The concert, FINALLY

I apparently suck at telling stories, given the length of time that it’s taken me thus far just to get to the concert. But onward, right?

So Suzy drops me off at my apartment, and it’s beginning to ice over, which is excellent since I need to drive myself downtown for the concert and not die, and I’m not at all confident in my abilities to do this. I called my dad to see if he would bring Shadow back over, and he said sure, but he didn’t have a key. I didn’t want to mess with convincing him that my mother did have a key, so I just told him I’d head over there. Meanwhile I’m trying to coordinate with three different people about meeting downtown for dinner and what time. Finally, my friend Leila had talked us all into going to this restaurant called Urban Elements, and I told my friend Stacy, from Valparaiso how to get there based on what Leila had told me, and also let Paul, another concert-goer as well.

When I had called my dad about the dog, my mom had sounded pissy. So as I went into the apartment, leashed up the dog and whispered to my dad that my mom was pissed at me, and what had I done? He kept saying that she was just pissed at him, not at me, but I didn’t believe him, since she sounded so shitty with me. She came into the living room and was really bitchy and yelled about how she would not have people talking about her in her house. I was like, “I just was trying to figure out if you were pissed at me.” She yelled, “Well I am now!’ So I headed into her room, and said “You sounded angry, so I was trying to see if Dad knew what I had done.” She proceeded to tell me that my dad had told her about the money he had paid me in December. My dad had gotten a check from his boss to cover his cell phone bill for a full year, which he passed to me without telling my mom, knowing that my mother would want it. So when she started on him over the weekend about how he needed to pay for the cell phone. So he blurted out, “I did pay her, I got a check in December and I cashed it and gave it to her.” So my mom decided to “catch him in the lie” by asking me. “Did your dad give you money for the phone in December?” she asked. I told her yes immediately, because he had. “Cash or check?” she asked. Keep in mind that this was three months ago, I’ve slept since then, and, oh yeah, I don’t spend every waking moment thinking about it. So I said check. She told me he said it was cash. I replied, “He’s right, it was cash.” Of course, then my mom assumed I was lying. “No, it was cash. He got a check from his boss in his name, so he cashed it at the grocery store and gave me the money.” So my mom started going off about how she couldn’t believe I didn’t respect her enough that I would like in her goddamn face, etcetera. I tried to assure her that I was not lying, but the response I got was thus: “You could swear on Nicky’s grave (that would be my dead sister, by the way. She died of cancer before I was born.) and I still wouldn’t believe you.” My response was “Fine, but I’m telling you the truth.” There was more melodramatics, but not much more, because I needed to head out or I wouldn’t make dinner. So I dropped the dog at home and braved the trek downtown, which SUCKED. Leila and I agreed to drop our cars at the parking garage on the campus where we both go to school and work, and have Paul drive us to the restaurant for dinner. Of course, we agreed that after I’d gotten to the restaurant and parked, but whatever, carpooling good.

When we walked in, there were Stacy and her boyfriend Dan on the couch, but we didn’t see Mookie right away. That’s because he was shoved back in a corner with his friend, John, who joined us for dinner. Dinner was a riotous affair. We were all making jokes and bantering about, it was super fun. I ordered a BLT, which was BRILLIANT. It had so much bacon on it. It made me incredibly happy. They also have hot cookies and delectable chocolate desserts, mine was like a super-dense brownie. I needed the milk I ordered. Poor Leila, she hates milk, so she kept eyeing my glass and saying “Cow excretion” with a shudder. It was excellent.

The ice had finally stopped, but it was replaced with a positively miserable rain. But we refused to have our spirits dampened! Driving and driving and driving led no avail to a decent parking space, so Paul, being the saint that he is, dropped Leila right in front of the Murat. Of course, we immediately found out that you had to go in through the back entrance. CURSES! So I called Paul on the cell phone, and got him to come drive us around before parking. Seriously, we’re not prima donna bitches, we were just cold and not wanting to spend the concert soaked.

Leila and I met up with Mookie inside, and as we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, we played a game called “Why are these people here?” Guster is an amazing band, and more power to the people who love their music. But there were so many teenie boppers there! Since when do teenie boppers like good music? And frat boys! We just didn’t understand!

The opening act didn’t sound all that promising, so we decided to wait in the lobby for it to end and keep playing our game and chat. Fortunately, they weren’t on that much longer and the actual Guster performance was well worth the wait.

Musical Highlights included:
“Demons”—Man, that song kicks ass, and it’s better live.
“Manifest Destiny”—Such a great tune
“The Airport Song”—That’s right, hurl ping pong balls at the band!
The drummer. If you don’t know Guster, the drummer is the biggest badass in all the land. He plays the drums most of the time with his bare hands. And this is rock music, people. So he’s playing the high hat and the set like that. So awesome. We’ve decided he should death match it with the one-armed drummer from Def Leppard.
The final encore was the drummer singing “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes. I really don’t like this song in the real world. However. Guster kicked it’s ass. Because the drummer is a drummer for a reason, and he can’t really sing. But it was still super fun and just a great energy to end the show.

Band Awesomeness Highlights Included:
The band being stoked about the lighters, cell phones and glow sticks being used in the audience. As soon as he said “glow stick” the guy in the audience launched it onstage, where it hung like a beacon the rest of the night.
The intro to “So Long.” Ryan was like “We only play this song a couple times a tour. So I had to look up the lyrics to the song online, so nobody better be fucking with me.” AWESOME.
Guster rocks because they always explain the encore process. “Okay, so the lights are going to go out, and you’ll all clap. And then we’ll come back out and do some more songs.” HEE!

People Highlights Included:
The frat boys. They were pretty dumb.
The drunk girl in front of us. She must have been all of 19 years old, and I’m pretty sure she drank her weight in Bud Light. We were pretending to be documentarians, all “Note how the female clings to the waste of the male in an attempt to remain upright.” The chick eventually ended up on the floor, and her friends were all just still watching the show. Security came over, all like, “She’s a fire hazard.” Seriously? Of course she is, and she might also be dead! Go security! Her girlfriends must actually like her because they were giving her their hoodies and stuff to wear outside so she wouldn’t die in her tube top. Two guys were actually just holding her like a basket outside. It was hysterical.

So that was the concert! Good times. Next installment: Parent douchebaggery! Then I can return to normal posting about nothing.