Foo
Foo Fighters Friday night was awesome, much better than last time. Not that Foo themselves were, but the audience was so much more there than at the last show. And it wasn't in fucking Florida, so there's a lot to be said in and of itself. (Charlotte)
HiFi Handgrenades were pretty cool; I got their EP for $5 at the show beforehand, and I got a new Foo shirt after much debate. I opted to go for a band-pic shirt as a replacement for the last one.
Cricket Arena is really cool in navigating and especially in parking and getting to. I think Green Day was there a few years ago, and that was really easy to deal with too, even from the opposite side of the parking lot. I honestly have no idea why you'd want to pay for VIP parking there, especially since it's like $15 and regular parking's $6. We actually ended up parked the first full row in, and afterwards went back to the car, go in, pulled out, and directly was let in line to exit. Seriously, it was that easy, it was amazing.
So anyway, we had balcony seats, and I was thinking at first they were going to be way out, but I think they pulled a mid-stage setup (or at least pretty close) so we weren't that far back and could actually see. The crowd was way more into it than the Weezer/Foo Fighters show we caught before, which was great, although I still felt a little isolated and removed. I think overall I tend to feel that way with seats, although it's a lot safer than the floor. Maybe it has to do with the spacing and possibility of blocking people behind me? I find myself more self-conscious of standing and moving in the seats, regardless.
We actually had plenty of room because the neighboring seats stayed empty, making it much easier to move about and see if necessary also. There was a girl in front of me who was dancing and doing her thing throughout, and then there were drunk people who were mostly un-annoying though so that was okay. They were sneaking smokes at a point, but at least it was cigarettes, and at least I didn't really smell the smoke except once, so I was far happier with them than I might have been.
Foo had a lot more acoustic-based stuff this time, which worked well, and they not only had Pat Smear, but also another percussionist (I was hoping the set-up before the band switch was for Dave to join-in with Taylor on drums awhile, but alas), a pianist, and a kick-ass violinst. Dave forgot the starting lyrics to "Stacked Actors," paused to try to remember awhile, then came back and decided to just start making stuff up until it came back to him a few lines in. He probably could have just asked the fans to start him off, considering most people were singing along anyway. He also climbed into the audience on the opposite balcony side for awhile and played off with Chris. Oh, and speaking of singing along, he stopped the crowd at one point to joke about there only being one lead singer here.
Most everyone did a solo on their introduction awhile in, although Pat just waved, and Dave was giving Nate a hard time and he was just saying back against the speakers playing his subtle introductions-bass line, waiting for him to keep going. And we got a really cool "$30 for a triangle solo. Bet you've learned your lesson!" (as Dave put it) from the guest percussionist, which was pretty damn impressive for a triangle anyway. lol
Alas, this is the only mostly-decent YouTube so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYA3jgPgixg
Most of the clips I've seen on there have been way too loud for the camera to handle. :\
And now to try going back to thesis. Blah.
HiFi Handgrenades were pretty cool; I got their EP for $5 at the show beforehand, and I got a new Foo shirt after much debate. I opted to go for a band-pic shirt as a replacement for the last one.
Cricket Arena is really cool in navigating and especially in parking and getting to. I think Green Day was there a few years ago, and that was really easy to deal with too, even from the opposite side of the parking lot. I honestly have no idea why you'd want to pay for VIP parking there, especially since it's like $15 and regular parking's $6. We actually ended up parked the first full row in, and afterwards went back to the car, go in, pulled out, and directly was let in line to exit. Seriously, it was that easy, it was amazing.
So anyway, we had balcony seats, and I was thinking at first they were going to be way out, but I think they pulled a mid-stage setup (or at least pretty close) so we weren't that far back and could actually see. The crowd was way more into it than the Weezer/Foo Fighters show we caught before, which was great, although I still felt a little isolated and removed. I think overall I tend to feel that way with seats, although it's a lot safer than the floor. Maybe it has to do with the spacing and possibility of blocking people behind me? I find myself more self-conscious of standing and moving in the seats, regardless.
We actually had plenty of room because the neighboring seats stayed empty, making it much easier to move about and see if necessary also. There was a girl in front of me who was dancing and doing her thing throughout, and then there were drunk people who were mostly un-annoying though so that was okay. They were sneaking smokes at a point, but at least it was cigarettes, and at least I didn't really smell the smoke except once, so I was far happier with them than I might have been.
Foo had a lot more acoustic-based stuff this time, which worked well, and they not only had Pat Smear, but also another percussionist (I was hoping the set-up before the band switch was for Dave to join-in with Taylor on drums awhile, but alas), a pianist, and a kick-ass violinst. Dave forgot the starting lyrics to "Stacked Actors," paused to try to remember awhile, then came back and decided to just start making stuff up until it came back to him a few lines in. He probably could have just asked the fans to start him off, considering most people were singing along anyway. He also climbed into the audience on the opposite balcony side for awhile and played off with Chris. Oh, and speaking of singing along, he stopped the crowd at one point to joke about there only being one lead singer here.
Most everyone did a solo on their introduction awhile in, although Pat just waved, and Dave was giving Nate a hard time and he was just saying back against the speakers playing his subtle introductions-bass line, waiting for him to keep going. And we got a really cool "$30 for a triangle solo. Bet you've learned your lesson!" (as Dave put it) from the guest percussionist, which was pretty damn impressive for a triangle anyway. lol
Alas, this is the only mostly-decent YouTube so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYA3jgPgixg
Most of the clips I've seen on there have been way too loud for the camera to handle. :\
And now to try going back to thesis. Blah.