Incubus/Hoobastank
@ The Roanoke Civic Center - (5-9-02, Roanoke, VA) First off, it was raining, so that automatically meant horrid traffic. And sure enough, c-burg was packed. So we hit the back ways to the Ironto exit, and took 81 from there. I went with Ben and two of his friends. And it's really excellent when someone says, "let's listen to 311", and pops in Grassroots. Talk about a good omen! The Roanoke Civic Center:  Doors were at 6, we got there at 6:10. We didn't wait outside long at all, got our wristbands, and went in. It's the first time I've been floor at a "stadium" event. And before the show, they made everyone sit down until it was time to start [1]. I've never seen this before. I guess it's a good idea, so people aren't pushing and shoving 40 minutes before the show starts. But when it did, it was a mad rush to the front [2]. So we were much closer than we started out. Hoobastank came on around 7:30. The audio for the lead singer wasn't that great for their set, so you couldn't hear the lead singer too well. I still rocked out of course, heh. About midway through their set, some guys near me started working their way up. So I got behind the really tall dude and acted as if I was "with them", and made it so much closer to the stage [3]. The view was great, and it set me up nicely for Incubus when Hoobastank was done playing. They played all stuff from the new cd once again. It's a shame I'll never hear their old stuff live, cause they got rid of the saxophone player which they had on their first independent release. But nonetheless, their new stuff rocks. I'd say that there was a vast majority of high schoolers there. You could just tell, and it was a little ridiculous. I bet a lot of them were there cause they heard them on the radio. But the best part about it was that it's easy to move them aside when making a move to the front! The pushing and shoving was at a minimum too, so it was very enjoyable throughout the concert. I mean, during the intermission, I could actually move around just a little. And it is fun to mingle with the people around you. It's how I got a drink of water at a much needed time, heh. So when the lights went out, the stage became the center of attention. Let me tell ya, I've never seen a better stage setup than this one. They had backdrops on both sides, and in the middle was a video screen where they showed lots of pictures and displays on. There was a raised half-oval that encompassed the back half of the stage, with the DJ on a raised platform inside the left side of it, and the drummer on one on the right. And they had lights around the entire stage as well. It was very nice to watch and look at everything. I managed to try and remember all the songs they played, cause they only pull stuff from three albums, whereas it's a lot tougher to do so with 311, cause they have 6+, heh. PrivilegeThey opened up with "Circles", which instantly got the crowd pumped. And throughout the whole set, I managed to slowly work myself all the way to center and about halfway through, ended up with only one person ahead of me to where they had the fence set up [4]. About halfway through their set, the pulled out the couches they had on stage, and sat on them while playing "Mexico" and "Pardon Me" acoustically. At this point, my shoe was untied, I was drenched in sweat from head to toe, and very, very much dehydrated, but not nearly as bad as the 311 concert I went to. I could survive the rest of the show. So a couple more songs past, and I was getting antsy, cause I wanted to hear "Just A Phase". Sidney heard it when she saw them, but Julia said they didn't play it at the one she went to, so I was just hoping that they would. And sure enough!!! :) Oh yeah, I'm telling ya, it was great. Chalk up one of my all-time favorite moments in my life. Now, I've seen Incubus two other times, just not as the headliner. They were the middle act for Deftones, and the middle act for the Area:One festival. So this was my first full concert of them, and I was pleased to hear "Glass" and "A Certain Shade Of Green" from them, which are two of my favorites on S.C.I.E.N.C.E. And the intro they did to "Privilege" sounded way too much like the start of "Idiot Box", so I was almost surprised for a second that they were going to play it, heh. Finally came the encore. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. "The Warmth" is just an awesome song all around, and the guitar part near the end of the song is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. I can't describe it, it's just totally awesome :) And finally, "Aqueous Transmission" was the last song. The guitarist sat up on a stool with the funky looking guitar (I'm sure it has a name), the drummer came down and played on a different drum set up, and the bassist played a stand up bass. Brandon eventually went up to the top of the raised oval and just laid down and sang. I was like, how lucky. I can just imagine what it'd be like, to lie down up there during one of your concerts with thousands of people screaming and singing along to your song. That's just incredible :) If only I could sing, hahaha. So yeah, this concert was incredible in every way. The crowd was WAY more tolerable, I got about as close as you can get to the stage, and I heard some of my favorite music. If it wasn't for those damn crowd surfers that I got nailed in the head with a few times, it would have been perfect. But other than that small annoyance, it definitely has a case to compete for best concert I've been to! |