March 14, 2009

• This past night, I went to the House of Blues in Hollywood, CA for the "Sub City Take Action Tour," to see one of my favorite bands "Meg & Dia." Ofcourse that would mean that I have to drive through the horrible Los Angeles traffic, but anything for the band right? Speaking of driving, for whatever reason I decided to follow my GPS' directions to get to the HoB, when I clearly KNOW how to get there myself. The GPS got me going in many loops and turns around the city, pretty much getting me lost, and it's all because I ignored my instincts and assumed that it would get me there faster. Stupid stupid. I did eventually get there, but I was late for the meet & greet check in time (BTW, I won a meet & greet pass for this show). I did not really see that as much of a lost though, because a band like Meg & Dia is actually almost always available to meet and greet before, during, or after the show. I can try for the "official" meet & greet on Monday's show in Anaheim I suppose, since I also won a pass for that as well.

  Once I got to the place, there was already a decent looking line waiting to get in. The first person I saw, was surprisingly enough not the person I thought it was. I saw this girl walking up the line who looked like Hannah; which is Dia's best friend, so I went and called out her name. She turned around and it wasn't her, so I just waved, said "oops sorry" and started walking away. She all of a sudden asked me if I mistook her for "the band's friend Hannah," and I said yes, and she said that she is also a friend of the band. It turns out that her cellphone is out of battery and she is trying to get in to see the band, but can't contact anybody. We went our separate ways and walking around the building I see none other than Meg & Dia bassist Jon. I called him out, and he actually still remembered me. I told him about their friend, and he said that he'll get her in. We see her hanging out by the front of the door, and it all worked out from there. Over there, I see MaD lead guitarist Carlo hanging out with his family, their manager Mike K, and moments later two white vans drive by carrying Meg and Dia.

  I didn't want to bother them at that point so I walked away and found some of my fellow "boardies" waiting by the curve across the street. I was honestly surprised to see them there, because I thought the San Diego show (which I can't make) was the designated "boardie show" to go to this time around. At least now I have some people to talk to while waiting to get in. Two of my friends apparently weren't even planning to go to this Hollywood show, but by the time the line was starting to walk in, they went and bought tickets for it to join the rest of us. Once inside, we got a few drinks, and planted ourselves a spot on the floor / pit.

  The show started at about 7PM, with "Anarbor" starting it up. They were good, but they weren't great either. I enjoyed a couple of their songs, and the crowd more or less enjoyed their performance. After their set ended, I decided to leave the pit and stood off to the side instead. The reason for that is that honestly, it started feeling a little bit weird being smooshed in the pit surrounded by mostly girls that are probably around half my age. At least off to the side I got my own personal space. Next up was "Every Avenue" and just like the previous band, they were good, but they weren't great, I enjoyed a couple of their songs, and the crowd more or less enjoyed their performance.

  The next band however was one that I was also looking forward to see live, "Breathe Carolina," as they are a mix of screamo and dance/rave music, and I wanted to see how that would turn out. It's a very weird combination that involves synths, drum machines, strobe lights, "emo" vocals, and screamo vocals. It works pretty well though and they honestly had the most positive reaction out of the audience, what with their rave dance floor sound, and even though I could not understand a word they are singing. They did do a cover of Miley Cyrus' "See You Again," which I thought was just decently done, but interesting to hear.

  After the previous very upbeat get off your feet kind of band, I was concerned with how the audience will react to "Meg & Dia's" more traditional pop rock type music. Sure enough, the crowd was a lot more subdued with the band's performance. Those of us die hard MaD fans were very much into their music of course, but it would have been nice to see more action from the rest of the crowd. The band itself played really great, and I was impressed with the overall quality of their performance. Half of their set list consisted of new songs, which is nice to hear. They also did a cover of Blind Melon's "No Rain," while great, I got to say that it may not necessarily have been the best song to choose for this type of crowd, as some of them probably weren't even born yet when that song was originally released.

  

  As soon as their set was done, we boardies headed for the merch booths to check stuff out. The first person from the band we met was Jon and Carlo, with Nick showing up afterward. We even saw/met some other celebrity types, like Neil Patrick Harris, Ricky Carmichael, and even Ricky from the band Melee (who I then told how I used their song "Built to Last" for my Wedding - he thought that was awesome). To my surprise, I ran into a couple of other MaD fans that I met almost two years ago, and they still remembered me! Then I went ahead and finally greeted this one other MaD fan who I only knew through her blog, which I guess it's about time I did that, since I always see her in the SoCal shows for MaD. We MaD fans are just one big happy family aren't we?

  As for Meg and Dia themselves, they were over at the offiical Take Action Tour merch booth signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. By the time the headlining band "Cute Is What We Aim For" was playing, we boardies went ahead and took a group picture with Meg and Dia. I even got a chance to ask Meg how she is liking the fact that she is now living in Southern California (she likes it). Afterwards, I decided that I wasn't going to even bother seeing CIWWAF perform (maybe in Anaheim), so I took off. Before I left the HoB, I had to take one more picture with Carlo, and to my surprise his sister was in that photo too. That was unusual for me, leaving a venue that MaD is playing at, until they themselves are ready to go. Ah well, maybe I just wanted to get out of Los Angeles.

  BTW, I took this night as a test run to see how my Blackberry Storm would handle a concert venue like this. I tried it with and without the flash, and even took a video of one of the more quieter songs (because I'm sure my phone couldn't handle the louder songs). The result is that while my phone has a nice bright flash, it still isn't good enough for an event like this. But it made do, for the fact that the House Of Blues will not allow my kind of digital camera in there without permission.

  * click here for the cellphone photos I took from this tour *

  * and click here for my cellphone video of Meg & Dia performing "Halloween" *

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