Just say ‘No’ to YES

2004 > America

Unless you really do like space music

look - gnats!
What’s happening?
or ants
Who? No, YES.
Concerts. Why do people go to music concerts? I’ve never figured this out, as to me I find them so damn boring. First off the music is painfully loud, and only rarely better than what a decent home stereo can produce. Then you have to just sit there, or worse, stand, with nothing much to do.

The singers are always far away, little figurines moving around on stage, or just Jumbotron images flickering overhead. Neither can compete with even the lamest music video.

I’d much rather have them music in the background, as a soundtrack to life while I’m living in the moment, than front and center, overwhelming it. Or I could just be getting old. Either way, last week found me at the strangest place I’ve been in a while: a YES concert at the Nissan Pavilion with a sense of adventure, free tickets and very attractive date.

All three couldn’t help though. As we walked in and I heard their music for the first time, I cocked my head in puzzlement. Apparently, YES plays funky space music in between mainstream hits like ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’. That and seemingly intense fans I read about on their website made me wonder if I this was going to be a Grateful Dead show.

Now the parking lot didn’t look anything like a Dead show, and once inside, neither did the fans. Mainly Baby Boomers trying to relive youth, they were defiantly not the unwashed and scraggly youth I remember from my Dead days.

No, these big kids sat attentively in their chairs, calmly singing along with only rare and random screams of joy and happiness at favorite songs. Such was the order and calm in the crowd, I soon had to flee the boringness of it all. Flee to the concession stand where $8 Miller Lites, (Yes, $8 for a small cup of crap beer!) kept me sober and sad.

After an hour watching the fans come and go, listening to them recount concerts and songs of yore, my date came looking for me. With a scowl she agreed to go and I now know: Just say ‘No’ to YES


Category: America

1 Comments on “Just say ‘No’ to YES”

  1. Ah yes, those glorious YES years. Now I’m an old man, reliving my greatest fantasy, but then …. you had to spoil it all my downgrading what, for me, could have been the pivotal moment of my middle age.

    Sheesh, Dude….

    Seriously, though, a co-worker bumped into your Belly Button and passed it along to me. I never thought I’d so thoroughly enjoy a blog. You can expect more pain-in-the-ass comments from me as I follow your past into your future….whatever that means.

    Now just think: wouldn’t you and your date have loved to be in the audience for a Peter Frampton concert!!??