Foo!!!

Last night Cheryl and I went to see a Foo Fighters concert for T on the Fringe. It was awesome!! The Foo are great, I love the Foo, who doesn't love the Foo? This was their biggest outdoor concert and there were sooo many people there!!!We wore bright colours so we wouldn't lose each other in a crowd. Despite being really crappy rainy weather all day (typical Scotland), late afternoon it all turned around and it was a really nice night (not typical Scotland), although we did still have to wear sweaters to keep warm (I know it's August, you don't have to tell me that!).

The first band to come on were called Silver Sun Pickups. Now I'm not a huge concert goer so I'm really not the best concert critic but this is my blog so I'm going to do it anyway. The thing that I enjoy about concerts is being able to sing and dance (yes I dance, not well but I do it anyway) to the songs. I find my biggest problem with bands or songs that I'm not familiar with is that because of the sound quality that you get at a concert you don't really know what they are saying, and the song is lacking that (I can't believe I'm about to say this...) polished quality that I hate to love. I think this makes me incapable of commenting on their songs, except to say that I am willing to seek them out and give them a chance. That has to do with the part that I feel I can more fairly comment on, the character of the show that they put on. The band was made up f 4 members, lead singer on a guitar, drummer, girl on guitar, and finally a guy on a key board. The lead singer was really good with the crowd, interactive, and funny. He seemed excited and thrilled to be there. The drummer was good, but all I can really say about him is that he seemed liked he was possessed while playing the drums. I have no real handle on what a drummer should look like but I'll admit I found it oddly creepy, but he wasn't horrible to look at so he gets a point. The guy on the keyboard was really really into the music. I can't quite think of anything else to say about him, he was sort of just there, off to the side. Now last but no least the girl on the guitar. In the words of my pal, Cheryl, she seemed to have gotten lost on her way to Lilith Fair. While the rest of her band was rocking out she was sort of swaying to the music. To be fair it was a big concert and it could have been nerves because a few songs in she started to take a few steps around the stage but it was still an awkward fit. She did add a little something different to their sound though.

Nine Inch Nails came up next. Ah hem, now previous to this show I considered myself a NIN fan, not a huge fan, but I enjoyed their music. I'm not going to say that after this show I don't, but keeping in mind that these guys are veterans, I expected a better show. Despite all the flash and lights they had, I found it bland and well I'll be honest I was bored and a little annoyed. For the first few songs they all had like laptops in lieu of instruments and they were pushing buttons and swaying to the 'music'. I could go on but like them (seemingly), I don't care enough.

Now on to the Foo!! They're great, have I mentioned how great they are? They put on an awesome show. A show for the audience, if you know what I mean. And they genuinely look like they are enjoying themselves. Even though their music would be enough the light show they put on was pretty awesome too. And Dave Grohl, well we all know that he is just awesome! I must admit we are finishing off this year quite nicely.

Before I finish I have to comment on the portion of the night I like to call leaving the stadium and heading home. It was golden, I just can't leave it out, it's not my style. So as the concert was nearing an end I did a scan of the facilities to see which would be the best exit strategy. After careful consideration I decided that most people would exit from the centre so our best bet was to go out the furthest side to avoid a mad rush of people heading for the exit. Now you have to give credit to Meadowbank Stadium for being brave enough to hire the mentally challenged to man the exits and handle crowd control. I'm sorry that was uncalled for and unfair to all mentally challenged people in the world, even the ones with goo brains. Someone in their absolute idiocy decided that the best way to get one of the largest crowds that the stadiums has ever seen to leave was by bottlenecking the crowd so that thousands upon thousands of us had to leave out of ONE exit. Now at first they let people leave through all the exits but suddenly decided to have a little fun with the rest of us. The worst of it was, they seemed to close off an exit just as a group of us came from the other one that had just been closed. Third one in I wasn't having it anymore, and we started yelling, "just go through him", referring to the poor scrawny guy they had standing at that exit. Next we started to 'gently' pushing the people in front of us so they had to option but to push through him and when he had to give a bunch of us scurried through to freedom!! I was sad it had to come to that, but trust me, it had to be done.

Not over yet, this is just a show of the luck that I possess. Standing at the bus stop we quickly realized that they had closed off the road and heard that the buses wouldn't start running down the street for another half hour at least. We decided, since we don't leave all that far we would just walk home, because of a curfew concerts have to end by 10 o'clock, so it was still early. We started walking up the street and were chatting about this and that when I looked up the street which the traffic had been diverted to and lo and behold there was our bus sitting in traffic. After a little mad dash through the crowded sidewalks to get to the bus stop we made it just as it pulled up and got home in record time!! I know you don't care, but stuff like that happens so rarely I need to mark the occasion.