A Decade of Concerts

So tonight I joined my cousin Mendy, her boyfriend Alex, and some of their friends at the Del Mar racetrack to celebrate his birthday by betting on a few races and (once the last race was finished) watching the... wait for it... WEEZER CONCERT!!!

Weezer is fun, catchy, and they are great live performers, and as we stood there in front of the stage waiting for the show to begin, it dawned on me... they were my very first concert, back in 2001... ten years ago! Which of course got my mind going on this whole "decade of song" tangent and how I would have to write about it when I got home. 

[insert that hazy music you hear on a sitcom when a character goes into "flashback" mode]

It was November 2001... I was a young freshman at UCSD who was just starting to diversify his music tastes beyond pop radio stations, and getting into the whole mp3 thing / downloading thing too, and in doing so discovered a band called Jimmy Eat World. This was before they hit it big, as I got into their (at the time) newest CD called "Bleed American" prior to the events of 9/11, which prompted a name change to the disc. Anyways, I *loved* them, so when I found out they were touring as one of the opening bands for Weezer (who I had also just recently heard and started to enjoy as well), I *had* to go. 

So I went with my dad (as I had no concert-loving friends), who had no idea who these bands were, but went to keep me company... though thinking on it now, I think it was mainly because my parents didn't want their 17-year-old alone at a concert. But it was a great time over at Cox Arena - I remember the excitement, the singing along to all my favorite songs, the rocking out with my head and shoulders, taking in all the lights and staging, and the big light-up =w= logo for Weezer. It was a blast, and it started my whole concert fanaticism. I still have the ticket somewhere, boxed-up as a keepsake, along with almost all the concert tickets I've acquired over the last ten years. 

There's over 100, of this I am sure. 

But I'm glad I got my first taste of live music back in the day, and that it moved me to keep going. When I first started, I would just go by myself, and I'm glad that I did as I would've missed out on some killer shows if I'd been too dependent on having someone with me to do these things. And not just the big artist/band shows too, but the smaller coffeehouse / local music scene artists as well. 

One of my friends posted a picture of a crowd from a concert she recently attended, and her caption was something like "How can we be strangers when we're all here singing the same words?" And I loved that. It's very true and it's pretty rad to experience those moments where everyone is united in music and lyrics and enjoying every second of the song. 

Weezer had plenty of those moments tonight, especially with the crowd singing the chorus to "Undone (The Sweater Song)", or the "woot woot" sounds in "Buddy Holly", or screaming out "Say It Ain't Soooooooo-oh-whoa-whoaaaaa" for "Say It Ain't So"... 

So here's to the last ten years of concerts! Let's see what the next ten years bring... (*cough*Adeleplease*cough*)