I'll take the best of your bad moods...

I really had to drag myself to the local radio station's annual holiday concert last night. When I bought the ticket a month ago, I did really want to see the White Stripes and Death Cab for Cutie. But yesterday I was sooooooo tired and cranky after a long hard week and just wanted to go home.

Several ticket-sale-attempts-via-CraigsList-during-the-day later, I headed into the city to try to sell my ticket outside the concert. Turns out I was not the only one with that idea. Crap. So I figured, well, I'm here, might as well just go. Normally I don't mind going to shows alone. Or plays, or movies, or whatever, alone. I don't have to worry about anyone other than me having a good time and I can decide when it's time to leave. However, the main attendees at this show were high school kids and I was strikingly aware of how old I felt.* I found a seat upstairs in the "parents who can't stand up for 4 hours straight who are chaperoning their kids" section, though, and we old folks all had a good time.

The first band I saw was this one. They're one of those bands that I find interesting to see live, but only when they open for someone I really want to see. Their drummer was really amazing, but a lot of their songs sounded like Rush meets Zeppelin... which only reinforced the "I feel old" sentiment. Alas.

And then Hot Hot Heat came on (oh THEY'RE the ones who sing that catchy bandages song). And THEN.

I'm not sure why I thought Death Cab for Cutie would put on a tame performance. It's not like they're a particularly mellow band. But they TOTALLY ROCKED OUT. Several times they even kicked amplifiers and speakers over. They engaged the crowd throughout. And they did Company Calls, which is my favorite DC song ever (even though I still don't know why).** So that 50 minutes alone was worth my evening.

And then the White Stripes... Forgive me Jack, but the sound was terrible (overall but particularly for them) and they just seemed like they were completing a chore by being at this show. I left after about five songs, when I walked downstairs to see if the sound was better and I still couldn't make out a word of "We're Going To Be Friends." Which is a one-man acoustic song. You know the sound is bad if you can't hear that.

Thus ends my commentary on last night's show. Other than to say, I need to remember this the next time I buy a ticket well in advance of a show I know nobody I know would be interested in attending. JUST GO. You will be glad you did.

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* Sitting up in the balcony looking down on the floor of about 5,000 people, I was highly amused watching the various mosh pits and crowd surfers. Jesus, ten or twelve years ago that would've been me. Good times, good times.

** Second only to The Sound of Settling, which I correlate directly to work... OK who am I kidding, I really love everything they do.