The Good 'Ole Concert Days

I love going to concerts. It's as simple as that. I did not realize how spoiled I was when I lived in the bay area for 4 years having access to ANY and EVERY concert I could hope for.

Now living approximately 3 hours from any large city, my concert viewing has greatly decreased. Don't get me wrong, I am more than willing to travel for a band I love, however over the last few years bands are more commonly preforming on any day of the week...not just the weekends.

The closest concert venue we have is in Santa Barbara (1.5 hours south.) The venus not that big, so the performers that play there are either bands with one hit album, has beens, or Katy Perry since she's local.

We also have concerts once a year at the Paso Fair. If we are lucky they will have a band that we like (Weezer, STP, Velvet Revolver). This year they have yet to announce an act we would like to see...there is one more night free...let's hope it's not another country act.

Occasionally there will be a fluke...like when MGMT played in Avila last year. (I'm actually heading back to the Avila venue next month to see Sheryl Crow play for a fundraiser. Random, I know.)

I currently subscribe to all concert venue newsletters as well as all of the small bands I like HOPING they will play somewhere near by. I'm learning that it is also very common for smaller bands to play festivals...AKA multi day concerts. Most of these take place over a weekend, which is awesome except it's MULTI DAY.

I will painfully admit that I am TOO old to attend a 3 day concert. Ever since I turned 30 I have really felt the physical effects of getting older. Seriously. A simple weekend trip to SF/LA totally wipes me out. If I can't' take that, how could I survive a 3-day concert? Whatever happened to the 1 day concerts back in the 90's? KMEL Summer Jam? Kamp KOME? Anyone? Those concerts were SO AWESOME. Totally exhausting...but they were only 1 day so you had ample time to recover.

It really bums me out that 1 day concerts have now turned into these MULTI DAY 'festivals.' I'm sure most of you have heard of Coachella as well as Outside Lands. I name these two in particular because A) they both have bands I would love to see, and B) they are both in CA and I could possibly attend them...HOWEVER they take place over 3 days. 3 DAYS! Who has the time and money for a 3 day concert? Ok...so I know one person who has the resources, and that is my friend SA. I must say that I am totally pumped that I have at least one friend who is hard core enough to attend these awesome festivals...and that I get to live vicariously through her.

This weekend she will be going to Coachella for a second time. Read about her survival tips here...and read about her experience last year here.

I Found a Wistle

This past holiday weekend we had quite a few guests in town. First my parents and my uncle were in town and around the time they left my in-laws showed up for a day. One of the highlights of the weekend was that MGMT performed in Avila Beach on Friday night.

Thanks to Spin magazine John had downloaded some of MGMT’s songs last year and we included those on a mixed CD we made for my dad for Christmas. When I found out that they were going to be playing 15 minutes from where we lived I HAD to get us tickets! The only time we ever get big named artists playing in our County is during the Paso Robles fair in July. This concert was very unusual!

After I bought the tickets I then realized that I didn’t have either one of their albums! Oops! John download them for me ASAP and I started listening to them everyday at work. At first I was like ‘what kind of music is this?’ but by the end of the few weeks I was a total fan.

The concert was on a golf course, so I made reservations for us to have dinner at the restaurant on the course. It couldn’t have worked out more perfect as we got to park super close to the venue!

My dad sent Eric to get some beers…he came back with this! As you an see he is very proud.
The crowd was mostly college kids, but there were even some families with their little kids. I always have fun people watching and seeing everyone’s stylish concert attire. I assume white pants the latest fashion trend?

The first two songs MGMT played sounded SO good. However by the third their sound got all whacky and the base was REALLY loud…then they keyboards got REALLY loud, and then there was massive feedback from the guitar. It did improve, thank goodness, but we weren’t sure what was going on.

They had a really long encore (5 to 6 songs), but ended it with their song Kids, which was awesome. What was odd, is that they sang the song over prerecorded music. I’m not sure if they planned it that way or what, but it was odd.

I still haven’t figured out how they wound up picking Avila as a venue. My only thought was that the Santa Barbara bowl was booked, or that they knew someone in the area. I’m hoping it is a sign that more big named bands will play in this area but I doubt it.