-FINGER ELEVEN-
13 May 2001



I had no plans whatsoever to see Finger Eleven, until the day before the concert. Tickets were $10, but I didn't really want to pay that. I've seen them three times before, and never paid more than a dollar. That's not to say that I don't think it's worth it...but a free show is a lot more desirable than a $10 one. Plus Lateralus came out two days later, and I don't have a job. But anyway, I ended up getting free tickets.

I got to the concert 10 minutes early, but the first opening band, Drowning Pool, was already up there playing. I didn't really care, cos what I was hearing wasn't very good. It was pretty much run of the mill "hardcore," yelling unintelligably and hitting power chords over and over. Once in awhile the guy would goad the crowd into moshing or otherwise getting rowdy. I did think it was cool that the drummer was singing backup. I spent about half an hour trying to figure out where the hell the guitarist and bassist were plugged in, cos they kept switching places, and I was wondering if they had cordless amps. Anyway, they were teetering on the borderline of shitty and decent with me all night. When the singer took out a shovel and started slamming it into the ground during, they fell into shitty. But that wasn't even their crowning glory. The best part was when he said the name of their radio song...which I had never heard: "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor." I had to start laughing. They were trying so hard to be evil. If you want a laugh, go to their website and watch the video. Anyway, I thought Drowning Pool sucked. I liked the guitarist's hair though. At that point, I decided that they were possibly the worst band I'd ever seen live.

But then Boy Hits Car came on. I had never heard anything by them before, so I was unaware that the song they played first was their radio song, I'm a Cloud. You should listen to it. The bassline is pretty similar to the one in Tool's "Forty-six & 2." Anyway, it seemed to me like a Vanilla Ice/Queen style ripoff...just a little different, so they can argue that it's not exactly the same. I laughed through the entire song, and me and Ken made jokes about ripoffs and how we'd never take the band seriously. I thought they'd hit a nadir. But then the guy was like, "The name of this next song is...As I Watched the Sun Fuck the Ocean." I started laughing again, and Ken said something about hoping he wasn't serious. So anyway, there's this pattern to BHC's songs. They start with the singer playing a bar power chord over and over on a 12-string, then he starts singing kind of melodically (if that's a word), then there's a pause...and it turns hard. I didn't hear a soft song by either opening band all night. BHC didn't even strike me as original, they just kind of seemed like System of a Down, only with an occasional 12-string thrown in, and worse vocals and lyrics. They're probably the shittiest band I've ever seen.

Finger Eleven was good. I liked them, even though nothing really stood out about their performance. They played like a 20 song set...everything from The Greyest of Blue Skies except Broken Words and Famous...plus about six songs from Tip (Quicksand, Tip, Above, Glimpse, Costume for a Gutterball, and Temporary Arms). I could have done without the long, drawn out guitar solos...they weren't really all that spectacular and it seemed like they kind of put the crowd to sleep. So, I did enjoy myself for an hour and a half.

I got kind of scared at one point while Finger Eleven was on. I was sort of towards the front, on the left (my left) side of the stage. There was this group of girls behind us, and I heard them talking about crowdsurfing at various times during the set. Eventually, one of them did get the courage up to do it...and she happened to weigh about 250 pounds. That in itself is bad, but the way her friends pushed her, the only one that would have been able to support her was skinny, weak me. Ken pulled me out of the way before it happened, and ultimately she fell, when no one could hold her up. It was a scary experience, though.

I hope the next concert I get to write about is Tool.