From the middle of August, I knew my favorite singer, The Ready Set, was going on tour with the bands Boys Like Girls and The All-American Rejects. I have always told Jordan Witzigreuter, lead singer of The Ready Set, to try to find a way for him to come to Philadelphia . It actually happened. I’ve been waiting for tour dates to come out, and when they finally did, I saw Philadelphia , PA on the list. I automatically freaked out, like any normal teenaged girl obsessed with a band would do. I ran to my mom and she asked me where it was. “The concert is at XFINITY Live!” I shouted excitedly. My mom knew how to get there because three years ago we went to a Jonas Brothers concert at the building across the way. She then continued to ask me how much tickets where. I didn’t know how much tickets were. So, everyday I went online to look for tickets.
I remember going on Twitter and telling my friends that I was probably going to go see The Ready Set on September 15th. A Twitter friend of mine by the name of Brynne asked me for information about the venue. I remember tweeting to her that the venue was 21 plus, which I thought was a little ridiculous considering The Ready Set has teenaged fans. Brynne was considering asking her mom to drive three hours from Lancaster , PA to Philly. We were both eager on learning ticket information. I looked at other concert ticket prices, and some were $27.50 while others were $40. Again, I thought that was pretty ridiculous because The Ready Set isn’t all that well known. Time passed, and when I finally found out how much tickets were, I was in shock; the concert was free! I screamed with joy and told everyone. Brynne then told me there was a possibility she was going. I was even more excited because I wanted to meet a friend from the Internet. I know people say that’s really bad, but Brynne was sincerely nice, honest, and trustworthy. I’ve known her for months and I knew we would bond well.
For a week, I was spamming Jordan with tweets reading, “Hi I love you and I believe I am seeing you in Philly!” He never replied to any of those tweets. He had replied to me five times prior, which was very thrilling. I always had heard how sweet Jordan and his band members were. Recently, bassist Andy Snyder had left and they substituted him with the band Weatherstar’s lead singer, Cameron Walker. I wanted to meet Andy so badly, but he left to go to college. Brynne had met Jordan one other time and saw him again in August, so I asked her what I should expect from the concert. She said to me, “You’ll expect screaming fan girls, Jordan being super nice, and people freaking out. That’s mainly it.” We would joke around and say, “What does he smell like?” My friend in Michigan , Tatjana said he smelled sweaty last time she saw him, while others said he smelled normal and didn’t know how to describe it. I made an online countdown clock for the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until I saw TRS. Everyday I posted the days left. My friends in North Carolina , Olivia and Amanda, said to me, “If we take the train from NC to Philly, can we go with you?!” I knew they were kidding, but I said ‘yes’ anyway.
Time went by so fast. For those couple of weeks, my mom would tempt me and say, “Remember, Madison , we might not be able to go.” She really made me upset because with my mom, she could change her mind at any split second. School had started and I was excited to start high school. I didn’t know what to expect from high school, so I took it in strides and did whatever I was told to do. Orientation week was pretty easy, so was the next week after that. My mom said to me before, “If the concert is on a school day, we might not be able to go,” which I comprehended pretty well. Thankfully, the concert was on a Saturday! The concert was approaching, and it wasn’t any ordinary adventure, either. I had the best experience any fan could have.
It was Friday, the day before the concert, and my expectations were skyrocket high! The only thing that irritated me was that everyone was saying, “It’s 21 plus, you’re going to get kicked out.” So I pretty much ignored it and did what I myself had to do. I kept imagining Brynne and myself going around the venue stalking the bands. The day went by so slowly it was like someone flipped the switch from super fast days to slow mow says. The concert was distracting me from my schoolwork, to be completely honest. As a good student, school came first, concert came second. I wanted to just bang my head on the table all day and complain. I kept checking on my countdown clock, asking myself, “How many more hours?” I will admit that I did annoy everyone with my constant bragging, including myself. All my friends probably wanted to give me the nickname Miss Chatterbox. I kept blogging and tweeting information about the venue because people wanted to know. My mom kept telling me to stop giving information, but I wanted to meet people.
I didn’t sleep that whole entire night out of excitement. When I got up on Saturday, my mom and I were not feeling good and had a bad morning. We almost weren’t going to go because Jordan tweeted, “Hey 21 plus friends in Philly come out to tonight’s show!” Brynne had bad news for me; she couldn’t go because her mom got sick and her dad couldn’t drive three hours from Lancaster to Philly and since it was twenty-one plus, they wouldn’t want to have to drive right back home because of the age limit. My mom called the venue and asked. Anyone younger than the age twenty-one had to leave by nine o’clock, which was fine because Jordan was the opening act and his performance was only going to be but thirty minutes of musical bliss. We let the bad morning pass us and took our showers and got all dressed up. My mom made me wear mostly black, so I kept telling everyone that it looked like I was going to a funeral. My friends on Twitter kept complimenting me and saying that I looked fine. I told everyone that I was going to tell Jordan that all my friends say ‘hi’ and that they love him. Everyone thought what I was doing was nice, by telling Jordan comments my friends had for him. My friend, whose name is Jourdan, and I kept talking back and forth about the concert. So many of my buddies were telling me to have a good time and they wished me luck.
We got ready to go catch the buses we had to take. We left super early, like six hours early or so. I tweeted about my adventure and all my friends were tweeting to Jordan, “Hey Jordan ! You’re going to meet an amazing girl by the name of Madison tonight!” and “My BFF Madison is going to see you tonight! You’re her idol and she loves you!” I felt so honored that my friends were trying to get Jordan to recognize me. I was one of the first ones there, and as soon as we got there, I saw Jordan and his band!
“Mom, mom, mom, mom, it’s Jordan !” I screamed.
“It is?” she replied, looking back.
“Hi Jordan you’re so skinny!” I yelled. He was shy so he turned around and gave a little wave. Like the girly girl I am, I grabbed my camera and ran after them. “I’ll be back!” I yelled to my mom. Jordan ran into his tour bus because I swear he knew who I was from the Internet and didn’t want to talk to me. I saw guitarist Deryck and new bassist Cameron. I formally introduced myself and shook their hands.
“Oh you’re adorable.” said one of the crew members.
“Hi I’m looking for a Mr. Jordan Witzigreuter.” I giggled, “I’m Madison and I was sent by a bunch of fan girls to come and stalk you.”
“Ha-ha you’re funny. I’m Deryck.” said Deryck.
“Where’s Jordan going?” I asked.
“He’s probably going to the bathroom.” comically joked Cameron.
“That’s normally what I’d say.” I replied. It’s true, I do say that sometimes. I then talked to some guy Nick. I knew who he was. I shook his hand and said it was nice to meet him. I don’t know why, but that was one of the things I bragged about most. I asked them if I could take their pictures and they said yes. “Sorry I’m so jittery I’m so nervous!” Deryck and Cameron both smiled at me. On the tour bus, I saw a face in the window. I believe it was Jordan looking at me.
This next part was creepy; a bald headed guy with a long red beard smoking a cigarette said to me, “Sweetie, we really can’t have anyone back here so…”
I totally got his hint that I had to leave, so I politely replied, “Oh no, it’s cool, I just wanted to meet them.” I said ‘bye’ and as I walked away I started freaking out. The smoke from the cigarette started making me cough a little. I went back to my mom to tell her my little experience.
“Wow the second we get here you had an experience.” she stated. She was more than right. I tweeted about what had just happened and all my friends replied in caps lock, “Where is Jordan ?” I told them that he ran in the tour bus like a little chicken. I exaggerated a bit, which they all knew, but they knew I said it in humor.
We walked around the venue area to look around because we knew we probably were never going to go there again. A little while later, I saw drummer Travis. I noticed him because his hair is super long.
“Mom, that’s Travis!” I squealed.
“The long-haired guy?” she asked. I nodded ‘yes’ in eagerness. She encouraged me to go talk to him. That’s when I started acting really shy. She pushed me along to go talk to him. He was practicing his drums and I didn’t want to disturb him. I ever so nervously walked up to him and introduced myself like I did with Deryck and Cameron.
“Hi I’m Madison and I was sent by a bunch of fan girls to come and stalk you.” I joked. He got up out of his little chair, and wow, he was tall. I’m about five foot even and he’s like six foot. He was, as I liked to call him, a Gentle Giant.
“Hi I’m Travis, but you probably already knew that.” he replied. His face shone with beauty.
“All my friends and I absolutely adore you and what you do,” I complimented him, “You play drums fabulously and you’re just too cute to resist.”
“Ha-ha aw you’re very sweet.” he sweetly said.
“I’m her mom,” said my mom, “I run South Philly. ” she jokingly stated. My mom was like a queen; whatever she wanted she got.
“Oh wow, really?” asked Travis.
“She’s joking but she’s like a queen.” I nodded back. We got into an engaging conversation with him. During the conversation I asked him where Jordan was.
“He’s still in the tour bus.” Travis answered.
“Cameron said he had to go to the bathroom. Is he really in there for that long?” I asked, laughing really hard.
“Not sure; all I know is that I share a bunk bed with him on the bus. Pretty cramped in there, I’ll tell you.” he responded.
“We saw him earlier and she started freaking out.” Mom said loudly.
“Whenever you see Jordan , tell him I was asking for him.” I joyfully shrieked. I then asked if I could take a picture with him. Like I said, he was tall compared to a little mouse like me. I had a film camera and I took so many photos I couldn’t wait to get them developed.
Just waiting and walking around like two lost puppies, we saw other band members of the other two bands. My mom kept repeating how cute the other guys were. I saw Tyson Ritter of The All-American Rejects. I didn’t know what to say, so the peppy weirdo I am yelled over, “Hi!”
He replied, “Hey, how’re you doing?”
“I’m great! How are you today?” I asked back kindly.
“I’m awesome, thanks for asking.” He answered as he walked over to his band. I caught most of those two bands’ sound check, which was pretty gnarly, if you ask me.
Still waiting around, we saw the merchandise guy for TRS, Jason. People had always told me Jason was never in the best of moods, and I believed them because his attitude was a little on the rude side. He was short, like myself and mom, and had long hair in dreads. He was pushing a cart filled with boxes that had the band shirts in them. I can’t believe at the whole entire show there were only two The Ready Set-themed shirts. One, which was black and read, “Give Me Your Hand – The Ready Set” with Jordan’s face on it, and the other was a white shirt, with Jordan’s head on it, in the shape like a pumpkin-cut out shaped skull, with all the tour dates on the back of it. I didn’t like it at first, but now I wish I had it. They also had two of the latest CDs, which I already own, and a poster, which I also bought. I bought the Give Me Your Hand shirt because I adored it so much and wanted it since May. Jason told us three times that we had to go back to the table. Sheesh, I mean, come on! Did it matter if you were selling merch at five p.m. or seven thirty p.m.? Not to me it didn’t. Then we sort of argued with the merch guy for The All-American Rejects and Boys Like Girls. When I had finally received my shirt, Jason gave me a small.
“This will never fit her.” my mom exclaimed. Jason tossed over a medium, which was a little big, but it was much better than the small. Altogether, it came to thirty dollars. I had a one-hundred dollar spending limit. It seems like a lot of money, but shirts range from twenty to thirty dollars and they honestly didn’t have much. The other two bands were loaded with so many items they couldn’t fit on the table or the wall!
We then walked over to the stage and met up with some girls. One girl’s name was Shelby , and I never caught sight of what the other two girls’ names were. I got front row, which was perfect. The guy who worked at the venue kept telling us we had to leave by seven, and it was already seven thirty. My mom and the other two girls’ moms kept talking with him so we could stay. One woman worked at the building across the way, the Wells Fargo Center , and talked us into staying until nine. Now I wish Brynne really had gone with me because we would’ve been able to stay. Sound check for The Ready Set started, which was cool.
The sound guy kept asking us about Philly sports, “So, are the Eagles any good?”
We all shouted a big, “No!”
“How about the Flyers?” he asked again.
“There might not be hockey this season, don’t remind me!” I yelled to him. I’m a huge Flyers fan and I heard that there may not be a season this year.
“Are the Sixers still the best? What about Allen Iverson?”
“They suck, too! Allen isn’t even here anymore! I think he’s in Turkey !” my mom shouted.
“Phillies? Let me guess, no?” he asked us again.
“You got that right!” shouted some guy.
He left the stage and Travis started practicing the drums again when I yelled, “Travis! Where’s Jordan ?” He shrugged his shoulders with the drums sticks in his hand and started searching around. I know Jordan and Travis like riding scooters around venue areas and I heard Jordan sometimes sits in a box, so I went on, what I had liked to call it, Witzigreuter Watch, and went on a search for them. My tweet at the time was, “On a mission for Witzigreuter Watch! Wish me luck!” and tweets automatically started pouring in with ‘good lucks’ and ‘hope you find him!’ I didn’t see Jordan anywhere, so I went back to my spot and started talking to the other girls. One thing that really annoyed me, which I have to be clearly honest about, is when people just saw The Ready Set like a month or so ago and they tell me, “Oh I just have to see him again I haven’t seen him in forever!” In my opinion, seeing a singer once for me is enough, especially if it’s in within like a month’s timing. Lots of people went to Mixtape Festival in Hershey , PA , in August and they came back for this event.
Jordan finally came up on stage for rehearsal. He, Deryck, and Cameron were throwing guitar picks into the audience. I didn’t catch any, sadly. Jordan was wearing a tennis shirt, black hoodie, sunglasses, and a green cap. He reminded me of a shy individual like myself. He rehearsed two of his songs, “More Than Alive” and “Killer”, which are two of my personal favorites. I didn’t know what the set list of the songs was going to be, so I had high expectations that they would be newer songs. I wanted Jordan and the band to perform older songs of his, but I got the feeling like Jordan didn’t like his old songs as much as his fans do. One song I desperately wanted him to play was, “Giants”, because it’s what the fan base is known as and it’s one of those songs that I listen to a lot.
I remember during sound check, I was singing along to the songs and dancing. I knew every magical lyric by heart, even for the newest song, “Carry Me Home”. When Jordan left sound check, I remember seeing him behind the stage pointing to the audience. I took lots of pictures during sound check. When the real concert started, that’s when I started freaking out. The first song performed was “More Than Alive”, then “Young Forever”, then “Spinnin’”, and then after that it was “Killer” then it was, I believe, “Carry Me Home”, then he took a break and did that song “Gangnam Style” on the drums and threw the drum sticks into the audience, again, I caught nothing. After he did “Gangnam Style”, he continued back on with singing and jumping around. He then sang, “Give Me Your Hand (Best Song Ever)” and I kept singing and dancing to that because it literally was the best song ever, then he finally sang my favorite song and the song that made me notice him in the first place, “Love Like Woe.” During the songs, he kept repeating, “XFINITY Live! Philadelphia , are you ready to party The Ready Set style?” and we all kept cheering on ‘yes’. I was one of the loudest people there because Jordan was loud, yet through all of everyone else’s screaming, I still heard myself and my mom. During the concert, he kept coming closer to me, so I think. He stood mostly to the left side of the area, which was my side, and I swear he kept looking and winking at me. I think he probably knew deep down that he had never seen me or met me before. He waved to everyone else and did his singing thing.
After his performance was over, we immediately left to go find him. We pushed and shoved through the mosh pit of people and made our way backstage, where I saw Travis and the crew already packing up. I asked Travis to get Jordan for me; he said that we had to wait a couple minutes. I knew my mom wanted to leave right then and there because of the eager look on her face. I begged her for us to stay five minutes.
“If in five minutes he doesn’t come out, we’re catching the bus and we’re leaving.” she sternly ordered. I nodded slowly and sadly because I direly needed and wanted to meet him. We finally saw him come out from wherever he was, so I ran to him. There was a little group of people waiting for him so after they left, my heart started beating so fast Jordan and my mom probably heard it. I wanted to cry tears of joy but the tears wouldn’t come out. The moment finally came; I was going to meet Jordan . I wanted to pass out.
“Hi.” he smiled.
“Hi I’m Madison and I love you.” I just blurted out.
“Aw you’re sweet.” he giggled. He was so adorable in person.
My mom introduced herself and added, “When she has your music blasting, I’m always dancing!”
“That’s cool, I appreciate this.” he gently and softly replied. I just grabbed him and hugged him. He was fabulous.
My mom went crazy and pinched his cheeks. “You are so adorable! Madison , look at this face. Have you ever seen a face like this before?” she kept complimenting him. He was wearing a gray slouch beanie, which made him extra precious to me. My mom was treating him like a newborn baby. It was honestly funny.
I kept laughing, “Mom, stop it, it’s too funny!” Jordan kept smiling and I started talking to him. “I’m on a mission.” I stated.
“Ooh, for what?” he asked.
“To tell you a bunch of stuff my friends have to say to you!” I cheered.
“Go on, I’m ready to listen.” he intriguingly said.
“All of my friends and enemies say ‘hi’ and that they love you and most of all that you make them all so happy, and that just doesn’t go for them, it goes for me, too, and all of my closest friends. Whenever you tweet someone or meet them in person they all feel so excited and happy because they love what you do. Keep on doing what you love doing best, singing and making fans proud of you and who you are. I hope to see you one day be as famous as Justin Bieber or One Direction because you honestly deserve it. You’ve worked so hard all these years and it needs to pay off.” I admitted to him. He looked sincerely touched by what I had to say.
“Tell them that I said ‘hi’ back and that I love them too. Thank you so much, Madison , for telling me this,” he applauded me, “I knew the fans loved me, but not as much as how you said it.”
I kept repeating, “Oh my God,” over and over again. “Plus another thing, whenever someone tells you to go to their state or country, please, I want you to do your best to get there.” I insisted.
“That really isn’t up to me, if you didn’t already know, but I really need to get to more places.” he reminded me. I already knew that he couldn’t pick where he wanted to go, but the look in his eyes made me honestly believe that he wants to go to more places.
“You’ve talked to her on the Twitter thing and it has made her really happy.” my mom included.
“How could I forget about that?” I exclaimed in excitement and the heat of the rush, “You did tweet me currently five times,” I added, “Around Christmas, and my birthday, oh yeah and random days, too!” I squealed, “You literally made those days the best days of my young life. Especially Christmas and my birthday, I mean, come on, those are probably the best birthday gifts I’ll ever receive in my life!” I finished. After I said all of that, I leaned in to kiss him. I didn’t know what was wrong with me in that particular moment. Did I kiss him? No, but it could’ve happened.
“I’m really glad I could make you happy. It makes me feel good on the inside knowing I made someone else happy.” he genuinely responded.
“If there was any way I could get you famous and help you, I would.” butted in my mom. I nodded.
“My mom runs South Philly.” I laughed.
“Ha-ha, Travis told me that.” he replied. Just to think that Travis did honestly tell Jordan everything I told him made me even happier. I took a picture with him and oh my goodness his skin was so soft and everyone always wanted to know what he smelled like. I don’t know why people wanted to know that, but he had no scent to him whatsoever. He was more than amazing; no words can describe his awesomeness, kindness, humbleness, and generosity. I loved him so much and this concert made me love him even more.
“We’re all anticipating the video for ‘Give Me Your Hand’”, I stated, “I know I’m ready for it.”
“Yeah everyone should like it.” he nodded. My mom got him to sign my poster. Well, the back of the poster, anyway, it’s not on the front with his face. The autograph reads, “To Madison! TRS JMW”; the hand writing was illegible, but he’s a singer and they all scribble like that. I knew what it was because I asked people how he autographs things. “JMW” are his initials, Jordan Mark Witzigreuter. He used my Sharpie marker, so I told my mom to never throw it away. She rolled her eyes at me and showed Jordan my shirt. My mom also pinched his cheeks and complimented on how adorable he was.
“Oh yeah, the Give Me Your Hand shirt is really popular.” he stated. Just before my mom and I were about to depart from Jordan , he called over to me, “ Madison , come back over here and give me another hug!” In awe, I was thinking to myself, “The only person that wants to hug me is my mom, and that’s not too often.” I was in more shock than ever. Jordan actually wanted to hug me.
“Really, are you serious? I’m alive, I’m dreaming?” I freaked out. “I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming” is actually the name of one of his albums, and I use it a lot as a saying.
“Yes! You’re alive but you’re not dreaming!” he dreamily expressed his words. My heart started melting, so I ran back over to him and hugged him so tightly that I didn’t want to let go. With the way he was hugging me back, it felt like he didn’t want to let go of me, either. I’m probably going head-over-heels with this, but he just didn’t hug me, he sort of squeezed me like we were friends. I’ve never heard of a singer wanting to hug a fan before. “You’ve been ever so nice to me, I just wanted to hug you again.” he whispered to me.
“You’ve been ever so nice to me!” I replied back. The smile of his face lit up the whole night sky. After we hugged, he held my hand and I let go because my mom was dying to leave. After I turned around and walked away, I yelled, “I love you, Jordan!”
I heard him yell back over, “Bye, Madison !” which was extra special because I don’t think that happened to anyone else before. The next things on my to-do list get my camera developed and tell all my friends what happened.
That night was literally the best night of my life. Everyone could say that about a concert, but the experience I had was like spending a whole day with a singer and following them around to interview them. My story is extraordinary because when I went to tell people, they said to me, “I’ve never heard of that happening to someone before.” It was either that I was the first person to experience that, or it has happened to other people and I just didn’t know about it. It saddens me because Jordan is very talented like all these other singers out there and he’s not the biggest singer on earth. If I could relive that day and night all over again, you know I would. This meant so much to me and I know if I didn’t see Jordan , I would’ve been heart broken because he only came to Philadelphia two other times and they were to places that I couldn’t get to. I told him to come back to Philadelphia more if he could because I’d go to all the Philly shows if I could. To sum it all up, The Ready Set, actually known as Jordan Witzigreuter, is the reason why I had this experience. If I never knew who he was, I would’ve never had a night like this before. I hope I can enjoy this thrill ride again someday.
I would of loved to be in your place !
I love The Ready Set ever since they started, and I have always wanted to meet them..I could book tickets, but that would mean I would have to book tickets to fly to a different country too.. :/ You were so lucky! 
Wow I got a reply from a TRS fan!
Thank you! It was simply amazing and lots of my other friends loved it too! Very much appreciated. Oh you live in a different country? Jordan has been tweeting fans stuff like, "Yes, I will come to your country soon!" Maybe he'll come where you are. I wish you luck!