A Tale of Two Concerts

I don't go to all that many rock and roll shows. I live in a city that's been known, off and on, for its music scene for some time. I've lived on Capital Hill with venues that have lots of live music. I worked near the Crocodile, which is re-opened and kind of a big deal, historically.

Music just isn't that important to me... at least going to see people play it isn't.

With that being said, I enjoy the communal nature of going to a concert. As his codename implies, Flowers has nanorgasms whenever he hears the Killers, and most of my circle of friends in Seattle has at least some level of appreciation for their work. This resulted in an even dozen of us heading the Vegas this past weekend to see the Killers make their music.

Of those 12, four of us decided to double-down by seeing the Killers in Seattle tonight, as well. Thinking I'd CERTAINLY have a job by now, I purchased a pair of tickets back in January-ish. I suppose I could have sold them for money for important stuff like food or a fourth cat, but I decided to invite a friend, we'll call her Stix, and roll to the WaMu Theater to see the show.

The vibe was... different. I don't want to say worse, because I had fun tonight, but I will say worse because it was not as much fun as the Las Vegas show. I'm going to do a little exploration of the differences to try to determine why it was less good for me (although better for Flowers, who claimed it was "better than the Bravery", which was a show we saw in January 2008 that preceded me fighting for his honor and getting scraped up in the process).

Some factors. Order is random, although my subconscious might rank them somehow in terms of importance:

1. Seattle: sober. Vegas: hammered. This is something that influenced everything I saw and did at the show. I was in a happy drunk, and that was a good thing. I was in a good mood in Seattle, as well, but I was a bit more irritated by other factors than I might have been had I imbibed heavily. On the other hand, maybe I would have been more irritated.
2. Stix is short. I was on the floor for both shows, but in Vegas, with TM2000, Thor and Flowers, I never had to worry about what they could see and what they could not. Stix is a smart, strong, capable person... but she was about 5'3" in her boots. In the middle of the opening act, she noticed how precious little of the stage and performers she could see... I felt bad for her, and I felt some responsibility. She could have wiggled up the front but didn't want to ditch me, and I tried to clear space throughout the show behind short people so she could actually see. It wasn't a chore, but it wasn't something I had to think about in Vegas.
   
3. Seattle: all-ages show. Oh, man. I didn't think about how much of a great thing it was that the Joint is 21 and up only. I felt weird getting checked out by female teenagers, for one thing, at the Seattle show (I'm a sexy beast, what can I say? Alternatively, they were wondering what their dad was doing there). More importantly, though, there was a lack of civility at the Seattle show that simply wasn't present in Vegas. Crowd-surfing occurred with bare-chested guys who evidently thought they were watching Black Flag and didn't care how much sweat they dropped on everyone. Stix also had to make a conscious effort not to beat the shit out of four youngsters who were speaking quite rudely to her. It would have been a MUCH different experience (and blog) if she'd started throwing punches, believe me!
4. Song playlist. I like the Killers. I know many of their songs. I don't know all of their songs, though, the way I do, say, Teenage Fanclub or Weezer. In Vegas this was not a problem, but in Seattle it seemed like about 40% of the songs I just didn't know. Why not? Was it that I was more sober, and therefore aware? Perhaps. I will have to speak to Flowers for guidance in this area. Or I can take a trip to Canada so he'll read my blogs again and fill me in.
   
5. Venue. There are two aspects to this: first of all, the WaMu Theater holds considerably more people. It holds between 3300 and 7000 people, depending on the event. I have no idea how many were there tonight, but it was considerably more than the Joint's 1400. Further, the Joint is just COOL. I remember turning around during the Vegas show and seeing people packed in multiple balconies all around... it felt like a big deal, and it felt classy, and it felt special. The WaMu Theater had what look like old movie theater seating centered in the back, with the barricade beer garden and the large free-for-all floor. My view tonight was fantastic, because we made our way up pretty far, but it just didn't have the same vibe.
6. Hometown advantage (Killers). The Killers are from Las Vegas. I think that they appreciated being the opening show in a pretty significant new venue, and I think that they might have put on a more energetic show for their home town. I might be right, but I doubt it.
   
7. Hometown disadvantage (me). Usually I'm anti-expectations... I think that if I get them up, I'm just setting myself up for disappointment. With the Vegas show, though? I was not going to be disappointed no matter what in spite of high expectations. We'd traveled a significant number of miles to see the show and it was awesome to be there with some of my best friends in the world... I really enjoyed seeing the show tonight with Stix and Flowers and Natty Ice and [codename pending], but c'mon... it was a 12 minute taxi ride from the top of Queen Anne to get to the show. It simply couldn't compete in terms of anticipation.

I don't want to sound negative about the show or about the venue or about my company tonight... I had a great time. On the heels of an extraordinary show and trip, though, the Seattle Killers show (or, rather, "the Seattle the Killers show", or, alternatively, "the Killers show that took place in Seattle", or, perhaps, "shut up Ed and finish this blog") was doomed to come in second place.