Thursday, February 15, 2001 - The Whitaker Center Stage II - Darcie Miner and Pete Palladino
To start off our Millenium weekend we went to the Hilton lobby to pick up our laminates, which were not at the table.
Shannon's dad was taking note of the "weird hairstyles" people had around us (Eden Park lads heh).
Someone said something about our laminates being upstairs, so we went up having no clue where to
go once we got up there. We stood around and a TV news gal asked us if she could help us out in any way.
Yeah, she couldn't so we decided to go back down the stairs where we went by yet another gal racing up.
Turns out she was getting our laminates.
So we took our laminates and headed for the Whitaker's Stage II. Shannon's parents paid for themselves and
left us to wait for the doors to open while they went to eat. We when we went in, we chose seats in the front
of course and threw our coats on the seats next to us to save them for Shannon's parents.
Wondering if photography was permitted, Melanie went to the back to ask whoever looked like they worked for
the Whitaker. Three people chatting all stopped while she asked. The employee answered saying, "Why not!?"
She said ok and explained that we wanted to put them up on our site. One of the three people then replied something
to the gist of, "You have a site?" So she explained that it was on PARocks. She thinks that he then asked if she was
Shannon. She said no and that she was Melanie, and Shannon was sitting up front. He went on to extend his
hand and introduce himself as Ricky Leigh Mensh, Darcie Miner's manager. He commented jokingly that we
should interview the third person standing there, Darcie's aunt. Melanie is not sure if that was really her aunt
or not, but it does not really matter cause we did not interview her.
While sitting around and waiting for Darcie to take the stage, Ricky came over and extended his hand to Shannon.
She said, "Oh, the hand shake thing," and Ricky said they could hug instead. So, he gave us both a hug
at the same time. We chatted a bit and were introduced to his brother who was sitting next to him.
He is Halestorm's manager. [ed. note - Mitch, now co-manager w/ Ricky]
Darcie and Millhouse came on then. Darcie told cute little stories for each song. Her CD, Down to Earth, will not be
pressed anymore, so if anyone wants it, you better hurry and snatch it up cause not that many are left anymore.
Each time we see Darcie we get more into her songs! This was our third time seeing her perform.
After her set was done, Shannon's parents finally came back from dinner. Pete Palladino took the stage to
perform his solo work. We had heard him on the X back on December 14 when he performed one of his songs.
So we were excited. He said how he was nervous being on stage all alone. Aww, poor Pete, he did a good job
all by himself. Melanie had to pee, so after he was done Shannon helped Melanie find a restroom. When
we came back to Stage II the first thing we saw was Pete and Shannon's dad talking. We paused, sighed,
and made our way up to our seats. Pete had walked away and we asked if we were leaving. We were told
no cause Pete was bringing out his CD and some other stuff for Shannon's dad to give to a buddy of his
in music. After it was in our possession, we left.