Went to a Matchbox Twenty concert earlier with a slice of college-age and suburban North Carolina life. I had free tickets, and nothing better to do on a Saturday night, so I went. It was about as good as I expected. American Hi-Fi and Sugar Ray opened. American Hi-Fi was decent, genuine, but Sugar Ray was pretty bad, to the point of having their stage props resemble a Mexican bar, complete with bar and real bartender serving the band drinks while they were playing. It was more than a little tacky. It was apparently ’80s night for the tour, though, so all three bands played covers of selected ’80s songs throughout the night. American Hi-Fi played a Night Ranger song, Sugar Ray played a cover of “Fight for Your Right to Party” (incidentally the highlight of their set), and Matchbox Twenty played a couple, Simple Minds “Don’t You Forget About Me,” (pretty good) and U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” (not U2, but good taste nonetheless).
Tough crowd. Everybody was resolutely sitting down until halfway through the headliner’s set (except for Sugar Ray’s Beastie Boys cover). A local radio station, G105, was handing out free sampler cds at the concert, and walking in I was accosted by an employee of the station and handed a rather heavy box of the samplers to do with as I liked, since apparently they just had to get rid of them. I continued walking in with the box for a while, then realized what I was doing, and deposited it on a nearby bench, suspicious-looking as it was.
There was a great fireworks show immediately after the concert as well. So I didn’t go a whole fourth of July weekend without seeing fireworks, which was good. If I sound apathetic about the whole experience, it’s partly because it was pretty mediocre overall, minus the time I got to spend with my friends, and partly because I’m dead tired. Need sleep.
I think I like small, more humble bands, and local, more intimate concerts better. And now to go listen to some U2. Just savor the irony.