So, I headed to Hampton Beach last week, phone-less (as I still hadn't bought a new one), trying to find a place I hadn't ever been to before, and meet my friend Talluto. Let me say this- not having a phone is WEIRD. I had to WRITE DOWN directions. In times of boredom, I had to talk to my friend, or just stare at stuff. If I got lost, I had to figure it out. And on the way there, I stopped worrying about something bad happening to me and started wondering what would happen if something happened where Talluto couldn't meet me. I would spend the whole night just wondering where he was, while he may have done the same with me if he couldn't find me. It's amazing to think that like 8 years ago, we did this kind of stuff all the time. It's scary to think how easy smartphones have made things, and also how dependent we are on them.
I had never been to Hampton Beach, but had heard it was pretty dirtbaggy. It turns out that nobody lied to me. Like a mini Jersey Shore, it is filled with small shops selling crap, overpriced food, tons of places that sold "fry dough" (is that fried dough? Cuz I just think of potatoes when I hear FRY dough...), and a billion people I would never want to talk to.
But it can be pretty.
I lucked out though, and found the place very easily, and finding Talluto was simple as well. We went in and went to our skybox, which was hilarious. Having the guy check us off a list and walking up to this rich, snobby place was hilarious. We had our own room with seating to watch some pop bands and look over droves of teenagers like we were better than them (we probably were).
Our own TV, a sweet view, our own fan, a bar down the hall, and like 10 chairs for 2 people.
Such a weird way to watch a show.
We didn't last long up there though- we aren't old farts yet, and we wanted to sing along and rock out, and doing that in that room felt incredibly weird. So, the room just became a place to sit between sets and laugh at all the people below us who couldn't sit.
Thursday were great, but played too much new stuff that, while good, doesn't hold up to the old. Geoff is still a fantastic frontman though- probably my favorite.
standard Geoff Rickly arm-in-the-air move
Taking Back Sunday were both fantastic and terrible. They were fantastic because the crowd exploded for them, which made every song HUGE, they had good energy and the singer was fun to watch. Presumably since they have the original lineup back, 75% of the set consisted of songs from the first 2 albums, which meant hit after hit with only a few new (and not very good) songs thrown in. They were terrible though, because the singer can't sing a note to save his life- he has had an ever-declining voice for the last few years (I'll never stop hating singers who sing high notes on albums and then smoke, therefore assuring they will completely butcher those songs a few years later), and he sounded even worse that night, like his voice was gone much more than normal. He had an odd drunken swagger in the way he acted and spoke (he honestly talked like Arlo Guthrie, and he certainly didn't do that when I saw them 8 years ago), and he ended the night by wandering into the crowd, going to every corner of the room, "singing" on top of a bar and the merch booth while the stagehands and crowd struggled to carry the mic cord around, and tons of annoying teenagers ran around him. The band seemed to be aggravated by this, or at the very least, annoyed at the drunken or drugged antics of someone with the amount of power the lead singer of a band has. I was pretty bummed out. But other than the last 3 disastrous songs, it was still a good time.
engulfed in lights
The Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom is a decent place- big and rectangular with expected sound, but odd- they had huge banners promoting the fact that U2, Phish, and George Carlin had played there as long ago as 30 years- next to a banner saying that Godsmack had played there. Really? They're in the same boat? On the stairway up to our skybox, a picture of Trey of Phish was directly across from a picture of the gray haired tool who won American Idol a few years ago.
We went to the Casino after, to play as many hands of blackjack as we could before they closed, which turned out to be a whopping 2. This was a huge disappointment, especially after convincing Talluto to go and walking 4 or 5 blocks, but hey, at least I came out even.
It was a nice night, reminiscing a little bit about college. I got into both of these bands within pretty much the same month, and would go skateboarding listening to them, play them on every radio show, blast the albums on every long drive, and have huge messes of parties where we'd singalong and play air guitar to both albums pretty consistently. I also used to go to shows with huge groups, and it definitely saddened me a little bit that nobody else was here or even knew or cared about the show. Everyone I know has certainly changed and moved far away, but at the same time, I'm really starting to accept the sad reality that not only do most people my age not still like or care about music they listened to 10 years ago, but they also don't go to concerts at all anymore. I was blown away at the crowd here- it was the same crowd I saw 10 years ago- all teenagers and kids in their low to mid twenties at best, and as is becoming the norm- me, the 30 year-old standing alone or with 1 friend. It's weird to me that kids who were probably 5 when Taking Back Sunday's first album came out were freaking out to songs from it like I did when it actually came out and I was in college. As evidenced by a lot of my friends starting to explore and listen to very old music that they never listened to before, it seems like the youth of today is doing the same thing- that really would be the only thing that could explain why these little kids knew every word to these songs. Maybe I'm the only one who still loves favorite albums of 10-15 years ago, or at least cares about them in a reminiscent and excited way, using the music to remember great times from long ago. And honestly, that fact really bums me out. Concerts like this can be misery (feeling old and awkward, stuck in a hot mess of a billion annoying kids), but they can also be fantastic, and my throat and voice after the show was proof of that.
currently listening to: Taking Back Sunday- self titled (new one)
I saw TBS way back in 7th grade. Tell all your friends days - before screamo was "in".
ReplyDeleteAs for Thursday, I would have only been interested in songs from Full Collapse.
Thanks for the memories.