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walkitoutI apparently misunderstood the commuter rail fare rules. I bought two tickets for T. and I to ride the train from South Acton to North Station (conveniently located downstairs from the Garden), but apparently they don't charge for kids his age? So I only used one on the way down. I had thought we wouldn't be able to make the 10:40 (and wouldn't want to wait for the 12:10) to go home and figured we'd get a taxi or Uber or something. However, in the event, T. really wiped out at around 10, so we left at 10:15 and had no trouble getting the 10:40 train. Fortunately, the remaining ticket on my phone works either direction so off we went.
The opening band was Deerhunter. A little nerdy, and the front man is kinda low energy. I was somewhat disturbed that the front man broke out a tamborine, but fortunately it was just for that first song (the tamborine came back for later songs but not distractingly associated with the singer). Maybe it is just me, but lead vocals and tamborine just always feels a little like someone hasn't figured out what to do with their hands or something (I will grant you that is a significant issue for people performing music and props to all the people putting in the hard work to figure that stuff out). I have no objections to the band or their music otherwise, which if you don't go to concerts might not sounds like much, but OMG, it is rare for actually be able to tolerate openers in good spirit -- someone who is actually sort of appealing is rare (unless you are there for the opener and leaving before the main band arrives, which is a whole other thing).
Kings of Leon is truly over their issues. They put in a nice, tight set off the new album (are R. and I truly the only people to keep seeing the Beautiful South album cover whenever we look at the koL album art? *sigh* We must be old), along with older songs. Since we left early, I have no idea how they closed things out; we walked out to walk away. Heh. The video show had the inevitable side screens, but they had a really neat thing going for the first few songs with silhouettes (I loved the tree!) and they had a whole retro '70s thing going with blocks of color. Nice design.
Separate from the band, the going-to-a-show experience at the Garden (look, it is a sports arena; let's just grant that the acoustics are not wonderful and leave it at that, okay?) was excellent. Event Staff was professional and courteous. Line management, bag check and security screening was speedy and seemed like it might actually find things that were genuinely problematic. The overpriced food and beverage was well within normal range for overpriced food and beverage. The bathrooms were clean and the lines were manageable. I had a drink before I left the house; I thought about getting something there, but decided against it (I still have a cold); as a result, we never did wait in a line for more than a few minutes. R. dropped us off at South Acton. Short walk up the escalator to the venue. Short walk and another escalator to our seats. Short walks and stairs to 'strooms. Reverse everything to return home. Heated train. No waiting in traffic entering or exiting a garage because ... train. OMG. Train. The arrival and departure aspects of cultural events are the WORST. And this was a lubricated dream. I will totally go see a crappy band at the Garden vs. a decent band somewhere else, because the experience is so painless. Not that Kings of Leon is at all crappy.
Roland and I had lunch at Rapscallion earlier in the day. I also finally got around to watching Star Wars: the Force Awakens. I think Rogue One is a better movie, because the complexity of Force Awakens as a series entry is so massive. But I really liked it, and I kind of think Finn may be the single best character the Star Wars universe has ever had (sorry, R2D2, but dude, sanitation engineer. We got Marvin in Rogue One, but we finally got a sanitation engineer in Star Wars! KRYTEN! Yeah, and autocorrect just tried to turn that into kitten.).
Also, Friday the 13th and a near full moon! Lucky day!
ETA: I took the holiday cards down from the mantel. That's always a big project. Also, R. went for a bike ride.
The opening band was Deerhunter. A little nerdy, and the front man is kinda low energy. I was somewhat disturbed that the front man broke out a tamborine, but fortunately it was just for that first song (the tamborine came back for later songs but not distractingly associated with the singer). Maybe it is just me, but lead vocals and tamborine just always feels a little like someone hasn't figured out what to do with their hands or something (I will grant you that is a significant issue for people performing music and props to all the people putting in the hard work to figure that stuff out). I have no objections to the band or their music otherwise, which if you don't go to concerts might not sounds like much, but OMG, it is rare for actually be able to tolerate openers in good spirit -- someone who is actually sort of appealing is rare (unless you are there for the opener and leaving before the main band arrives, which is a whole other thing).
Kings of Leon is truly over their issues. They put in a nice, tight set off the new album (are R. and I truly the only people to keep seeing the Beautiful South album cover whenever we look at the koL album art? *sigh* We must be old), along with older songs. Since we left early, I have no idea how they closed things out; we walked out to walk away. Heh. The video show had the inevitable side screens, but they had a really neat thing going for the first few songs with silhouettes (I loved the tree!) and they had a whole retro '70s thing going with blocks of color. Nice design.
Separate from the band, the going-to-a-show experience at the Garden (look, it is a sports arena; let's just grant that the acoustics are not wonderful and leave it at that, okay?) was excellent. Event Staff was professional and courteous. Line management, bag check and security screening was speedy and seemed like it might actually find things that were genuinely problematic. The overpriced food and beverage was well within normal range for overpriced food and beverage. The bathrooms were clean and the lines were manageable. I had a drink before I left the house; I thought about getting something there, but decided against it (I still have a cold); as a result, we never did wait in a line for more than a few minutes. R. dropped us off at South Acton. Short walk up the escalator to the venue. Short walk and another escalator to our seats. Short walks and stairs to 'strooms. Reverse everything to return home. Heated train. No waiting in traffic entering or exiting a garage because ... train. OMG. Train. The arrival and departure aspects of cultural events are the WORST. And this was a lubricated dream. I will totally go see a crappy band at the Garden vs. a decent band somewhere else, because the experience is so painless. Not that Kings of Leon is at all crappy.
Roland and I had lunch at Rapscallion earlier in the day. I also finally got around to watching Star Wars: the Force Awakens. I think Rogue One is a better movie, because the complexity of Force Awakens as a series entry is so massive. But I really liked it, and I kind of think Finn may be the single best character the Star Wars universe has ever had (sorry, R2D2, but dude, sanitation engineer. We got Marvin in Rogue One, but we finally got a sanitation engineer in Star Wars! KRYTEN! Yeah, and autocorrect just tried to turn that into kitten.).
Also, Friday the 13th and a near full moon! Lucky day!
ETA: I took the holiday cards down from the mantel. That's always a big project. Also, R. went for a bike ride.