If it's too loud, you're too... young?
Oct. 17th, 2005 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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melovechocolate has extra-sensitive ears. Just because she enjoyed a band at Warped, when you were sitting on bagged-up tents far enough from the stage to avoid the Giant Mud Pit of Doom, does not mean she'll be able to take them at concert volume inside the corrugated metal box that is the CT Expo Center, even with earplugs.
This wasn't the most successful concert expedition of the year.cherrybutterfly got sick and had to bail, so I was casting around last-minute to find someone to take her ticket... she would have paid me for it, but I wanted the company and I wanted to find someone who'd use it. _ccmc and her friends were already provided for, but mhaille kindly agreed to go with me, even though it meant last-minute kid-wrangling details. It provoked this entertaining exchange:
Note: the CT Expo Center lets the vultures at LAZ charge $5 for parking, even though the overflow is a stupid flat piece of gravel which could be managed without attendants.
We met up outside the venue, got in in plenty of time to get swag and hear the opening bands. Reggie and the Full Effect is just weird, and I get the feeling they are not taking themselves at all seriously.mhaille agreed with me that their closing song did take the riff directly from the Psychedelic Furs, but the rest of their stuff didn't sound like that at all.
Alkaline Trio... you know, they are STILL my favorite current band, and they were better than they were in May, but they just are NOT at their best, live. Instrumentally, they were playing well, and it's not as if I don't understand the impulse to play really, really loud live... and at least this time their sound engineer made sure you felt the kick drum in your guts, not your scalp, and you could distinguish the guitar from the bass lines... but over a certain volume, it appears that the singers CAN'T hear themselves on the monitors, no matter what efforts they make. The first few bars of "Mercy Me" (my hands down favorite track off the new album) were painfully in the key of L before the singer got it together. Guys? Nobody will miss those extra few decibels off the top, I swear, and your vocals will sound a whole lot better. Good mix of stuff off the new album and old favorites... but I probably won't pay to hear them again live. Sad. At least the kiddo appreciated their stuff.
People-watching was also pretty entertaining.mhaille and I were having Older-Than-Dirt moments -- "hey, where were all these goth kids when WE were in high school?" "Well, they were AT my high school, I just wasn't cool enough for them, you see." "Those are ten year old boys in eyeliner and Dead Kennedys T-shirts!" "You know, the little girl in the miniskirt and the stripy socks with Sally on them and the pink Converse low-tops looks cute and all, but girls that little should NOT wear eyeliner... and her mom should really NOT have worn something so similar, it winds up looking undignified. I'm glad I wore jeans." (mhaille was doing the Catholic-schoolgirl uniform look, and carrying it off very well, herself.) I feel positively conservative, now, allowing melovechocolate the blue streaks and occasional nail polish but no other cosmetics, and encouraging the boyish styles.
When MCR started, I didn't even try to brave the fangirl crush -- I stayed back where there were sight lines.mhaille was working on four hours sleep and decided to bail. I was starting to really enjoy it, but melovechocolate was NOT, because it was noticeably louder than Alkaline Trio had been, and she was physically uncomfortable... so I was a good mommy, and we left after four songs. It's a pity. I'd have liked to stay.
So, outdoor venues or smaller club shows for the kidlet, for a while yet. Loud ones, I'll save for ME.
melovechocolate has extra-sensitive ears. Just because she enjoyed a band at Warped, when you were sitting on bagged-up tents far enough from the stage to avoid the Giant Mud Pit of Doom, does not mean she'll be able to take them at concert volume inside the corrugated metal box that is the CT Expo Center, even with earplugs.This wasn't the most successful concert expedition of the year.
cherrybutterfly got sick and had to bail, so I was casting around last-minute to find someone to take her ticket... she would have paid me for it, but I wanted the company and I wanted to find someone who'd use it. _ccmc and her friends were already provided for, but mhaille kindly agreed to go with me, even though it meant last-minute kid-wrangling details. It provoked this entertaining exchange:[16:21]
[16:23]
Note: the CT Expo Center lets the vultures at LAZ charge $5 for parking, even though the overflow is a stupid flat piece of gravel which could be managed without attendants.
We met up outside the venue, got in in plenty of time to get swag and hear the opening bands. Reggie and the Full Effect is just weird, and I get the feeling they are not taking themselves at all seriously.
mhaille agreed with me that their closing song did take the riff directly from the Psychedelic Furs, but the rest of their stuff didn't sound like that at all.Alkaline Trio... you know, they are STILL my favorite current band, and they were better than they were in May, but they just are NOT at their best, live. Instrumentally, they were playing well, and it's not as if I don't understand the impulse to play really, really loud live... and at least this time their sound engineer made sure you felt the kick drum in your guts, not your scalp, and you could distinguish the guitar from the bass lines... but over a certain volume, it appears that the singers CAN'T hear themselves on the monitors, no matter what efforts they make. The first few bars of "Mercy Me" (my hands down favorite track off the new album) were painfully in the key of L before the singer got it together. Guys? Nobody will miss those extra few decibels off the top, I swear, and your vocals will sound a whole lot better. Good mix of stuff off the new album and old favorites... but I probably won't pay to hear them again live. Sad. At least the kiddo appreciated their stuff.
People-watching was also pretty entertaining.
mhaille and I were having Older-Than-Dirt moments -- "hey, where were all these goth kids when WE were in high school?" "Well, they were AT my high school, I just wasn't cool enough for them, you see." "Those are ten year old boys in eyeliner and Dead Kennedys T-shirts!" "You know, the little girl in the miniskirt and the stripy socks with Sally on them and the pink Converse low-tops looks cute and all, but girls that little should NOT wear eyeliner... and her mom should really NOT have worn something so similar, it winds up looking undignified. I'm glad I wore jeans." (mhaille was doing the Catholic-schoolgirl uniform look, and carrying it off very well, herself.) I feel positively conservative, now, allowing melovechocolate the blue streaks and occasional nail polish but no other cosmetics, and encouraging the boyish styles.When MCR started, I didn't even try to brave the fangirl crush -- I stayed back where there were sight lines.
mhaille was working on four hours sleep and decided to bail. I was starting to really enjoy it, but melovechocolate was NOT, because it was noticeably louder than Alkaline Trio had been, and she was physically uncomfortable... so I was a good mommy, and we left after four songs. It's a pity. I'd have liked to stay.So, outdoor venues or smaller club shows for the kidlet, for a while yet. Loud ones, I'll save for ME.
