The "pop" 40 rant

I know that I said that the next post would be about and hippies and I can only imagine how excited you were, but we’ve had some technical issues with the pictures so the aforementioned blog has been put on hold. Instead I give you tweenies, pop-stars, and why some CDs should only be listened to in private.

Tuesday night I went to see The Fray with Gomez as the opening act. I really like Gomez which was the driving force for me wanting to go the concert (I recommend giving them a listen if you haven’t already done so), and I have the Fray’s second album so what the heck.

I’ll start with this; Gomez should get on their bus after the next show and leave the Fray wherever they are. They need to be like “we’ll see you in Dallas” and then head to LA. I knew the Fray was a bit poppy, but this thing definitely felt like being at a middle school dance. The weird thing was it wasn’t the Fray’s music that was necessarily poppy, but rather the environment. Lots of families were there which I guess is a good thing, but once again Gomez really isn’t what I’d expect a family of four to listen to on the way to grandmas. For that matter neither is the Fray if you break down some of their lyrics. I’m glad kids are interested in music but how do you explain a song about a recovering addict (How to save a life) to 12-yr old? Anyway let the rant continue.

It was such a weird dynamic, as I mentioned there were families, but also lots of people that got off of work on a Tuesday and proceeded to get as drunk as possible. I mean c’mon it’s a Tuesday people have to work on Wednesdays! What were they thinking don’t theses people have jobs?!. Here are a few examples:



A) During one of the slower (and I guess sadder) songs a guy who looked like he was in his late twenties just started crying. He was sobbing into some chicks shoulder. There are three scenarios for his crying: he was so out of his mind drunk that the song just really got to him, he was so drunk the song reminded him of a sad event in his life, or my favorite he was so drunk he thought that was his best way to hook up with the chick he was using as a Kleenex. I hope it was the last one, an unorthodox method to be sure but not one that I could dismiss as one that I’ve never seen anyone use.



B) Then there was this chick that got to her seat about 3 minutes before the show started and was so drunk that she literally had to roll herself over the empty row of seats in front of us. Then after a lot of effort was able to stand for long enough to chug an airplane bottle of what appeared to be vodka before spiking it, raising her hands and screaming about how awesome the Fray was. After all of that exertion she plopped herself down in her new seat for a well earned string of smokes that she took down to the filter every time, a performance I had not seen since DP’s kid and his nephew got together. It was at this time that I turned to Waugh happened and predicted a stomach reversal. The party girl then proceeded to search the ground for something for about 20 minutes. After being entertained for long enough I offered assistance and it turned out she had misplaced her smokes. I looked for a good 10-15 seconds, and then gave up hope. Party girl then stood up, and lo and behold the smokes fell out of her lap, awesome!



C) I had gone to buy beer and satisfy my addiction for t-shirts, when I came back to my seat and some chaach had his feet on my chair. The professional ass-clown then jokingly told me I couldn’t sit there like we were buddies or something. I retorted that he couldn’t sit in his seat, like we weren’t buddies because we most definitely were not. After I had sat back down, he wanted to talk to me about the Mike and Angelo’s t-shirt I was wearing. Thinking if I just told him where the bar had been he would leave me alone, no dice. After the old Buckhead came up he just wanted to talk about clubs and how disappointing it was the clubs were gone, and how awesome Makos was and blah blah blah. When the Fray busted into a cover of the Shakira featuring Wyclef song Waugh happened and I decided to leave. The guy behind me then went off about us leaving in the middle of the show and how that wasn’t cool. It was then that I realized there is no reasoning with an idiot and best practice was to ignore him.

As we were leaving I was reminded of how great a place Lakewood is for underage drinking. Walking through the parking lot to the car we passed a Georgia State Patrolman and his golf cart (that’s just funny) busting what looked like a 14-yr old girl and boy. All I caught of the conversation was:
GSP: where is her brother?
Scared shitless 14-yr old boy: he is down the hill, sir.
GSP: you better get his butt up here, cause she’s about to go to juvi.
Wow the drama was intense, as we were driving out a kid that I assume was her brother was in a dead sprint up the hill. That had to be a tough call to mom and dad.

After all of the events of the concert I realized that my dogging of the Fray for being poppy probably isn’t all that fair. While it is true they sold out I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have done the same thing. Plus they got my $18 for their last CD that from here on I will only listen to by myself or with Waugh happened as I try to force tears hoping she will make out with me.

*If you are unfamiliar with Gomez check out these videos. Two really good songs and the videos are kind of cool. Also if you listen to music at work check this website out www.pandora.com it’s pretty cool. It takes musical qualities from an artist or a song you enter and caters a radio station to your taste.


This is my favorite Gomez song "Whippin' Piccadilly"



This one is "See the World" very cool video