A bittersweet concert experience

I went to a show today. All local small bands. The headliner was from out of state though! I had never heard of them. The show was at my favorite pizza restaurant! :o) The presale deal was a 2 for the price of 1 type thing so I got two tickets for me and my mom.

This was my outfit!

The flyer said it started at 4pm. It didn't specify if it was the soundcheck or the actual show..... It was the soundcheck. It felt super awkward because they let us into the area with the concert and we were the only people there aside from the band doing soundcheck... There weren't any waiters or anything and people walked past us like we weren't there. I don't even know why they allowed us to enter that area. After a while one of the waiters finally showed up and told us the show started at 6 so we waited in the general area instead and had a beer. At 5:30 they let us in and gave us our bracelets (I hate those. They feel awful on my skin. I wish we had like a ticket stub or something instead.) 

The show ended up actually starting at... 7 pm. And it's like okay man, if your show is going to start at 7 and doors are going to open at 5:30, then say that! Maybe they ran into some problems. It's unfair for me to be mad at them. I don't know what they were going through after all. Like I checked their socials when we were there and nowhere did it say "hey show's starting at 7 actually".

Somehow, everyone else knew to arrive at 6 pm. Am I stupid? Is it an implicit social rule that if a flyer says "Starting 4pm" without specifying anything else it means sound check and not doors? Another theory my mom proposed is that everyone else who attended were friends of the bands and therefore they were able to tell them to arrive later. But I don't know. 

ANYWAY! before the show, they played their usual rotation of assorted rock and rock-adjacent music videos and I would tell my mom facts about all the different bands that played. We got a caprese pizza and iced tea. Very delicious. 

The first band finally started, and they were industrial metal. They didn't talk between songs, they just played and played. The singer had some very heavy distortion in the mic and I didn't understand anything he was singing but I assume that's the point. There were some interludes with a pre-recorded robotic voice which I thought were pretty cool. They played their set and got off the stage without saying a word. My mom liked the bassist because he had a lot of stage presence. 

The second band showed up afterwards, they were the main act! They were from another state, currently touring the country, and I think this was their first time in our city. They were a post-punk band and they were a lot of fun. One of the guys in the band was wearing a sweater with a midi skirt and a jacket, and I was like: wait a minute... He's basically wearing the same outfit as me! Hehehehe!! I felt solidarity with him. Plus he was good-looking. Okay listen. I think guys with long hair are cute. It's purely aesthetic appreciation hehe. Anyway, halfway through their set the images the venue was projecting glitched out or something, and the music video rotation started playing in the background. It was kind of silly seeing these guys play while Beck's goofy face was behind them. (Devil's Haircut was playing when the glitch happened.) 

Anyway!! The band eventually invited everyone to get up and go dance in the front. I got up while my mom stayed at the table and dude, it was so much fun. I felt like I was high. Like the good kind of high. I felt on top of the world and like everything was beautiful and this was what life was all about. Dancing with our silly 80s dance moves with a bunch of strangers. I was next to a couple and they seemed really sweet, they were jumping and dancing together. I wish I could've talked to them but it would've totally ruined their vibe so I didn't. 

Their set ended and I got back to my table, but then my mom said it was time to leave because a family member came to pick us up. I was genuinely so sad because there was one band left. This band I have seen live before a couple times but the last time I saw them I ALSO HAD TO LEAVE HALFWAY THROUGH THEIR SET!! I was so sad. It was like I was blissfully dreaming and suddenly I was violently yanked out of my bed. I cried when I got home I'm not gonna lie. But I feel better now and I can say that despite all the weird scheduling stuff and the fact that I DIDN'T GET TO SEE THE LAST BAND!!! I had a lot of fun and a great time watching music videos, eating pizza, and enjoying live music and dancing and community. It also made me realize how deeply lonely I am. But that's a story for another blog entry.