Break it down again

After my whole Deftones experience, empathy for my friend Kurt made me agree to pay $50 to see Tears for Fears last night at Lisner Auditorium so that he would not have to go alone. Lucky for me, the night was working out in our favor. We arrived at Lisner 15 minutes after the concert went on; just in time to find a scalper selling 6th row center seats for $20 a piece. The majority of the people inside were more interested in drinking pint-sized cocktails in the lobby than watching the opening act, so Kurt and I had a completely unobstructed view of Dirty Vegas.

My glee at getting such a great deal and the musical ability of Dirty Vegas easily made this the best part of the evening. Our seats were excellent and the band sounded great. Almost an hour later, as the main act was getting ready to go on, the lobby dwellers funnelled in and my recent misanthropy returned. There were four blond women in front of us who were acting like they were at this amazing stadium concert when they were actually in an intimate theater. They were visibly drunk and could not stop talking. I wish I could say that these women were the exception to the crowd, but a good half of the theater was filled with drunk, chatty, overly-excited-to-see-a-concert "grown-ups".

Please understand that these people tainted my impression of Tears for Fears, who I couldn't help but pity. Here they were playing live after many, many years for what? Had they run out of money? Were they having midlife crises? In their defense, the band sounded good and Roland Orzabal, despite the fact that time has not been kind to his looks, was kind of sexy. Unfortunately, it was like Orzabal needed to prove to himself that he was still a wanted man. He would strike silly poses just to get a reaction from the audience, which he did. After all, these people did spend money to come see him and Curt Smith play. While there were moments of the concert I did enjoy, for most of the time I was thinking about how pathetic the whole scene was. When I'm in my late thirties and forties, I do plan to go to some concerts, but I hope I will never act as ridiculous as those four blond women.