Last night my brother Jeff took me to my first post-40 concert and boy was I showing signs of age! I actually felt I was in an Andy Rooney
60-Minutes rant because everything I experienced became a whiney narrative in my head. The evidence:
- A bottle of beer was $6.50 (and it was a Labatt's)?!! Can't you buy a case of beer for $7?
- I was twenty years older than most of the people who sat near us (shouldn't they be at home-it's a school night!)
- The few people whom I conspiratorially connected with thinking they were like-minded GenXers were actually GenYer and 10 years younger.
- Why did everyone have to stand up the whole time? Wouldn't it be nice to sit and appreciate the music by reclining and tapping your toe rather than thrashing around at your seat?
- We had to sit through two opening acts who sounded no better than garage-bands (I could play better than that!)
- Linkin Park didn't take the stage until 9:30 (that's almost bedtime!)
- I didn't feel cheated when the concert ended at 10:40 (well past bedtime)
Other thoughts:
One thing I did not understand is that when you are at a concert like this, you apparently need to connect to as many of your friends as you can who are not there at the concert with you. Look at the picture above: how many people can you see talking on their phones? I witnessed at least 30 people in my section maintain a constant dialog with someone on their phone for the entire concert. They were talking, texting, making videos and taking pictures. Why didn't they invite those people to join them at the event? Maybe a group of friends split the cost for one ticket, sent one representative to the show, and teleconferenced the rest in?
- Also check out the screen at the top left of the picture. You could text a message or picture to the screen for some reason. Apparently that is a cool thing to do. It must make money for Verizon (the concert sponsor). I sent the message "I am old and don't understand texting" to the number listed. While I got a response back saying that my message would be displayed on the big screen, it never appeared.
- Since I wanted to fit in, I sent a text to a friend telling her I was at a concert. She wanted to know why I felt the need to tell her that. She was aware of my presence there and needed no more substantiating information regarding it. I told her I was trying to share the experience with her. She said that if she wanted to experience the concert, she would have joined us. She clearly doesn't get it.
Here's another thing: What happened to holding a lighter up while rocking out? Now people hold up open cell phones. Most of the light specs you can see in these photos are camera phones. Is this how I rock out and capture the moment for posterity? To fit in, I took pictures as well.
Some people were transmitting a constant video feed of the concert back to their teleconferenced friends. Others were taking video for replay later. Again, to fit it, I did the same. Take a look/listen to my video below. Doesn't it capture the essence of the moment?
In conclusion, it was an awesome concert, and I think I have a better understanding of the technology-oriented generation. Jeff and I are going to see the Foo Fighters next week, so this will serve as a good practice run. If anyone is interested in me teleconferencing you into it, send me your cell number.
The new garage doors went up Thursday and Friday.
The view inside the new car barn.
