Two guy friends invited me and two of my roommates to drive three hours to Portland on a school night to see a band that none of us really knew or liked: KISS. It required a lot of sophisticated cajoling, but we finally consented. And we did not regret it. Fire-shooting guitars! Flying performers! Men in platform shoes! Fireworks on stage! An audience full of old men with mullets! Blood spewing! (I closed my eyes during that part.) A thirty minute encore! Dancing and screaming! Confetti! Six hours on the road! What's not to love?
Two weeks later, I was in a therapy session with one of my clients. 17 years old. White. Thug-like. Smells like pot. Skateboards. Homeless at times (by choice). Philosophical. He tells me that he wants to remove himself and his girlfriend from the bad scene: "Like I don't want us to listen to junk like KISS anymore. Have you ever listened to any of their stuff? It's all about partying and getting high and being drunk all the time. There's no real substance to anything they sing about. It's just so vapid."
Like a good therapist, I smiled and nodded and tried to will my face not to turn red. Fortunately, therapists are discouraged from self-disclosure. I shudder to think how he would respond if he knew that I had seen Kelly Clarkson too.
Here are the other concerts (some more vapid than others) that I saw in 2009. It was a great year for concert-going in Seattle ... and Portland:
Two weeks later, I was in a therapy session with one of my clients. 17 years old. White. Thug-like. Smells like pot. Skateboards. Homeless at times (by choice). Philosophical. He tells me that he wants to remove himself and his girlfriend from the bad scene: "Like I don't want us to listen to junk like KISS anymore. Have you ever listened to any of their stuff? It's all about partying and getting high and being drunk all the time. There's no real substance to anything they sing about. It's just so vapid."
Like a good therapist, I smiled and nodded and tried to will my face not to turn red. Fortunately, therapists are discouraged from self-disclosure. I shudder to think how he would respond if he knew that I had seen Kelly Clarkson too.
Here are the other concerts (some more vapid than others) that I saw in 2009. It was a great year for concert-going in Seattle ... and Portland:
- Jenny Lewis - Searingly beautiful voice - 4 stars
- Beyonce - If only I could shake my booty like that - 5 stars
- The Killers - "Human" is such a wonderful song - 3 stars
- Bishop Allen - Not your best performance, but I loved dancing right up next to your stage - 4 stars
- Bob Dylan - If you're going to sing all cancerous-like, at least sing songs we know - 2 stars
- Ben Folds - You rocked the Seattle Symphony. You rocked that grand piano. You rocked my world. Again. - 5 stars
- Kelly Clarkson - I have more fun with you at the karaoke bar; take some performance tips from Beyonce - 3 stars
- Black Eyed Peas - Fergie almost got me to crowd surf - 4 stars
- Bumbershoot - Seattle's 3-day music festival where I saw B.E.Peas, Katy Perry (blek!) and lots of other great, small, indy bands - 5 stars
- KISS - See above - 5 stars
4 comments:
Hmm. I almost feel bad calling you out on this, and maybe I am the one misunderstanding! I don't know what the typo was in the email version, but the one I noticed is still there, and somewhat amusing! "I shutter to think"... are you refering to taking pictures... perhaps it describes closing the shutters on the windows of your mind... or maybe you just meant shudder?
Regardless, a great piece! I am amusied that the skater dude used the word vapid!
Wow. Seriously. If Coldplay would have appeared on your list, I would have moved to Seattle and married you. What an amazing concert-going year you've had! I'm completely jealous.
Very happy to see that KISS got the 5 star treatment and beat out so many other shows you saw, but Bobby D only 2? He was anything but vapid, but I may like it more that you enjoyed KISS a whole 3 stars more than Bob.
Oh and notice Micah E's comment? Was that or was it not part of my sophisticated cajoling? Though his referring to Coldplay makes me wonder if seeing KISS is as impressive to him as it is to me.
Even the best of us make mistakes...
While pointing out that you used shutter instead of shudder, Mira used the non-existent word amusied.
Still, it was a great line-up.
Ben Folds in-concert is pretty amazing.
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