I don’t go to many concerts these days. It’s tough when one can only sit comfortably
for ten minutes, or stand for fifteen minutes. The last concert we attended at
Portland’s famed “Crystal Ballroom” was two hours of standing and sweating
hell. It took me days to recover. I figured I would try to the Train concert
because it was at the Northwest Amphitheater where one could bring a low
profile chair and chill out on the lawn. This still was a challenge, but the experience
was worth it.
All these artists have been around for twenty years or so. The crowd was all ages with many millenials in
attendance. We got there in time for the
first song, “Girl in the Kinks shirt” by Matt Nathansan. He is an artist who received a big boost from
my favorite Bay Area radio station, KFOG. His songs have been featured on several of
KFOG’s charity CD’s. (I might have been his biggest fan on the lawn!) People
kept streaming in during his performance. I was surprised at how funny he was. He gave a
shout out to us folks on the lawn and even came into the audience, including
the lawn. His music is as good as the “headliner” and I felt bad for him that
he doesn’t get the same recognition. He talked about performing on “The Bachelor”
as a surreal experience. Perhaps he picked up some fans from the show.
It seems most of the crowd was there for The Fray, the band
made famous by their song on Grey’s Anatomy, “How to Save a Life.” I never watched the show, but as a former ICU
nurse the song has a special meaning for me. I couldn’t resist a quick Wikipedia search of
the band and discovered they are from Colorado and got their start as a
Christian band playing in mega-churches. It made me view some of their lyrics in a
different light, but I still enjoy the agnosticism of “You Found Me.” (A song
detailing a meeting with God on the streets smoking, reminiscent of Joan
Osborne’s “90’s hit “One of Us”) Isaac Slade, the lead singer, also made it up to
the cheap seats and was rushed by a crowd of teenage girls.
The headline act was Train. It’s strange how you remember the first time
you heard a band. I recall listening to
“Meet Virginia” working the night shift in cardiac care in Marin General with a
nurse named Virginia. (She hated me.) Like many artists, the band focused on
their new material before playing their hits. Early in the show, lead singer Pat Monahan offered
to take “selfies” for people who handed them their phones from the front
row. Many people kept their phones on
the entire show. I guess the decision
Train made is why fight the cell phone. As
an older audience member, I’d much prefer the memories of BEING THERE to some
horrible video of it. Many people also
were simply photographing themselves at the concert. My question is, “Were we always this
narcissistic or has Twitter and Instagram simply tapped into our innate self
absorption? Pat also selected some kids from the audience to come on stage and
dance with the band. Another crowd pleaser, throwing out free t-shirts, donning
one, then have the band autograph it and throw it out for one lucky concertgoer.
(Morbid curiosity if the person kept it or auctioned it on EBay.)
The band is pretty much unchanged, except for the drummer
who joined last year and is a native of Portland. One of my favorite songs was “Save Me San
Francisco” which has great parts to sing along with. It also mentions three places I’ve lived and
loved: Oregon, San Francisco and Marin. The opening acts returned to sing
“Little Help from my Friends.” They mentioned this was their forty-first
concert on this tour and it definitely seemed the guys liked playing together.
Pat did a little crowd surfing but didn’t make it up to the lawn.
Watching the crowd was sometimes as interesting as watching
the stage. During the Fray’s set, a intoxicated woman striped down to her bra.
Several people tried to assist her from embarrassing herself further. The girls
in front of us filmed it and had it up on YouTube in no time. The woman to our
left cringed ever time Matt Nathansan said “God damn.” Leading me to think they
may be Christian fans of the Fray. There was also a large amount of kids at the
show, doing cartwheels and trying to make their own fun while their parents
danced.
The encores were good. The second song was a cover of
Aerosmith’s classic “Dream On” and it was probably as good as the original.
Predictably, “Drops of Jupiter” was the final song. I enjoyed Pat’s goofy tae bo moves. (Remember
Tae Bo kids?) It was interesting to see some bands of “my generation” try to
stay relevant and attract the younger fans. Pat now has a weekly Podcast, wow!
Overall, it was a great night of music under the stars,
despite the discomfort and nine dollar beer. I made some nice memories with my
husband, which no grainy selfie can compete with! I’m looking forward to seeing
Chris Isaak next month at the Zoo.
No comments:
Post a Comment