#120 In which our hero considers attending a concert.

So, the Violent Femmes are coming to Cleveland. You have to understand, I love, love, love the Violent Femmes.

This love affair began in college at Ohio State. The Femmes came to Columbus on a regular basis, at least once every other year. I went as often as I could. The best thing is that they would always play at The Newport.

Now, a little aside about The Newport. I found this photo of a concert at The Newport, and it's a perfect representation of the place:


The Newport is a refurbished theater, as in Broadway theater, not movie theater. The stage has a huge mosh-pit in front of it, and there is a large balcony as well. There's even private boxes near the stage, but you can't get to them anymore; there are spot lights and the like there.

During the week it's a fairly shitty bar... well, that is to say, it wasn't to my taste, at least my taste 15 years ago when I was going to school. But on the nights it had live music, it was rockin'. And like the photo above shows, it was always too crowded and too smoky (remember when you could smoke in bars?) There would always be an incident of someone spilling their beer from the balcony to the floor below, or even someone chucking a bottle off the ledge. Fights were not uncommon, and there was a healthy crew of giant men in "BOUNCER" T-shirts ready and waiting to throw you out on the curb (sometimes, literally).

But there was a lot of energy in the place, and I always thought it was a great place to see a show. It was big enough so that ticket prices were reasonable, but small enough that you could actually see the band play.

Anyway, back to the Femmes.

I saw them many times at The Newport, and once they played at the student Union. I was part of the activities board at the time, so I got to wear a VIOLENT FEMMES - SECURITY T-shirt and stand on one corner of the stage to make sure no-one snuck around back. I was just a couple of feet from the drummer... very cool show. I still have the T-shirt, even though it is seriously worse for wear.

So, the Femmes are coming to Cleveland, to the House of Blues. I've never been there, but it sounds like a nice venue, not too huge, etc.

The Scientist told me about the show, and I was very surprised by my reaction. Keep in mind, I haven't seen the Femmes live in probably eight years. But, instead of flipping out and saying, "Hells yes! You're going to a show!" I was more like, "eh, how are we going to go to a show on a Thursday night? Who will put the kids to bed?"

Amazing. Am I really so old now?

The show's the beginning of March. We'll see if this old man can drag himself to a show or not.