First show of the year....
Josh had been talking about seeing Umphrey's McGee since the Super Bowl but nothing was ever set in stone. Yesterday I get an e-mail asking if I'm still down to go. Well, I had nothing better going on that night so of course I was down for a little UM action. Josh had asked Vic and Bob to go with us - Vic is still grounded from me (LAME) and Bob has been strapped for cash because of the whole Vday thing (hooray for being single and not having to deal with that crap). Basically, it was just me and Josh which is really frickin cool because in all the years we've know each other we've never really spent much time just hanging out with each other (always been with the group)
Anyway, the venue is supposedly pretty new. It's called Crash Mansion and apparently there's a sister "club" in NY. The venue is pretty awesome! It's in downtown LA and pretty close to Staples Center/Nokia. When you get inside you walk up a set of stairs to the will call/ticket purchase area and from there you have 3 options. Straight takes you through the band merch area and to the bathrooms (which are pretty cool), right takes you into a very small lounge area with a couple of tables, bar and tiny dance floor/stage, and left takes you into the main room. It's pretty obvious upon walking in that they use it as a real club most days. The back of the room is all bar - from the left to the right it's a bar complete with bottles on the wall and a menu of fried foods. In front of the bar is a seating area - tall tables but I don't recall seeing chairs and then in front of that is a very wide dance floor. You could be at the back of the room but still feel like you're right up in front which is pretty sweet. There's a spot above the floor where one would assume they put the DJ, a killer lighting system (it's all cracked out on various tracks and whatnot) and four screens (two on each side) that I'm assuming they play videos on when it's club night. To the right and the left of the stage there are black U-shaped booths and looked pretty cush. Above the bar looked like an area to where people could hang out and there also seemed to be a similar area behind the stage.
The first thing we did was make a bee line to the merch table where Josh pre-paid for his soundboard taping of the show. You know you're seeing a good band when they offer concert-goers the ability to purchase the live show immediately after.
Anyway, we decided we would make our spot to the right of the stage and fairly far back. We got drinks (well he got a drink drink, I just got a drink) and decided to chit chat about Vegoose and how disappointed I was over the fact that I wasn't allowed to go last year (Vic's girlfriend, of course) and Josh pretty much said the same thing Bob did in that they had the room. Josh's girlfriend had to work and wasn't able to take the time off so I could have totally shared Josh's bed with him and apparently he had the biggest bed ever. So I told him that this year I didn't care what she wanted or how she felt, I was going to go. Why is it that I should be left out and suffer because she (for no good reason) can't stand me?
Josh was telling me that Vic creates the problem so I asked how/why. Apparently the retard says stupid shit in front of Jen that makes her insecure-ish. Like, last year I had asked Vic to give me a copy of the lyrics to all of the songs he had written me (and the music as well - they never actually recorded the song with the vocals). Vic decided to tell Josh that I wanted those in front of Jen. Now this wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that she had seen pictures of me and was jealous because she thought I was prettier, skinnier and I had red hair. Well, just like everyone says, if she can't beat me in the looks department, she needs to beat me in the nice department (which I'm still nicer but people would look at her different if she was nice). So, Vic's created a problem, Vic is the only one who can fix the problem, and there's no way in hell I'm missing Vegoose this year! Bob wants me there, Michelle wants me there, Josh wants me there, if Lisa goes she'll want me there, Vic would want me there if he could have me there so there is absolutely no good reason for me not to go. Plus, at this rate, they may *crosses fingers* be completely over by then. I'm not trying to be mean, but it's not right for me to give up my friends because she has some issues with herself. OK back to the show.
I hadn't seen Umphrey's in about 2 years. In fact, I hadn't seen them since Vegoose in 2005 so I was really looking forward to it. Josh had told me that they tightened up their sound a bit and instead of playing an hour and a half before taking a set break, they play well for an hour and take a break. The funny thing about these shows is that everyone knows everyone else. As we were standing there, I saw tons of people walk by and give hugs to those around them. Sure, they could have been on way too many drugs, but I'd like to think it's because they're actually friends.
The funny thing about hippies is that they all wear Patchouli so during the set my nostrils were filled with a combo of Patchouli and pot in various strengths. I spend a lot of my time at shows like this just watching people. I make up stories about what they do in their "real life" and what they're like. It's actually kind of fun.
The first set was pretty awesome. I didn't get the song that I like, but with a band like this, the set list changes each night so you never really know what you're going to get until you get it. Supposedly they hadn't played my song during the west coast run so I was thinking there would be a good chance that I'd get it. Unfortunately, they have a 3-night run in San Fran Fri-Sun and it's rumored that those shows were going to be the ones to go off. In any case, I dug the first set.
During set break Josh and I called Lisa and then decided to scope out the rest of the venue. We went upstairs behind the bar to find another bar and lounge area which was pretty cool (the drinks were bigger and Josh said stronger up there). We then decided to take a little trip to the other side above the stage. Up there was awesome! You're behind the band and looking directly down at the stage so we were able to see that Brendan (lead singer) has a clock in front of him (on the ground) so he can keep track of time. We could see the set list (which, let me tell you, DID NOT have my song on it) and we could see that the band keeps Star Wars figurines on their amps. We also got to see the tea Brendan drinks to coat this throat (I'm assuming it's some honey mixture of sorts).
When the second set started, I was in heaven. It's pretty cool to be able to see exactly what the band sees. A sea of heads bobbing in unison, the guy in the white hooded sweatshirt (hood up) doing his own thing and dancing offbeat, the guy and his girlfriend "sneaking" pipe hits three rows back, the 40+ year old in the sparkly top rockin' out and trying to be 20, and, of course, the 20 year old girl wearing a band shirt that she hiked up to show her stomach off who screams at everything and looks adoringly on at the band but when she makes eye contact, gives them the you know you want to take me backstage and do me look. Yeah, this was DEFINITELY the place for me even though there were couches that were kinda folded up and it appeared that it really wasn't an area for people to hang (there was a nice little draft coming from the fan that was sucking air in from outside). Well, as I'm really getting into my people watching, security comes up and they were dicks. Apparently some jackass threw something at the stage and we were all getting punished and had to leave. Josh, being Josh, was trying to talk to them and see what was going on (just to get the story straight) but they were just being rude and literally pushing us down the stairs.
It was cool though - we got down just in time to hear them start a fan-favorite and there's nothing like walking through a group of people all dancing and singing along. It's so movie-esque.
We decided to set up camp on that side of the stage (left) which basically meant we had made it full circle. The left side of the stage had a totally different vibe from the right side. I don't know of it was the fact that it was so far in that people were completely loaded or just that all the "cool kids" had made it over there but there was definitely something different going on.
I love hippies...as long as they stay away from me. I've been to enough "jam band" shows to have figured out how to do the standard arm flailing, body snaking "hippie dance" (ask me to do it sometime - it's like one of my party tricks). I have also figured out that when they're in the "zone" you best get out of the way so you don't get punched because they don't care who is around them, they're just doing their thing. Needless to say, I was surrounded by these people. There was the guy in front of me who was so into his raver/hippie moves that he almost knocked me over, the dude with dreds who was doing the same thing with his friends to my left and then I noticed the girl at the table. Now that I think about it, there were chairs at the tables (ha!). She was sitting there completely crashed out (I swear she was dead) and oblivious to the world. I don't even know if she was there with anyone. There were people at the table but they were in and out.
That side of the room had the characters. There was the guy who was dressed more for a rap concert than an UM show (there were a couple of those guys), the Rasafari type people, girls in their flowy hippie skirts and dresses, and the chick who came all whored out in stiletto boots, daisy dukes and a backless top. You know that chick was drunk because she was hitting on every single guy there (kinda like that chick when Andrea and I went to see Billy Talent last year). It was at that moment that I saw the guy puking in the corner. YES! You know it's not a show until there's someone hurling up their dinner and booze into a trash can in the back corner.
Somehow this side had much more energy. There were a bunch of people doing the "woot, woot" thing during a song (seriously, it's jam music, not rap folks) and almost everyone on that side was hardcore to where they knew the words to the songs and were like crazy dancing.
About half way through that second set I tapped out. They went into like the longest jam ever and I started drifting and getting lost in my own thoughts (not always the greatest, not always the worst). The crowd started to lose interest. I could see people getting antsy and more and more people heading to the patio area for a smoke break. Hell, even Josh was losing interest and this is what Josh lives for! They finally wrapped it up and called it a night (well they still had the encore) so we went to the back and got in line to get our soundboard. Well, the rumor was that they had been doing a new cover each night for the encore so we were pretty stoked to hear it (since I adore covers).
So, we're standing there and they come out and start to play and Josh immediately says "Come Together" and I'm like wow! The Beatles, NICER! Then he was telling me about how he saw Trey (from Phish) do that same song as an encore and he was telling me that UM covers a bunch of Beatles tracks. So as we're listening I immediately tell Josh that it's not Come Together. I'm like no no no they switched it's NIN's Closer. Then it went right back into Come Together. I was like I swear I heard Closer. The guy in front of us in line was laughing at me and I wanted to be like, dude, DO NOT fuck with me when it comes to music - I know my shit, but I didn't because they had gone out of Come Together and back into Closer so yeah, screw you buddy, I so knew what I was talking about!
I looked over to my left and went OMG Justin! I was one of those people! It was pretty cool. I hadn't seen or talked to Justin in quite some time. He deleted his Myspace account, he's never online and neither one of us know how to pick up a phone (I only text). So he and I were talking and he's like do you hear this - Come Together and Closer I was like HA! Again, I frickin kick some serious ass for picking up on it immediately (that's what I get for having musician friends and listen to enough musical genres to where I can pick up on most things). So we were talking for a bit and I was like dude how many drugs are you on right now. He's like I'm about 7 drinks in and I was smoking. I was like yeah you probably don't even know you're talking to me right now and no sooner did I say it than he was like off and gone to some other place (now you know why we never hang out!).
So, we got our soundboard and bailed. On the way home we were talking about the encore and how that made the show and I was like you NEED to make me a copy of that CD so he was totally down with it cuz Josh is cool like that. Then I dropped him off and get a text that says "ComeTogetherCloser even better the second time around" and I was like nice and told him thanks for inviting me because he didn't have to and he thanked me for driving and being an all-around cool chick.
So that's my UM experience. 1st show of the year down, next up Bon Jovi with Shauna (now that is going to be something else! - she already said her goal is to scream so loud that he hears her and sends his people up to tell her to shut it).....But, who knows what might come up between now and April. *wink*
Anyway, the venue is supposedly pretty new. It's called Crash Mansion and apparently there's a sister "club" in NY. The venue is pretty awesome! It's in downtown LA and pretty close to Staples Center/Nokia. When you get inside you walk up a set of stairs to the will call/ticket purchase area and from there you have 3 options. Straight takes you through the band merch area and to the bathrooms (which are pretty cool), right takes you into a very small lounge area with a couple of tables, bar and tiny dance floor/stage, and left takes you into the main room. It's pretty obvious upon walking in that they use it as a real club most days. The back of the room is all bar - from the left to the right it's a bar complete with bottles on the wall and a menu of fried foods. In front of the bar is a seating area - tall tables but I don't recall seeing chairs and then in front of that is a very wide dance floor. You could be at the back of the room but still feel like you're right up in front which is pretty sweet. There's a spot above the floor where one would assume they put the DJ, a killer lighting system (it's all cracked out on various tracks and whatnot) and four screens (two on each side) that I'm assuming they play videos on when it's club night. To the right and the left of the stage there are black U-shaped booths and looked pretty cush. Above the bar looked like an area to where people could hang out and there also seemed to be a similar area behind the stage.
The first thing we did was make a bee line to the merch table where Josh pre-paid for his soundboard taping of the show. You know you're seeing a good band when they offer concert-goers the ability to purchase the live show immediately after.
Anyway, we decided we would make our spot to the right of the stage and fairly far back. We got drinks (well he got a drink drink, I just got a drink) and decided to chit chat about Vegoose and how disappointed I was over the fact that I wasn't allowed to go last year (Vic's girlfriend, of course) and Josh pretty much said the same thing Bob did in that they had the room. Josh's girlfriend had to work and wasn't able to take the time off so I could have totally shared Josh's bed with him and apparently he had the biggest bed ever. So I told him that this year I didn't care what she wanted or how she felt, I was going to go. Why is it that I should be left out and suffer because she (for no good reason) can't stand me?
Josh was telling me that Vic creates the problem so I asked how/why. Apparently the retard says stupid shit in front of Jen that makes her insecure-ish. Like, last year I had asked Vic to give me a copy of the lyrics to all of the songs he had written me (and the music as well - they never actually recorded the song with the vocals). Vic decided to tell Josh that I wanted those in front of Jen. Now this wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that she had seen pictures of me and was jealous because she thought I was prettier, skinnier and I had red hair. Well, just like everyone says, if she can't beat me in the looks department, she needs to beat me in the nice department (which I'm still nicer but people would look at her different if she was nice). So, Vic's created a problem, Vic is the only one who can fix the problem, and there's no way in hell I'm missing Vegoose this year! Bob wants me there, Michelle wants me there, Josh wants me there, if Lisa goes she'll want me there, Vic would want me there if he could have me there so there is absolutely no good reason for me not to go. Plus, at this rate, they may *crosses fingers* be completely over by then. I'm not trying to be mean, but it's not right for me to give up my friends because she has some issues with herself. OK back to the show.
I hadn't seen Umphrey's in about 2 years. In fact, I hadn't seen them since Vegoose in 2005 so I was really looking forward to it. Josh had told me that they tightened up their sound a bit and instead of playing an hour and a half before taking a set break, they play well for an hour and take a break. The funny thing about these shows is that everyone knows everyone else. As we were standing there, I saw tons of people walk by and give hugs to those around them. Sure, they could have been on way too many drugs, but I'd like to think it's because they're actually friends.
The funny thing about hippies is that they all wear Patchouli so during the set my nostrils were filled with a combo of Patchouli and pot in various strengths. I spend a lot of my time at shows like this just watching people. I make up stories about what they do in their "real life" and what they're like. It's actually kind of fun.
The first set was pretty awesome. I didn't get the song that I like, but with a band like this, the set list changes each night so you never really know what you're going to get until you get it. Supposedly they hadn't played my song during the west coast run so I was thinking there would be a good chance that I'd get it. Unfortunately, they have a 3-night run in San Fran Fri-Sun and it's rumored that those shows were going to be the ones to go off. In any case, I dug the first set.
During set break Josh and I called Lisa and then decided to scope out the rest of the venue. We went upstairs behind the bar to find another bar and lounge area which was pretty cool (the drinks were bigger and Josh said stronger up there). We then decided to take a little trip to the other side above the stage. Up there was awesome! You're behind the band and looking directly down at the stage so we were able to see that Brendan (lead singer) has a clock in front of him (on the ground) so he can keep track of time. We could see the set list (which, let me tell you, DID NOT have my song on it) and we could see that the band keeps Star Wars figurines on their amps. We also got to see the tea Brendan drinks to coat this throat (I'm assuming it's some honey mixture of sorts).
When the second set started, I was in heaven. It's pretty cool to be able to see exactly what the band sees. A sea of heads bobbing in unison, the guy in the white hooded sweatshirt (hood up) doing his own thing and dancing offbeat, the guy and his girlfriend "sneaking" pipe hits three rows back, the 40+ year old in the sparkly top rockin' out and trying to be 20, and, of course, the 20 year old girl wearing a band shirt that she hiked up to show her stomach off who screams at everything and looks adoringly on at the band but when she makes eye contact, gives them the you know you want to take me backstage and do me look. Yeah, this was DEFINITELY the place for me even though there were couches that were kinda folded up and it appeared that it really wasn't an area for people to hang (there was a nice little draft coming from the fan that was sucking air in from outside). Well, as I'm really getting into my people watching, security comes up and they were dicks. Apparently some jackass threw something at the stage and we were all getting punished and had to leave. Josh, being Josh, was trying to talk to them and see what was going on (just to get the story straight) but they were just being rude and literally pushing us down the stairs.
It was cool though - we got down just in time to hear them start a fan-favorite and there's nothing like walking through a group of people all dancing and singing along. It's so movie-esque.
We decided to set up camp on that side of the stage (left) which basically meant we had made it full circle. The left side of the stage had a totally different vibe from the right side. I don't know of it was the fact that it was so far in that people were completely loaded or just that all the "cool kids" had made it over there but there was definitely something different going on.
I love hippies...as long as they stay away from me. I've been to enough "jam band" shows to have figured out how to do the standard arm flailing, body snaking "hippie dance" (ask me to do it sometime - it's like one of my party tricks). I have also figured out that when they're in the "zone" you best get out of the way so you don't get punched because they don't care who is around them, they're just doing their thing. Needless to say, I was surrounded by these people. There was the guy in front of me who was so into his raver/hippie moves that he almost knocked me over, the dude with dreds who was doing the same thing with his friends to my left and then I noticed the girl at the table. Now that I think about it, there were chairs at the tables (ha!). She was sitting there completely crashed out (I swear she was dead) and oblivious to the world. I don't even know if she was there with anyone. There were people at the table but they were in and out.
That side of the room had the characters. There was the guy who was dressed more for a rap concert than an UM show (there were a couple of those guys), the Rasafari type people, girls in their flowy hippie skirts and dresses, and the chick who came all whored out in stiletto boots, daisy dukes and a backless top. You know that chick was drunk because she was hitting on every single guy there (kinda like that chick when Andrea and I went to see Billy Talent last year). It was at that moment that I saw the guy puking in the corner. YES! You know it's not a show until there's someone hurling up their dinner and booze into a trash can in the back corner.
Somehow this side had much more energy. There were a bunch of people doing the "woot, woot" thing during a song (seriously, it's jam music, not rap folks) and almost everyone on that side was hardcore to where they knew the words to the songs and were like crazy dancing.
About half way through that second set I tapped out. They went into like the longest jam ever and I started drifting and getting lost in my own thoughts (not always the greatest, not always the worst). The crowd started to lose interest. I could see people getting antsy and more and more people heading to the patio area for a smoke break. Hell, even Josh was losing interest and this is what Josh lives for! They finally wrapped it up and called it a night (well they still had the encore) so we went to the back and got in line to get our soundboard. Well, the rumor was that they had been doing a new cover each night for the encore so we were pretty stoked to hear it (since I adore covers).
So, we're standing there and they come out and start to play and Josh immediately says "Come Together" and I'm like wow! The Beatles, NICER! Then he was telling me about how he saw Trey (from Phish) do that same song as an encore and he was telling me that UM covers a bunch of Beatles tracks. So as we're listening I immediately tell Josh that it's not Come Together. I'm like no no no they switched it's NIN's Closer. Then it went right back into Come Together. I was like I swear I heard Closer. The guy in front of us in line was laughing at me and I wanted to be like, dude, DO NOT fuck with me when it comes to music - I know my shit, but I didn't because they had gone out of Come Together and back into Closer so yeah, screw you buddy, I so knew what I was talking about!
I looked over to my left and went OMG Justin! I was one of those people! It was pretty cool. I hadn't seen or talked to Justin in quite some time. He deleted his Myspace account, he's never online and neither one of us know how to pick up a phone (I only text). So he and I were talking and he's like do you hear this - Come Together and Closer I was like HA! Again, I frickin kick some serious ass for picking up on it immediately (that's what I get for having musician friends and listen to enough musical genres to where I can pick up on most things). So we were talking for a bit and I was like dude how many drugs are you on right now. He's like I'm about 7 drinks in and I was smoking. I was like yeah you probably don't even know you're talking to me right now and no sooner did I say it than he was like off and gone to some other place (now you know why we never hang out!).
So, we got our soundboard and bailed. On the way home we were talking about the encore and how that made the show and I was like you NEED to make me a copy of that CD so he was totally down with it cuz Josh is cool like that. Then I dropped him off and get a text that says "ComeTogetherCloser even better the second time around" and I was like nice and told him thanks for inviting me because he didn't have to and he thanked me for driving and being an all-around cool chick.
So that's my UM experience. 1st show of the year down, next up Bon Jovi with Shauna (now that is going to be something else! - she already said her goal is to scream so loud that he hears her and sends his people up to tell her to shut it).....But, who knows what might come up between now and April. *wink*