I went with a group of friends who, aside from some questionable music for the drive up to Denver, turned out to be good concert-going brethren.
Did I mention that this is the first concert I've been to in over 3 years?? Well, it has, and shame on me. There isn't an experience quite like a concert - if you've never been to one before, I'd advise you to look at the tour schedules for your favorite musicians and correct that as soon as possible. There's and energy and an atmosphere at concerts that I haven't found replicated anywhere else.
So, the show. We arrived late and missed a good number of the bands. We arrived in time to see the full set of an utterly atrocious band (local, I believe), who will remain nameless here for the simple fact that they sucked that bad. They rushed through their set, taking up a meager half and hour of my time... thankfully. You could tell everybody was rushing through things, because the Fiddler's green is right in the middle of a corporate area, the city requires they finish by a certain time. Nobody was quite sure what the time was exactly, 10:30, 11:00, midnight... who knows. But anyway, the roadies were definitely booking it up on stage between sets.
Flobots was next. I have a healthy respect for their music and the message the bring to the table, but I was only so-so about seeing them live. They're another Denver local band, and their music is a strange, yet decidedly cool, mix of hip hop and rock. Plus, they have a violinist. She kicks ass. She was rocking that stage like nobody's business, all the while playing some ridiculous violin pieces (ridiculous in the complimentary way, that is). As an added bonus, the second singer spent a good majority of his non-singing time doing various forms of the robot. Win! I'm starting to see where they got their name.
The next band up was Anberlin. I'd never heard of these guys prior to this concert. A friend of mine said they were instrumental, so I had high hopes of coolness. They were not instrumental... nor were they particularly good. They had very little stage presence aside from some awkward emo flailing. After waiting a couple of songs to see if I didn't like it because I was disappointed it wasn't instrumental or whether it was really just not good (I decided on the latter), I got up to go merch shopping. By this time, I was getting chilly out, and I was hoping to get a hoodie (Chevelle of course), but they were sold out. In fact, the only hoodies they had left were those for the nameless terrible band I had the displeasure of seeing first. I skipped on those and ended up buying a neat little Chevelle T-shirt instead. I also took the chance to use the restroom - a horrid experience, the place was one step away from being declared a hazard and shut down - and wandered around the market area marveling at the ridiculous prices for everything (ridiculous in a bad way this time). $4.50 for a small bottle of water?!?!
At long last, it was time to see the band I'd paid to see. The setup seemed to take forever, despite the fact that it happened relatively quickly. When the lights went out, though, it was on. See, Chevelle is, in my opinion, the greatest band of all time. I love their music to death - it has been my constant companion through thick and thin for many, many years now. I'm sad to say that this is the first time I've seen them in concert for about 5 years (which is about 5 years too long), so it was a real treat for me to see them live again.
We were stuck back in the general admission area, which is an arch of grass on the highest level, furthest away from the stage. A rail and a short ledge mark the transition from the general admission area to the assigned seating area. I managed to squeeze in between a few other people to stand on the rail, the best view of the stage from the GA area. The people on either side of me were obviously not Chevelle fans, as they were not into the show at all, and they kept shooting me odd glances because it was rather apparent that I was into the show. My friend Stephen, who was watching both the band and apparently me from higher up in the GA area, said that I did enough "rocking out" to make up for the blah reaction from the rest of the people around me. Yes, I am a complete dork, and yes, I rock the fuck out at concerts. What I would have given to be on the floor for this show (it's actually the first time I've seen Chevelle from anywhere farther away than the front row).
Anyway, Chevelle ran through a pretty awesome set that started with "The Clincher" (my favorite Chevelle tune), and ended with "I Get It". Due to the short time they were allotted, the chose to stick mostly to their singles, though there were a few other gems thrown in, like "Comfortable Liar" and "Family System." The crowd was on fire for them, the biggest and best crowd involvement of the night by far, even though Chevelle wasn't headlining. That was a bit surprising to me, because Colorado isn't really a Chevelle supporting kind of state.
I just got back from a trip to Chicago, and I would've killed to see them live there.
As Chevelle left the stage to some truly thunderous applause, I wandered back over to where my group of friends was huddled under a blanket. I collapsed into the grass, worn out and already starting to feel sore. I had very little voice left, and chugged a bottle of water in an effort to preserve it. We chatted about how awesome Chevelle was as a live band to kill the time between them and The Smashing Pumpkins.
So, The Smashing Pumpkins took the stage. I haven't been a fan of these guys for very long. My friend Uriah never stops singing their praises, the Pumpkins are to him what Chevelle is to me. Prior to meeting him, I was familiar with their radio singles, but I never really started going deeper into their discography until I met him. While they are still not in my really, really, really awesome bands list, I have a healthy respect for their music. They also put on one hell of a show. They went crazy with the lights, and that made for an interesting effect. They started off with some of their less known stuff, and by about the halfway point, about a thir of the crowd had left. I was a little shocked to see that. I wasn't familiar with too much of what they played early, but I had a great time watching and listening. The Pumpkins are very talented musically, and it was on full display at this show.
Billy Corgan, the Pumpkins' front man, made a joke about how all the posers had finally left, then they started in on their more commercial songs - "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," "Tonight, Tonight," etc. They played one of their longer songs called "Revolution" I believe, which took up about 15 minutes of their stage time. In the middle, the band walked off the stage and left only their drummer. He's fairly new to the band, and he's 19 years old. He busted out the most amazing drum solo I've ever heard (and I've heard a lot of them). He was going all ninja on the drums, and that took a good 6 or 7 minutes before the band rejoined him and concluded the song. 19 years old!!! Damn!!
Anyway, once they were through, we drove back into town, reliving the best moments from the evening. There were a lot of them, all things considered. I spent Sunday not moving and not talking to anybody - I was far too sore for that, and my voice had gone out completely while I was sleeping. I picked up Halo: Reach and have been playing that ever since (review coming soon!), so that made for a good, vegetative Sunday.
Next weekend, I'll be heading back to Denver, this time for the Muse show. That oughta be great. I'll be tweeting about the concert all night - lots of wit, charm, and banter :-) - much like I did for this show. All right!
You should follow me on Twitter (@nunchux).
All right, back to Reach!
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