Monday, September 17, 2007

Concert With Dad

The highlight of this weekend was taking my 10 year old son "Levi" and stepson "Nolan" to their first rock concert. We went to see Sum 41, a concert previewed here in Scene Magazine.

We left home around 5 and rode the RTA downtown and then had dinner at the Tower City Food Court where Levi had his favorite, teriyaki chicken. Nolan had a ham and cheese from Arby's.

We then walked 4 blocks to the House Of Blues. We made a quick walk through and ended up in the balcony where they have just 6 rows of seats. We got the last set of 3 together, about 4 rows back in the right corner. They were very good seats, as long as the fat chick 2 rows up wasn't standing up taking pictures.

The opening act was Monty Are I. They were pretty loud and, since I wasn't familiar with any of their songs, it was difficult to hear the lyrics. Plus there was 4 bands worth of equipment on an already crowded stage. They were a high energy group and definitely had fun, and got the crowd started during their 30-minute set.

Next on the card was Amber Pacific. Their 30 minutes of music played a little clearer. They also announced that their new album, Truth In Sincerity, would be on sale for just $5! We picked this up on the way out, and we've just started to listen to it a few times. Two girls behind us from Detroit, Michigan came back from the break with Amber Pacific shirts.

I got the boys each a Red Bull in between Amber Pacific and the next band . . .

Yellowcard came out last before the headliner and played for about 50 minutes. They played a song called Keeper and I joked to Levi that they definitely must have played soccer growing up. With the gear gone from the first 2 bands, the guys from Yellowcard actually had room to move around on stage. Alot of people were definitely into the band and were singing along to the songs.

Finally it was time for the band we came to see, Sum 41. They played for almost an hour and a half, doing their most popular older songs, and about half the songs from the new Underclass Hero disk.

Lead singer Deryck Whibley entertained in between songs, introducing bass player Cone, drummer Steve-O 32, and new touring guitarist BrownTom, who replaced original band member Dave Brownsound.

Deryck took a few pages from Green Day's Billie Jo, picking 3 fans from the pit to sit side-stage during the show, and then later challenging a random crowd member to play a better guitar solo than him.

After a 75 minute set, they came out for a 2-song encore, playing crowd favorite "Fat Lip" and then ended the show with Deryck on the drums and Steve-O singing "Pain For Pleasure."

The boys and I had a great time, and of course, they wore their t-shirts the next day.

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