Good Enough

mia: i'll try to see if i can get a ticket for you!
Mesha: when is it again?
mia: [date]
Mesha: hmm
oh why not, if you can find one
mia: COOL

Little was I to know that a casual acquiescence would drop-kick me into my very first rock concert experience.

In the days leading up to the event, Mia tried to rile me up in anticipation of the concert. Dropping a brick onto the CAPS key and cementing it there, she promised, with multiple messages, that I would be "jumping up and down", "screaming" with "excitement", terms as foreign to me as the concept of diet. Or exercise. She wanted to sing Evanescence's songs the day before the concert, so that I could memorize them as she had obviously done. She wanted to become a permanent fixture outside of Amy Lee's trailer, braving wind and rain for a signature on some overpriced merchandise. She wanted to do blood sacrifices and promise her future newborns to her goth queen. I may have made up one of the previous statements.

The day of the concert was dreary and cold. This was obviously going to be a true emo experience. Like a whirlwind, Mia rushed us all to the bus stop and allowed us all of 5 minutes to inhale our burgers in order to get into the stadium early. Possessing cheap floor tickets that Mia had acquired through nefarious ingenuous means, we headed in with the anticipation of having to claw and kick our way into getting decent standing room. Surprisingly, the floor was only probably 1/5th full, and we had no trouble standing within clear view of the stage. Looking around me, I saw countless giggling teenage girls and their posses, tattoo-ed bald rocker guys who were obviously there only for Stone Sour, and a handful of goth/emo teens who were dressed like their idol. I was about to make a mean quip about them in my catty little head when I had the misfortune to look down at what I was wearing. Jacket: Black. Blouse: Maroon and Black. Pants: Black. Shoes: Black. DAMMIT.

My sole pre-concert entertainment gone, I grumpily sat down and conversed with my friends. Mia was predictably excited, and made sure I knew it via enthusiastic eeeees' and nearly puncturing my shoulder with her bony grip. Eric, a brother-of-a-friend, stared at everything around us, taking stock of the world that existed beyond his often solitary one. Ish, the den-mother of the group, cheerfully escorted us (the girls) individually to the bathroom before the show started. If you're wondering, we're not in kindergarten. Holding in your pee is BAD.

After approximately 30 minutes of partially listening to some high schoolers in front of me gab about their drama-infused lives, the lights went out. The show was finally on! The lead-in band was called the Black Maria. A cursory myopic glance told me that the lead singer was quite cute, in a Brandon Flowers sort of way. (But after looking at their website, not so much. Darkness and stage lights apparently do wonders). He seemed eager and enthusiastic, earnest even. Too bad that was all the band had going for them. The instruments were forgettable, the singing/screaming rather thin. The singer obviously needed to develop more powerful vocal cords, or just spare us all the misery of waiting for the other bands to come on. At this point some rocker dudes beside us started screaming for them to get off the stage. The singer told the audience to hold up their cellphones/lighters, those guys happily responded by raising their pinkies in the air. Kidding, you know which finger. At this point, I started feeling sorry for the band and decided to temporarily adopt them as my baby band. Unfortunately, my feelings of goodwill were outlived by my ADD. I gave up straining my neck to follow their movements and instead got really well acquainted with the back of Ish's head. She has really nice hair.

5 or 6 songs later, the Black Maria finally ended their mewling and ceded the stage to Stone Sour. The lead singer, Corey Taylor, strode out to the front of the stage, smirked at the audience, and gave the one-finger salute. Something told me it was going to be a long night. Although I was pre-warned about the crudeness of the lead singer, it was hard not to feel aghast at the constant spitting and chucking of half-full water bottles. Into the audience. Of course, this was when the moshing began. The crowd surfing, I could stand. The pushing and mock fights, which happened a few people away from us, not so much. I pacified my urge to feed the whole lot of them to barracudas by trying to trip the people who were rudely pushing past us.
Stone Sour's first song was a adrenaline-fueled metal number. Corey Taylor made me giggle as he opened by swinging his long, blond locks round and round and round and...hehehe. It was inherently amusing to watch a grown man fling his hair around like a pampered pop princess. Though I'm sure that wasn't the intention. Much as I hated to admit it, the man was quite charismatic, trailer trash looks and obscenity-laden diatribes aside. He played the audience quite well with his cocky demeanour and anti-Bush/government statements. People were even clamouring for his spit-filled water bottles that he would toss out after chugging on them. One of them headed straight for me, so I ducked and it hit Eric in the chest. He slowly bent to pick it up but some drunk fans beat him to it and drank from the bottle.
Although I enjoyed Stone Sour's "Through Glass", I couldn't really get into their louder songs. Not being a metal fan, I don't really understand the intricacies of high-amped bass lines and unintelligible screaming. However, from what I could see, the audience enjoyed it thoroughly. Compared to the lukewarm reception of Black Maria, people were more actively involved, pumping their fists into the air, jumping up and down, and singing along with the band. If they came solely for Stone Sour, I'd say they got their money's worth.

Stone Sour took their leave of the stage after 7 or 8 songs. By then, my feet were feeling really sore. Finally, the curtains lifted and Evanescence launched into a punchy rock number. Mia, having secretly practiced her concert screams at home, did herself proud by shattering my eardrums with the otherworldly shriek she elicited at the sight of Amy Lee. I, however, was transfixed by the pretty grand piano that rose onto the stage via some secret chamber/lift thing. I had to discard my plans to steal it though, the security guards looked pretty strong. And mean. Though the younger, hotter one earns cool points for this following incident:

[Idiot taking pictures on his camera phone in broad light (Cameras were banned)]
Hot Security Guard: At least wait till the lights are out so that we can't see you take pictures!

Evanescence performed mostly from their new album, with a couple of the popular, older ones thrown in. I was definitely impressed with how strong Amy Lee's voice was, it was definitely as good as, or just slightly worse than, the CD. Although most of the songs sounded familiar to me, I couldn't quite remember the lyrics to sing, or even mouth along. I have horrible memory with lyrics. I never forget names, but when I attempt to sing a song in my head, I tend to make up weird lyrics that were never in the song in the first place. Anyway, I loved the songs that she performed on the piano (obviously), but the newer, more rockish songs were lost on me. So, I decided to stare at my friends, who were standing in front of me. Ish, being the cool person that she is, merely nodded her head to the beat while singing along. Eric was swallowed up by the crowd somewhere behind me. Mia, on the other hand, was completely unrestrained in her enthusiasm for the songs. She cheered (loudly), she sang (enthusiastically), and she pumped her fist in the air (unfortunately, half a beat too late). I could only marvel at her enthusiasm and wonder why, even though I enjoyed the songs, I couldn't muster the same level of energy and excitement that she exuded.

14 songs and an encore later, the concert finally ended. We waded out there, only to find that the coat-check/item-retrieval line was 12352 miles long, and guess who needed her stupid $35 umbrella? Yep. Ironically, the jacketless and bagless Mia was the only one who had to deposit her umbrella with the storage fairies. Even better: her umbrella is black. Guess how many black umbrellas there were in the claims area? After giving up the notion of strangling Mia, we decided to aid her in the quest of sifting through hundreds of unclaimed black umbrellas. Next time, she is totally getting a neon pink one should she feel the urge to shield herself from the rain.

As we travelled home by bus, my ADD caught up with me again, and my mind drifted back to the concert. Although Amy Lee's singing was good, the enthusiasm and stage presence wasn't there. She briefly addressed the crowd once or twice, compared to the constant banter Corey Taylor kept up with the audience. After the final song, she just left the stage with a wave and a smile. The band members were not introduced throughout the performance. And in my opinion, some of the more haunting songs, like Lacrymosa, lost their eerie quality amidst the overpowering percussion. However, I have to say I enjoyed the experience (spitting and bottle chucking notwithstanding), and I wouldn't mind going to another concert, by a different band.

That said, does this:



Plus this:


Equal this?