Melanie's New Year's Eve at Market Square - Harrisburg, PA - Martini Bros - 12/31/00

Sunday, December 31

Bundled up in my layers, I ran to the stage where the Martini Bros drum set and speakers were set up. I was in Market Square with my friend Joanna, her boyfriend Brandon, and another friend of theirs, Matt. None of them had seen the Martini Bros. before. I stood around with them and made them to move over in front of the stage with me. Deuce, Mike, and Rej took to the yellow and white tent covered stage at 9. The tent did not give much protection from the wind and Deuce said it was nice that heaters were set up, but none of the heat was getting to him. They weren't too heavily dressed. Deuce had gloves on with the fingers cut out of them, but poor Rej and Mike must've had c-c-cold hands. Brandon saw Mike using the heater to light up a cigarette.

I enjoyed bopping around, helping me to forget that I was cold. One woman came over to the crowd holding a filled wine glass. She started whooping up cheers for the guys, then she started to take off the layers. First went her long coat, followed by her long sleeve shirt which were both tossed on stage. She was left in a tank top, which is just craziness. I heard the wind chill was 2. Brandon heard another woman ask her if she was cold. Her reply was no, because she had been drinking.

The rest of the crowd seemed to have fun and still remain clothed in their layers. Some people were just doing a head bob and others were getting a little more into it and moving around. Of course I was snapping pictures.

When the set was over around 10 of 10 my friends wanted to get inside ASAP. So I scampered after them into the Hilton and we jumped into a filling elevator. I ended up in the back next to Rej. (Rej is the only Martini Bro who doesn't know who Shannon and I are. I didn't think an elevator would be the best place to introduce myself.) Anyway, my friends got off at the 5th floor, when we needed the 2nd. Oops! We ended up sitting in Strawberrry Square to warm up for about 35 minutes. I had everyone start to bundle up early so we would make it back in time for the second set.

As we were leaving Strawberry Square, we ran into another friend of ours, Christa. But I had no reason to worry about being late because when we got out there, no one was on stage yet. We wandered into the Ciy Government Center and saw the line for free hot chocolate and a performance going on by the Popcorn Hat Players. Neither interested us much, so we went back out to Market Square.

As a crowd started to form at 11, I stayed up front towards Mike's side and my friends hung back. This crowd was much larger than the 9 o'clock set. Mike had trouble spotting the strawberry, which had been raised, and Deuce pointed out to him. Through the first few songs I kept looking around for Shannon and her parents. Finally, they appeared next to me.

**see our combined conclusion for the ending**.