The Better Part of Me...

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
2003-06-16 @ 12:12 p.m.

I have seen a lot of concerts y�all. Live music is sort of �my thing.� Allow me to present my credentials:

NKOTB/Tiffany/Tommy Page (for the reals)

Hootie & The Blowfish/Toad the Wet Sprocket

Live (x2)

Hordefest 96 (Rusted Root, Lenny Kravitz, Natalie Merchant, Blues Traveler�)

Lilith Fair 97 (Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, Shawn Colvin�)

Wallflowers

Counting Crows (x3)

Aerosmith

Tom Petty

Goo Goo Dolls/3rd Eye Blind/Vanessa Carlton

Journey/Foreigner

Guster (x2)

John Mayer

Dave Matthews

Indigo Girls (x2)

Tracy Chapman

Aimee Mann/Michael Penn

U2

I get around.

So you�ll have to believe me when I say�the concert this past weekend? Not. That. Good.

I feel horrible saying it. These dudes are CLASSICS.

It was�good. Just�not that good.

R.E.O. Speedwagon apparently found God recently. They were all about �positive energy� and �doing the right thing� and paying homage to the �little people� (and by that I mean working class, not midgets. It seriously would have cracked my shit up if he�d have paid homage to the midgets.) Anyhow, they were bizarrely upbeat � to the point where it felt strangely like a commercial for those Christian Music CD�s that you see on the TV now and then. On the other hand � they put on a good show. They sounded good (God, Kevin Cronin sounds exactly the same�) they played a good variety of songs, including an acoustic version of �In My Dreams� which was just incredibly pretty. They were also very cute dancing around the stage in their �80s hair with their �80s clothes on. Kevin Cronin really rocked his glitter sleeved shirt. Nevermind that I have one just like it at home. That�s not gay.

Styx. Man. How wrong is it that Styx put on the best show of the three of them? It�s pretty wrong. They didn�t even play Mr. Roboto and they were STILL the best performers that night! They had incredible energy. They sent one guy running up and down the stadium seats where he would sing and dance with the crowd. They sounded good. They didn�t play very many of their songs that I like, but they had a good sound. They�re the only band that got our birds eye level seats up and out of their chairs while they played. I was impressed. Styx � not so much a joke to me anymore.

And then � the moment I had spent the evening waiting for. Journey. Journey was the band I had come to see. I was super pumped. I had seen them before (see above) post-Steve Perry and they really sounded quite good. I remember being impressed. So I was ready to rock through the final set. Only�not. Because Journey? sucked. I saw there, jaw dropped in abject horror. It. Was. Awful. My eyes sort of glazed over and finally I leaned toward my friend Sarah to offer a feeble �Um � do they sound really�.bad to you?�

�Yes.�

�Ok.�

I must have looked as though someone farted and I�d taken a huge gulp of sour milk because 15 seconds later she leaned back over and told me we could go, if I wanted.

I wanted.

Oh man. It was bad. He sounded�winded and his voice sounded strained. At one point he did one of those crowd rousing �IF YOU�RE HAVIN� A GOOD TIME SAY YAY-YUH!� and like�one hard core dude in the very front shook his tiny fist and screamed �YAY-YUH!� The rest of the crowd just kind of looked at him. Seriously. Bad.

I�m glad I went though. It was 80�s cheese and the cheese factor alone made it worth my while. Watching the Styx keyboardist play with his hands behind his back, crotch writhing out in front while the keyboard pedastal just went round and round in circles. Classic. Just�classic.

**************************************

Listening To:

Still Reading: The Shipping News

Recently Saw: Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I was more moved by it than I thought I would be even though there were some really odd jumps taken by the movie and Nicholas Cage has a dreadful Italian accent. I'm still glad I watched it and yes...I still cried.

I also saw the Melrose Place Inside Story on E! last night. Good. Times. I want a reunion.

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