The wife came through with the Megadeth Tickets I mentioned last time. We will be in the 16th row to the left of center stage. These tickets are not going to put us in quite the prime location that we got when we attened all of the concerts that she got tickets from at her work, but honestly being a bit away from center stage might just make it so that the high-frequency noises don’t hit me straight on and deafen me. Sixteen rows is also not that far back to be, I think that the little caged VIP area that we had at the other venue was just behind the 13th or 15th row, from that vantage point you can see (and certainly hear) everything perfectly.
This is, of course, all academic anyway. You can hear these type of concerts from a couple of blocks away (probably better on your ears that way also), and it is not like a band like Megadeth really has much of a stage show. The only reason that I can think of for going to see a concert is just for the energy of it. It may sound foolish, especially as I am now in my thirties, but you just can not mimic the energy of a live concert regardless of how loud your stereo happens to be.
One of the concerts that we saw, which really illustrates that fact was at the Cricket Pavilion (in the aforementioned VIP seating), with the bands Motorhead, Dio and Iron Maiden. While the concert was pretty lackluster until Iron Maiden hit the stage, after that it was pretty much chaos. There was one point during the concert where a guy jumped the rail from the upper level, charged into our little box (which was dead-center stage) and was trying to make it over the front rail to rush the stage. Security tackled him, knocked over our table and took him away. I am not entirely sure 1) Why they actually bother to put a table in these little boxes in the first place. 2) Why the security guy, one guards the entrance to each of the VIP boxes, didn’t catch him before he made it in. 3) Why they don’t stop selling you beer when you are as drunk as this guy was. What I am absolutely sure of is that there was an energy there, something that you felt, and while it might not make it through in your description of the event the next day, you still told everyone about it. It is certainly something that you really have to experience to understand.
Much on the same topic, you only have one life to live. Sure you could spend that life living inside a little box, eating healthy, excercising daily, not doing anything that is truly fun. When it comes down to it, though, do you really want to live forever? Go to the concerts, blow out your eardrums, you aren’t going to have a chance to do it again.
In yet more really loud, angry music talk, the local radio station 98KUPD, who were the first to offer tickets for the Megadeth show, have another show on the books as well. The radio station is billing it as the “Big Red Night of the Dead”, though that makes no sense, and neither of the artists are performing on the same night. The artist, the one that is not Megadeth, is playing the day before Megadeth at the same venue. There must be some sort of a bi-lateral partnership between the artist and the station though, as the station is being allowed to bill the show as such and is giving away cd’s all month to that end. If you are only going to see one show in your life, it should definitely be the that band.
The band in question is Marilyn Manson (the link is to tour dates). I really don’t like Marilyn Manson at all, yet I have to say that he is a great as a theatrical showman. I mentioned that in my May 23, 2004 post. I will just quote myself from that post to save myself from writing any more about it, and save you from reading it:
I was absolutely blown away by Marilyn Manson. I do not care for their music, but won’t turn it off if it is on the radio, it is just the kind of thing that I don’t actively hate, or like. His (their) theatrics really stole the show. To the point that I was a bit disappointed when I finally got to see Ozzy (for the first time in my life). Manson certainly took care to stage a show that would shock and entertain you for his full set. The rest of the bands, Ozzy included, just did their songs. I will give ozzy a bit of lee-way on this one, since he is no spring chicken, but the other bands, like Korn, couldn’t they have done something other than just play their songs?
Manson had choreographed marionettes (they were actually people behaving as such) that did things for his entire set. He had a little tiered stage kind of thing that they would climb. It is difficult to describe, but it was an experience. The other bands just played their songs. If you want to hear the song, you have the cd, the sound quality is going to be a lot better, just listen to the damn cd. Marilyn Manson, on the other hand, really sold me the experience. Even though I do not like Marilyn Manson, I would be more likely to buy tickets to his next concert than I would be to buy tickets for the next, say, Korn concert…Even though I like Korn a lot more than I like Manson.
That is why you have to buy a ticket and see the show. It is just that, a show, it is never going to be the same twice. While I can remember most of the songs that I have listened to repeatedly over the years, most of them don’t bring up images of a guy trying to stick a microphone into a marionette’s vagina. I doubt you will ever relate trying to stick a microphone into a marionette’s vagina to Marilyn Manson if you never watch the show. Hell that was also over a year ago so I am sure that the stage set has changed as much as the music has. Manson seems to be out to shock you, and it works. Much like a car wreck, you don’t really want to look, but at the same time you can’t look away. I wonder if P.T. Barnum might be a relative of Brian Hugh Warner (aka Marilyn Manson) I apologize for that link, but it was the best I could come up with.
That will be about all for today. I still don’t understand why I continue to defend people like Marilyn Manson and Howard Stern when I really don’t like them. I guess it all comes down to the belief that you are free to say/do what you want, and that liberty can not be bought or sold. I suppose that is why the politicians spend so much time and money trying to get into an office that really doesn’t pay all that well (in their eyes). This land is supposed to be about freedom, and if you are not free to let your children play in the streets then we need some gun laws. If you are not free to speak your mind in opposition of the idiot in office, then we need freedom of speech (without repercussion). If the press won’t talk about the idiocy of the actions of the current administration, then we need to do it ourselves and get rid of the riff-raff. A democracy is not run by one idiot with more money than brains, it is run by the power of the people…Now if the people would just vote…