Last Saturday I went out to dinner with Amy’s family. We had “crispy eel.” That was my first time tasting eel. It tasted like sweet and sour calamari (good).
Last week I turned Amy on to Uno. Last Sunday she bought her own deck and still can’t get enough of it.
Monday night I went to my first (and last) Modest Mouse concert. When I got to my seat at 7:30 I looked at my ticket and it said 8. I tried to go back out but they said I couldn’t get back in if I did. I also saw lots of people with cell phones and CAMERAS… what is up with that? How can “no recording devices” suddenly mean “sure bring in y’alls cameras and cell phones?” There were two opening bands so Modest Mouse didn’t come on till almost 10 and didn’t stop till about 11:20. Waiting for them to come on was torture for someone like me who is usually rolling around in bed with my eyes closed at 10:30. The fact that the opening bands weren’t good also didn’t help. The first band was actually better than the second band. The second band was called “love is laughing” or something similar and was simply horrible. They tried to sound as close as possible to the white stripes, the hives, etc.
The Modest Mouse part actually kind of sucked as well. They only played three songs that were not from the new album (paper thin walls, cowboy dan, and Dramamine). It was very weird too because there were always at least six people on stage. Now…to my knowledge Modest Mouse was a threesome (and a twosome for a short time when Jeremiah Green quit the band). I guess “was” is the most important word in that sentence. There was one guy that looked like a loser (he actually reminded me of someone I hated in college) that just stood in the middle of the stage and didn’t move for 90% of the time. There was another guy that sat over on the left side and I never saw do anything. They had two drummers for some insane reason.
The crowd only made it worse. It was a mix of three types of people (with some overlapping). #1 young “hipsters” that are just too cool (nappy hair, salvation army clothing, etc.) #2 little girls (and boys) that saw the band on “the OC” a few weeks ago #3 college “frat-boy” types that are going because modest mouse is the new “cool band” they are being told to listen to on alternative radio and (sometimes) MTV. These are the same guys that I’m sure went to White Stripes shows last year and will go to the Green Day shows next month. It was pathetic. Whenever the band launched into a song not on last year’s album you could hear/feel a collective groan from the crowd. I was seated at the end of an isle and next to me were three high school (I guess) girls. Just as I was thinking “oh god half these people are here because of that ‘OC’ thing”….one of the girls next to me said to her friend “oh yeah, I don’t really know a lot of their songs, I just saw them on the OC a few weeks ago.” It was then that I knew I was in for a long night. For most of the concert there were some drunken frat boys (and their slutty girlfriends) in front of me blocking my view because they were “dancing.” Their “dancing” actually consisted of gyrating around as if they were in a P Diddy video.
I thought at least they would come out and do Stars Are Projectors or Bankrupt on Selling or something else old as part of the encore.
Nope…it was the remaining three songs that they hadn’t played from the new album. So disappointing.
On the way to my car I think I saw Rob Schnider taking a smoke break.
We need to start a petition to STOP “THE OC!” For a few weeks now I’ve been listening to this band Pinback that Aaron told me about. I was on their website about a week ago and they had a concert date in San Diego. I was looking for it again tonight and I came across a link to “The OC” saying that they were going to be on the show or already had. NO! Ugh! I didn’t hear about this band from that show. Now if I go see them in San Diego I’ll be standing with 12 year olds again. Let me guess…next week on the OC – Mars Volta. In time they will just ruin my concert going experience for every last band I still want to see.
