Why I am glad I like obscure music

Tonight, I met some dear friends at SPAC and saw The Police live.

Please don't read this wrong. When I was a young teennage lad in the 80's, I listened to the Zenyatta Mondatta album so much I wore my cassette tape out. I think Sting is a great bassist who has a great voice. Andy Summers can still grind the axe and Stewart Copeland is an awesome drummer.

So, I love me some Po Po. And, that's not my point.

When I got to SPAC, it took me 30 minutes to park, another 30 minutes to buy a beer that cost 11 dollars. Then, I could only drink it in the "beer garden" area where ostensibly the beers are grown and people are treated like caged, drunken animals. Then, after numerous text messages, I located my buddy Jamie and pushed and shoved my way through 20,000+ people to where he had a couple of blankets under a foot passenger bridge. Here, we watched the show from the lawn seat area. From this location, I could see a half of a big screen and about half of the stage which was easily a football field away. We chose to leave early and we had to push and shove our way through the huge mass of people jammed together like sardines in lawnchairs. They were getting pissed at our intrusion upon their experience of the Sting TV show and their personal space.

I told them Jamie's dad just was having a heart attack and this helped.

Oh yeah...my ticket cost $47, by the way. $54 after TicketMonster did its damage.

They sounded good and played a lot of my faves; Demolition Man, Driven to Tears and When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around. Why does one my favorite songs have to have such a long title which makes it so cumbersome to type?

Good time though.

But, why do we like popular music so much?

Maybe because it's familiar. In the 80's we had these things called "radios". These devices reminds played this kind of music when we were in our cars on a beautiful summer day after you aced that job interview or when your girlfriend just dumped you, blah blah blah...

So, please, let's all become more familiar with music that hasn't engrained itself so deeply in pop culture.

Why?

Well, because it's just as good and accessible! Back in spring, I saw The Toasters at Poison Room with maybe 200 people. My ticket was $12. I drank as much beer as I wanted and stood right in front of the stage. I bought the band a round of beers. I had a chat with the singer/guitarist afterward. I had my picture taken with said singer guitarist. I bought a T-shirt with a cool design for $12.

I was so overwhelmed, I had to sleep in my car for a while.

And drunk. Overwhelmed and drunk.

There wasn't a beer garden. If there was, I harvested a lot of it that night.

My point is; The Toasters might not be as talented as The Police. But, they're damn close. Actually, I think they are and their timing just isn't as favorable as it was for some bands.

Artists like this also need your financial support wayyyyyy more than the Sting TV show does.

So, locate the small clubs around your vicinity and flip your stubs at TicketMonster.

Please?

November 20th: The Toasters at Mad Hatter in Covington.

Let's all go?

Good night. I'm very sober tonight.

Thanks to the beer garden.