Last weekend, we went to the 91X concert called Wrex the Halls. And it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of young folk there, dagnabbit, but there were also plenty of older folk like us, one of whom pointed out that I still had a freaking tag hanging off my jacket (thanks for telling me, ENTIRE FAMILY WHO INSPECTED ME BEFORE I LEFT and WHO ALSO NEVER TELL ME ABOUT THE SPINACH. THE SPINACH!).
We were on the floor, in a mostly civil crush of people, mostly blessedly and rather curiously not drenched in AXE (thank you! You all got my memo).
I have to tell you, people say that Asians go crazy with the cameras, but it’s really EVERYONE in the WORLD.
Wherever you looked you could see camera phone screens lit and held aloft, recording, taking grainy photos. The girls in front of me had TWO cameras each– one a DSLR and the other a camera– flashes busy, armpits aired out, arms banging on my head.
Did I laugh when one girl behind me dropped her phone? Yes.
Really. How can you watch the show or live in the actual real live moment when you are doing nothing but filming and taking photos?
It’s what I also think when we go to places like Disneyland and there’s a parent lugging around 50 pounds of camera equipment and forcing his kids to get in the GOOD light. For God’s sake, put down the stupid camera and enjoy.
Anyway, 91X had a real photographer there and a real videographer there to document, and have a bunch of stuff on their website.
A couple of photos are all you need- must you be ridiculous? Are you going to make your friends sit through a slideshow of your concert experience? (Oh yeah, it’s called Facebook).
Because they turn out like this:
It was a good concert, the lineup being as follows:The Naked and the Famous, The Airborne Toxic Event, Cage the Elephant, Noel Gallagher, Death Cab for Cutie, Florence and the Machine. First, I didn’t even know Noel Gallagher had a new band (called the High Flying Birds or something, won’t bother to look it up) because I thought he and his brother broke up Oasis (who *was* the instigator)? Anyway, they played several Oasis songs, so I guess it didn’t matter much that Oasis broke up.
We found a lounge that said MEMBERS ONLY but nobody stopped us. I think people just didn’t know they could go in. The drinks were no more expensive inside than in the rest of the place. Beforehand, I bought a special Wrex the Halls shirt that promised free swag if you wore it! Free VIP things! but really all I got was to go ahead in line. The 91X girl (when I asked much later) said they gave out all their VIP passes. A thousand drats! I even (I don’t know if you can see it in the picture) cut it up really cute, because it was a non-curvy boy’s shirt. So punk of me, I know. I think it should have gotten me Special Honors or at least a ribbon.
My two current favorites were there (as I will mention in a blog post over on in a couple of days. I am listening to the Airborne Toxic Event and Florence and the Machine as I write. Not exclusively because they don’t have millions of hours of songs, but all of their songs plus songs based on their songs, according to Pandora. Florence and the Machine has such a strong beautiful voice– I was afraid she’d be drowned out in the cavernous Sports Arena (confusingly known as Valley View Casino Center)– in performance, she is like if you put together:
(you know, Professor Trelawny, the Divinations Teacher from Hogwarts)
and
a Pre-Raphaelite Ophelia.
Which I mean in the best way possible.
MARGARET DILLOWAY 