What I Did This Weekend: The Music Edition

My blog has changed a lot over the past couple of years.  At first I would only post things from the 101 Things to Do Before You Die List, but then I thought maybe it would be okay to talk about things that were still somewhat related to items on the list.  And originally all of my titles were taken directly from items on the list and their corresponding number, but long about April 2010, I got bored with that.  And progressively this summer, my blog posts have become more about what I want to talk about (see: posts on True Blood, baseball games, and cancer), rather than “life goals.”  Often I’ve tried to bring it back to how its related to the blog’s theme, but I really don’t think I can do it for this post.  Well, maybe I can… 

What are the two most random musical acts I could have seen in the same weekend?  If you answered MC Hammer and KISS, then you’d be right.  Seeing MC Hammer is just one of those random things I guess I just HAVE to talk about and seeing KISS should be on the “List of Musicians You Must See in Concert Before You Die,” along with AC/DC (Check), Rolling Stones (Check), and Led Zepplin (sadly, I was born too late).  I guess really it should be ”See These Musicians Back When They Were in Their Prime and Not Tired and Old.”).

A local radio station hosts a “Second Chance Prom” each year with a musical act that’s typically a blast from the past.  Last year Alex and I went because Salt-n-Pepa were the musical act and we had an AWESOME time!  It was like being in middle school all over again; Salt-n-Pepa were great, very entertaining, and every single song the DJ played was one you hadn’t heard in forever.  And, any time you get to dress up in a fancy dress is a great day in my book.  I actually wore my dress from Junior year in high school last year.  I’m just glad I finally got another use out of it.

This year they announced the musical act would be Boyz II Men and I bought my tickets the day they went on sale.  Last year’s concert sold out pretty quickly and I thought Boyz II Men would sell pretty fast too.  Unfortunately, they canceled and were replaced by MC Hammer.  Really quickly, let me ask: What pressing engagement did Boyz II Men decide was more important?  The opening of a new car dealership?  Really?!  What else are they doing that they didn’t need the work?

I could have refunded my tickets but I thought MC Hammer would still be pretty entertaining, and again, interesting to say that I had seen him in concert anyway.  When I bought the tickets in May, I didn’t look at my calendar to realize that this past Saturday would be an 18 mile run.  Alex and I booked a hotel room at the host hotel and after our run, we headed to the hotel for an early check in to utilize their hot tub and take naps.  As you can imagine, we were both exhausted and sore, and although the hot tub loosened up our aching muscles, climbing back into bed afterwards for a nap just allowed them to get stiff again. 

I went to Goodwill right after I bought the tickets to find a really cheesy, early 90s style formal dress and on my very first visit found a great black velvet dress with a sweetheart neckline and big poufy white sleeves.  For $8.  Awesome.  When I was getting ready that evening, I desperately wanted to wear flip flops as the idea of wearing heels made my legs scream in fear.  However, Lydia, who was also attending with Steve, pressured me into wearing the heels.  I have photos of my feet at the end of the night that I’ll spare you but believe me, they look like someone put them through a grinder.

After awesome cheesy prom photo time in the hotel room, we made our way down to the ball room.  Through a combination of champagne, endorphins, and adrenaline, I was able to dance (although, if its possible, I hurt more on Sunday than I did on Saturday) and Lydia and I had a great time boogying on the dance floor.  Alex was even more tired than I was, so the boys sat it out until it was time to start finding our way towards the stage. 

MC Hammer was supposed to come out around 10pm so around 9:30pm, we started pushing towards the front.  At 10pm or so, he was introduced and we were only about 5 people back from the stage.  After THIRTEEN minutes of intro song, he finally decided to grace us with his presence, along with 4 backup singers, 5 female dancers, and 3 male dancers.  Um…MC?  Isn’t the whole entourage thing what got you into trouble in the first place? 

The show was good, he was mildly entertaining.  At one point he came out into the crowd, so that’s always neat to see when musicians come out “to the people.”  And MC was a name-dropping sonovabitch if ever there was one.  In an hour’s time, he managed to mention: Tupac, Biggie, Luther Vandross, Prince, and James Brown, all of which he intimated that he was close with.  If you’ll notice, most of these men are dead and I’m sure MC recognizes this, knowing there’s no way they could refute his claims. 

I had a great view until the last 20 minutes when a 6’4″ tree of a man squeezed in front of me, successfully blocking my view of “2 Legit.”  Alex was dying, my feet were killing me, and so right before “Can’t Touch This,” we bowed out of the crowd to find seats in the back.  I’m glad that I did because they invited girls up onto stage for the last song and apparently there was a huge crush of people trying to rush the stage to be picked.  I’m not cool with riot mentality.

We stayed until the end because I expected there to be a slow song to end the night and wanted to dance with Alex but there wasn’t.  What dance have you EVER been to that didn’t end on a slow song?  None.

This description sounds really negative; I had a good time.  I was tired, so that didn’t help, and after we left the stage area, I went upstairs for a wardrobe and shoe change, and felt much better.  Lydia and I had a great time dancing and it took me awhile to go to sleep as I was still wired long after Alex was snoring in his bed. 

We checked out the next morning and headed home to do a little laundry and catch up on some stuff around the house before we headed to Walnut Creek to tailgate before the KISS concert.  Alex and I thought we were getting a good deal with $25 lawn tickets but a couple of weeks ago, Live Nation had one of their $10 days and my friends all purchased their tickets for just 10 bucks.  Oh well.  $50 to see KISS still ain’t bad.  We hung out in the parking lot for a couple of hours before heading in. 

Alex and I always set up camp behind the “Family Section” because 1) it’s usually not full, so fewer people around/in front of you and 2) less cigarette smoke to choke on.  We spread out a huge tarp and had a sizable space to lounge around on all night.  The middle sections seemed pretty full, but we were on the side and never had to worry about the crowd slowly crushing towards the front.  A dude dressed in full KISS regalia was walking around having his photo taken and I saw a LOT of kids dressed up.  I think its funny that a band that a couple of decades ago was seen as this evil influence on young people now has little kids dressed up like them

The show was pretty good.  I don’t know a lot of KISS songs, but I knew more than I thought I did.  They had a LOT of pyrotechnics and movable parts to their stage, and I really love when bands put on that kind of show.  It was pretty low key, fun to just sing along and hang out.  And of course, they played “Rock and Roll All Nite” last and everyone sang along:

After a busy and rather hectic August, I’m looking forward to a couple of weekends of not doing much.  We run 20 miles September 11th and then the next weekend is the annual whitewater rafting to trip to West Virginia.  And I STILL haven’t heard about the Skinny Dip record!

Its the end of Summer, so what did you do that was interesting this year?  Or were you like me and it just flew by?