June 1, 2003: Beck!
So Thor and Susan got me to go to Orlando last night to see Beck at the Hard Rock. With all the driving this week (New Orleans to Gainesville to Orlando to Gainesville to Atlanta to Gainesville.. and back to Atlanta this coming week) and all the things I have to do before my trip, I was not really motivated to go but I’m definitely glad I’ve got friends who will haze me when needed.
Anyways, the convincing finally took place Friday night when we also got our friend Rachel to go. So, I’m buying two tickets at 1am through Ticketbastard and we plan on leaving for Susan’s at around 10:30 Saturday morning. sigh.
Now, the last time we were in Winter Haven I had mentioned I’d never tried fried green tomatoes so Susan and Thor made plans for us to get some for lunch. We’d discovered this neat place named cafe near her house that, although it was totally a Christian place, was very comforting and nice as opposed to similar places I’ve been to in the past. Plus they actually made really good coffee.. and fried green tomatoes.
After an afternoon of frolicking around the outskirts south of Orlando we finally hit City Walk, picked up our tickets and got in line. The timing was great as we basically ended up front row. The opener band, The Black Keys, came on and had an amazing sound considering they are just two members: Patrick on drums and Dan on guitar & vocals. They had me jamming like I’d heard their stuff for years! And the timing was great as we were all starting to feel a little tired from the day’s activities.
Unfortunately, the second band then came on and they sucked so bad I’m not going to mention their real name for the sake of the members’ safety.. so let’s just refer to them as Dash-bored Constipational. Man, they stunk. They were pathetic; had absolutely nothing going for them. Out of all band members the drummer was the only one that seemed to actually be into it. From where I was, it looked as if the guys were just about checking out the girls near the front - hey, maybe they were just looking for fans they knew.. (right). Regardless, it was just plain boring and not moving anyone - literally, everybody was just standing still.. although there were some heads nodding, I’ll give them that. The whole experience was also made much worse because of all the girls behind us who knew every word to their songs and the one guy on the front who also screamed them while punching his fist up in the air. Sad.
Then Beck came on and it helped clear the bad feelings of Constipational. And it was totally worth it. As if Beck himself wasn’t entertaining enough to watch, his Summer tour band is a blast! The bassist, Steve McDonald from Red Kross, had Thor and I continuously rolling. And Thor keep pointing at Josh Klinghoffer (guitarist) as well, but I was so focused on Beck and Steve that I hardly could notice anyone else. Much much fun was had.
After the show, Susan and Rachel hit the merchandise stand where, much to our delight, there was NO line for that horrible second band. It was a beautiful thing.