You know you’re in Tucson when the local alt-rock station has their semi-annual rock concert featuring several newer bands and a couple headliners. Further, it will be at either the Pima County Fairgrounds or at the Tucson Electric Park (home of the Diamondbacks spring training and Arizona Sidewinders).
Instead of boring my mind out of bands I don’t know, my sister, Seth and I went around 5PM. ‘Against Me’ was just getting done with their set, then some non-live music and then Cypress Hill went on stage.
Also, I love how Tucson concerts always are kicked off with “F!&@ Tucson!” and some other crowd-pleasers. Surprisingly (note: sarcasm), despite the high presence of police, I smelled a lot of smoke that wasn’t from tobacco. CH performed quite well and played their most popular songs as well as classics.
Next up was Smashing Pumpkins who was the main headliner. Clouds moved in and thunder rocked the folks, but the show went on as planned. People squeezed in together and moshed for a bit. While I don’t (and can’t) crowd-surf, I figured I can help the younger patrons enjoy it by me giving them a lift. It was pretty fun, and I felt like I was 16 again.
“RAIN OR SHINE” was printed on the ticket for good reason. Rain came in from the south and started as a sprinkle but resulted in a downfall of a couple inches (in Tucson?!), and the concert was interrupted. Judging from the people, the show kept going on with the numerous jumping, flailing arms and screaming minors. After a few minutes and fans getting soaked, the chants began; when I even helped start a few since I felt very “viral” that moment:
“We Want More!” , “Smashing Pumpkins!” , “Rain or Shine!” , “Booo!” , and other jeering chants. Eventually, Billy Corgan responded, telling people to relax, stop throwing trash at the band, and to have patience as they check all the equipment. Everyone cheered and basically people just waited as it poured. Then the show resumed, everyone went wild and the moshing resumed. Three songs later, SP ended off with a mediocre slower song; and that was it.
On the way out, it was gridlock with no assistance from the local law enforcement. I always question why the police never seem to be there for traffic control or to assist in moving a large volume of people. Instead, they just do paperwork in their car, put their ‘red and blues’ on collect their overtime pay for the special event.
Made it home, tired, wet, cold, but very satisfied. I’ll be working tomorrow, but it’s my birthday. I didn’t put a lot of foresight into that, but I’m sure my managers will give me a little break and only expect me to check e-mail periodically. My manager’s boss’ boss gave me a birthday balloon on Facebook, which was a nice treat to end off tonight. 🙂
Back to watching Cops on CourtTV.
