When I was young, I picked up a taste for angsty lyrics and something not exactly characterized as singing, more like shrieking.
So, being a fan of screaming music, I found myself drawn to a band called LeATHERMOUTH a few years ago, completely oblivious to the fact that Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance fronted it.
You see, MCR is my favourite band, they saved my life and help me through my days.
So I listened to the few songs LeATHERMOUTH had posted on their MySpace religously, praying for them to tour.
It was around a year ago that I found out that Frank was the actual singer, and my love grew for them even more. I loved the raw, emotional sound that the members produced with their instruments.
In late June, I got a MySpace message from a street team telling me that LeATHERMOUTH would be touring with Reggie and the Full Effect, a band I had heard of.
Without delay, my mother was called and we bought the $11 tickets, already I wanted school to start so I could see them.
So summer ended faster than I had expected, I attended a few shows and procrastinated my summer homework. School began one week before the show, it was the longest week to have ever existed.
So skip 7 days to Tuesday, September 9th, where the school day felt like it lasted 3 years. I got a detention for being late for my first period class because I was making shirts for that night in Graphics with Alexa.
Alexa and Alicia rode the bus home with me, it was pouring rain, I felt like crying. When we got back we adjusted our shirts to make them fit, did our makeup, and away we were with my mum. Half an hour later, at about 4 pm, we picked up Emily and made our trek to Cambridge. Lo and behold, one hour later, we passed the venue, The Middle East, in search of a parking garage, and found that only 10 people were waiting in line only two hours before the doors were to open. I found that totally bizarre.
We waited patiently in line for those two hours, talked to people around us, got harassed by the only security guard there to the point where I was crushed against the brick wall because women with their infants in strollers could not get past the mere 40 people in line.
At 7:30, the doors opened and we rushed in to find John "Hambone" McGuire sitting at the merch booth, I almost pissed myself and involuntarily shouted "JOHN!", I'm not sure if he expected anybody to really know who he was, since the majority of the people attending the shows were My Chemical Romance groupies who just wanted to meet "Fr3d L3r0!1!!one!eleven!!". I wanted to spit in some of the girl's faces, but Frank did it for me.
After speaking with John for a few minutes, discussing his tour diary and the TV show Monk, I rushed to get a spot, front and center. fifteen minutes later, Warship came one, and I was pleasantly surprised. They were pretty good.
After playing a half hour, they were finished and it was 15 minutes and counting until LeATHERMOUTH was to take the stage. Mum had her camera at a ready and waiting position, Alexa and Alicia had disappeared somewhere, and Emily was clutching me out of nerves.
Watching them set up was the best, they made funny jokes about some girls wearing MCR shirts next to me.
Once they were all ready to go, but still had to wait a few minutes for their time to come up, I help up a sign reading "True Fans Love All Of The Members", Frank however, was the only one to notice the sign. He smiled a big Frankie smile at me, and spoke clearly into the mic, "That's very true, I like that." I could have died, the fact that he saw me and made a comment about something that meant a lot to me was the highlight of my night.
So LeATHERMOUTH played most of the songs I wanted, I couldn't tell you what order though, I was too busy screaming along with Frank.
But here are the songs:
Catch Me If You Can
MurderWasTheCaseThatTheyGaveMe
Body Snatchers Forever
I Am Going To Kill The President Of The United States Of America
This Song Is About Being Attacked By Monsters
Leviathan
Sunsets Are For Muggings

When introducing "This Song Is About Being Attacked By Monsters", Frank and I had a conversation:
"Now, this next song, I bet nobody here knows the lyrics to."
"I BET I DO!" I shouted.
He turned around to face James, their drummer, walked a few steps forward, leaned down a bit and mimicked my voice, "I bet you do too! But nobody likes you."
All I could think was, Touche, Frank Iero, Touche.
During that whole song, Frank stood by my and watched to see if I really knew every word, and I did. The look on his face was priceless.
So after LeATHERMOUTH finished, MC Chris came on, who was really funny and sounded like he sucked 5 balloons worth of helium before the set, which he didn't.
Then came Reggie and the Full Effect, who was amazing. It sucks it was their farewell tour.
The people who came for Reggie were really rude and almost crushed me though, I passed out for a moment because I couldn't breathe.
James Dewees is my new hero, walking on stage wearing a cut off D.A.R.E. shirt and soft pink thermal underwear, and he's not exactly the skinniest guy, mind you. At one point, he laid right in front of Emily, who was at the "Barrier" cupped her face, and sang to her. It was great.
So after Reggie ended, which was well after midnight, we made our way outside and towards the bus. After about 20 minutes of waiting and saying hello to the guys that were packing their stuff away, including Frank, he came out to sign stuff.
Now, I know from several people at Skeleton Crew that Frank had broken his thumb and also had a lung infection (Which I learned I had contracted a few days later, thanks Frankie), yet he still talked to every person, took pictures with them, signed their stuff, everything.
Once it was my turn to speak with him, he instantly recognized me and remembered our previous encounters that night, and a grin broke out on his face.
He shook my hand, took a picture with me, hugged me, signed my sign, hugged me twice, and almost stole my sharpie. Mum showed him her tattoo's, which he was amazed by, and made a joke about the Kanji on her arm "You sure that's not something like a Chinese Food order or something?" Which is the exact thing my dad says, O.o eerie.
So we drove home, dropped the girls off at their homes, and finally arrived at my house at 3:30 Am.
Two hours later, I got up and went to school.

All in all, it was the best night of my life, and I can say two things I learned about Frank.
1. I proved him wrong by singing every single word along with him.
2. He proved me right, showing me how he'll always be my hero.

xo
Molly