fox. They said if you came up to them afterwards they’d give you a demo CD.

So when they were over, Jayson asked for a CD.

The second band was Aquaventure with yes, that’s Fabio.

They had a very bluesy sound.

The third band threw most of us off cause these guys were really buff compared to the previous two bands, but they played Indy Pop. They call themselves Sugar Spell It Out.

The fourth act was by a girl called Panda Gail. She played folksy music. She was uber cute.

Then the big moment came and the room got really crowded. This was an all ages show and there were lots of people literally of all ages there. I stood by Stefanie and her friend Kristin. Next to me was Jayson and Jay. Eventually a bunch of little girls with their moms were by us and we basically tried to protect the girls. They were like ten, they were so cute. Sadly there were quite a few drunk people there too. But there was so much energy in the room, it was hard to be mad at the idiots. LOL!!

Marty (the Banana-ger) came on stage and had a camcorder. He told us to say hello, to which we did!

Then the boys came on stage, below in no real order or manner is my collection of pictures. Yes, there are a lot!!

Jackson (J Action) wearing an adorable monkey hat.

Ooooh that smirk. o.O

Uncle Larry and Jerad Anderson (J Rad) playing

Ben Johnson (Ben J) singing The Monkey Song

Ben Graupner (Ben G)

Ben J*

Jackson on the drums*

J Rad*

Jackson pointing at who knows what. But funny thing, at one point people were yelling I love you Ben J or Ben G and the little girls beside me were yelling I love you Jackson. Well at a rare quiet moment in the show, I yelled out “I love you J Action!!” (Jackson’s stage name) and he said “I love you back!” *swoon* So we’re just gonna pretend that he’s pointing at me in this picture, lol!!

Now you saw the picture of Marty in the banana suit. Now Marty goes into the crowd and dances with people. So here he is dancing with me.

Now it was getting close to eleven and the guys took a break and said they’d be back. Well after a little wardrobe change, they came back with gusto!!

Ben Graupner playing the bongos and wearing a Mine’s Bigger t-shirt.

The boys getting down!!*

Jerad cut the sleeves off his shirt and Jackson wore the sleeve on his head, silly Monkey!

These guys are seriously talented. Jackson, as well as the other guys, play several of the instruments. They are constantly switching between songs what instrument they will play. Here Jackson is playing the trumpet and the keyboard.

When the show was over, they took a bow. I am glad I got this shot of all five of them together.

Once they were done, I bought a few items. I got a button, a sticker, some sunglasses, and a shirt. We then went outside and just hung out while the guys loaded up their equipment. J Rad came up and asked us if we had a good time. We said, “No!” LOL! He then said, “Yeah, me neither, Kentucky was definitely a low point on the tour.” Then he laughed with us. Ben G kept coming out and just being silly. Then finally Uncle Larry came out and I talked to him for a few minutes. He said this was his second time to play in Kentucky and he thanked us for coming out.

This poor little guy is strapped to their trailer, lol!!

Loading up their trailer

Made a new friend, his name is Gus. Gus belongs to the sound guy, Scott. He’s in the camo shirt in the picture above.

As soon as the gear was loaded up the guys had to take off. Jackson posed with one group of fans and said they really had to go, but he stopped and let me take his picture before his got in the car.

However, Ben G had some abnormal growth and had to show me his tail. ROFL!!!

All in all, it was a really fun night. The venue was small and run down. It felt like a million degrees inside, but it was worth it. The energy these guys have on stage is awesome. If you have not heard of 100 Monkeys, you really need to check them out. They have a music player on their site: Music Player, check it out!!

The next day I was sporting my new Monkey gear:

My new shirt