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Break, if you like the sound--
So I'm back from the first tour show Soundgarden's played since 1997.
No. For reals.
This was kind of an impromptu thing. Last week sometime, my friend Danny (who I think has no LJ) and I were at our new best patio, talking 'bout stuff and having gin, and I said, "Hey, there's Soundgarden next week. We should go to Soundgarden."
He did not know there was Soundgarden, and is a huge, super, ultra fan. So this thing I said in idleness turned into a thing we were doing or else. And so this morning I rolled out of bed and got some online tickets for Soundgarden.
We actually went down on time for once -- Molson Amphitheatre is apparently sincere when they say a show starts at 7:30. So got some dinner, took the streetcar to the venue, and got in just as Coheed & Cambria were starting the opening set.
I really need to fix the autofocus on this damn camera. In any case, stage, Coheed, heads.
I was curious about this, because I have some friends who really, really like Coheed, and they are generally not people of poor taste. The live show was very metal. And unfortunately, I have been known to sometimes find metal kind of melodramatic and silly, what with its whole and now I will not only have a guitar, but two guitars stacked on top of each other! And I will play this excessively complicated guitar solo on it! And I will do that with the guitar being balanced on my head! (No, I am not kidding. That happened.)
We decided it was kind of Linkin Park meets the Deftones meets a few Wheel of Time novels, and probably more fun if you're into the story. Also that I may be unkindly prejudiced against metal bands.*
They played a lot of Mark Lanegan during the break -- solo stuff and Screaming Trees stuff. And that put me in a good mood.
And then there was Soundgarden.
Same deal; pretend you can see a Soundgarden there.
We had lawn tickets, which means you don't get seats and it's catch as catch can -- and sometimes means you're watching other people watch a show -- but which also means you have the requisite space to dance your face off. And we did that. We did that a lot.
Chris Cornell's voice still sounds the same, even after years and years. They played, well, pretty much old stuff: Black Rain, Spoonman, Rusty Cage, Blow Up the Outside World, Let Me Drown, My Wave, Fell on Black Days, Burden in My Hand, Superunkown, Black Hole Sun, Fourth of July to finish the set. The encore was...two songs I'm not sure of and Like Suicide between them. He did not take his shirt off. Which was sad.
We headbanged and danced ourselves a little hole in the crowd and shouted lyrics back at the stage, and then other people were also dancing there too, and the people next to us were headbanging, and it got muggier and windier throughout the set, and then by the time they started Black Hole Sun there was lightning all over the sky and it started to pour. And we went "Umbrellas? Nah!" and kept going through it, and it was...kind of glorious. :) Every time a new fork of lightning came through the sky, everyone cheered. Apparently this was actually a severe thunderstorm warning. Oops. :)
It didn't rain all that long, but the lightning kept up the whole set -- this weird double light show which got more and more amazing as it went -- and by the end of it we were hoarse and warm and grinning and soaked and exhausted, and it was so, so very good. One of the best shows I've seen in ages. Just...amazing.
We walked through the (again) rain until we found Bathurst again, and straggled into a pub like the drowned rats we were for restorative beer and nachos, and then made our disparate ways home through the city. I ended up walking, even though it meant another 30-40 minutes on my feet and not getting in until past 1:00 am. The city's all humid and cool, and it smelled terrifically like roses and honey tonight.
As a side note, re: last night's what is wrong with people discussion, tonight was the total polar opposite in mood of yesterday's show. Just as much drinking, from what I can judge less drugs (it does make a difference when they're patting you down at the gate for contraband, and it does make a difference that yesterday was all ages, and tonight was decidedly not). But tonight? People were awesome. They high-fived you between songs. Nobody got in your dance space, and everyone was really courteous about spacing ourselves out so everyone had dance space. No throwing shit at people, or other sorts of general fuckery.
The four people next to us were chatting with us between stuff, and high-fiving, and dancing kind of in a clump. In retrospect, the six of us, and then a couple more by the end, were rowdy as all hell; they were probably kinda drunk, and we don't have to be.** And near the end, one of the girls -- it was two couples, I think? -- gave us both this big two-armed hug and said something to the effect of, "I totally don't know you guys, but you're awesome, and it's so cool that we got to experience this together."
...and that is what I mean about good crowds and bad crowds and what's my scene and what isn't. Nights where there is crazy loud rock and my naked toes in the grass and pouring rain on my face and lightning in the sky, and hugging complete strangers because we got to stand together in that, regardless of whether we'll ever run into each other again? That's my scene. That's what's mine.
That is what I mean when I say summer shows.
And now: I did not mean to do two big shows, two days in a row. And I am very tired, and going to bed. :)
*We spent the time between sets naming off metal bands to see if we thought they were silly or not, and thus diagnose or refute this whole prejudice thing.
**'Cause that's how we roll. All trouble, all the time, dead sober.
No. For reals.
This was kind of an impromptu thing. Last week sometime, my friend Danny (who I think has no LJ) and I were at our new best patio, talking 'bout stuff and having gin, and I said, "Hey, there's Soundgarden next week. We should go to Soundgarden."
He did not know there was Soundgarden, and is a huge, super, ultra fan. So this thing I said in idleness turned into a thing we were doing or else. And so this morning I rolled out of bed and got some online tickets for Soundgarden.
We actually went down on time for once -- Molson Amphitheatre is apparently sincere when they say a show starts at 7:30. So got some dinner, took the streetcar to the venue, and got in just as Coheed & Cambria were starting the opening set.
I really need to fix the autofocus on this damn camera. In any case, stage, Coheed, heads.
I was curious about this, because I have some friends who really, really like Coheed, and they are generally not people of poor taste. The live show was very metal. And unfortunately, I have been known to sometimes find metal kind of melodramatic and silly, what with its whole and now I will not only have a guitar, but two guitars stacked on top of each other! And I will play this excessively complicated guitar solo on it! And I will do that with the guitar being balanced on my head! (No, I am not kidding. That happened.)
We decided it was kind of Linkin Park meets the Deftones meets a few Wheel of Time novels, and probably more fun if you're into the story. Also that I may be unkindly prejudiced against metal bands.*
They played a lot of Mark Lanegan during the break -- solo stuff and Screaming Trees stuff. And that put me in a good mood.
And then there was Soundgarden.
Same deal; pretend you can see a Soundgarden there.
We had lawn tickets, which means you don't get seats and it's catch as catch can -- and sometimes means you're watching other people watch a show -- but which also means you have the requisite space to dance your face off. And we did that. We did that a lot.
Chris Cornell's voice still sounds the same, even after years and years. They played, well, pretty much old stuff: Black Rain, Spoonman, Rusty Cage, Blow Up the Outside World, Let Me Drown, My Wave, Fell on Black Days, Burden in My Hand, Superunkown, Black Hole Sun, Fourth of July to finish the set. The encore was...two songs I'm not sure of and Like Suicide between them. He did not take his shirt off. Which was sad.
We headbanged and danced ourselves a little hole in the crowd and shouted lyrics back at the stage, and then other people were also dancing there too, and the people next to us were headbanging, and it got muggier and windier throughout the set, and then by the time they started Black Hole Sun there was lightning all over the sky and it started to pour. And we went "Umbrellas? Nah!" and kept going through it, and it was...kind of glorious. :) Every time a new fork of lightning came through the sky, everyone cheered. Apparently this was actually a severe thunderstorm warning. Oops. :)
It didn't rain all that long, but the lightning kept up the whole set -- this weird double light show which got more and more amazing as it went -- and by the end of it we were hoarse and warm and grinning and soaked and exhausted, and it was so, so very good. One of the best shows I've seen in ages. Just...amazing.
We walked through the (again) rain until we found Bathurst again, and straggled into a pub like the drowned rats we were for restorative beer and nachos, and then made our disparate ways home through the city. I ended up walking, even though it meant another 30-40 minutes on my feet and not getting in until past 1:00 am. The city's all humid and cool, and it smelled terrifically like roses and honey tonight.
As a side note, re: last night's what is wrong with people discussion, tonight was the total polar opposite in mood of yesterday's show. Just as much drinking, from what I can judge less drugs (it does make a difference when they're patting you down at the gate for contraband, and it does make a difference that yesterday was all ages, and tonight was decidedly not). But tonight? People were awesome. They high-fived you between songs. Nobody got in your dance space, and everyone was really courteous about spacing ourselves out so everyone had dance space. No throwing shit at people, or other sorts of general fuckery.
The four people next to us were chatting with us between stuff, and high-fiving, and dancing kind of in a clump. In retrospect, the six of us, and then a couple more by the end, were rowdy as all hell; they were probably kinda drunk, and we don't have to be.** And near the end, one of the girls -- it was two couples, I think? -- gave us both this big two-armed hug and said something to the effect of, "I totally don't know you guys, but you're awesome, and it's so cool that we got to experience this together."
...and that is what I mean about good crowds and bad crowds and what's my scene and what isn't. Nights where there is crazy loud rock and my naked toes in the grass and pouring rain on my face and lightning in the sky, and hugging complete strangers because we got to stand together in that, regardless of whether we'll ever run into each other again? That's my scene. That's what's mine.
That is what I mean when I say summer shows.
And now: I did not mean to do two big shows, two days in a row. And I am very tired, and going to bed. :)
*We spent the time between sets naming off metal bands to see if we thought they were silly or not, and thus diagnose or refute this whole prejudice thing.
**'Cause that's how we roll. All trouble, all the time, dead sober.
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exploiting the opportunitytaking the time before his retirement to check out different fun places before we have to reel in the finances. Like Red Rocks in Denver, the Greek Theater in Berkeley, etc.I forget which show it was at the Cuthbert in Eugene (a lovely, lovely outdoor venue, one of my favorites, right up there with Red Rocks for beauty but much mellower and better food) with the huge thunderstorm during a full moon. It might have been the Pink Floyd tribute band Floydian Slips, it might have been one of the Grateful Dead side projects such as Furthur or Ratdog. Whatever it was, there was a lovely brooding full moon that slowly got obscured by clouds, and then everything broke loose once the concert was done, and we watched lightning over Autzen Stadium.
Meanwhile, we're doing the Blues Festival here in PDX. Similar crowds, all ages. But the mood changes so drastically from day to day. When it's mostly outdoor concert pros, it's pretty relaxed and mellow. Even on busy days when it gets really crowded it can be mellow. But then there are times when there's a really ugly undercurrent in the whole crowd and folks are on edge and territorial about their space. Yesterday had a touch of that. We sat next to Territory Queens who glowered at any slight infringement of their space before they disappeared for several hours (including me setting up a new chair on our! blanket! at the edge of our blanket! Within six inches of Their! Space!). A nice older triad staked out the space in front of their blanket during the time of disappearance. Upon the return of one of the Territory Queens, it turned ugly. She snarled at them sideways for five minutes straight in that low-voiced, snippy, bitchy-pissy passive-aggressive manner that needles under your skin but never breaks into open in-your-face screaming. Finally they moved, and a space opened up in front of us that I pointed out to the Lovely Triad (who were, really, quite polite, nice and not at all Territorial). Meanwhile, the Territory Queen sulked in her pristine space, glowering at me because I gave the Lovely Triad a nearby option. I ignored her. I cope with enough passive-aggressives at work. She's got a problem, she can dump the passive and deal with me directly.
I tend to have an easier time with all ages shows, but that's probably because I'm in my 50s and tend to either be seen as a decrepit old cougar or the Fount of All Wisdom (gag, ackpht) and reasonably respected. Over 21 shows around here tend to bring out folks like the Territory Queen.
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(Okay, I don't understand why people care to be like that, period.)
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