|
|
September 6, 2003 - Galaxy Theatre, Santa Ana, California
ROK ROK ROK!!!!
And my weekend-o-concerts continues... and it most definately peaked tonight!!! I suppose you wouldn't believe me if I said it was the best presidents concert ever... but it certainly rocked my socks off, and kept all us froggies bouncing up and down all night. Here's how it went down. Let me tell you a little story OK? OK it goes like this:
Last month... I log onto ticketmaster to see if the presidents have added any more dates to their scattered touring schedule, and low and behold, not one but two dates in southern california!!! I quickly email Staci to try to verify... and for a while nothing is certain, but finally yes! She emails me back and says both shows are a go. Now if your life is anything like mine... all your friends know you as that guy who likes that peaches band that used to be around. Well it was finally my chance to tell everyone that I was finally going to a real presidents concert and everyone was welcome to come to see how much they really rock. Of the people I invite to come, one of them is my friend Jacqui, who is an editor for our college newspaper, the daily trojan. Anyhow, I met Jacqui last year because we were both RAs in the same building complex, and we immediately became friends when I found out she was from Seattle!! Actually, Kenmore Washington, but close enough! She at least knew about the presidents, had been to their shows, had seen a subset and chris and tad show, and was just a cool chick. Shes not hardcore like me, but she at least knows good music!
So out of the blue, Jacqui calls me up and tells me that she called Staci on the phone, and was going to interview Dave and Jason for an article in the Daily Trojan! And was there anything I wanted to ask them!!! Holy Shit!!! I thought that was soo cool. She did phone interviews with both of them (they thought it was cool that her cell phone area code was Seattle) and wrote an article that ran in our school newspaper last thursday. You can check it out online at this link!
http://www.dailytrojan.com/article.do?issue=/V150/N07&id=03- pres.07d.html
Anyhow... theres nothing in there that I didn't know already, but I thought it was cool anyways that everyone at USC (18,000 enrolled undergrad students) would see the article. I was giddy walking around campus with everyone who was holding the paper. Although I didnt hear anyone reacting to the article, in my head everyone was. It was a really cool article just for the fact it told all these USC people the band is still around, and it let them know about the upcoming shows. The one thing that kind of sucked, however, was that the first show was on the night of our Nationally Ranked Football teams first Home Game!!! I really doubted people would want to miss the first game of the season to see the show, especially with all the parties that would be going on after we would win (which we did, 35- 18) But to me... I can go to plenty of other football games. Of course I still went to the first half of this game, because I'm a huge fan and got caught up in all the hype, and screamed my head off for a while, until I realized I should start saving my voice! After all, my hearing was still ringing after two loud concerts in a row, I didnt need to be deaf and dumb for my first full PUSA concert!
So we left for the concert around 7, me, Jacqui, and my friend Chris who relluctantly came along because he promised before he knew the game was that day, and he told me he's not the kind of guy that breaks a promise. I told him he wouldn't be sorry. He's an AC-DC hardcore fan, so the presidents to him have always seemed a little beneath him. But anyways, we all got in the car and drove down. When we got off the free way, it was 10min to 8, so I wanted to grab some food before I went in the club. I scarffed down a burger from Carls Jr. (a fast food place, I dont know if most of you have them where you live, but its good food) And got to the club by 8pm when the opening band was scheduled to play. I'd never been to this place before (although there was a Subset Show here back in 1999, but the Subset show I went to was at House of Blues in Los Angeles) so I didn't know what to expect. Inside... not only was it a club... but it was a sit down restaurant! Doh! I just ate! Oh well, we took a table anyways and ordered some drinks, and sat through the two opening bands. But before that, Jason and a friend of his came walking past our table, and I flagged him down, "Hey Jason!" and he came over and talked to us. He said he liked my shirt (I was wearing a subset t-shirt with the dynamite stick on it). Then he shook my hand. Then Jacqui told him that they had talked on the phone, and we talked about that, and then I told him I had just scarffed some Calrs Jr. and it was a cool conversation, he was super nice like everyone says. So then he left and the opening bands came on. First band, 1000 pounds, were old guys who played heavy riff rock. Second band, Halo Friendlys, was an all chick punk band that couldn't play for shit, but weren't bad to look at (like most chick bands?)
When their set ended, I moved to the floor, and got as far up to the stage as I could go (only 3 people in front of me) and thats when I started to take in the crowd. Lots of high schoolers and young college people (I knew because they all had these big Xs on their wrists which indicated they were not old enough to drink, haha) And I looked around, and I saw like 15 people in USC gear!!! I started tapping them on the shoulder, "hey, how did you hear about this show?" "It was in the paper" "Dude!!! My friend right here wrote that!!!" "Whoa! Man, I read it and I couldn't believe it was true, I had to go" etc. etc. Pretty much everyone with USC gear had a similar story! That was so cool to learn that presidents fans are always hiding out there, making me think Im the only freaken one in USC... and all of California. And then I looked around some more, and there were like, 8, 10 people wearing old school Seattle Supersonics Jerseys. I knew they would get mad props for wearing those. And they did. I myself was wearing my subset t-shirt, to show off my hardcoreness and diferentiate myself from any pusa fans that busted out their old presidents t-shirts they havent worn since 1996. However, I was shocked to see this guy was wearing the exact same shirt! Shit!!! That was crazy! Stole my thunder a little bit, but was glad to see more fans knew about the side project stuff.
Ok Ok, so I can now finally talk about the PRESIDENTS actaully roking now, for those who were wondering if I would ever get to it. They opened the show with Kick Out The Jams, then Boll Weevil, then I dont remember the order after that, but they played everysong from self titled except for Candy, and they also played Lunatic to Love, Mach 5, Froggie, Video Killed the Radio Star, and the new songs they played were Highway Forever, Some Postman is Grooving, Poke and Destroy, and Problems. So lets see, thats like 20 songs!
Oh My Gawd, they sounded so AMAZING live. It was incredible. And the best part was that so many of the fans were lively, animated, and singing along to all the words. I totally did not expect people to be like that. I think the presidents were surprised as well. I mean, this crowd loved loved loved loved LOVED them!!!! Not as much as me, but loved them non the less. I was exstatic that people were shouting out the words, seriously, you have no idea how much that surprised me. And they were throwing their hands up in the air, and they were bouncing up and down, and screaming and shouting, and you could tell EVERYONE was having a good time. That kind of enviorment made the night sooooooooo much cooler.
Some of the highlights of the night, in the order that I remember them, but not necessarily the order that they happened in: Durring the middle of Froggie, Chris took a wicked bass solo that went on for sooo long!!! It was the coolest thing ever, I'd never heard him do any variation of it durring froggie before. It was incredible! I mean it was so long... he got down on his knees, and busted it out low to the ground, bobbing his head and grooving at the top of the guitar neck, doodlign around. It was sooooo long, he kept going and going... that when he finally went back to the song, he couldnt remember where he left off! He jumped ahead to "he goes to fill that one last perscrip- err, wait a minute, hang on, I mean, the shows over, the crowd is gone, his make ups all been sweated off," Hehehe, it was cool. Durring Kitty, chris invited to girls, one from both sides of the stage to come up and meow about half way through. They were both hot, and made even hotter by being on stage jamming to kitty. It reminded me of primary peaches a little seeing them invite people on stage. I got a picture of them, I'll try to post them some time soon. At the end of naked and famous... when they do the extended outro thing... where they keep jamming the last note over and over... dragging it out as long as they can... chris started doing it, then he says, "4 times" and they jam it 4 times. "7 times" and they jam it 7 times. "How many times?" he asks, and he points to some guy who holds up six fingers, and then he points to somebody else who holds up 10 fingers, and then everybody starts shouting out different numbers, and chris says, "6 plus 12, carry the one, plus another 10, divide it, multipyly it... ok, 41 times!!!" And then they jammed the last note 41 times (well I think they did, I tried to count in my head but I lost count) and then everybody cheered super loud!!!! It was soooo cool. Right before lunatic to love, Jason told the story of how he broke his ankle playing softball and stuff, which was cool to hear him talk. And speaking of Jason. Somepoint near the end of the set, two members from that chick band that opened the show came onstage ( i think durring video killed the radio star, and started to sing along) and then one of them went over to Jason and started to feed him beer! They poured beer in his mouth while he was drumming right in the middle of the song!!! It was the coolest thing, he is a super talented drummer, which must be why he is a proffesional rock and roll drummer. Lets see, what else. People shouted out songs a lot. I shouted out tremelo blues and useless crushes all night, but to no avail. I actaully dont think they could hear me (even from 3 rows back). I was screaming and could barely hear myself, which surprised me! But it sucked cuz I wanted them to hear me and play a song. They did hear somebody scream out, "play monkey river" to which chris replied, "how do you know about that song? Geez, you people are like the East Coast crowd" Which I thought was kind of funny. I couldnt hear a lot of the songs other people were requesting, but I heard Chris say a few times " I dont even remember how to play that song!"
What else can I say? They did all their signiture spots to the songs they played, including but not limmited to: Back Porch - Chickey on the drums followed by Jason Finn drum fill (I luv it when he actually does a fill) and also chris talked about retiring in San Diego sitting outside full of the wine, clapping, when the chickies and monkeys came out. Feather Pluckin had a Santa Ana version of I've Got a Feeling thrown in the middle, and was followed by Baby Your A Rich Man. Plus that song had the best crowd reaction to "BUT THATS TOTALLY, FEATHER PLUCKING INSANE" I mean they just screamed it. During Lump, they did the everybody solo, and they also ended it with the forest gump "and thats all I have to say about that" For lunatic to love, they didnt do "let me help you wipe the shit off your butt," they did the "you can hold my hand to stand up" but I shouted out Kurt Cobain anyways, but again, I dont think people could hear me over all the rowdiness. Durring peaches, chris said in one chorus, "millions of peaches... AC-DC" and then walked around the stage like Angus, and of coure my friend Chris marked out and banged his head. Poke and Destroy was by far the coolest new song. I can't wait to get a version of this for my own. I think this song was previously announced on the list as Point and Destroy, but I was able to verify that it is actually Poke and Destroy. On Highway forever, Chris did the "on the count of 3, ask what do you got" and he also took a pause in the song to say he wasn't going to drive another mile, before rocking to the end of the song. They said peaches was their last song, but when they went in the back, the crowd stayed put and went bezerk! I mean ape shit, screaming and clapping and hooting and hollering. Then someone started a USA chant among the insanity, and it caught on in a few seconds, and we seriously kept that chant going for like 2 minutes as loud as we could, that they had to come out and rock some more. "we know a few more songs" said chris when he came back! The encore was Poke and Destroy, then body, then we're not gonna make it... which I thought was going to end the show... but instead of playing the last note... they busted into Sex Pistols, PROBLEMS and played through that as fast as they could. And then when that song was over, instead of playing the last note, they finished We're not gonna make it, with the final line, looks like we made it!!!
Whew... what a show. Afterwards I was all hot and sweaty. So was C.B. durring the show, at one point he bent over to rock out, and sweat drops were just pouring off his bald head. He was so lively and interactive and fun, he and dave both jumped around, went out to the edge of the stage touched hands to the crowd. Both Jason and Dave headed back, but Chris stayed out front and Signed tons of autographs. He even gave somebody his sweaty towel! I waited till a bunch of people cleared out, then me and Jacqui went to say hello. I told him I loved the presidents soooo much, and I was so happy to see them play, and then I said something about how I'm nearly as big a fan as Mike Lyon and Jack (to see what reaction that would get) and he lit up and said, "oh you talk to those guys! cool. Whats your name again?" And I took a picture with chris, which is the only picture I have on my computer right now, so I will post it in the files section. Anyhow, it was just great great great. Everything was turning out great. And it was so good, I decided it will be worth it to spend another 45 dollars to see them play at the San Diego Festival tomorrow. So I think I need to get some sleep, and get my voice back, and all that stuff.
Good night ladies and gentleman. I'm Done.
Ben Gurner
^_^