Licking the Mona Lisa
Hearing them live was the difference between looking at the Mona Lisa and being able to touch it. Running your fingers over the canvas. Tracing her smile. Paint chips flaking off in your palm.
Blink 182 was my Mona Lisa.
And I just licked her.
The above is an excerpt from the write up I did of the MCR/Blink 182 concert I attended this past Wednesday and believe me when I say it is 100% fucking accurate.
I don't like live music. I don't like the way an artist's voice sounds when it's different from a recording track.
Blink 182 basically slapped me in the face and told me otherwise.
But let me back up and explain: my wonderful, sweet friend Moises is the one who found out about the concert and that lawn tickets were only $27 a piece. I have never had the urge to go to a concert, but Blink 182 is my all-time favorite band and I figured it would be good to try something new so we went. I drove to his house (which is in the middle of Flowery Branch aka Nowhere, GA) and left my car and we both drove to Doraville and rode the Marta down to Fort McPhearson, and then after getting really confused by the bus system, eventually made it to Aaron's Amphitheater. The concert was at 7pm, we got there around 5:30pm so we were among the first 100 or so people to be allowed in. We didn't have seats, though, we were on the lawn, but it was fine because they had huge fucking flat screens and we could actually see the stage and everything so I didn't mind.
The opening band was Matt and Kim and they were adorable, to be honest. Their music is so-so, but it had a good beat and they were cute as all get out.
My Chemical Romance went on first. It was a strong performance, but since I literally only know one song of theirs--and it's the one I named my novel after--it didn't have that much of an impact on me.
And then Blink 182 came out.
Jesus.
Fucking.
Christ.
I get it now. I really do. There is no way to describe the feeling of being among thousands of fans when the greatest band of all time (in my opinion) came out on stage with fucking lasers flying everywhere and opened with "Feeling This." God, it was so amazing. The music flowed everywhere--in the air, in the ground, in the grass, in my hair, in my eyes--fuck, I felt like I was part of the band. They played all the classics too--Feeling This, Dumpweed, Stay Together for the Kids, First Date, Rock Show, What's My Age Again, Violence, I Miss You, Down, Always--and then some of their vintage hits from their earliest album, and then a couple of songs from the new one that's out this year.
The best part is that in between songs, they cracked jokes and made awesome sexual come ons to the audience--I lol'd heartily--and then they broke out the show-stopper: fuckin' Travis Barker was lifted onto a crane with his drumset and did this unbelievable fuckin' drum solo. Travis Barker is a fucking BOSS. It was amazing. I cannot do it justice. Look it up on Youtube, man, that solo was transcendent. It was like being baptized in awesomeness.
Then it was over and the fun started. Y'see, many of the people who went to concert aren't native Atlanta people and neither was Moises and I so...we had no fuckin' idea how to get out of there. xD
We were waiting for the Marta to take us back to the train station, but the damn thing just did not show up and when it did, we were all at the wrong bus stop so it drove right past us. It was hilarious because we all laughed and complained together as a group--total strangers mind you--until we walked allllllll the way down a dark street that a scalper told us to go down and found the right bus. It was frustrating, but kind of fun at the same time. I love meeting random people when they are nice and have great senses of humor.
What else can I say? It was an amazing night. I'll let Blink wrap it up for me:
I'll never forget tonight
I'll never forget tonight.
Blink 182 was my Mona Lisa.
And I just licked her.
The above is an excerpt from the write up I did of the MCR/Blink 182 concert I attended this past Wednesday and believe me when I say it is 100% fucking accurate.
I don't like live music. I don't like the way an artist's voice sounds when it's different from a recording track.
Blink 182 basically slapped me in the face and told me otherwise.
But let me back up and explain: my wonderful, sweet friend Moises is the one who found out about the concert and that lawn tickets were only $27 a piece. I have never had the urge to go to a concert, but Blink 182 is my all-time favorite band and I figured it would be good to try something new so we went. I drove to his house (which is in the middle of Flowery Branch aka Nowhere, GA) and left my car and we both drove to Doraville and rode the Marta down to Fort McPhearson, and then after getting really confused by the bus system, eventually made it to Aaron's Amphitheater. The concert was at 7pm, we got there around 5:30pm so we were among the first 100 or so people to be allowed in. We didn't have seats, though, we were on the lawn, but it was fine because they had huge fucking flat screens and we could actually see the stage and everything so I didn't mind.
The opening band was Matt and Kim and they were adorable, to be honest. Their music is so-so, but it had a good beat and they were cute as all get out.
My Chemical Romance went on first. It was a strong performance, but since I literally only know one song of theirs--and it's the one I named my novel after--it didn't have that much of an impact on me.
And then Blink 182 came out.
Jesus.
Fucking.
Christ.
I get it now. I really do. There is no way to describe the feeling of being among thousands of fans when the greatest band of all time (in my opinion) came out on stage with fucking lasers flying everywhere and opened with "Feeling This." God, it was so amazing. The music flowed everywhere--in the air, in the ground, in the grass, in my hair, in my eyes--fuck, I felt like I was part of the band. They played all the classics too--Feeling This, Dumpweed, Stay Together for the Kids, First Date, Rock Show, What's My Age Again, Violence, I Miss You, Down, Always--and then some of their vintage hits from their earliest album, and then a couple of songs from the new one that's out this year.
The best part is that in between songs, they cracked jokes and made awesome sexual come ons to the audience--I lol'd heartily--and then they broke out the show-stopper: fuckin' Travis Barker was lifted onto a crane with his drumset and did this unbelievable fuckin' drum solo. Travis Barker is a fucking BOSS. It was amazing. I cannot do it justice. Look it up on Youtube, man, that solo was transcendent. It was like being baptized in awesomeness.
Then it was over and the fun started. Y'see, many of the people who went to concert aren't native Atlanta people and neither was Moises and I so...we had no fuckin' idea how to get out of there. xD
We were waiting for the Marta to take us back to the train station, but the damn thing just did not show up and when it did, we were all at the wrong bus stop so it drove right past us. It was hilarious because we all laughed and complained together as a group--total strangers mind you--until we walked allllllll the way down a dark street that a scalper told us to go down and found the right bus. It was frustrating, but kind of fun at the same time. I love meeting random people when they are nice and have great senses of humor.
What else can I say? It was an amazing night. I'll let Blink wrap it up for me:
I'll never forget tonight
I'll never forget tonight.