There are no flowers, no not this time...
Mar. 5th, 2007 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
revidAFI rocked. Seriously.
This Time Imperfect.
(No, that's NOT me singing.)
I was so happy to see that AFI was playing a few more California dates, because as usual, I start liking a band just after they play in my area, in this case, last fall. So when I saw Davey and friends were coming to Bakersfield, I put up a plaintive wail on my LJ for company and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
indie_wonka and sick_of_me03 answered my call. (I would have gone by myself if need be, however.)
Ashton came up by train on Saturday, giving us a little time to hang out, eat sushi, and drink large quantities of white wine. Since we all like AFI but we're not true fanatics, we had decided that an hour or so before the doors opened would be plenty of time to get in line. Brendon drove from Reno to B-field and was at the Motel 6 there. Ash and I left the coast around 3:15pm and got there a little after 5:30p. We picked Brendon up and made a quick stop at the Jack in the Box, where we were in the company of lots of teenagers wearing lots of black eyeliner. Gee, I wonder where they were going?
When we got to the venue, the parking lot was so amazingly uncrowded that we had a moment of "Are we in the right place?" but once again we were able to follow the multitude of Misfits hoodies and studded belts around the corner to the entrance. The line was a decent length but not too bad at that point. I was bored so I took a pic of the electronic sign at the Rabobank Arena.
I was surprised when I found out that AFI was using an end stage configuration at the arena, because I was pretty sure that as popular as they are, they're not big enough to sell over 10,000 seats in Bakersfield. As it turns out, the upper level was completely closed, and having an end stage allowed for more pit tickets. D'oh. I'm estimating the crowd at about 5000 or so.
The opening bands were Viva Hell, an unremarkable sounding thrash punk band, and Deadboy and the Elephant Man, a more rock-y band who didn't overwhelm me either.
Finally, at 10pm, the opening chords to Prelude 12/21 came on. First minor surprise, Davey was dressed in black, instead of the all white from last year. After the first song he took off the jacket, leaving on a plain grey tee-shirt. More importantly, his eye make-up was a rather understated monotone pale purple glitter.
I luuuurve him!
So Sexy
The three of us were in about the seventh or eight row when the music started. Then it got crazy. For the first three songs I got pushed around so much that I couldn't enjoy the show. I realized that this was not going to improve, so I started working my way out and back. Amazingly, I found Ash and Brendon again, in a rather calm area somewhat to the side and maybe 40 feet back. At least I could enjoy the show from there without getting killed. Unfortunately, as you can see, the quality of the photographs suffered. Oh well.
Davey and Jade off in the distance
Most of the songs were from Sing the Sorrow and decemberunderground. They also did a most excellent cover of Blur's "Song 2". Didn't someone else do that one once? I liked this one better. ;-) My only real gripe was that the show was too short, only about an hour and ten minutes. C'mon guys, you can do better than that! However, It was a great show. Davey is a pleasure is watch. He still seems to be enjoying himself, which is always important to me when I go to a show.
There be slash in this band
Jade
Hunter, Adam, and Davey
This picture is horrendous, but I include it because it was my favorite moment of the show. During the encore, Davey actually went out into the crowd, and was standing on the hands of the crowd performing! It was amazing. For a glitter princess, that boy sure has cojones!
Almost as good as walking on water!
ETA: Here's a great video of him doing the crowdwalk from about a month ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwqL8t16CuM&NR
One very funny moment occurred when I was standing in the pit looking around and realized that I was easily the oldest person there. Like, by 10 years. Not more than a few minutes later, a young kid (19 or 20) did a double take at me and blurted out "How old are you?!" You know, sometimes you have to embrace your uniqueness, so I laughed and said "I'm sure I'm the oldest person here, I'm 47!" He did a big high-five and started telling his friends "Hey, she's 47 and she's rocking out to AFI!" Then, even more hilariously, the guy behind me says "Hey, I'm 54!" And he was wearing a Green Day HLAHG tee-shirt. So I showed off my matching HLAHG earrings. Fun times in the pit.
I'm so glad I went and it's always awesome to cross another name off the Flist-To-Meet list...thanks for coming along Brendon! And of course, seeing Ashton again was wonderful.
Go see 'em if you have the chance.
(No, that's NOT me singing.)
I was so happy to see that AFI was playing a few more California dates, because as usual, I start liking a band just after they play in my area, in this case, last fall. So when I saw Davey and friends were coming to Bakersfield, I put up a plaintive wail on my LJ for company and
indie_wonka and sick_of_me03 answered my call. (I would have gone by myself if need be, however.)Ashton came up by train on Saturday, giving us a little time to hang out, eat sushi, and drink large quantities of white wine. Since we all like AFI but we're not true fanatics, we had decided that an hour or so before the doors opened would be plenty of time to get in line. Brendon drove from Reno to B-field and was at the Motel 6 there. Ash and I left the coast around 3:15pm and got there a little after 5:30p. We picked Brendon up and made a quick stop at the Jack in the Box, where we were in the company of lots of teenagers wearing lots of black eyeliner. Gee, I wonder where they were going?
When we got to the venue, the parking lot was so amazingly uncrowded that we had a moment of "Are we in the right place?" but once again we were able to follow the multitude of Misfits hoodies and studded belts around the corner to the entrance. The line was a decent length but not too bad at that point. I was bored so I took a pic of the electronic sign at the Rabobank Arena.
I was surprised when I found out that AFI was using an end stage configuration at the arena, because I was pretty sure that as popular as they are, they're not big enough to sell over 10,000 seats in Bakersfield. As it turns out, the upper level was completely closed, and having an end stage allowed for more pit tickets. D'oh. I'm estimating the crowd at about 5000 or so.
The opening bands were Viva Hell, an unremarkable sounding thrash punk band, and Deadboy and the Elephant Man, a more rock-y band who didn't overwhelm me either.
Finally, at 10pm, the opening chords to Prelude 12/21 came on. First minor surprise, Davey was dressed in black, instead of the all white from last year. After the first song he took off the jacket, leaving on a plain grey tee-shirt. More importantly, his eye make-up was a rather understated monotone pale purple glitter.
I luuuurve him!
So Sexy
The three of us were in about the seventh or eight row when the music started. Then it got crazy. For the first three songs I got pushed around so much that I couldn't enjoy the show. I realized that this was not going to improve, so I started working my way out and back. Amazingly, I found Ash and Brendon again, in a rather calm area somewhat to the side and maybe 40 feet back. At least I could enjoy the show from there without getting killed. Unfortunately, as you can see, the quality of the photographs suffered. Oh well.
Davey and Jade off in the distance
Most of the songs were from Sing the Sorrow and decemberunderground. They also did a most excellent cover of Blur's "Song 2". Didn't someone else do that one once? I liked this one better. ;-) My only real gripe was that the show was too short, only about an hour and ten minutes. C'mon guys, you can do better than that! However, It was a great show. Davey is a pleasure is watch. He still seems to be enjoying himself, which is always important to me when I go to a show.
There be slash in this band
Jade
Hunter, Adam, and Davey
This picture is horrendous, but I include it because it was my favorite moment of the show. During the encore, Davey actually went out into the crowd, and was standing on the hands of the crowd performing! It was amazing. For a glitter princess, that boy sure has cojones!
Almost as good as walking on water!
ETA: Here's a great video of him doing the crowdwalk from about a month ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwqL8t16CuM&NR
One very funny moment occurred when I was standing in the pit looking around and realized that I was easily the oldest person there. Like, by 10 years. Not more than a few minutes later, a young kid (19 or 20) did a double take at me and blurted out "How old are you?!" You know, sometimes you have to embrace your uniqueness, so I laughed and said "I'm sure I'm the oldest person here, I'm 47!" He did a big high-five and started telling his friends "Hey, she's 47 and she's rocking out to AFI!" Then, even more hilariously, the guy behind me says "Hey, I'm 54!" And he was wearing a Green Day HLAHG tee-shirt. So I showed off my matching HLAHG earrings. Fun times in the pit.
I'm so glad I went and it's always awesome to cross another name off the Flist-To-Meet list...thanks for coming along Brendon! And of course, seeing Ashton again was wonderful.
Go see 'em if you have the chance.
