I went solo last night to a rock show at the Paradise Rock Club to see a chick band Wild Flag and the opening act, Hospitality. I have to admit, I left the show disappointed in the bands I had seen, and that is on top of the fact I was anticipating enjoying the opener. As I was riding the train away, I met with a brother and sister who enjoyed the show, and from our conversation, I rethought about my experience. I realized that it wasn't that I was disappointed in the bands, far from it. They actually had some nice moments and I was Boston-bouncing to the drum beats and guitar riffs.
I was trying to catch some of the NCAA Final Four game between Ohio State and Kansas. Incidentally, it is not my love of basketball or sports or anything close to resembling purity which interested me about this particular game. No, it's all about money. Yep. If Kansas wins the whole dance I win lots of money. So as I was sneaking into the front bar to watch the game, mostly alone, but with a few notable exceptions, I actually didn't miss much concert time.
Hospitality has clear rhythmic talent. Their songs have such an allegiance to faux-dispassion, but their chords, beats and lyrics seem to balance well. My only real problem with the opener was the lead singer seemed to have a problem locating her microphone between changing chords and singing a line. She had to look down at the guitar, which took her away from the mic leading to clear vacancy of vocals. I'm sure she'll work it out.
Between sets, I watched the game's finale, with Kansas threatening several times to take a lead and finally prevailing in going ahead and preventing Ohio State from surging back. My viewing companions included a beard toting hipster, who I couldn't imagine was actually watching the game if it wasn't that his eyes were fixed on the screen and I could hear a few Yes' and No's corresponding with positive and negative events for Kansas. At least he was going for the team I was.
The other oddity was the blado chicken who asked if she could join me at the table and then realized after I awkwardly accepted her own invitation to sit, that I was sitting and watching the game above me... not sitting desperately by myself. Awkward awkward awkward silence reproached my polite demeanor. Making it worse, my beer had run empty, and to make myself look busy to avoid this weirdo's gazing desire to start conversation, I was taking blank swigs of the bottle. It's always been a dream of guys to be approached by women, but when you turn the tide, there's nothing worse than being bothered by a drunk desperate women looking for attention. I feel for the normal ladies out there being hit on by drunk men.
After the game, and the high of winning money getting one game closer, I returned to the stage to find Wild Flag had begun. I do not have much to say. I didn't really enjoy the music. I listened to a few songs and recognize their musical attractiveness for a certain demograph, after all, it's chicks rocking out. In my opinion, it wasn't paving roads to new territory, there was nothing very creative, but it wasn't bad. Initially I feared my reaction was a bit harsher than I really experienced, but they just didn't do it for me. I left before the encore break.
When I got on the train, I noticed the bro/sis combo getting on and asked if they enjoyed the show. They were wholeheartedly enthused with the performance (although leaving before the encore is suspicious) which made me rethink my apparently hasty verdict. It was a rock show, pure and simple, and the girls rocked out. It wasn't the Rolling Stones, but I enjoyed being there. All rock shows are pretty incredible.
