July 31, 2001 Review

These reviews are from Goaltender29, who can be contacted through the General Discussion Board on the Official Matchbox Twenty site.

Howdy all! It’s concert season again and those crazy guys from Matchbox Twenty once again decided to stop in the Twin Cities area (Minneapolis, St. Paul) so I have carefully crafted a tale about my experience of going to their concert. Okay, who am I kidding, I just threw this story together and tied up any loose ends by stealing from a sugar packet I had handy. Let me warn you people again, if you have never read one of these by me (which is very possible since this is my second one), it is not a normal review. It is me dragging a story out of my concert going experience, so don’t look for set lists or if I got a picture of Rob’s butt, which I didn’t, though my sister may have. A link to my pictures (No I don’t have my sister’s pictures!) is at the bottom of the page if you just want some pics. So now that I’ve sort of prepared you for what lies ahead, read on and hopefully this doesn’t really suck and waste time that you could be saving a kitten from a tree. Oh and in case you are really perceptive and haven’t noticed yet, this story is for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken too seriously or internally. Also this product contains sucrose.

I’ll start my story with me sitting on my butt at home (of course what story about me doesn’t begin that way). It was a bright, sunny, very humid day out and I was wasting time on the computer as usual. I was waiting for my aunt, who was also kind enough to provide a ride (even though the car later proved to be possessed by some spirit) because she was still at work until 4:00. Well I suddenly realized that four was a lot closer than I had thought and began to hurry around getting ready for the concert, like taking the dog out so we didn’t come back to a nasty mess. After hurrying around to get ready, we get a call from my aunt saying that, true to her record, the replacement person isn’t there yet. Well , the person finally showed up and my aunt picked up my sister and I and we made a quick stop at her house. I couldn’t help but feel like they were plotting against me, though, because we stopped at a gas station earlier and I didn’t get out of the car either times, but they both got out of the car. It also could be because I had no reason to get out of the car, but conspiracy theories are more fun!

The car ride up was pretty normal. Speeding, booze and rock and roll!!! Or just really loud ‘N Sync music. That’s right we listen to ‘N Sync for about half the ride up, which brought stares from a bunch of slack-jawed kids in a car next to us at an intersection. But we listened to Matchbox Twenty the rest of the way, I think. I can’t remember the exact conversations that we had on the way up, though one did involve me racing onto the bus and getting beaten up by security, but walking away with Rob’s cell phone. Another was my sister and I rushing up on stage and my aunt taking our picture before getting beaten up by security. And does anyone find it odd that the fantasies about me and the band all end with security kicking my butt? Oh well, the rest of the time you just stare at the other people in their cars and hope they do something hilariously stupid.

Parking was a whole other adventure in itself. As if driving isn’t bad enough, suddenly you’re at the venue and realize the last parking place was a few miles away. I suggested just giving the keys to a random person on the street like they were a valet, but my aunt didn’t really take to the idea and I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed walking home much either. After a while driving around, we finally found a parking ramp and so we drive into it. We end up going up a bunch of floors and then going back down a few, we finally find a spot and almost don’t fit, but we make it in (we can just climb out the windows if we have to, right?). We find an elevator and take it down to ground level. As we leave the parking ramp, we ask a passerby the way to the venue and he gives us directions that after a short walk we promptly forget. Luckily, we figured out the correct way there and didn’t spend all night wandering aimlessly through St. Paul. After walking around the building by gigantic columns of people, we find our doors with nobody waiting outside (which was actually because they just opened the doors as we had arrived). Now here is the dark secret part of my story. I have a confession to make to you all, that I have been living a lie. I call myself a fan and hang out online with you folks all the time, but I’m not actually a fan club member! I was the guest with my sister’s fan club tickets. My aunt also got fan club tickets and so we waited for just a little while by the box office for her and finally entered the performance area.

My aunt’s tickets were for the 14th row, which was coincidentally the same row we sat in last time, except through Ticketmaster. Another coincidence was that out the thousands of people at the concert, my aunt’s seat was right next to her ex-boyfriend! Not like across the aisle or anything, but the very next seat! Although it seemed cruelly hilarious at the time, she ended up talking to them and everything was fine. My sister and I sat in the 7th row though before the bands were playing my aunt and her friend just hung around us to talk. By the way, sorry to anyone who was behind me. I am 6'4" so it is difficult to see from behind me. Every once and a while someone would peek from behind me and take a picture! I pretty much just sat around and watched the techs set up everything for Old 97s. I got a little more excited when I saw Jason. The first concert I didn’t even know Jason existed, so it was cooler to see him this time. Old 97s played and did a good job. They had a few songs I liked, but I don’t have a whole lot to say about them. By the way, some guy across the aisle from me looked just like Anthony Edwards (from the TV show ER)! It was sort of freaky since that’s my second sighting of an Anthony Edwards look-alike this week! And one was an actual doctor!

And just then, an elite combat force broke in through the roof and took Adam hostage!!! Okay, I just thought the story was sort of dragging at the moment, but hopefully it gets better or I’m going to bore a lot of people! After they finished performing, it was just more sitting and listening to my aunt and sister talk. I sat between them, because my aunt just had us move down to talk to her and I felt a little squished. Then it came time for Train to perform. They did a good job and I couldn’t help but occasionally watch Jason, who was not only out there for the Train performance, but he sang along to the songs! I just had to mention that Pat dances sort of like I would dance if I were a lead singer. It’s not really dancing, or at least not that good, but it’s still enjoyable. One really annoying person kept yelling, "Jupiter!!!" Sadly, it wasn’t just during Train’s set, but also during Old 97s. They obviously were clueless and are the type of people that just make you want to yell foul words at. But I didn’t because I’m too darn lovable!

After Train finished, more music and sitting around. Now I am going to describe the setup before I talk about the performance itself. They had the same type of hanging light things that moved. The stage was what was different. There were risers that were probably about ten feet off the stage with two sets of stairs. On one part was the keyboard stuff, in the middle were Paulie’s drums, and on the other side was a grand piano. On the front of the risers were some flat screens that showed images, much like they had on the background of the February concert. The rest was just a normal stage. And as a side note, for those of you that read and can remember my last story, the disco ball was there too.

Okay, now on to Matchbox’s performance. Of course it started with the lights going down and the crowd screaming more loudly than any of the music that was played there. Soon they came onto the stage and started with "Crutch". Rob wasn’t wearing leather pants, but Brian was. Also as a side note, when Rob was introducing the band, he introduced him as Pookie. My seats were on Kyle’s side so I saw him a lot. In fact during part of the performance, smoke from one of his cigarettes made it look like his guitar strings were smoking! It was cool, but it would probably hurt if they really did smoke.

They gave a great performance. It must have been pretty warm, especially on stage, because by the end, hardly any of Rob’s shirt wasn’t soaked in sweat! For some of the songs he would go and sit down at the piano and sing. And when they played "Mad Season", a bunch of lights in the shape of the number 20 were in the background. It was really cool! And when they first came back for the encore, I thought I recognized the music. When Rob started singing, I realized what song it was. It was "Watching the Wheels" by John Lennon! They did a really good job, though it seemed like I was one of the only people near me that knew pretty much all of the words.

I almost forgot! I probably sort of confused Jason. I saw him walk by once and thought I should’ve said hi. But then he walked by again and I waved to get his attention and said, "Hi." He just nodded and lightly patted me on the back as he walked by. Other stuff was pretty normal concert stuff for them. They played good music. Adam had a baby head connected to a thing on his mic stand and made goofy faces and posed for pictures like he always does. Brian ran around a lot. Paul did his drumming thing. And Rob danced around and sang and sweated a lot. I had my aunt’s digital camera, so I took pictures of the guys! I tried to have at least one of each of them and then I would have three others left. I had a heck of a time trying to get a picture of Adam! There were a few chances, but I blew it each time! I only had eight pictures that could be stored on the camera, so I couldn’t take a whole lot. At the last song, I finally decided to just try to get one even though he was on the other side of the stage. After I used my last picture was when he finally walked right out in front of me! I’ll get you Adam! The next time I’m at a concert I’ll get a picture of you that’s good!!! Towards the end, people decided it would be a good idea to crowd towards the front to get a better view, but it wasn’t! At least not in my opinion. I can understand that you want to see the guys up close, but it is really uncomfortable. Not only that, one lady through all of Matchbox stood pretty much right in front of my chair. I moved out into the aisle, though I had to fight the urge to smack her in the back of the head or scream into her ear. Stay in your own row!!!!! The people that crowded in at the end made it difficult to stand. They kept pushing against me!

Then at the end of the concert something almost really cool happened! The large crowd of people who had pushed to the front were all trying to leave now and I wasn’t really paying attention to anything else that was happening. Suddenly I look up to see Paul throwing one of his sticks out! I reached up only to have it bounce off my palm! It landed two rows behind me and I at least got to watch the ensuing scuffle as people nearly killed each other over it. I was thinking later that next time I need to make a sign for him to aim for!

So we leave because although we want to wait for the band a little, we really can’t (which turned out to be a good thing because they weren’t able to stop and sign stuff and just got right on their bus). We go to my aunt’s car and try to bring her friend to her car, but on the way there, we accidentally head out onto the freeway instead of turning (Curse those no left turn signs!). Just before we did this we got to see some people who didn’t have a room because they were making out on the hood of a car. Well the girl was sitting on it, but you know what I mean. It looked romantic, if your idea of romantic is making out in the alley behind a porn theater. So after driving around, suddenly we’re right by the venue again and drop off the friend. Then we end up heading on the wrong side of the freeway, driving away from where we need to go. We eventually started going the correct way. However the dome lights begin flashing on and off erratically scaring the crap out of my aunt and sister. I, being the evil person I am, just laughed about them being frightened by it. After a quick call to my uncle, we found that the car wasn’t actually possessed, my aunt just needed to turn something off or something like that. I didn’t really pay attention. But that’s pretty much it. I got home and started typing this and went to bed and now finally finished this.

"That’s it?!?!?" you say. Well if you thought this wasn’t even as interesting as watching a kitten bat at a piece of string I’m sorry, though you’re right, watching a kitten bat at string is pretty darn entertaining. Still, sorry for just wasting your life, of course if you didn’t like it that much, why did you keep reading to the end? Well guess what? THE END