Go Balkans!

I’m pumped b/c the Australian Open started.  It makes me feel like spring isn’t too far away.  I know, it’s still pretty far away, but whatever.  I was also glad to hear that ex-Yugoslav fans represented well.  Way to go, guys!  Make your nations proud!

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Most Bizarre Concert Experience EVER

Went to a Derek Webb and Jars of Clay concert tonight.  I love Derek Webb and have a girl crush on his wife.  Needless to say, I greatly enjoyed his part of the show.  Anyway…I’m not a huge Jars fan, but the handful of their songs that I like, I really, really like.

So…we’re sitting there waiting for the concert to start and they were playing some really random music.  As I enjoyed the tunes, I looked around and realized that  most of the people in the room where too young to know even half of Jars of Clay’s music.  Just then, We Didn’t Start the Fire began playing. To prove my point about the youth surrounding me, I turned to the girls behind me and casually asked if they knew who was singing the song.  They said they’d never even heard it before.  Oh, how smug and satisfied I felt.  I was sure that I was about to enjoy the concert at least twice as much as they were.

Derek Webb opened and was great.  He’s just good stuff.  Then the other band came on stage.  I’m not sure what word to use and I’m not sure if I should try to describe the performance or my experience.  All I can say is BIZARRE.  Apparently JOC has had a makeover and now resembles this cross between Green Day and Evanescence.  They didn’t play any songs I like and the ones I actually knew, they played so oddly I coudln’t recognize them.

Oh wait, I did recognize their cover of Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street.  The girls behind me didn’t know the song, let alone that it was a cover.

The rest of their songs were really loud and extra rocky, involving lots of base and tambourine (yeah, that’s how you rock it).  Every song started out sounding like a cover.  As every song began, poor Trudi had to listen to me say something like “Hey, is this Bon Jovi?” or “Shut up.  They are not singing Annie Lennox!”  I think I also squealed with glee at one point because I thought they were about to sing a Billy Idol song.  (I’d given up hope that they’d sing any of their own songs that I actually knew or liked.)  Actually, it was kind of like watching a bar band who keeps playing random stuff they wrote.  The first couple of songs are good, but eventually everyone is screaming “Desperado!!” or “Walking in Memphis!!” Well, they’re not screaming it, but on the inside they’re thinking it.  They just want the bar band to can the mind-numbing stuff and play some good covers to get the room back in the mood.

So yeah, I was starting to feel like a total moron because I have never been to a concert where I didn’t know every word to at least one of the songs played.  I finally asked all three people I was with and they didn’t know what the heck was going on either.  Same with the girls behind me.  They were so bored, they were playing games on their phones.

So, long story short, don’t go to Jars of Clay.  Save your shekels (thank God I only spent 10) and go see someone good like Bruce or Patty.

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