Smash Mouth! Whoo!
So we’ve got a mini-concert report today, since I suddenly have a bajillion things to do before the Vegas trip and not nearly enough time to do them all. :D
Interestingly enough, the concert is only half of the adventure Philip and I had on Friday; the other half involved the sort-of car accident we managed to get into without even being in the car! Whoo. We went to Olive Garden for dinner (you can only go to Tijuana Flats so many times, after all) and it was all well and good and we saw Dan but I think he pretended not to see us, and afterwards we went out to the car and saw that the front bumper was on the ground.
Me: “That wasn’t like that before, was it?”
Philip: “…Nope.”
So we’re trying not to freak out too much when one of the Olive Garden hosts comes out and says he saw the whole thing; apparently, there was a big Chevy Avalanche parked next to Philip, and instead of doing the logical, sane thing and backing out of the parking space, he decided to drive over the median and managed to pull Philip’s bumper off as he did so. And then he drove away from the scene of the accident, even though he knew that the Olive Garden guy had seen him and written down his license plate number. Stupiiiiid. :D
Fortunately the cops didn’t take too long to get there, and they were pretty cool about the whole thing. In addition to the host, there was another girl who had seen the accident, and they both gave their statements, we were pretty lucky. The cops managed to call the Chevy’s driver back to the scene of the accident, (a dumb, redneck-looking guy, how appropriate) and wrote him tickets for reckless driving and leaving the scene. He was nice enough to apologize for ruining our evening, but geez. Not cool. Then Philip and I managed to fit the bumper in his backseat (not easy…XD) and drive back to his house, where his dad said he should be able to reattach it with no problems, since it wasn’t really damaged, just knocked off.
On top of that fun, as we headed to the HoB, there was terrible, awful traffic on I-4, I don’t know what the deal was. People were driving like maniacs-driving in the shoulder lane and weaving in and out of traffic, it was seriously some of the worst I-4 driving I’ve seen, and I’ve spent a good deal of time on I-4. (I used to drive to/from Tampa with Sean, after all, I know what reckless driving is…) I told Philip that if we died in a horrible car accident, I loved him, and then I switched our music from Motion City to MyChem, because, c’mon. (Related-ly, have you seen his iPod knock-off? It’s a “Zune” or whatever and it is strange and foreign and therefore I do not like it. >_>)
As you might imagine, we did not end up dying in a fiery car crash; we made it to the HoB at exactly 8:00, and the first opener was already on the stage. He was a solo artist named Mat Kearney (pronounced “carnie,” hmm) and he was pretty good. His music was more than a little Death Cab-ish, which made me sad all over again that we’d missed their show, but it wasn’t our fault that they’d scheduled it right in the middle of that two week stretch in November when we saw Panic, Dashboard, Hellogoodbye AND the Hush Sound. @_@ Anyway, Mat had a really good voice and the music was pretty, but it was more like something I’d listen to before I went to sleep; certainly not something to rock out to at a concert. But after all the excitement earlier in the day, it wasn’t too bad to just sit back and chill for a bit and marvel at how very, very empty the HoB was, and how all the people that WERE there were over the age of 30. Big change for us, and I can’t say I missed the ocean of scene kids very much at all. I know the HoB bartenders were loving it, they were actually making some money for once. XD
There was probably only about 10 minutes or so between the first and second openers, which was cool when you’re used to waiting a half hour or more. The second guy was an American Idol (yeah, *cringe*) named Ace Young, and I was Not Amused. Dude steps onstage, opens his mouth and starts singing in this waaay over-the-top falsetto, and please, if your name is not Patrick, Brendon, or Justin (Timberlake, yes >_>) I do not have any interest in your falsetto, kthnxbye. Also, I do not know how you amassed such a horde of screaming fangirls, because I did not find you half as attractive as any of those guys I just listed, but there they were, hanging over the barricade and hanging on to every high-pitched word you sang. Meh.
He car-crashed through a bunch of covers, including Aerosmith’s “Dream On” (*twitch*) and U2’s “Vertigo,” which made me very, very sad. D: He did pretty well with the song “What’s Goin’ On,” because it was a lot more suited to his style of singing, but c’mon, dude, Bono? Noooo. On the flip side, the band they put him with was pretty darn good, especially the guitarist (named Pete, heh) who had a couple of really cool solos. The drummer, (Also named Pete! Wtf?) while he looked old enough to be Ace’s dad, certainly knew what he was doing too. What bothered me most was when he took a break from covers to sing his single, called “Shattered,” and I hope Maroon 5 have made some angry phone calls about this song, because it was a BLATANT ripoff. Not “inspired by,” not a “homage,” a RIPOFF. (Trivia: Maroon 5 was the first band I ever saw at the HoB!) Arrrgh. Philip, who hasn’t listened to them, was entertained by my rage but ultimately did not understand it. Sigh.
We chilled on HoB’s wonderful couches as we waited for Smash Mouth to take the stage, and I reminisced about all the good times I’d had listening to them. If you count seeing a band at Mardi Gras as a real concert, then they were technically my first concert, waaaay back in the day with Carli and her dad. (Looking back, Smash Mouth’s music is a good explanation of why synth-heavy stuff appeals to me so much, and I wonder if the guys in Motion City listened to them too) I’d even gone back and seen them a second time at Mardi Gras two-ish years ago, and I was downright surprised when I heard they were coming to the HoB; I didn’t think they were even doing shows anymore.
But they are, and they certainly haven’t forgotten how to rock. They’re so hardcore, they had not one, but two drummers-a normal one and then a dude with an entire drum kit of bongos, tambourines and strangely shaped cymbals. He was awesome; for almost every song he’d pull out some weirdo percussion instrument (Maracas! Score!) and play the heck out of it. (Largely unrelated tangent: when The Used and MyChem toured together back in the day, they covered David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” and Mikey sullenly plays the tambourine as Bert and Gerard try not to molest each other too much onstage, watching the video cracks me up every time…XD)
They were about four songs into the set before they busted out some old material, which was a little strange, since I don’t think anyone (including myself) has really paid any attention to their newer stuff; frankly I wasn’t really all that aware that they’d put out a CD after their self-titled, and truthfully I haven’t even listened to the self-titled all that much. But the cool thing was that because the HoB was so empty, there was plenty of room on the floor to dance, and new or old, Smash Mouth’s stuff is great to dance to. The band looked like they were having plenty of fun too, especially the keyboard player, who was totally rocking out. During a break in one of the songs, the guitarist pointed out that there was a guy in the front row that was singing every line of every song, so the lead singer thought it would be fun to bring him up onstage and have him sing the next song with the band, it was so awesome! XD They performed “Diggin’ Your Scene,” and the guy seriously could have been the seventh member of the band, he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. Definitely haven’t seen that before.
They also brought a girl up onstage to dance during “When the Morning Comes,” and she was a pretty good dancer, but the guy singing the other song was better. Other highlights of the set included the two tracks I knew off the self-titled (“Pacific Coast Party” and “Holiday in My Head,” the latter of which is similar but not quite the same as the Jack’s Mannequin song “Holiday From Real,” hee) and one of my all-time favorite songs, “Stoned,” because I remember listening to it as a kid and thinking I was so cool because it was about getting high. XD (More trivia: the “08” in my email address comes from the fact that “Stoned” is track 8 on the CD! Who knew? :O ) Also, they had the drummer with the normal drum kit do a solo, and it pretty much put every other drum solo I’ve seen to shame. (Sorry, Spencer, I still love you) The dude just kept going! The beat would slow slightly, and I’d think, “Oh, it must be over now,” and then he’d speed back up and play on. It must have been nearly two minutes of just pure awesomeness.
Midway through the always-fun “I’m a Believer,” they pulled two little kids up onstage, they were sooo cute, just two little maybe 8-year old boys, one of which was wearing a Green Day shirt, heh. The singer handed the microphone to one of them, who tried to hand it to the other kid, but he didn’t want it either, it was so funny. Then the singer whispered in the ear of the kid holding the mic, giving him some lines to say: now try to imagine a little 8-year old boy standing on the stage at the HoB, amidst the bright lights and amused smiles of the band members, asking “How are all the ladies doin’ tonight?” Hilarious. XD This was the last song of their set, and as they left the stage, the guitarist handed his guitar to one of the kids, who looked at it like it was the neatest thing ever, even though he could barely hold it up. :3
They came back for a stunning 20-minute encore, in which they played three covers, all classic rock songs that I can’t think of the names of now but they were awesome and you’d recognize them if you heard them. Last but not least was the inevitable “All Star,” which was so, so much fun. Just like at the second time I saw them at Mardi Gras, they had their buddy and Orlando-resident Joey Fatone come out and sing with them, it was cute. All in all, it was a really fun show. Very, very different than what we usually do, but I must say I really enjoyed having room to dance and not having to worry about crowdsurfers getting dropped on my head. :D
The next show we’re doing will be more old-school goodness, as Third Eye Blind is apparently doing a free show down at Lake Eola on December 30th, which hasn’t been advertised at all-Philip only managed to come across it by chance while looking up discography info on their website. I’m really looking forward to seeing them, as I never did see them when they were at the height of their popularity like I should have. Aside from that, we only have two shows lined up for the new year, but they’re good ones: Fall Out Boy (which Philip and I have early admission tickets to, thanks to Rae :D) and Kill Hannah/The Pink Spiders, both of which are goin’ down a week after my birthday. Score!
I am positively itching for MyChem to post their headlining dates, which is silly because the shows aren’t going to be until April/May, and I don’t really need to spend 4+ months obsessing/planning for it, but oh, I want to. Rumor has it (actually, we’re pretty sure) that they’re going to be with Rise Against and Muse, which I’m guessing Edward doesn’t know yet because I haven’t heard his high-pitched squeal of glee echoing throughout the land. Also, Motion City has a new CD due out next year, which means another tour from them, and that’s just lovely. My fingers are also crossed for another +44 tour, since they were dumb and had their show the day between Panic and Hellogoodbye, so there was no way I could go. It’s gonna be a good year. :3
I probably won’t get a chance to update again before Vegas, and I’m not sure what my internet capabilities are gonna be there, but I promise many wonderful updates with many wonderful pictures when I get back. My goal? A picture of me on the corner of Fourth and Freemont Street, preferably wearing my pinstriped vest. *is shot*
*Amy*
Interestingly enough, the concert is only half of the adventure Philip and I had on Friday; the other half involved the sort-of car accident we managed to get into without even being in the car! Whoo. We went to Olive Garden for dinner (you can only go to Tijuana Flats so many times, after all) and it was all well and good and we saw Dan but I think he pretended not to see us, and afterwards we went out to the car and saw that the front bumper was on the ground.
Me: “That wasn’t like that before, was it?”
Philip: “…Nope.”
So we’re trying not to freak out too much when one of the Olive Garden hosts comes out and says he saw the whole thing; apparently, there was a big Chevy Avalanche parked next to Philip, and instead of doing the logical, sane thing and backing out of the parking space, he decided to drive over the median and managed to pull Philip’s bumper off as he did so. And then he drove away from the scene of the accident, even though he knew that the Olive Garden guy had seen him and written down his license plate number. Stupiiiiid. :D
Fortunately the cops didn’t take too long to get there, and they were pretty cool about the whole thing. In addition to the host, there was another girl who had seen the accident, and they both gave their statements, we were pretty lucky. The cops managed to call the Chevy’s driver back to the scene of the accident, (a dumb, redneck-looking guy, how appropriate) and wrote him tickets for reckless driving and leaving the scene. He was nice enough to apologize for ruining our evening, but geez. Not cool. Then Philip and I managed to fit the bumper in his backseat (not easy…XD) and drive back to his house, where his dad said he should be able to reattach it with no problems, since it wasn’t really damaged, just knocked off.
On top of that fun, as we headed to the HoB, there was terrible, awful traffic on I-4, I don’t know what the deal was. People were driving like maniacs-driving in the shoulder lane and weaving in and out of traffic, it was seriously some of the worst I-4 driving I’ve seen, and I’ve spent a good deal of time on I-4. (I used to drive to/from Tampa with Sean, after all, I know what reckless driving is…) I told Philip that if we died in a horrible car accident, I loved him, and then I switched our music from Motion City to MyChem, because, c’mon. (Related-ly, have you seen his iPod knock-off? It’s a “Zune” or whatever and it is strange and foreign and therefore I do not like it. >_>)
As you might imagine, we did not end up dying in a fiery car crash; we made it to the HoB at exactly 8:00, and the first opener was already on the stage. He was a solo artist named Mat Kearney (pronounced “carnie,” hmm) and he was pretty good. His music was more than a little Death Cab-ish, which made me sad all over again that we’d missed their show, but it wasn’t our fault that they’d scheduled it right in the middle of that two week stretch in November when we saw Panic, Dashboard, Hellogoodbye AND the Hush Sound. @_@ Anyway, Mat had a really good voice and the music was pretty, but it was more like something I’d listen to before I went to sleep; certainly not something to rock out to at a concert. But after all the excitement earlier in the day, it wasn’t too bad to just sit back and chill for a bit and marvel at how very, very empty the HoB was, and how all the people that WERE there were over the age of 30. Big change for us, and I can’t say I missed the ocean of scene kids very much at all. I know the HoB bartenders were loving it, they were actually making some money for once. XD
There was probably only about 10 minutes or so between the first and second openers, which was cool when you’re used to waiting a half hour or more. The second guy was an American Idol (yeah, *cringe*) named Ace Young, and I was Not Amused. Dude steps onstage, opens his mouth and starts singing in this waaay over-the-top falsetto, and please, if your name is not Patrick, Brendon, or Justin (Timberlake, yes >_>) I do not have any interest in your falsetto, kthnxbye. Also, I do not know how you amassed such a horde of screaming fangirls, because I did not find you half as attractive as any of those guys I just listed, but there they were, hanging over the barricade and hanging on to every high-pitched word you sang. Meh.
He car-crashed through a bunch of covers, including Aerosmith’s “Dream On” (*twitch*) and U2’s “Vertigo,” which made me very, very sad. D: He did pretty well with the song “What’s Goin’ On,” because it was a lot more suited to his style of singing, but c’mon, dude, Bono? Noooo. On the flip side, the band they put him with was pretty darn good, especially the guitarist (named Pete, heh) who had a couple of really cool solos. The drummer, (Also named Pete! Wtf?) while he looked old enough to be Ace’s dad, certainly knew what he was doing too. What bothered me most was when he took a break from covers to sing his single, called “Shattered,” and I hope Maroon 5 have made some angry phone calls about this song, because it was a BLATANT ripoff. Not “inspired by,” not a “homage,” a RIPOFF. (Trivia: Maroon 5 was the first band I ever saw at the HoB!) Arrrgh. Philip, who hasn’t listened to them, was entertained by my rage but ultimately did not understand it. Sigh.
We chilled on HoB’s wonderful couches as we waited for Smash Mouth to take the stage, and I reminisced about all the good times I’d had listening to them. If you count seeing a band at Mardi Gras as a real concert, then they were technically my first concert, waaaay back in the day with Carli and her dad. (Looking back, Smash Mouth’s music is a good explanation of why synth-heavy stuff appeals to me so much, and I wonder if the guys in Motion City listened to them too) I’d even gone back and seen them a second time at Mardi Gras two-ish years ago, and I was downright surprised when I heard they were coming to the HoB; I didn’t think they were even doing shows anymore.
But they are, and they certainly haven’t forgotten how to rock. They’re so hardcore, they had not one, but two drummers-a normal one and then a dude with an entire drum kit of bongos, tambourines and strangely shaped cymbals. He was awesome; for almost every song he’d pull out some weirdo percussion instrument (Maracas! Score!) and play the heck out of it. (Largely unrelated tangent: when The Used and MyChem toured together back in the day, they covered David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” and Mikey sullenly plays the tambourine as Bert and Gerard try not to molest each other too much onstage, watching the video cracks me up every time…XD)
They were about four songs into the set before they busted out some old material, which was a little strange, since I don’t think anyone (including myself) has really paid any attention to their newer stuff; frankly I wasn’t really all that aware that they’d put out a CD after their self-titled, and truthfully I haven’t even listened to the self-titled all that much. But the cool thing was that because the HoB was so empty, there was plenty of room on the floor to dance, and new or old, Smash Mouth’s stuff is great to dance to. The band looked like they were having plenty of fun too, especially the keyboard player, who was totally rocking out. During a break in one of the songs, the guitarist pointed out that there was a guy in the front row that was singing every line of every song, so the lead singer thought it would be fun to bring him up onstage and have him sing the next song with the band, it was so awesome! XD They performed “Diggin’ Your Scene,” and the guy seriously could have been the seventh member of the band, he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. Definitely haven’t seen that before.
They also brought a girl up onstage to dance during “When the Morning Comes,” and she was a pretty good dancer, but the guy singing the other song was better. Other highlights of the set included the two tracks I knew off the self-titled (“Pacific Coast Party” and “Holiday in My Head,” the latter of which is similar but not quite the same as the Jack’s Mannequin song “Holiday From Real,” hee) and one of my all-time favorite songs, “Stoned,” because I remember listening to it as a kid and thinking I was so cool because it was about getting high. XD (More trivia: the “08” in my email address comes from the fact that “Stoned” is track 8 on the CD! Who knew? :O ) Also, they had the drummer with the normal drum kit do a solo, and it pretty much put every other drum solo I’ve seen to shame. (Sorry, Spencer, I still love you) The dude just kept going! The beat would slow slightly, and I’d think, “Oh, it must be over now,” and then he’d speed back up and play on. It must have been nearly two minutes of just pure awesomeness.
Midway through the always-fun “I’m a Believer,” they pulled two little kids up onstage, they were sooo cute, just two little maybe 8-year old boys, one of which was wearing a Green Day shirt, heh. The singer handed the microphone to one of them, who tried to hand it to the other kid, but he didn’t want it either, it was so funny. Then the singer whispered in the ear of the kid holding the mic, giving him some lines to say: now try to imagine a little 8-year old boy standing on the stage at the HoB, amidst the bright lights and amused smiles of the band members, asking “How are all the ladies doin’ tonight?” Hilarious. XD This was the last song of their set, and as they left the stage, the guitarist handed his guitar to one of the kids, who looked at it like it was the neatest thing ever, even though he could barely hold it up. :3
They came back for a stunning 20-minute encore, in which they played three covers, all classic rock songs that I can’t think of the names of now but they were awesome and you’d recognize them if you heard them. Last but not least was the inevitable “All Star,” which was so, so much fun. Just like at the second time I saw them at Mardi Gras, they had their buddy and Orlando-resident Joey Fatone come out and sing with them, it was cute. All in all, it was a really fun show. Very, very different than what we usually do, but I must say I really enjoyed having room to dance and not having to worry about crowdsurfers getting dropped on my head. :D
The next show we’re doing will be more old-school goodness, as Third Eye Blind is apparently doing a free show down at Lake Eola on December 30th, which hasn’t been advertised at all-Philip only managed to come across it by chance while looking up discography info on their website. I’m really looking forward to seeing them, as I never did see them when they were at the height of their popularity like I should have. Aside from that, we only have two shows lined up for the new year, but they’re good ones: Fall Out Boy (which Philip and I have early admission tickets to, thanks to Rae :D) and Kill Hannah/The Pink Spiders, both of which are goin’ down a week after my birthday. Score!
I am positively itching for MyChem to post their headlining dates, which is silly because the shows aren’t going to be until April/May, and I don’t really need to spend 4+ months obsessing/planning for it, but oh, I want to. Rumor has it (actually, we’re pretty sure) that they’re going to be with Rise Against and Muse, which I’m guessing Edward doesn’t know yet because I haven’t heard his high-pitched squeal of glee echoing throughout the land. Also, Motion City has a new CD due out next year, which means another tour from them, and that’s just lovely. My fingers are also crossed for another +44 tour, since they were dumb and had their show the day between Panic and Hellogoodbye, so there was no way I could go. It’s gonna be a good year. :3
I probably won’t get a chance to update again before Vegas, and I’m not sure what my internet capabilities are gonna be there, but I promise many wonderful updates with many wonderful pictures when I get back. My goal? A picture of me on the corner of Fourth and Freemont Street, preferably wearing my pinstriped vest. *is shot*
*Amy*