Old People Music

Okay, I suck. I wrote this like two weeks ago, and am only now getting to actually posting it.

So, I saw the band Genesis play in concert a while ago. It was a very interesting experience. I’m used to seeing young, new bands play shows in little venues. This, on the other hand, was an old band playing to stadium full of old people. The fact is, the average viewer of this concert could easily have been my grandparent.

This was only the second concert I’ve ever seen that wasn’t general admission. The first was Shania Twain, and I don’t like her, so this is the first concert that I actually wanted to see that was not general admission. Perhaps that explains some of the oddities I noticed. The first was the proliferation of opera glasses. I suppose if you know that you’re going to be sitting way out in the middle of no where, you have the foresight to bring opera glasses with which to watch the show. Or maybe the people watching this particular concert were just myopic. Really, really myopic.

The other big difference from all the other shows I’ve seen was how low energy it was. Everybody just sat there. Maybe a few people sang along, but otherwise we all just sat around. I thought I might fall asleep somewhere along the way… in fact, I think I might have fallen asleep, the 2.5 hour concert seemed really short.

The basic feeling I got from the entire experience was that I wasn’t involved. I might as well have been watching it on television for how there I felt. The band did the whole audience participation thing, but it just isn’t the same as jumping and screaming and singing every word. Although I undoubtedly looked less ridiculous than I usually do. It just made me look forward to other concerts I’m seeing later in the months. I’m seeing Fall Out Boy in two weeks, and I’m expecting a smaller show than Genesis (obviously) but still really big for what I’m used to but still extremely high energy and fun.

This was good... that will be awesome.