My LPU M&G Experience - How I Got The Nickname "Derek The Infamous"

Almost a year ago, on January 31st, 2011 during Linkin Park's "A Thousand Suns" world tour stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I managed to score an amazing opportunity and experience, and one that would prove to be one of my greatest moments as a Linkin Park fan.

You see, on that day back in January, I (along with my best friends Todd, Andrea, and Amanda of LPA) gained passes to the LPU M&G, giving us an opportunity to finally meet the band that brought us together in the first place and changed many of our lives for the better. What should be noted is that this was the first time that all 4 of us had been in the same room together despite knowing each other online for years. I had already met Todd and Andrea before hand (Andrea back in 2007 and Todd in 2009), but it was difficult to get the four of us together as we all lived in different states. Todd flew to Pennsylvania all the way from St.Louis, Andrea came up from Delaware, Amanda from New Jersey, and as for me, being the only Pennsylvania resident, I drove down two hours to the show with Todd in his rented Prius to meet Amanda and Andrea at the venue. My dad would later follow, but had some things to do before he headed down to the show himself.

It took a little longer than usual to arrive in Philadelphia due to some of the local traffic, but when we arrived down there, me and Todd checked into the Holiday Inn close to the Wells Fargo Center. We got our room (which Todd would end up staying in as due to bad weather, he would be kept in Philly until the following Thursday!!) and we watched TV as we waited for Amanda and her boyfriend Dan to arrive. While we sat in wait, we also checked out the hotel gift shop, ran into a bunch of highly drunk Linkin Park fans (who said they'd join LPA but were probably too drunk to remember LOL), and admired the view out the window as it happened to have an AWESOME view of Citizens Bank Park (Go Phillies!)



Shortly after about 2-3PM local time, we got a text message from Amanda stating that she had made it to the hotel. With me having known Amanda for close to 5-6 years and having never met her before this time, my heart was pounding with excitement. Here was a friend I met through our mutual love of Linkin Park's music, and who had helped me through a lot of rough spots, been there for me through thick and thin and who was now right downstairs waiting in the lobby. When I came out of the elevator door and saw Amanda, we both smiled huge and she ran up to me and gave me a BIG hug which was awesome.



(shirt is a custom job, not for sale on LPA)


We sat in the lobby chairs and talked about the night ahead, the LPA, and me and Todd even met her boyfriend Dan who was really funny, down to earth and a really nice dude. Dan learned about how me and Andrea met, and we got to find out more about him as well as what Amanda had been up to recently. After an hour of wait, my dad let us know he was only 30 minutes away from the venue and Me, Todd, Amanda and Dan grabbed our things and started towards the venue. At the time we decided it'd be better to walk instead of drive.

...which was a terrible idea. What visually seemed like only a 15 minute walk and less than a mile away, turned more into a 30-45 minute walk in below freezing Philly temperatures HAHA. Needless to say by the time we got to the venue we were pretty numb (no pun intended!) but luckily Andrea (another person who means a lot to me and who I dated thanks to Linkin Park!) was already waiting in line and we all met up and waited in excitement until the doors opened. My dad arrived during the wait, and after what felt like an eternity we made our way into the venue and waited in the lobby listening to the opening act as we tried to kill time until the line up for the LPU M&G took place.


(Todd is not pictured as he took this photo)

During the M&G wait we were almost met with complete disaster as my dad was pick-pocketed while walking to where we were, and his new cellphone he had purchased just for that show was stolen only mere hours after he had first used it. He was clearly in hysterics (as was I) and in my panic I backed up into someone HARD who was waiting in line to meet the band as well (to that person, if you read this...I'm really sorry and I hope we're cool!) but thankfully it all worked out. Shortly after the theft had occurred, a security guard (who witnessed the whole thing) tackled the bastard and arrested him on the spot. My dad got his phone back and everything worked out for the best. As for the thief, he was arrested and permanently banned from the Wells Fargo Center. Many props go out to the diligent and fast acting security at the WF Center who saved our concert experience from being ruined. You guys rock!

Anyways...onto the moment this blog is all about!

After 20 minutes of waiting, an LPU rep came out and checked our membership emails, administering our passes and walking us down through the venue to the backstage/downstairs bar area where the meet and greet would be taking place. In this crowd, we had an opportunity to meet Mike's guitar tech, as well as Hugo (awesome guy) and a fan who had flown all the way from Japan (!!!) to see the show. In these moments, we would be made familiar with the official M&G rules, and be given souvenirs and merch as a thank you for being an LPU member.



Up ahead of us was a glass wall/door that allowed us to see through to where we were meeting the band. After years of waiting to meet our musical heros, the moment was almost upon us. My heart beated with excitement as the door was opened, and we were instructed to enter the M&G room single file.



While waiting for the band to arrive, our nerves started to go into over drive. Todd being the definition of cool and relaxed seemed to be taking it the best, while Me, Andrea and Amanda all became increasingly more nervous...unsure of what we'd say, unsure of whether or not we'd freeze up, or even more importantly, whether or not the band members would be cool or rockstar dicks (which I'm happy to say the answer is COOL but more on that soon).



As we stood there for what was likely only 5 minutes (but already began to feel like an eternity), the doors opened, and moments later the band members walked in...to sounds of loud cheers erupting from the enthusiastic crowd of 150 lucky LPUers, all eager for the opportunity to tell the band how they feel and share their experiences.

Even now, describing it I can still feel the nervousness and anxiety that swept over me as I was next up to walk down the "line". Would I freeze up? Would Mike acknowledge the LPA or who I was? All these thoughts poured through my head as I approached the table nervously, setting down my bass guitar pick guard to be signed, gift for Mike in hand.

Me: "Hi Mike....ummm, I'm Derek from the LP Association..I just wanted to say tha-"

Mike: "You're Derek????"

Me: "Yeah!"

Mike: *Smiling and reaching out to shake my hand* "THE INFAMOUS!".

In complete awe and surprise at this point, I pushed myself to get past my fear, and presented Mike with a gift I had created prior to the show. Many people are unaware that I was the original creator of the famous "Mike Butler" image with the caption "Try The Ketchup, Motherfucker!" (a play on misheard lyrics in When They Come For Me), and I had created an exclusive design for Mike only as a thank you for supporting my site.

Me: "I have a gift for you too, I'm sure you've seen the try the ketchup meme?"
Mike: *laughing* 'WE WE'RE JUST.......We were just talking about, I said yesterday that I was going to make a shirt that had that image of me in the tuxedo.."
Me: (interrupting him due to nerves) "Yeah I created that, so this is yours now!"
*Mike and Phoenix points out the little image of Mike as a pickle and laughs*
Mike: "Hahha this is good...look at that!"




Knowing that I was taking up more time than I should I kept walking on to Dave...

Dave: "Hey Derek!"
Me: "Thanks for doing that interview with us a few years ago, we appreciate it."
Dave: "No problem, we should do another one!"
Me: "Lets do it, tell Adam to sign it up!"
Mike (from down the table): "Did you do these, did you do this graphic?" *pointing to shirt*
Me: "yeah."
Mike: "That's amazing!"
Me: "thank you!'

FULL VIDEO OF ENCOUNTER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzWXFE_gpYA

After having both Mike and Dave be so awesome, I'm ashamed to admit that I was really too starstruck to honestly engage the rest of the band in any type of meaningful conversation. It wasn't that I didn't want to, but more so that everything was a blur. I'm a bit bummed about that and plan to talk more if I ever meet them again, but the experience with Mike and Dave were enough to make this meet and greet extremely special.

Little did I know that wasn't all that would happen.

After the band got everyone signed and concluded the M&G, they did the traditional group photo where they got together to take one last picture with everyone who was able to gain entry to the M&G.



While taking the photo, a few people asked Mike about the shirt in which he told them it came from LPAssociation and that people should visit that site, which I appreciated. We took the picture, took another one to make sure nobody was blinking (LOL) and then the most amazing thing happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX6snr_kOtQ

Mike: "Can we please get the LPA people up here real quick?"

I paused for a second. Did I really hear what I thought I heard? Was this really happening? As Amanda, Todd and Andrea all reacted in shock, Hugo confirmed what my ears couldn't imagine when he asked everyone with an LPA t-shirt to come up front.

I regret not filming past that point, but what follows was Mike talking personally to the four of us, thanking us for our support and for the website, posing with the shirt we made for him, and even agreeing to a few group shots for us to keep. This right here was the highlight of the M&G and I never imagined Mike would've gone out of his way to take pictures with the four of us or to tell us what he thought of the LPA. It single-handedly reaffirmed my reasons for running the LPA, confirmed to me why Linkin Park the band are such great people and made me an even bigger fan than I ever was before.



The show afterwards was well performed (as we can always expect from Linkin Park), but no matter how great the show was, I still can't forget the night that Mike and Linkin Park made 4 Linkin Park fans' wishes come true and showed why he and the rest of the band are 6 of the coolest and most honest people in rock music. For someone who started out at age 15 supporting this band, who went from feeling under-appreciated, unpopular and a failure, to running a very popular fansite that made him some great friends, who later had a great experience like this...all I can say is THANK you LPU, thank you Adam Ruehmer and most importantly, thank you Linkin Park. Hope to meet you again down the line.

Thanks for reading this blog everyone, may have been long but there's my story.

What an amazing night!

 

Been requested for a WHILE that I write this, and with the new LPU Blogs feature, I posted this on LPU and shared it here.

To anyone not an LPU member, join now.

 

Cool story, Bro! When I went to the summit and had a meet and greet, Mike was very personable with me. He talked to me about skating at Millenium Park the night before as one of the day 1 summit activities. I told him it was the first time I had my (then) 18 month year old son on skates. He had a big smile on his face and was all "Really? That's awesome, man!" Still makes me smile.