The experience of attending a show alone begins from the moment you land yourself in line waiting to get into the club. Personally, it's at this point that I generally find myself looking around with a false sense of purpose, as if it would make people around me think I might actually be waiting for someone to join me. Then I realize what I'm really looking for is other people who appear to be there by themselves as well. Knowing I'm not the only one validates my situation as not totally abnormal. Unfortunately, this search usually ends up with a lot of false alarms; people in line who really are waiting for friends to join them, as opposed to just faking it like me.
:lol Priceless.
I must be the ultimate loser, cause I go to a lot of places by myself...be it a sports game, movie or concert. Most of the time I'll go to a sporting event with my bro, but if I'm only able to go by myself that doesn't really bother me. Plus with all the cheering and booing that goes on, you kinda feel part of the crowd anyway. With movies I frankly prefer going by myself, though that's easy for me to say since I haven't been on a date since Ronald fucking Regan was in office. Still, if there isn't a lady on my arm, I'd sooner watch a movie by myself in peace then go with a bunch of friends who are gonna do nothing but chat all the way through it.
As for concerts, the timing of this couldn't be better. I've only been to four concerts in my life, including three this year and one just last night. I went to a Rush concert in October 2002, and another one this past August. You wanna talk about trying to avoid being conspicuous if you're by yourself? Try doing that when you're literally the only brother in the entire arena. :lol Outside of a couple people giving me odd looks though, nobody cares...once that music kicks in, that's all that's gonna matter to the listeners.
The third concert I went to was with my sister last month, and it was by none other then a good friend of mine from high school called Shawn Hewitt that my sister knew as well. Shawn and his band (called the National Strike) are just a small gig group, but they've played gigs around the country and I think played a few times in Australia as well. I hadn't seen him in a while, so it was good to run into him again before the show. Music was pretty cool as well...really fresh, unique sound.
As for the last concert, this was hosted last night by Ivana Santilli, a talented singer and musician who's an absolute doll. This gig was actually free...I only found out about it over the weekend, and you had to send an e-mail in to get a confirmation and reserve. I wasn't in time for that, but the return e-mail suggested coming an hour early in case some the confirmed people on the list didn't show up. Until then I was feeling a little awkward, as pretty much everyone in line was with at least one other person, with most of them being couples (some hot, hot ladies there too). That proved to be a good move, as they let a whack of us in with a half hour to go.
Funny enough they had an XBox truck parked to the side, and they'd laid out some XBox's and LCD screens on the floor below with Battlefront, ESPN Hockey 2K5 and Star Wars Battlefront. They also had the Halo 2 movie trailer on a constant loop on a big screen, which looked incredible. This proved to be a life saver, as the show didn't start till 90 minutes after the original time, so at least it gave me something to do without looking awkward until things began.
When the concert itself started, I was able to get pretty close to the stage and off to the right. It was standing only and pretty crowded, and it made no difference that I wasn't with anyone since I wouldn't have been able to hear anyone speak anyway. Ivana and the band put on a fantastic show...full of energy, great instrument playing, and great vocals. And Ivana is just smoking hot...I had a small crush on her back in the day, and I think it might've redeveloped (told you I was a loser :lol). Her second album came out a few months ago, so I'm hoping to pick both up in a week or two.
http://www.ivanasantilli.net/
