Old Dad at the mosh pit last night

[Michael Martin]

At, not in. Took my daughter to a concert last night, with two of her friends, for her 14th birthday present. I was chaperone--stayed out of the way but was a keen observer of the scene. I may well have been the oldest person in the joint. Five (5!) bands in succession: 1. The Sleeping (vigorous thumping and yelling, with the question "is everybody here to have a good time?" repeated approximately every 17 seconds) 2. Plain White Ts (much more tuneful; much more memorable performance) 3. Can't remember their name. Or what they did. They may have been good--I'm just blanking at the moment. 4. Relient K (great band--great variety in their songs, and among songs. Even used a real piano and a banjo (!) here and there among the usual rockin' instruments. Wonderful show. 5. The headliner: Hawthorne Heights. Very impressive, great showmanship, but essentially one idea repeated in every song: Middle guy sings with urgent tenderness, guy on right screams his guts out, everybody pounds away relentlessly as the retina-scorching light show flickers spastically. But it all really worked to whip up the kids into crowd-surfing, water spraying, mosh-pitting frenzy. Never a dull moment. My daughter and her friends had the time of their lives. She even got a crowd-surf because her friends let on that it was her birthday.

[AK47]

The simple pleasures of getting old.
kindred spirit

[guitarist21]

I love Relient K! They're so good. Especially their older stuff, but their new stuff is a lot of fun too. I'm a big fan.

Ellen

[ron4540]

me too - relient k rocks !!

surprised they weren't the headliner

they're actually a christian music band - but to me, it's just pure pop punk like blink-182 or good charlotte.

cheers

[Michael Martin]

Update: the band I forgot in the earlier post was Emery. They actually were quite good, but what a forgettable name!

The thing I took away from the experience: Whatever the genre, expressiveness/emotion/energy are all so essential for good live music. Those bands all had it in spades.

As some of you know, I saw The Who in September. They had it too--so there's hope for us old guys! I hear they're coming to Omaha--I am tempted to drive over to see them again...they were fantastic in Des Moines.