My Summer of B-List Celebrity Encounters, Part 3

They say that you should never meet your heroes.  That they'll only disappoint you. Which makes sense, when you think about it.  I mean, how could someone ever live up to the person that you've made them out to be in your mind?  Nobody is perfect, especially for every second of every day.  It's just impossible.  Everyone has a bad day, or says something that they regret.  It's human nature.  When it comes to the people that we admire, we rarely see these moments, because we only ever see their public persona.  The person that they want us to see.  They are aware that they are being viewed and judged, so they try to be the best that they can be. 

We never see them in the seconds right after someone swoops in and steals the spot that they had patiently waited for with their blinker on in a crowded mall parking lot, or after being woken at dawn from a hard night of drinking, when the guy next door decides to start up his chainsaw and do some yard work at 6 o'clock in the morning.  We see them on the red carpet or in interviews, and we see them happy and smiling and witty and charming.  This is how they became the people that we admire.  It might be different if we saw them send back their food for the fifth time at a restaurant, screaming "I said medium-well done!  Don't you know who I am?!"  

Which is why maybe you shouldn't meet your heroes.  Because what if you happen to meet them on one of these off days?

On a side note, when you see a person that is a complete douche, even in their public persona, is that because they just don't care?  Or are they such big douches, that this is them at their best, and it's still deplorable?  Should I be applauding them for not trying to be something they're not, or should I do a bit of mental math and assume that in normal life, they're at least 30 to 60% douchier?  I mean, if that's how they act when the cameras are on, you have to imagine that in the privacy of their own home, they crank the dick meter up to eleven, right? 

Regardless, it was now three days since I had narrowly missed out on crossing paths with Sara Quin in Saskatchewan, and I was once again in the same room with her.  This time we were back in Edmonton, and her sister Tegan was in tow.  Although the term 'hero' feels like a bit much, I would be lying if I said I didn't have a slight infatuation with them.  In fact, I would be down-right devastated to find out that in real life it turned out that they weren't very nice people.  Basically, I was the perfect candidate for the 'never meet your heroes' philosophy to smack me right in the face.

But I didn't care.

For one, I was pretty sure that they're awesomeness was genuine.  But, even if it wasn't, despite the devastation, I honestly think that I would have wanted to know anyways.  And so I stood, patiently waiting my turn.  I had shelled out a few extra ducats for the VIP tickets to their Edmonton show that night, and in this case, it included the chance to sit in on the sound check, receive an autographed poster, and of course, have a brief meet and greet.  I quickly staked out a spot at the end of the line, knowing that if there were people waiting behind me that I would likely feel some sort of self-imposed pressure to 'move it along' and let the next person have their turn, and I was pleased to discover that no one else seemed to have shared this same strategy, and therefore, I was not required to fight anyone for the spot.

And, although I did feel this was a solid strategy for squeezing as much time as I could out of the meet and greet, it also meant that I had to wait as everyone else got their time with the girls first.  Which meant that I was left alone with my thoughts and insecurities.  Particularly, the blunder that I had made in Saskatchewan that was now playing through my mind, wherein I had unintentionally been a dick to Hannah Georgas.  What if I made a similar mistake this time, when it truly mattered?  But I had to shake it off and not think about such things… because it was time.

And it went well.  Granted this would probably still fall under the guise of 'public persona', but they were as awesome as I could have hoped or dreamed.  We even parted ways with hugs all around, which, as you can imagine, warmed the very cockles of my heart.

Then they asked me if I had a song request, and having not really thought about it in advance, that's when I made my blunder.  You see, they released a small four track EP back in 2008, and the song that Sara contributed to it, the criminally under appreciated "I Take All The Blame", is one of my favourite songs in the entire T&S back-catalogue.  That said, apparently not many other fans share this enthusiasm for it and I've never been able to find any evidence that they have ever performed it live.

So, in that moment, when asked if I had a song to request, that was the only thing that came to my mind.  Sure, I could have requested a song that I like more than it - there are 3 or 4 that would easily qualify - but, I had seen them all performed live at previous shows already.  Besides, seeing that these were popular songs,  what was the point of a song request, if they might already  be playing it that night anyways?  I wasn't trying to be unique for the sake of it or anything, but I guess I should have known that there was a reason why they had never played that song live before.

Sure, the argument could be made that because it's not as popular as their 'hits' then they would be doing a disservice to their fans by playing a song that only a few people in the audience might enjoy, when they could play a different song that everybody would like instead.  But, based upon the look on Sara's face when the title of that song left my lips (I'm still undecided as to whether I would describe the look as 'disgust' or 'horror') I think it's safe to say that there might be other reasons why she might not want to perform it.  Which is fair.  But that expression on her face might haunt me for the rest of my life.

I'm still trying to decide if she doesn't like the song, or if she loves the song, but is too emotionally attached to it to perform it.  You see, Tegan and Sara often cater to their fans.  If the fans don't respond well to a song as much as they do another, then they often drop that song from the set list and play the one that everyone will clap in unison over their heads and sing along with.  Which leaves some of the songs that they personally love, often never being played.  So you might think me foolish and deserving of the reaction that I got, for straying from the path and not requesting a 'sure thing', but I would argue that had it turned out that Sara had always wanted to play that song, but it just wasn't popular enough with the fans for her to do so, then the look of joy and appreciation on her face would have easily been worth the gamble.  Obviously it didn't turn out that way, but I swung for the fences, and regret nothing.

Besides, if that was the biggest faux pas I made, then I should consider myself lucky.  She didn't seem mad at me for requesting it, she just obviously had no desire to play that particular song, and we still parted with a hug (did I mention that already?  Well too bad… it won't be the last time).  So, as it stood, my summer of meeting B-List celebrities had come and gone rather successfully.

Or had it?

Perhaps there was some unexpected encounters that had yet to present themselves in the coming days.  But that, of course, is a story for another day.