concerts
July 24, 2008
Crüe Fest
I was looking forward to Crüe Fest since I bought the tickets back in April, and I was not disappointed. It was a BLAST.
My friend Jenny had tickets to Crüe Fest too, so we met up with her and her boyfriend, Ray, beforehand and rode to the show together. They had VIP tickets which gave them access to a VIP area with a bar (and nicer bathrooms!), so we were planning on catching up with them in between sets in one of the common areas, but one of the ladies at the main gate walked us all over to the VIP entrance and asked the people there to give Mike and me VIP wristbands too. We thanked her profusely and rejoiced over the unexpected access to the nicer bathrooms (okay, that may have just been me). We waited in line for a bit to get some concert shirts, then split up to go to our respective seats. Mike and I were happy to see that ours were in the center part of the venue, giving us a great view of the stage.
The first band, Trapt, started playing shortly after we sat down. I enjoyed their show, although the lead singer seemed a little uncomfortable - possibly because half the seats were empty at that point. The next band to go on was Sixx AM, one of Nikki Sixx's side projects. I was so excited to finally see Nikki Sixx live I actually had goosebumps. He kept a pretty low-profile on stage, letting the other guys have more time in the spotlight, so to speak, and I have to tell you, the singer, James Michael, fills out a wife-beater pretty nicely. I was sorry when their set ended for more reasons than one.
Next up was Papa Roach. I'm not much of a fan of theirs, so I took that opportunity to run to the bathroom. Apparently it had started pouring while Trapt was playing so I got drenched on my way too and from the VIP bathrooms, which, by the way, had no line whatsoever, nor were they the icky germ-fest I usually associate with concert-venue bathrooms. I stopped to talk to Jenny and Ray for a few minutes until the downpour got the best of us and we migrated back to our seats again. Mike proclaimed me a drowned rat when I got back, and after wringing the water out of my hair, I bundled up in three of the shirts we'd picked up before sitting down and settled back to wait out the rest of Papa Roach's set. Soon after that I noticed a commotion off to our left, but I couldn't figure out what was going on until Mike pointed out the lead singer making his way down the aisle near us. That was cool enough, but then he topped it by walking on top of the backs of the seats right in front of us. Seriously, he was mere inches away from my face. He walked over to the soundboard area right next to us and finished the song from there, then made his way back to the stage. As I said, I'm not big on their music, but I was pretty impressed with that. What a way to get the crowd pumped up! They played one more song, then cleared off the stage to make way for Buckcherry.
Buckcherry put on a fantastic show. They had great stage presence, and their energy was contagious. It was impossible not to get into the music, and when they started playing "Crazy Bitch" the crowd got into it even more. Josh Todd's lead-in to the song was hilarious, especially when he called out all the chicks who like to think they're "crazy bitches" but really aren't. Energy-wise and musically, they set the stage perfectly for Mötley Crüe.
While the stage was being prepped for Mötley Crüe's show, we met up with Jenny and Ray again and used that time to get some food while we waited. After some fries, cheese pizza, beer (for Mike), and the flattest cup of Dr. Pepper in the universe (seriously, that stuff had no traces of carbonation in it whatsoever. Even Mike said it was horrible, and he's much less picky about flat soda than I am), we went back to our seats and waited for Mötley Crüe to take the stage.
I was looking forward to seeing them play live, but their show went way beyond what I was hoping it would be. They opened with "Kickstart My Heart" and went uphill from there. The singers from all the previous bands joined them onstage for "Saints Of Los Angeles," the crowd response to "Shout At The Devil" was amazing, and I had a blast watching both Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil on stage. Their stage presence is awesome to see live. Several times Nikki took a drink of water, spit some on the audience, then tossed his water bottle into the crowd, and I'll admit, I was a little jealous of the people in the mosh pit for being that close to him. I'm too old to appreciate a damn mosh pit though, no matter how much water I'd have spit on me by Nikki Sixx. I was meh about Vince before this, but seeing him live totally changed my feelings. While I don't have quite the crush on him as I do on Nikki, Vince's stage presence certainly bumped him up to crush status in my book. Watching Mick Mars play was very moving given his medical condition, and I was even more impressed when he bowed to the audience. Poor guy. I'm so glad we got to see him play. As for Tommy Lee, well, I still don't care much for him.
We had to wait a little bit for the gates out to the parking lot to be opened up, but Jenny had a VIP parking pass too, so once we got to her car it didn't take us long to get out of the parking lot and on the road home. It seemed like we were back at her place in no time, and, in spite of the rain, Mike and I got home before 1am.
Mötley Crüe was the highlight of the concert for me, of course, but I really liked seeing Buckcherry and Sixx AM play too. I've got my fingers crossed that there's another Crüe Fest next year, 'cause I'd love to see them again.
Posted by oracle at 7:35 AM | Comments (0)
July 2, 2008
puppies and lip gloss and concerts, oh my!
I took the puppies to the vet for their annual check-up on Monday. All the tests came back negative, and Max has lost three pounds! I knew she'd lost weight because she's visibly slimmer (she has a trim little waist again!), but it's nice to know exactly how much weight she's lost. She weighs 11.10 pounds now, Jordan weighs 10.8, and Maddy weighs 9.15, all well in the range of where they should be. The vet said they all looked fantastic and that I was doing a great job of monitoring their body weight, and I preened like a proud dog mama, of course.
I'm in love with Smashbox's O-Gloss. I picked it up after Gemma recommended it, and it is fantastic. It turns a lovely shade of pink on me without looking garish. I've only had since Sunday, but it's already one of my makeup must-haves. Which brings me to my next point.
I am also in love with Philosophy's Amazing Grace. We smelled it on a waitress at Outback a couple of months ago, and it smelled so fantastic that I ordered some from Sephora as soon as we got home. Thankfully, it smells yummy on me too, and since then, it's the only scent I've been wearing. <3 (Interesting note: I like the perfume and the shower gel, but the lotion stinks.)
I have less than a month left of summer school. I cannot put into words how happy I will be to have a break from homework, even if it's less than a month.
We're going to see Mötley Crüe next weekend! SO EXCITED. Jenny won tickets to show, so we're going to be meeting up with them at some point during the evening. If I somehow manage to get Nikki Sixx to autograph me, we're going straight to get that tattooed over before it washes (or sweats :eep:) off. Seriously.
Lately I've been making salami sandwiches with colby jack cheese and mayo on honey wheat bread. It'll take quite a while before I get tired of them, especially with a small serving of Pringles on the side. My arteries are going on strike as we speak.
Posted by oracle at 3:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2008
What would Mötley Crüe do?
I just bought our tickets to see Mötley Crüe at Crüe Fest this summer, and I'm beyond excited about the show. Eep! Neither of us have seen them play before (which, given the amount of concerts Mike has been to, is something that doesn't happen often), and since Mike's the one who introduced me to them, I love that we're going to see them for the first time together.
Posted by oracle at 7:14 AM | Comments (0)
October 5, 2007
in which our heroine needs to pay closer attention to track listing info
I saw Better Than Ezra with Karinne and her husband in 2000 when they came to the Warner Theater in DC with The Calling. The Calling was the reason I wanted to go to the show, but after seeing BTE play I was a fan. The energy was contagious, the crowd was very into them, and the music was extremely catchy. The only disappointment was that they played a lot of songs from Closer, their new album at the time, so I had to wait until it was released to be able to hear those songs again. "Porcelain," "Misunderstood," and "Good" are my favorite BTE songs, but until yesterday I didn't realize that "Good" is on one of the albums I have (Deluxe and Closer). While I may have known that at one point, for at least the past four years I have been under the impression it was on an album I didn't have. I finally figured it out last night when I tried to find out the name of the album it was on, and, boy, do I feel stupid.
Posted by oracle at 8:02 AM | Comments (0)
July 7, 2006
Kelly Clarkson, wooo!
We heard that countless times last night, which shouldn't be too surprising since we were at a Kelly Clarkson concert. Mike got a ticket to it from a friend who'd gotten it free and didn't want it, so I bought a ticket too, and off we went. If I were going to make a list of shows I wanted to go to, Kelly Clarkson probably wouldn't be in the top 10, or even 20, but we had a blast. The rain had stopped about halfway through the day and had cooled things off to the point where I was actually shivering for most of the concert, and the ground hadn't dried completely yet, so it was a good thing we'd brought a couple of blankets. Rooney opened for her, and while they weren't bad, they weren't anything to write home about either. About half an hour after Rooney finished their set, Kelly took the stage and put on a surprisingly good show. She's a good performer - she has lots of energy and great stage presence, and her music is even more infectious live than it is on the radio. One of her guitarists in particular really helped set the mood of the show, IMO, and helped add an extra bit of contagion to the songs. She did some new stuff from her as-of-yet-unreleased album mixed in with some of her older stuff, and when the entire crowd started singing, it was pretty impressive. Obviously a lot of the people there identified with "Since U Been Gone" because, from what I could see, the only people not singing their hearts out to that song when she closed the concert with it were the straight guys. We stopped by one of the merchandise booths on our way out to get shirts (my goal is to get a shirt from every concert we go to, but we'll see how that plays out), and Mike was happy to see that there were three guy shirts for him to choose from.
Sadly, leaving the concert was not as enjoyable as the actual concert was. The parking lot was a total clusterfuck, and it took us at least 45 minutes to get out onto the road. Once there, it was just as frustrating with one-lane roads, poorly-routed traffic, and cops re-routing traffic in different directions when we were two cars away from getting into the lane we needed to be in. Mike was driving, so he had to deal with most of it, but the irritation infected me as well. It's not like this is the first concert they've ever had there; you'd think they'd have gotten a reliable exit system in place by now. We're going to Ozzfest there in a month, and I'm sure trying to leave the parking lot then will be even more aggravating.
Posted by oracle at 8:42 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2006
Ozzfest 2006
We bought our tickets today, so barring some unforeseen change of plans, we're on for Ozzfest this year. I'm pretty jazzed. I haven't been to a major concert since 2001 and that was before I was with Mike. We've been to a bunch of local shows in bars around town, but nothing major, so this'll be our first big concert together. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing BLS, Avenged Sevenfold, and Disturbed.
Posted by oracle at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2006
FU finale'
Mike and I went to see FU's final show last night, and it was a fun time, if somewhat depressing. I'm going to miss their shows. Watching them play always cheered me up, even at my most depressed; when they'd play their covers of "I'm in a Hurry," "Old Apartment," or their Madonna medley (Like a Virgin + Like a Prayer), I couldn't help but smile. I was surprised to hear that "Angels" was one of the first songs they played at this show. It's one of my favorite FU originals, but in the past they didn't play it at their shows unless it was a request. Last night they followed it up with a good mix of their new songs and all but one of my favorite covers. We left at their first break even though Mike was willing to stay longer; by then, two different guys had spilled their beers on us, and when I say "spilled" I don't mean "sloshed a drop or two on our hands," I mean "poured 99% of their damn beer on us." I actually had to wring beer out of my hair after the first accident. I'd also gotten tired of trying to breathe through the smothering clouds of smoke. I love going to concerts/shows, but I'm not much on the smoke and the crowds anymore. I wasn't a fan before, but now I really don't like coming home smelling like smoke. When I can smell it on the clothes I wore even though said clothes are across the room, that's a little much for me.
Posted by oracle at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)