<p>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. :o</p>
<p>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)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 )</p>
<p>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?)</p>
<p>
[quote]
You know you are starting to get old when, at a music festival, you:</p>
<p>sensibly take care not to drink large quantities of beer, mindful of horror of festival portapotties;</p>
<p>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;</p>
<p>time your departure just before the end of the last set so that you can catch the m</p>
<p>EK, I am not familiar with any of the bands you are seeing. I will have to do some googling!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>D will be at school in Nashville this fall. She will find lots of great new bands, I am sure.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>For example, here’s a soundboard recording of a show Ryan Adams did there in 1999 before his first solo album:</p>
<p>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.</p>
<hr>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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…</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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!)</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>(As they certainly wouldn’t at: a Bruce Springsteen concert, a Bon Jovi concert, or anything booked into the Borgata.)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!!</p>
<p>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! :)</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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* :eek:) & I was ticked when I discovered that I had dropped the t-shirt I had just bought. ( the only thing I * dropped* ) ;)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>( another sign of aging- bringing earplugs- which I suppose is like closing the barn door after…)</p>
<p>( As far as I know the MRI was uneventful- I didn’t start bleeding out of any orfices anyway )</p>
)</p>