Thanks to all of you who said I could go to a concert at 44. I thought of you when I got into line and Gary asked the woman ahead, "You're in line for Guster, right?" She turned around and said, "Yes, but there's an over twenty-one line on the other side of the building and it's much shorter." Liar, I thought, but we found the Guster Geezer Line and it was indeed much shorter. And staffed by people on the lookout for "Unders." And, well, populated by gorgeous twenty-one-and-a-day year olds.
Highlights of the concert:
1) The third song in was a cover of "Brazil," a fine song from BEFORE MY DAY. It is also featured as the title song in one of my five favorite movies. And of course, it is the name of my favorite pubic hairstyle which I recommend to everyone.
2) As they sang "Fa Fa" the drummer was beating the hell out of the congas, and I was mentally rearranging my guest room to accommodate the additional congas and cymbals Gary is going to want now. I am resigned. Well, actually, I am excited, because he could really go to town if he had more than two congas and two bongos.
It's remarkable how much better they sound live: not at all whiny. However, I've been spoiled. They only have one front man. Is the rest of the band unable to speak? Or dance? Or make references to pop culture and Eastern philosophy?
Even though we got there early (Geezer Line, I recommend it) we perched at the top of the balcony. (This on the advice of one of Gary's female co-workers, who said "I used to stand in the pit on the floor, but I can't do that anymore since I'm over thirty." Yeah, that gave me a good belly laugh.) We were struck by the amount of crowd socializing that floated up to us during the actual concert. Gary was trying to put it into words and was torn between "Alien Locusts" and "House of Commons Questions Time," if either were attending a rock concert.
On a related note, at one point I noticed Gary was perched on his seat and the perky twenty something next to him was chatting him up, and by chatting I mean cupping her hand and screaming intimately into his ear. When the house lights came on I promptly body slammed him against the wall and demanded to know what Perky had said to him.
He sighed, "Oh, it's the same thing all the young girls say to me at concerts. Their eyes get big and they say, 'You must have been to lots of concerts. How does this band compare to other bands, like, say, the Beatles?'"
Went to a Tenacious D concert a couple months back, and the peoplewatching was Extreme. And by Extreme I mean highlighting the antics of the under-25 crowd. We prowled around the balcony "for better acoustics" but really just to find seats for our over-28 (some of us over-32), fully-employed behinds and you're right - the balcony belongs to the moldy oldies, and the floor to the kiddies. The people in front of us and to either side of us were definitely 60+. Let's keep going to concerts till we're old enough that some kid feels compelled to get up and GIVE us his seat. Yeah!
Posted by: TasterSpoon | February 26, 2007 at 06:55 PM
60 plus! That give me hope for the future.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 26, 2007 at 11:13 PM
Not just one front man...Adam and Ryan both sing during the shows. Ryan does seem to be the only one who sings, though. Hmmmm...I wonder why the others don't ever say anything. BTW, mind if I add you to my blogroll?
Posted by: Melissa | March 04, 2007 at 05:35 PM
Perhaps they're shy.
Of course you can add me to your blogroll. But, I have to warn you: read through the contents of "The Great Hall of TMI" on the left. At times I feel the need to be inappropriate and adult. You may not want to appear to condone this behavior.
Let me know if I can return the favor and add you to bloglines, which generates my blogroll. You sound like my doppleganger. We could start a blogring of mid-40 BNL fans.
Posted by: TheQueen | March 04, 2007 at 06:41 PM
I read several of your posts and thought they were great. I'm never scared by TMI; the more, the better I say! I'd love to be added to your blogroll; it looks fun!
Posted by: Melissa | March 04, 2007 at 07:17 PM
Well okay Melissa, if you clicked all the links in: http://mocklog.typepad.com/queen_mediocretia/2006/12/oild_fish_new_f.html
and were not offended, then you are welcome. Then again, you haven't read what I'm going to post tonight. It is probably the most offensive post ever.
Posted by: TheQueen | March 04, 2007 at 07:50 PM