Those who know me best know my iron-clad stance on today’s music. To me, the tunes of today don’t even hold a candle to those of yesteryear. You wouldn’t believe the number of times I tell people my favorite band is Styx, at which point they start laughing uncontrollably and then say, “Oh. You were serious.” I can’t help it. I grew up on video games, not early nineties alternative rock. Once I obtained my drivers license, I fancied the tunes played on the classic rock stations. I can’t help that I prefer .38 Special to Blink 182.
Even more perplexing to me are the ludicrous spellings of some bands today, like Ludacris. Other band names simply hurt when you restate them, such as: And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. I must admit they grabbed my attention and our grand UAO decided to embrace this ideology by booking The Donnas, Reel Big Fish and OK Go — three bands everybody apparently knows except for me. I heard there would also be an opening act. Perhaps it will be the Bowling Green Cowbell Philharmonic. Wouldn’t that be a great name?
So I’m out of the loop when it comes to today’s music. My friends aren’t, so don’t drag them down with me. In fact, my friends were so anxious to see this trio, they camped out Sunday night in front of Anderson Arena just so they could have first dibs at the tickets Monday night. This is nothing new, right? Tents lined the grass for Everclear and Ludacris tickets and their fans lived like hobos for half a day. Some of them even duplicated the smell. As it turned out, they were the first in line. Unfortunately, they were the line for a long period of time. They set up camp sometime around 10 p.m. on Sunday night, and the second party didn’t lay their blankets down until about 3 p.m. on Monday. You may have seen these loyal fans of The Madonnas, Reel Stinky Fish and OK Stop relaxing outside Anderson Arena Monday afternoon. A group of visitors touring the campus mistook them for war protestors (true story).
I was impressed at their ability to go to their classes. Like nighttime security, there was a rotation of shifts carried out. While some people would go to class and eat lunch, the others would guard the fort. It reminded me of “Gilligan’s Island,” only this was much more believable.
As the sun gave way to twilight, quite a hefty line had formed. It had meandered all the way to East Hall. These other fans, to me, were mediocre because they showed up only a few hours before tickets went on sale. They would be stuck with adequate seats at best. As tables and staff members began to fill the lobby of Anderon Arena, the fans packed up their spindles and stood up in line. My front-of-the-line friends became exponentially more excited for every new UAO staff member in the lobby. I guess at that time it was really rude of me to cut in front of them in line.
At long last, the doors opened and my friends were the first into the lobby. The first person out of the doors with tickets in his hand was Matt Cary. I asked him about the entire day and he told me he had “no regrets about camping out all night,” even though it was “really cold.” To him, the thrill of being exactly front row center at Rock Stock was well worth it.
Who was the mastermind behind this whole plan? It was a man named Ike. He is an art major, so you know he has a lot of spare time on his hands.
Seriously though, Ike was the brains behind a similar movement to camp out for Everclear tickets and they were able to score second and third row seats. I went to that concert using one of those tickets. I don’t think I ever paid for it.
