middle aged @the music festival

emeraldkity4 · 07-13-2008, 04:16 PM

I am spending the weekend at the Sub pop 20th birthday party- or rather I am spending my late afternoon and evening there- because I don't want to be out in the heat of the day and because I really don't know who most of the bands are.

I did like hearing the Vaselines ( even though I was taking an after dinner nap) & it was a beautiful evening ( even though I waited for 30 min in the parking lot so as not to waste my gas idling)

Flight of the Conchords were also fun although 1/3 of the crowd was hurrying out back to Seattle to the Gutter Twins show during their closing set.

I drank more water than beer & I was content to sit on the hill rather than get trampled in the front.
( but today- I may squirm my way up front for Green river )

I never made it to a festival during my 20's, big arena shows were more popular- but I could relate to this list that I found.
( and ever notice that the only ones who apparently use the no water hand cleaner are women?)

Quote:

You know you are starting to get old when, at a music festival, you:

sensibly take care not to drink large quantities of beer, mindful of horror of festival portapotties;

elect to stand well back to get a decent view (of the suspended screen)
rather than braving the teeming mass of sweaty bodies at centre forward;

time your departure just before the end of the last set so that you can catch the métro before the mad rush begins;

feel secretly relieved at festival’s proximity to Paris which excludes need for camping and Glastonbury-style personal hygiene involving daily swabbing with a lemon scented wet wipe;

do not indulge in any illicit substances, and therefore remember every single act;

do not indulge in any illicit substances, and therefore feel need to eat regularly;

realise, as you see a stallholder empty large quantities of raw mincemeat into his vat of bolognaise, give it a cursory stir, and start ladling it into people’s plates, that you would probably have been safer indulging in illicit substances;

overhear a younger friend confessing that they have never heard a Smiths song, whilst you surprise yourself at Morrissey’s set by knowing every word to “Panic”;

hear yourself start a sentence with: “When I saw The Orb at Glastonbury…”

Lafalum84 · 07-13-2008, 06:45 PM

DH and I are going to a Springsteen concert next month. 16 year old D told us not to worry, there will be lots of "old people like you" there.

kelsmom · 07-13-2008, 08:30 PM

EK, I am not familiar with any of the bands you are seeing. I will have to do some googling!

H & I were given tickets to Bon Jovi last week. It was pretty funny ... LOTS of women in their 40's!! BJ was great, but I sure wouldn't have paid $132 each for those tickets myself. I am not a big fan, but they put on a terrific show.

Last night, H & I went to a party at our friends' house. They love music & were celebrating their wedding ... so they hired some great bands to come play on the large front porch of their country home. It was wonderful!! One of the bands is relatively "known" ... Luke Doucet & the White Falcon. It was wonderful to sit in the yard with a small group of people & be so well entertained!

D will be at school in Nashville this fall. She will find lots of great new bands, I am sure.

interesteddad · 07-13-2008, 08:54 PM

The Exit Inn in Nashville is about two blocks from Vanderbilt. It is a legendary club where everyone who becomes anyone has played for the last 35 years.

For example, here's a soundboard recording of a show Ryan Adams did there in 1999 before his first solo album:

Internet Archive: Details: Ryan Adams Live at Exit/In on 1999-10-28

Open mic night at the Exit Inn would be a good inexpensive way to hear some good music and probably somebody who is going to be very famous.

---------

I don't do the outdoor festivals any more. I turned too old for that the day after Watkins Glenn in 1974. I am looking forward to seeing the Cowboy Junkies in a couple of weeks. In a room that holds 234 people! With chairs!

kelsmom · 07-13-2008, 09:18 PM

Exit Inn is already on D's list ...

smdur1970 · 07-14-2008, 10:29 AM

Took my d and a friend to see Ani deFranco last week. We had decent seats in the Wolf Trap Pavilion, rather than on the lawn. Not really a music festival but the first rock-type (don't really know if that's the right genre, but the music was loud and raucous) concert I've been to in ages.Had a good time, even though I didn't know a single song. I was a bit disturbed by the behavior of the mostly-young audience (not teeny boppers, mostly young adults with a few my age so I didn't feel totally alone)--constant use of cell phones, the person sitting next to me singing so loudly I couldn't always hear the performers, and lots of young women standing to dance and blocking the sight of those behind them). So maybe I am just getting (too) old...

cathymee · 07-14-2008, 10:41 AM

H&I were given free tickets to see Eric Clapton at the Borgota in Atlantic City a few weeks back. Nobody was UNDER 40!! In fact most looked to be 50 or above.Lots of gray hair/bald heads.
Maybe it was the venue (casino hotel)but I was surprised by the actions of the audience.Lots of cell phone use, including for picture taking after admonitions that is wasnt allowed. Lots of in and out/back and forth for alchohol.The guy next to us must have come and gone 20 or more times,alternating waters and mixed drinks,2 at a time. Towards the end,drunkeness got the better of a number of people and it wasnt pretty.

kelsmom · 07-14-2008, 02:25 PM

We felt old at Bon Jovi, even though most there were our age. H & I were shocked by all the cell phones that were out throughout the show. We also had people standing in front of us the whole time ... we used to do that, long ago, but would rather sit these days!

garland · 07-14-2008, 02:47 PM

Lafalum--you'll be right at home at the Springsteen concert; whenever I go, there are lots of people my age (but also lots my kids' age, too.) Have a great time!

As I wrote about previously, last month I went to REM with my kids (the concert that got hit by lightning.) I was one of the older crowd there, but there were a lot of all ages. Had a fine time! (and didn't get killed; always a plus!)

interesteddad · 07-14-2008, 02:54 PM

My wife and I (together and separately) have gone to quite a few concerts with our daughter over the years... sometimes to humor her, sometimes to humor us, more often than not because everyone likes the band.

A wonderful daughter she is... she just gave tickets to a Ryan Adams concert this fall to us for a combined Mothers Day/Fathers Day present. Too bad she can't join us.

dudedad · 07-14-2008, 03:46 PM

Maybe Wolf Trap could emulate the movies and tell people to turn off their cells. Sometimes you just want to tell the chatty Kathies/Kens to ****. I mainly seek out smaller venues or free music these days.

Best vanity moment ever was the VA plate X-HIPPY not on a VW van, but on a Jag at the Wolf Trap jazz fest. Unfortunately now it's the ex jazz fest, not on their 2008 calendar.

JHS · 07-14-2008, 04:15 PM

The public AAA radio station in Philadelphia just completed its annual now four-day summer festival yesterday. There were close to 30,000 people there, and half or more had to be over 40. The smallest age group between 0 and 70 had to be 20-somethings. Lots of parents and kids, and grandparents even, but not so many actual young adults. The station is basically aimed at 30-50s. It plays lots of young artists (along with not-so-young ones), but they tend to be young artists who sound a lot like artists from the 70s. But I think lots of people our age enjoy such things if they know they won't feel out of place.

(As they certainly wouldn't at: a Bruce Springsteen concert, a Bon Jovi concert, or anything booked into the Borgata.)

Earlier in the week, I went to a club in an iffy-but-hip neighborhood to see a group called Dengue Fever, who basically play Cambodian rock from the early 70s. I wasn't the only person over 50 there, either.

kelsmom · 07-14-2008, 04:26 PM

H really likes metal, and he takes S to lots of interesting concerts. It's pretty humorous to try to picture my silver haired/silver bearded engineer H anywhere near the mosh pit! I kid ... they stay away from that scene!!

About 10 years ago, H went to see Skid Row ... by himself, since no one he knew liked them ... and the kid sitting next to him asked him if he was a narc!

emeraldkity4 · 07-14-2008, 04:34 PM

This was a very small outdoor venue, that apparently was a last minute thing ( although they do have attractions like Garrison Keillor, Willie Nelson & Sheryl Crow, later this summer - not at the same time).

Sub pop is a local record company that was celebrating their 20th anniversary. Their acts were instrumental in the early "grunge" scene ( when I had little kids- so I was in the audience at Tickle tune typhoon and Sweet Honey in the Rock, but not Nirvana or the Vaselines- although there were a few people with kids under 5, but most were probably in their early 20's.

It was fun, however I was distracted as I hadn't been feeling well & was worried about an MRI that I was going to have this morning ( I have been watching HOUSE

) & I was ticked when I discovered that I had dropped the t-shirt I had just bought. ( the only thing I dropped )

I did go up front to see Green River- which was the first band Sub pop had signed ( members went on to form Temple of the dog-Mudhoney-Pearl Jam-Mother Love Bone et.al.)- being short helps as people can still see around you. But I was just as happy sitting on the hill a short distance away, with our beach chairs and our blanket.

( another sign of aging- bringing earplugs- which I suppose is like closing the barn door after...)

( As far as I know the MRI was uneventful- I didn't start bleeding out of any orfices anyway

)