nixtress's Diaryland Diary

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Rock me

I swear by everything holy (and maybe by all that's unholy) that last night's concert rocked harder than any concert has ever rocked ever. EVER.

I'll even go so far as to say it fucking! rocked!

Let's begin at the beginning...

I trundled the boys off to Auntie's house with minor amounts of trepidation (I'm away therefore I worry--it happens) and headed out for Highwayland. It didn't take all that long to get to Blossom, which is set back down winding and twisting roads. It was gorgeous, balmy and sunny without being horrendously hot. Parking, once we got there, was out in BuFu, as I figured it would be. Thankfully, they'd posted 50 million teenagers in bright orange t-shirts boredly waving flags to direct us into our own little field. We parked under a tree, next to some brush (always important to remember those sorts of details when parking in BuFu) and after locking up, set about our five mile hike to the gate.

One of my favorite parts of concert-going is the people-watching. And man, there were tons to see. It was like someone opened the gates of Ben and Jerry's IceCreamVille and all the flavors ran in a stream. Pretty pumped was I because we had pavilion seats, thereby setting us a notch above the blanket-bringers.

Through the gates and we were in like Flynn.

Let's skip to the good parts, shall we?

The seats kicked some major butt, literally in the middle all the way around. There was a walkway about three rows ahead (which will feature prominently in just a bit) where they'd set up the soundboards but we were pretty damn close. Opening act was a smallish group I'd never heard of before called Thornley. They didn't suck overly and had a decent sound to them. Fledgling but not bad. People were still flowing in while they were playing and we were boxed in by some okay guys in the front and a nifty couple to the left, a couple and their kid (pain in my ass) on the right and a whole row of drunkasses behind us. As soon as the InebriatedOnes sat behind us, I was awash in the odor of Patchouli. Nothing like the smell of mold to make you sure you're at a concert!

After Thornley came 3 Days Grace. Not a bad little band either, still fairly new themselves. They ended their set with the one song that's been playing like mad lately, got the crowd pumped a bit.

Those in the pit right next to the stage were crammed in like sardines and I'm sure more than one chicka got the Happy Poke in there.

Presto Chango and it was all about Nickelback.

Nickelback not only rocked hard but their show did as well. Blasts of flame shootin' wayyyyyyy up there, things blowing up...pretty damn cool. At one point it looked as if the entire stage was on fire, flames licking all around the drummer. They had mini-screens set around and panned the crowd as well as the band, and had mini-movies of psychadelic shrooms and multi-colored tye-dyed everything. I love just about everything that they've put out thus far and was not disappointed at all by their performance. They've got a certain cockiness to them, sort of shows they've graduated from the starry-eyed newbie stage. At one point, the lead singer was commenting about that song by Gretchen Wilson (I think) "Redneck Girl", saying he "needed him one of those". Some chick in the front of the pit starts screaming she is one and he replied that she looked a little high maintenance for his tastes. Directly following that some of the band members began tossing cups of beer into the crowd and popped her in the head with one. That was right before the guitarists got sent up to the roof via hydraulic towers, playing the whole time.

AnnoyingKid next to me kept switching seats with his father, which wouldn't have been so bad if Dear Old Dad would have kept his elbows out of my boob. They left as soon as Nickelback left the stage.

3 Doors Down..I could eat up the lead singer. He's just so damn cute.

By the time they took the stage the entire place was chaos. People were everywhere, half of them drunk as skunks and jammin' like I've never seen. You could smell the weed drifting in the air and there was beer dripping from peoples' pores.

Their show was different than the prior three, a different flavor and speed and flow. I loved it. While Nickelback was raucous and in your face, 3 Doors Down was almost..humble.

You can tell that they're still new enough to bask in the experience of being out there and playing their music. They used more lasers in their show, a nifty little effect. And at one point the pavilion went black and all you heard was running feet..and then the lead singer was on a table, set up in the walkway right in front of us! It was beyond cool. Three rows in front of me, I tell you. So close I could see every drop of sweat roll down his neck. And that boy can sing. Mannnnnn can he sing. Keeps his Southern twang a bit while he does it (heh). It was just awesome. Incredible. Did I mention that I had a blast? I was accosted by a drunk lady who was dry-humpin' her man next to me after AnnoyingKid took his parents home. And there was more than enough eye-candy to write home about.

Leaving was..interesting. I wasn't in a rush, knowing all those teenybopper flaggers weren't going to be there to show us the way out. It was like walking in the middle of a human cattle auction. There were THAT MANY FREAKIN' PEOPLE!

We bottlenecked a bit at the bridge in our pedestrian ramblings back to the car. Sat in the car with the windows down watching people get pissed because traffic just wasn't moving. Enjoyed laughing at the drunk girl who fell in the bushes with her pants around her ankles. Counted the minutes it took for yet another drunk couple to finish screwing in the back of their SUV.

Finally headed home and I fell into my bed with ears that felt stuffed with cotton and feet that hurt from standing and dancing on them and a head that pounded still in rhythm with the drums and guitars and a heart overflowing with the sort of natural high that only live music can bring me. Music through headphones feels like you have a band in your head. Concerts feel like they've stolen your body and are playing instruments through your skin.

I had a blast. There's just nothing like it.

Now I need to jet and finish getting the boys ready for the Indians game tonight (with fireworks after). Should be a good game--Sabathia's up against a worthy opponent.

Happy Saturday, one and all.

N.

2:51 p.m. - 2004-07-10

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