Grabbing some culture!

Pop culture!

Sibling2 comes for a visit. We are going to a concert! Yay! It means I have an excuse to kick off the shackles and go out. Brilliant.

I get a text message from the Teen. Phone me, I want to chat! And in the course of that chat, I discover that she has changed address and now shares with a friend and her family. Oh, she says. I thought I told you? No, you didn't. When did this happen? Oh, about the 21st. *sigh*

But back to the concert.....

The show starts around 7pm but using public transport means we have to leave home around 3.20pm. That gives us time to get into the city, grab something to eat and make the transfer for the next leg of the journey. There is a downside; we need to be sure of what train we need to catch in order to make the return journey. On the odd occasion, the last train leaves before the show finishes.

We jump the bus from the stop just up the road. After a few stops, Sibling2 comments It's busy! Yes, I reply. Quite busy for a weekend. But wait. It's Tuesday. Off to a good start, aren't we.

We chatter the whole way, something we're good at. The youth in front of us shifts one seat up. Pfft! Obviously we were disturbing his iPod time.

We arrive at destination stop and decide to grab something for dinner. The golden arches wins out. I'm not satisfied with my burger. I've ordered a chicken bacon deluxe. I think. I discovered that it has the soft bun with the fancy flour dusted on the top. Urgh, it makes my mouth dry. Halfway through I decide the bacon is missing. When ordering dessert *loves those soft serve cones* I realise that the chicken burger was on the M menu and now I think about it, I was only charged for the chicken deluxe. But he didn't even offer me crispy or seared! I would have chosen seared, not the crispy I was given. *mental note to investigate the menu in more detail to avoid having to make hasty decisions!*

We arrive at the concert and there don't seem to be many people here. That changes as time wears on. The doors open and we are in!

We find our seats. Sibling2 is a little disappointed that at time of booking, she couldn't specify which location she wanted the seats. Once the section / ticket level (gold, silver etc) is chosen the seat allocations in those sections are automated. We didn't have too bad of a view though really.

At 7pm, Boom Crash Opera appeared and did a half hour acoustic set. It was great to hear his voice with no background interference. He sounded just like they did on the singles, so I'm guessing there wasn't much help electronically to sell the music. Not like today's sound at all.

The crowd reacted well.

By the end of the set, people were still streaming in to be seated. The stage cleared, houselights came up while they set up for the next act.

Cue the next act and the crowd is excited, jumping up and down, cheering and whistling. I was grateful then that we didn't have the seats on the main floor of the auditorium. There is no way I would have been able to see at all as seating down there is not tiered.
The best reaction from the audience comes when they play the songs everyone knows. There was no song in their set that I didn't like. They remarked that one of the songs - Floating Down the River - was never included in an album except a compilation called Greatest Hits. I think maybe I have that album and I will have to check when I get home.

The set is finished, the crowd goes wild and houselights come up for intermission.

People stream back in, house lights go down and the whistling and cheering begin again for the main act. Spandau Ballet we love you! This is the last performance of their Reformation tour.

They blast off with To Cut a Long Story Short and we're off and racing for an hour and a half of fun and good music. They sang their old favourites and one from their new album. It was a ballad and I think I like it. They are all a lot older, but they can still belt it out. Tony Hadley still has a strong and brilliant voice.

The set ends and the crowd claps and screams for more. I'm right along there with them. Eventually they return to the stage and do two more songs. The last one is ... Gold! It wasn't done in the main set, so they HAD to be saving it for encore, right?

Finally, the auditorium begins to empty and everyone is headed for cars and train. I'm a tad dismayed by the number of people headed for the train station. But to my surprise, most of them are crossing the overpass and very few are standing on the platform. I asked Sibling2 if she had enjoyed it. It was a bit of a dumb question really.

We are finally back at destination station and are steeling ourselves for the interminable wait in the cold for a taxi. But wait. There is one on the rank. A-maz-ing! We jump in. The driver has a thick accent. Great. Taxi's don't necessarily have a great reputation around here. The taxi is clean and tidy. Oh. Wait. This one has a GPS and he isn't afraid to use it. We key in the address and we're off. That's the last we hear from the driver until we pull up. He tells us the fare and laughs with Sibling2 because she tells him to keep the 10c change. Then he wishes us a good night. A surprisingly pleasant taxi ride.

We stumble indoors making all sorts of racket. Poor MOTH. I check the Tears for Fears album I have and am disappointed to discover it's not the compilation album.

I tumble into bed and wish MOTH goodnight. Or goodmorning as the case may be. He grunts and mumbles that we made a lot of noise. And it turns out he hadn't locked the door, only the screen so we wouldn't have to tear the place down to get inside.

Ah well. Maybe next time I will remember to check the handle first before flying at it with the key ... or maybe not.