Two of My Favorites In One Weekend

This weekend was really pretty amazing. At first I thought it was going to be confined mostly to seeing my two favorite bands in concert on back to back nights. For that alone, I would have been pretty excited. I'll just start with the concerts though...

Friday night Unwritten Law played at the Key Club in Hollywood. They were filming a live show for a DVD that they'll be releasing. I was particularly excited about this show because I expected that it would mean that Scott (lead singer) would be more focused on performing than interjecting pointless talk in between every song that they played. And it turned out that I was right. This might sound kind of weird, but I think Scott was looking pretty good. He got his teeth fixed and I think he had lost some weight also because I seem to remember him having a pretty good sized beer belly from previous shows. The venue was tightly packed, and pretty small. Greg, Mike, and I got there in time to catch just one band before UL. Didn't seem like we missed out on much from the sound of that band, although they did have a drummer light it up with a number of facial ticks and constant reaching for his face even while he was playing the drums. I think I enjoyed the constant smile that he wore. Like Greg said later that night, it reminded me of Mugatu on Zoolander when he has the wordless conversation with his personal assistant where it's just facial expressions and then he turns and says, "yes, Derek." Unwritten Law sounded good. Scott had mentioned that it was the longest set they had ever played with 22 songs. It was the typical lineup of songs that I'm accustomed to at their shows. I really liked it.

Last night we caught Strung Out at the Vault in Long Beach. The venue is an old bank in downtown Long Beach that looks more like a government building than a concert venue from the outside. I think they pump up the of volume a little too much at that locale. It was the 10th anniversary of one of their albums so they played that entire album straight through from song 1-14. I thought it would end with that, but then they brought out some chairs and did a couple of acoustic songs. Then I thought that would be it. Then they played a few more, and yelled out "we have a couple more for you" and took a short break. They repeated that some process at least three times more. The banded started at 1130pm and didn't stop until about 115am. It was unreal. They probably ended up playing about 25 songs, with a good mix of songs from previous albums.

What I really loved about the Strung Out show versus the Unwritten Law show is that the crowd almost seems more savvy. And I would describe it in a way similar to sports fans. A lot of people say that, for example, St. Louis Cardinals fans are really intelligent, and just great overall fans. They can sense the big moments in a game, really understand their team and what is going on, and are completely dedicated. I would say the same is true for Strung Out fans. There was more energy at this show from the crowd than I had probably ever seen at a show. The band clearly was feeding off of it, but even when I was standing in the back, it seemed like EVERYONE in the entire audience knew every single word to every single song. There were a lot fewer casual fans in attendance at Strung Out as compared to Unwritten Law and I just absolutely loved it. The pit was ferocious, I just couldn't have asked for anything more. I thought Friday night with UL was amazing until I saw Strung Out last night and had my definition of amazing completely altered by that performance. It was wonderful. And I think my favorite line at any show like that is when the lead singer screams "get the (expletive) up!" and seeing and feeling every person in the whole venue react to that line. The energy is boundless.

I know one ex that I dated really doesn't care for punk shows, or even just normal concerts anymore just because she really feels that it detracts from being able to feel the spirit. And I guess that sentiment is endorsed by General Authorities, but it really is a funny thing to see the kind of camaraderie that is present at those venues. I know that there is drinking and swear words that largely accompanies those types of events, but geez...sometimes it's just so great to experience something so raw and just so packed with emotion. I wish I could explain it better to do it more justice. I think it's one of those things that really just reveals a side of humanity that is really worth experiencing.

Sometimes we use that word humanity and really I think we just mean to say flawed. Humanity I think encompasses a lot more than that. It really is about taking part in the human experience and indulging in the culture of which we are members. Am I going to go clubbing when I'm 45 years old? or am I going to keep on going to these shows when my kids are grown up? The answer to both of those is obviously not, but I think that's more because it's just not a part of what the culture is like for someone who is a little bit older with family and different priorities. Is it a part of my culture as a guy in his late 20s to go dancing, or go to shows and get really sweaty and scream song lyrics at the top of his lungs? Yeah, I think so. I love enjoying and indulging in that part of the world.

Oh, by the way, my hypothesis still seems to hold true that you can get into any event that is sold out just be showing up and going through the effort of talking to everyone you see about finding a way in. We had a friend unexpectedly show up into town over the weekend and his friend band happens to be Strung Out, but he hadn't planned on coming to the show with us. Greg and I convinced him to come, not even telling him that the event was sold out. So we showed up, asked around for some tickets, and then approached the guys working the door. We told them we only had three tickets for four guys. The guy heading it up picked up on our hint, let us in the door, and we slipped him $40 bucks for his trouble.

The video below totally stinks, but it's Strung Out playing a song at the Vault from a different show that I've never heard live, but would love to catch one time. I actually kind of love that you can hear the guy next to the camera over Jason's vocals. A couple of last things about that particular show...you know it's a good one when everyone exiting the concert is talking about how mind-blowing that show was. My favorite comment that I overheard was "I don't want kids, but I would totally have Jason Cruz's children." I wish you could have heard the earnestness in her voice.