Big Orange Crayonmusical thingsThe Orange and One Leg Greg at Valentine's March 4th, 2000 There are three elements that go into how much I can enjoy a show: the atmosphere, the crowd and the music. For this one, two of the three were wonderful: it was at Valentine's, so the atmosphere was covered and the bands were wonderful. I'll go into the remaining one later. One Leg Greg was the first band to come on, and I didn't even know that they were playing, so they were a nice suprise. They are very young, and it was probably one of their first shows in front of a club sized crowd, so there were some awkward moments, but they were still great. When they first came on, I didn't even know that they were a band, I thought it was just a few kids having a bit of fun on stage (actually, aren't all shows that? anyway...) Their songs are pretty straight forward poppy punk tinged rock, in some ways in the same vein as the Orange, in some ways not, and it seems that they still have to find their specific "sound" but they did a fun, energetic show and I think I'll check them out again sometime. They didn't play anything that I could really latch on to, but it was still an enjoyable show. The Orange was on next, and like the other two times I saw them they did a great show. Ariel said and I agree that they've gotten better over time and now I think that they're totally ready to take on the world. I kinda wish that the Poster Children were coming to Albany again this year because the Orange would be a wonderful band to open for them. They did a few new songs, all of which I thought were great even if I can't remember their names, I guess that's one point for taking notes at show (the point against taking notes at shows is that it's lame). One totally bizarre thing was that during "Crazy Dinosaur" some people, unbeknownst to the band, jumped on the stage in bright orange dinosaur suits and started marching around. Ben (the guy who sings) started laughing while he was singing and I thought it was pretty silly, too. They finished off with "Wyoming", (which is called "Guarding the Coast" on the demo CD I have, but "Wyoming" is a good name, too) and pretty much rocked the universe. If you live in the area (or they go on tour sometime near you) definitely check them out if you like nerdrock. But despite how wonderful the bands were, me and Ariel ended up leaving before Perfect Thyroid (the other band that was playing) came on because of some of the people there. One of the things that I really love about local shows is that people are always very friendly and interested in having a good time with everyone there. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of kids who came in drunk and were just total jerks and ruined the show for a lot of people. Now, I try not to be judgemental about such things, but I'm pretty much a straight-edge kid and I don't drink. I accept the fact that people do and I don't care. Valentine's is a bar, so you have to expect some element of alcohol in there, and I don't mind it at normal shows, but this time people came in drunk with no expectation of doing anything related to getting into the music. The thing that really pisses me off though is that these were kids who were under 21 that did this. Valentine's isn't a very wealthy place and if those kids, who weren't allowed to drink in Valentine's, were picked up by the police coming out at they were found to have alcohol in them, Valetine's could very well get fined or worse. That club is the best thing about this whole area and it really makes me mad that a few frat-boy types could come in and put the thing that I and so many other people love at risk because they couldn't find something else to do that night. Plus, these same kids did the whole moshing thing. I love to jump around at a show, in fact it was one of the things me and Ariel were getting all excited about in the car on the way over there, but what these kids were doing was something different. It had nothing to do with the music; they would have done the same thing if there was a porno film and a guitar screeching unplayed in front of an amp instead of a fabulous band like the Orange. It was all about hurting people. Ariel and I had to move far away from the stage to get away from it, which is something that we really hate to do. We still jumped up and down on the right songs, but then someone would fly at us and try to knock us down and we'd just stop. It ceases to be fun when someone is misinterpreting what is going on as an excuse for violence. I really don't want to come off as an exclusionist prick here and I really hope that I'm not, but although I love it when local bands get big crowds, this wasn't a good thing. There were a lot of nice kids there, don't get me wrong, but a lot of the kids, a model for which I'm making from this one kid that kept bothering Ariel (a guy that she had been avoiding for a long time) just weren't supposed to be there in my Utopian vision of Valentine's. There was the violence aspect and then when a girl tried to do that crowd surfing thing, a few more boys moved closer to the front, with stated intention of grabbing her... inappropriately. Ariel said it was kind of like our sanctuary had been invaded, the place where we can go to escape from the masks that we have to put on in school and just have fun with a bunch of people who enjoy the same kinds of things as us suddenly filled with the same people that force us to wear the masks in the first place. So yeah, that was the show. Great club, awesome bands, and way too many jerks. I wish it would have turned out differently, but at least the part the we come there for was really excellent. (sigh) |