Went to the Barenaked Ladies concert in the Orpheum Theatre in Boston with my stumpy friend Jenn Tuesday night. Some randomly related thoughts:
--Bought the tickets on eBay. Two yays for me for finding really good seats for cheaper than almost anyone else on eBay paid for seats farther away, because I just happened to sign on 15 minutes after some guy put up his auction with a Buy It Now option. Still cost a lot though.
--Way too many middle-aged people in the concert. Seems to me that except for one concert every other one I went to is full of middle-aged people. Can't they go to a Celine Dion concert instead?
--Saw two guys with Doug Flutie jerseys, one Buffalo and one San Diego. Where are the CFL jerseys?
--I think Jenn and I were the only non-white people there. The last time we were at the Orpheum for an Aimee Mann concert, we were the only people our age there.
--No opening act! I think we need a Constitutional Amendment banning opening acts (and Astroturf, of course), because I really don't need to hear bands like Lifehouse and Uncle Kracker again.
--Another reason to hate Canada: some lady two rows in front of me keep holding up the Canadian flag she brought, which, of course, completely obscured my view.
--Saw a few people eating hog dogs, which looked really disgusting.
--Crowd cheered when the name Phil Esposito came up in a song.
--Even though they all seem to be big lefties, they didn't say anything overtly political, except for *SURPRISE* a dig at the French! ("The first two soundboards we used today broke. I think the first one was French.") Note to France: when liberal Canadians make fun of you, you know you're the world's bitch.
--There was a song they played that was probably called "Fight the Power", but it's from their pre-album days (15+ years ago) and who can take a song seriously that mentions Nutty Buddies?
--Also, there was some guy not from the band dressed as God who was on stage half the time. They worked in some religious jokes, including a reference to the Joan Osborne song. ("And then I asked, 'what if God was one of us?'")
--They let some guy from the crowd come up to play the tambourine when the guy asked during the Q&A segment. But they absolutely blasted another guy for using his question to ask for an autograph by turning on the sirens they had on stage like the ones in hockey when someone scores. And some woman up front asked them to "perform" at her friend's bachelorette party.
--Pretty sure they played every song on the new album, though since it came out today no one knew any of the words. They also played most of their singles, Hello City, Stomach Vs. Heart, and one or two I don't recognize.
