Living Rarefied

Even though I had to work on a Saturday morning, it was a pretty good one. One of those do whatever days, no specific agenda during the afternoon, something in the morning and something at night, but the rest is for you.

I went to the Maroon 5 concert at night. The Thrills opened for them. The concert was great. Both bands played well and there was a lot of energy in the arena.

When I got home I noticed a huge difference in the bands I like. One way in particular is the level of appreciation or lack there of.

OK, here's the deal, I have always had a problem with encores.

A few years ago I was at a Simon and Garfunkel concert at the Xcel Center. They played like 3 encores? And each time before they got back out there, they spent 5-10 minutes waving at the crowd saying thank you. Now I know they are legends in music. I know they deserve a standing ovation and everything. But these encores were planned. Seeing Art Garfunkel up there soaking it in, I started to believe that these encore moments are why he lives. He was being a drama queen and if it weren't for him, the clapping and cheering maybe would've lasted 30 seconds before they played a few more songs. Paul Simon was very chill, it was almost as if he was so comfortable in his spot, he would've been fine without the excessive cheering. So 40 minutes later, filled with maybe 3 songs and 32 minutes of Art Garfunkel praise time, the show finally ended.

A super cool dude named Bebo forever changed my view on the musical encore. He said something like I am only going to play a few more songs and wont be doing an encore. He said he is so appreciative of where he is that he doesn't want anybody to praise him for the songs of the night, the praise shouldn't go to him. But to his Lord and Savior. He took a small crack in a light hearthed manner at those who do encores for the sake of their egos being hungry.

Now last night, I am not saying Maroon 5 is one of those need their egos lifted groups. They're doing pretty well for themselves, but my thoughts on this were triggered on the way in. People from Cities 97 were passing out sheets of paper with the setlists on them, all of them were very similar and it was textbook. There was listed the main set and at the bottom, Encore… Each of them had She Will Be Loved as their last song.

The Thrills…
Its very cool to see these opening acts who aren't necessarily nobodies, but they are so appreciative to be playing in front of a 16,000 person crowd (minus a few who only show up for the main act). But they are very thankful and just happy to have the chance to open.

I was happy for them too. . They were awesome! They sold 2 more CD's today on iTunes…

Ethan testing