Sexy Lifestyle Choices: Going to the Rock Show!

Last week my best friend Mark and I decided that we haven’t been to enough rock shows lately, and started browsing the Ticketbastard…ahem…Ticketmaster web site for upcoming shows in our area. There were some shows that sounded somewhat interesting, but by far the most interesting and affordable was the Zebrahead/Goldfinger/Reel Big Fish show at the Avalon. This is my review.

The night started out with my lovely wife dropping us off at the Metro station around 5:30. Mark and I thought it wise to take the train so as to allow ourselves as much alcohol consumption as possible, and Meghan agreed and decided to play along, offering to drop us off and pick us up at the train station.

So off we went on the Metro Gold Line. After transferring to the Red Line, we ended up at the Hollywood and Vine station around 6:40, just in time for the show. We found a hot dog stand (a real American hot dog stand, the nice hot dog stand man told us) outside the station, and decided to have a kraut dog to soak up some of the booze.

Once we got inside the Avalon, Zebrahead had just started. We went straight for the bar and immediately our dreams of a drunken night were dashed. Six bucks for a can of Bud Light and nine bucks for a seven and seven. Ouch. At those prices there was no way either of us were going to get even buzzed. Bummer.

We took our seventeen dollars of drinks (that’s fifteen plus a two dollar tip) up into the balcony and watched Zebrahead for a while. They were pretty good, but seemed a bit off for some reason. Part of it could have been that they played mostly new songs and very few off of the two first albums. They sounded pretty good overall, but seemed somewhat uncomfortable with being onstage. Not like they had stage fright, just that they kind of bumped into each other a lot unintentionally and were a little awkward with the rock talk. That’s OK though, I still like their first two albums.

Eventually we decided to brave the bar again. We walked downstairs and bought another seventeen dollar round of drinks and walked back up to the balcony. On the way back up we walked by some guys that looked like Ted Nugent fans, and both mentioned that we noticed many older people up in the balcony (yes, we were some of them, but not the oldest of the crowd).

We ended up standing next to some of the folks in the older demographic (not too old, maybe ten years older than us) and eventually started conversing with them. Turns out one of their sisters was the manager for Zebrahead, so they had gotten in free and had backstage wristbands. They were very nice, and we talked for a while.

Then Goldfinger went on stage. They were simply amazing. The energy, rock talk, and stage presence were all right on. They really made me feel like I had missed some good Goldfinger music since the only album I own is the first one. Seriously, they were excellent. Blew Reel Big Fish off the stage, but that comes later in the story.

During Goldfinger’s set a few of our friends on the balcony had to leave to meet some friends for dinner. Since they were leaving anyway they gave Mark and me their backstage wristbands. They basically said “don’t make asses of yourself” in a nice way, and off they went.

After our second round of drinks and our awesome wristband luck we decided upon another round of drinks. Mark went off to grab the drinks and came back with the drinks and two tequila shots. Then we went backstage. To protect the innocent, and since this is getting obnoxiously long, our experience backstage was awesome, and went something like this:

Blah blah blah, drank Goldfinger’s beer, blah blah blah, friends with the security guard, blah blah watched Reel Big Fish from the side of the stage, blah blah blah, got super loaded on free booze, blah blah blah, high fived Reel Big Fish as they left the stage, blah blah blah, someone gave Mark a really nice poker set, blah blah blah, some random chick showing one boob, blah blah blah, had a GREAT TIME!!

The only problem with the night was that the last train left Union Station at 11:52PM. When we got there it was 12:15AM. So my awesome amazing understanding super cool wonderful wife came and picked our useless drunk asses up from downtown LA in the middle of the night. I told you she was awesome.

All in all, the rock show experience was excellent. I now remember why I love the rock show, and now must find more great shows to go to. I suggest you do too.