Monday, June 9, 2008

It Doesn't Cure Dehydration

Jeff and I saw The Cure last night with Tim and Julie, and it was awesome! and hot! really hot. Seriously man, it was so hot. I keep trying to tell people what a great time I had and how they played so many awesome songs that I kept thinking it would be over after this one, and then they'd play another one of my favorites, but all I keep saying out loud is "It was SO hot". I guess I was traumatized. I really think if the show had gone on for one more encore that I might not have made it. Actually, it did get a little better towards the end, because I think some people left after the first encore ended, and even more people left during the second encore. It was kind of insane that they played two hours and then played two really long encores. I don't think I could have made it through a set like that. I hope they had better air conditioning than we did.

When we first got there I was really starting to get upset, because I couldn't see. I'm 5'6" and I've never felt so incredibly short in my whole life. There were people shorter than me sure, but it seemed like 80% were my height and another 9% were taller. It seemed like no matter where I tried to move some tall person would scoot over so all of a sudden I couldn't see again. In fact I'd started to think I was going to have to make do with watching Mr Shiny Pants* and occasionally the drummer, when I could see him. During the second song people started to shift, and I was able to catch glimpses, then Julie came to the rescue and found me a better view. For a while I could see really well, but then the crowd shifted and I was screwed again. When a new spot opened up Tim lined me up with a great view. I had 4 heads across of short people and I could see great! That one was eventually compromised and I just shifted back and forth a bit, trying to catch peeks where I could. By the time the second encore came I had a great view and it made the rest of the show worth the sore neck that I've still got.

The show was really awesome, and I'm still astounded that I was soooo close to the band. I mean, with a little effort I could have forced my way to within a few feet of them. It would have been easier during 60 Seconds of Something**, but that's not really my style. I'm not like all the pricks and prickettes that just shoved through the crowd to get up closer. I'm also not like the sort of people that would show up hours in advance to try and get up close real early then have to fight to keep my spot. Just knowing that I could have if I wanted to was enough for me. We were still really close, I'm terrible with distance, but I'd guess that we were within 30 feet of the stage.

Things I saw at The Cure (in no particular order)
- A girl with gigantic moles to the bottom left of her mouth smoke Marlborough lights. She was ugly, and slowly killing herself, so I suppose I'll forgive her rudeness, she's being punished enough.
- A ex-supervisor from work. I'll only call him SK because those are his initials, and I have nothing nice to say about him except that he was smarter than TS.
- A really short guy with a baseball cap that kept moving to be right in front of me. It wasn't really his fault that he kept ending up right in front of me, because he also had problems seeing through all the tall people, but it is his fault that he was wearing a baseball cap and kept turning his head in such a way that the bill of his hat would block my view.
- A lady with a gigantic purse. Giant purses in and of themselves are not criminal in my book; I own a lot of giant purses myself. However, you should not carry a large purse on your shoulder that is protrudes 4 inches in front of and behind you that is made of rope. Briefly she was in front of me and every time she moved it sawed a hole in my arm. If I still smoked I would have used my lighter to set it on fire.
- Lots of great people having a great time that kept their personal belongings and limbs in check. I'd say most of us fell into this category, but we're boring, so I'll keep going with the non-boring folks.
- A beer cup fall from the balcony above us and hit someone 4 feet away from me. I knew it was going to happen, and I was grateful to have moved away from the kill zone before it did.
- A strange guy doing weird dances that made him look really drunk or high, but since he never once hit anyone in the large crowd with his flailing limbs he must have been pretty aware of what was going on.
- A lady with a black veil and feather hat that didn't seem to want anyone to stare at her. Sorry, but if you have just a veil we might be able to pass it up, but when you add an 8 inch feather I've got to look.
- An arm punching the air from over the balcony above us. You couldn't see onto the balcony above us from below, so it was kind of impressive that I saw an entire arm up to the shoulder. They must have been practically hanging off the rail.
- A woman wearing a hot pink uglydress that wouldn't have looked good on very many people, and definitely not on her. She was standing spread legged on the balcony across the room from us, it was a strange posture and again I stared. I'm happy to report that you could not see up her skirt from where we were.
- I didn't see, but did smell someone smoking skunk somewhere nearby. Why do people only smoke skunky stuff in public? I wouldn't mind them doing it around me so much if they'd smoke something that smelled better.

I'd totally do it again, but I might try for a balcony seat. Now that I've been really close I think I'd like to settle for more comfort and maybe some binoculars. Does that make me officially old? I don't care, my tired old bones had a GREAT time! Thanks Tim for driving us all around, and to whoever suggested that I at least temporarily revoke my ban of Billy's Brew & Q. It was pretty tasty, and I wouldn't have ever gone otherwise.

*Sorry, I'm really bad with names, even with people I've actually met in person. I'd never have know who this was without Julie mentioning it. To me he will likely remain Mr Shiny Pants, but you deserve to know who the heck I'm talking about, so I stole that link from Julie's blog post.

**I actually remember their name, but last night Jeff and I were so wore out that even our brains were tired, and we kept butchering it in new and interesting ways. They are not a band I'd ever go see on purpose, but I think it would make kick ass sound track music for a zombie movie or maybe a horror slasher film.

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