I can't remember the last time I had to leave my house at 3 p.m. to get to a concert scheduled for the evening. Oh, yeah I can. It was the time The Cure played The Forum and there was that statewide power outage that meant that Kar3n, Amy and I had to put on our make up outside in 110 degree weather and then sit on the 405 for, literally, three hours, which was, coincidently the same length of time as The Cure's set that night.
Anyhow, yesterday, I had to leave at 3 yesterday so that I could get on the ol' 405 to head over to Megan's then hop on the 405 again so that we could get to the 710 with enough time to make it to Long Beach Arena and catch The Subways' 6:25 p.m. set. We got through the wait for the photo pass and the usual entrance area patdown roughly ten minutes before the band went onstage. This was my first time seeing The Subways and, man, we they good. Those kids just can't stand still and the crowd loved every minute of it.
Actually, every band on last night's bill (Taking Back Sunday with Angels and Airwaves, Head Automatica and The Subways) was on fire. You'll read more about this later in another venue. Oddly enough, though, Angels and Airwaves blew my mind. The set actually inspired what I think might turn into an essay.
It's just kind of odd how music and writing are so intertwined in my mind, particularly considering that that I can't play an instrument and I haven't written poetry since I was a seventeen-year-old stereotype of a Tori Amos fan. (No fairy wings, just the long skirt, copy of The Bell Jar and tons of issues.) I started writing against a soundtrack when I was in junior high and, at least through college, managed to pile up a stack of short stories based on songs (think late-teen romances set in nightclubs as Duran Duran played, which actually turned out better than it sounds, but still is kind of cheesy in retrospect). Last night was one of those nights where the guitar just sort of hit something in me that had absolutely nothing to do with the review I'm supposed to write and I tried to get it all down in my notebook, but it was too dark and the lights from the stage hit my eyeballs all spastic-like and I ended up with illegible squiggles on paper and a massive headache.