Wow, the best concert I ever went to! I don't know how else to describe it. I mean, there was a lot of standing (4 hours), but it was all worth it. I went with my friends, Nelson, John, Nelson's sister Melissa, Kim, Lynn, and Jeanette. We had tons of fun there. My friend Lynn chose to wear high heels cuz she wanted the extra height, but she was in so pain much after the concert. She actually had to sit down b4 Simple Plan started their encore. It's a good thing I brought in a change of clothes to work so I wore jeans and sneakers to the concert instead of shoes and slacks. I probably wouldn't be walking much today if I didn't, cuz my legs are still sore from standing so much yesterday, even though I wore sneakers instead of shoes. But it was all worth it. The music was great, there was so much energy in the crowd. It was a ton of fun.
The Nokia Theatre is not really a big venue. Although it looks like one on the blueprint that they have online, it's not really all that big. The stage is small, about the size of an elementary school stage. The seating area is probably smaller than the school auditorium, but the center area has no seats for this concert. So people can just stand and pack in as much as possible, get as close to the band as possible. There is also a balcony on both the left and the right side of the stage. They have a decent view from up there, but you don't get the same kind of energy as right in front of center stage. I think there was at least three or four hundred people in that center area alone. There were tons more ppl that were actually sitting down. But they were too far away for us to care much about them.
We got there around 6:00PM. The doors opened at 5PM but unless you don't work, you can't really get there that early. But then again, there is a whole bunch of younger group that was there. Simple Plan's music is kinda gear towards the teenage crowd, but some of the their songs still carry a meaning for me. But I was feeling a little old for that crowd. But it wasn't that bad. I would say the average age of the crowd there being a little younger than 20.
There was 3 opening acts. The first band, Paranor (not sure, couldn't find any info on the band, maybe misspelled by me), was ok. David from Simple Plan came out and sang a bit w/ the lead singer. Overall, I didn't really feel the energy from them. But I guess everyone has to start somewhere and I guess it's good practice for them. The second band, Plain White T's, has the most energy of all the opening acts. They came out rocking, and had tons of good songs from their second CD, All that we Needed. "Revenge" probably has the most energy. But I pretty much liked all the songs that they performed. The last song, "Hey There Delilah", sounded more like a Beatles song. But it was good change of pace, not to mention both Pierre and David from SP both came out to sing the chorus w/ the lead singer. The third opening act, Straylight Run, has been around for a bit too. But I didn't feel the energy from them as I did w/ the band before. Part of it was the technicial difficulties that they had. There were quite a few mic squeaks when they were playing. Also their mics were pretty bad and I couldn't hear them too clearly. But their last song had some heavy metal hard rock to it, which was kind of a saving grace to their otherwise mediocre performance.
Well, on to the main attraction: Simple Plan. It took the stage crew another 20 minutes to get the stage ready for SP after Straylight Run. By then, everyone was complaining cuz we already stood there for nearly 2 1/2 hrs. But when you hear the first guitar riff and the drums from the band, everyone just stopped complaining. Instead, people started pushing towards the stage. We instantly got 2 or 3 feet closer, even before they dropped the curtain.
SP sure knew how to fire up the crowd. Their opening song was "Jump". So obviously, they asked everyone to start jumping. It was really cool. The jumping lead to more pushing towards the front of the stage. Jeanette actually got pushed to nearly 3 rows from the stage. We didn't even know where she was cuz we never got that close until the encore. We were about 8 or 9 rows back (It's really hard to differentiate rows, more like just how many heads were in between you and the stage).
After "Jump", I think they played "Addicted". But I don't remember exactly. They were playing one good song after another, I don't remember which went after what. I knew about 70% of the songs that they played. I didn't know their songs from the 1st album (3 or 4 songs) as well as I did w/ their 2nd album (all of them). But their was a lot of audience interaction. They threw out about a dozen bottles of water to "cool off" the crowd. But it was more for our thirst cuz most ppl were stuck in that center area since the show started. David also threw out 1/2 a dozen guitar picks. It was a ton of fun. Jeanette got a guitar pick. We weren't that lucky as we were not that close. Just like the band throwing out stuff, the crowd threw a bunch of t-shirts back at them. David picked one up and said that the shirt smells like it was from someone that was at yesterday's concert as well. It was really funny. Then They played a ton of songs, including "Shut Up!", "Welcome To My Life", "Perfect World", and "Thank You". After about like 5 or 6 songs Pierre sang a older rock song from another band. It was pretty good. I just don't recall the name of the song off my head. Then 3 or 4 songs later, Pierre started rapping. No one knew he could rap. He started w/ a little something from Jay-Z, I think it was "H.O.V.A.". Then he did "Pop it like it's hot" from Snoop. Then he did something from 50 Cent. It was kind of a coincidence that 50 Cent was at TRL last night promoting his upcoming movie "Get Rich or Die Trying", which was right next door to the Nokia Theater. I noticed it when I was walking by and I saw a lot of fans on the sidewalk holding up Get Rich or Die Trying Posters. Anyway, SP did 5 or 6 more songs after that and end w/ Untitled. Then they came back and did an encore w/ 2 more songs. Wow, what an exciting night. It was a lot of fun. I have a sore throat and my legs are still tired, but it was really worth it. I would definitely go to their next concert next year from their new album, but they got to have as many good songs as they did w/ "Still Not Getting Any..."
We took tons of pictures w/ Nelson's camera. But we ran out of memory space 1/2 way thru the concert. I hope to have whatever we took up on this site soon.
