Shades of Earth: August 2007

I am bursting with excitement. I have an amazing weekend planned, when I get to see many [so many] people that I don't see very often.

For the first 24 hours it's just me and my twin, who I haven't seen for almost 2 months, which is way too long.

My camp Bible study partner is coming to stay with us Saturday night. And I just love her.

And Sunday is the big camp reunion, precious, wonderful people that I usually only see once a year. This year I am lucky to see them again!

'I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it...'

On another note, and another reason to be excited, is this: tomorrow at school we have open house, where parents/students can casually come and visit the school, their teachers, etc. I find I am really looking forward to seeing some families that I have not seen since June, and also I'm excited to meet new families.

I need to get to bed!

I promised a friend I would blog about this. And so I shall.

Sunday night was the Modest Mouse concert. It was an outdoors, all-weather show, so of course it was cold and rainy. However, I was too excited to care. I met my friends outside of the city for dinner and then we all rode downtown together. We got there just in time, and secured our places in the mob, about 4 rows back on the right side of the stage. It was a pretty sweet place to stand.

And stand we did.

There was a random opening band at 7, didn't catch their name, and I wouldn't give them a good review anyways.

Then Band of Horses played, and they were really good. I'll probably end up purchasing some of their music.

And then. Brace yourselves. Clipse played a set. [I use the term 'play' loosely.] I hate to even disgrace my blog by linking to their site...but you need to go there to fully understand.
As I stood there with my mouth agape, wondering why there is an effing RAP GROUP opening for my beloved Modest Mouse, I decided I was in my own personal nightmare. I don't know who was in charge of the booking for this event, but I would love to know what they were smoking when they came up with this idea.
The scariest part was:
a. when their 'dj' played the bass so loud that I literally could not breathe. For an entire song. I had to time my breathing for moments when the bass died out and quickly take a breath then. This was a new and terrifying experience for me.

or maybe:
b. when I tried to be sneaky about my ear-plugging, and I was afraid one of the guys on stage would point me out since I obviously hated them, and their *cough* 'music' and life in general.

Anyways. After rattling my bones with their noise for too many minutes, they left the stage, to much cheering [mostly by me] and I was able to laugh about it...although I couldn't really hear myself laughing...so I at least think I was laughing. I'll have to ask my genius of a friend who was next to me and must have been forewarned to bring EAR PLUGS.

Note to self: always, always, always, bring earplugs to concerts from now on. Just in case.

Moving on.

Three openers 2 1/2 hours of standing in the rain aside, it was finally time for MM. And the shoving.

A group of people had worked their way through the crowd and came to 'rest' right behind me. Literally right behind me. You could not have shoved a piece of paper between me and my new buddies. I really don't prefer my ass to be grabbed that much unless it is by my husband. I looked at the girl next to me and we bonded over this uncomfortable and unfortunate experience, and we decided to stand our ground. So we did. We ignored them for quite some time, then turned around and yelled a couple times. I think they backed off for a song or two [because MM had finally taken the stage!].

I began truly enjoying myself for the first time in 3 hours.

Suddenly, I got shoved, hard. I fell onto the people in front of me and tried to stand up, and got pushed again. And again. And I started pushing back, and who knows what song was being performed, all I knew was hands and legs and feet and yelling. Then someone grabbed my arm, really hard, and I started yelling at them, and my friend Jess yelled that it was her, and she pulled me out of there.

[Now, I have been to a LOT of concerts. And many of those involved a similar venue, and I know there have been high/drunk people at other shows. But I have never been treated so rudely. I know these people were high, I could smell/see the pot and the beer bottles were everywhere. But come on. These people were OLD. I mean at least as old as me! And I'd think by then you would have moved on in your life? Apparently not.]

So anyways. Jess pulled me out of there and now I am pretty much standing as close to her and her husband as possible, but at least I am not getting shoved.

I am fuming, and the assholes who pushed me are right next to me, and I just want to kill them all. But I managed to close my eyes, forget about them, and focus on the [amazing] music.

Then MM had to go and play 'Doin' the Cockroach.'
Yes, I love this song.
No, I did not love the insane amount of ruckus it caused [wow, I sound old] and the fact that another, larger shoving match broke out, and I got moved further away from MM and their awesomeness.

Ok. So again, I managed to ignore my fury, and enjoy myself. Until finally Jess was getting beat up again and we got out of there and stood behind the whole crowd.

We should have just done that in the beginning, but Jess and Joe are die-hard concert-goers and they wanted to stand up there, so we did.
I will let them go on their own next time.

Bottom line[s]:
Was Modest Mouse good? No, they were amazing.
Did I want to kill myself during Clipse? Yes.
Did the rudeness ruin my night? Hmm...I would say no, but almost.
Do I need to see MM again to redeem my concert life? Yes please, and soon.

For a more lighthearted review of MM live, see this blog!