Kitty Power

I Was Looking To See If You Were Looking

For the record, my Halloween costume was Sarah Dash and if that prompted a blank stare, an extra from Good Times. (Yes, I know those two things aren't the same thing, besides no one asked.) Trendvickster took one look at me and declared me a hipster however. My Halloween visions are always so misunderstood.

We went to the big Halloween party at that big space on Flushing, along with every Pratt student in town. The place was even more packed than usual and a million degrees. We got a couch show from some overly horny kids and raved about the out there brilliance of the dude dressed as a pad. The funniest rumor I read on the net was that Missy Elliott was in the house and I think that's gotta be the most ridiculous thing. Call bullshit on that, no doubt. Kids were obviously indulging too much in the pot brownies. I stayed a bit after she was gone and ran into this non-DH board dude from the nabe (though he admittedly lurks). He was standing on the wall glassy-eyed and I smiled and passed. I felt about 80 in the crowd. The events of the past few weeks have been getting me down, I'd had like a drink all night, and was like one of the six people not on drugs, so it lost the appeal fast. I strolled off around 5am to do the typical White Castle 3 cheeseburgers and a milkshake run and cabbed it home.

Thursday was the show. I've been feeling confused about why I don't do arena shows (besides no one I really want to see doing those and not wanting to pay a shitload of money for tickets) and wanting to go to one. Nine Inch Nails was amazing, better than I would've imagined even, but I doubt I'm ever doing another arena show anytime soon for a few reasons:
a) With the jumbotron off, unless you're literally front row center, you have no real clue what the hell is going on. We had pretty decent seats, but I had no idea what Trent Reznor was doing besides being that little thing running around and playing the guitar here and there. Queens of the Stone Age played for a half hour and I vaguely thought the songs sounded familiar, but couldn't distinguish anything since I know what Josh Homme looks like but couldn't even make dude out.
b) If there's no spectacle happening, the set's a disaster. Back to QOTSA, they're not an arena band. I was actively annoyed listening to them because they just didn't have the sound to fill up an arena.
c) People who go to arena shows are annoying. It's like there's a special douche handbook that everyone else but us got. Slow song = take out those lighters, folks. Yeah, it's funny the first time, but every time? Fuck off.

Apparently, the angsty NIN-loving teenagers of the '90s grew up to be fratty banker types and/or gross goth holdouts. We were boxed in by the frat pack all "woo, dude, he brought it old school to Pretty Hate Machine! This rocks!" and the cape-wearing (oh, I'm not joking) guy next to me who was doing his tortured routine with breaks for air drums. The "highlight" was the goth couple in my line of vision that were inspired by heart-warming songs like "March of the Pigs" to attempt and eat each other's faces off. I think I threw up in my mouth a bit.

I can't believe I almost forgot about Why Arena Shows Suck Reason d): those fucking things start on time! Wack. Doors opened at 6:30 and the first opener Death From Above 1979 started at around 7:30. Me being me, I strolled in like 8:45 to QOTSA already in progress. So, that was wack. I kinda really wanted to see them since Alex recommends them so highly. I'm in luck though. They're playing tonight in Greenpoint and get this: a foam party is to follow. That's nutty. I think it'll be fun.

Posted by Candicissima at November 7, 2005 11:31 AM