My Slightly Silly World: Mosh Pit Mayhem

Spontaneity is not my middle name. I surprised myself last week, by agreeing to go to an Alkaline Trio concert in Stockton, the very morning of the show. My friend Casie texted me the morning of the concert. She enticed me by texting things like, “There is a secretive underground Alkaline Trio Concert tonight in Stockton. Tickets are only $10. Tyler has an extra ticket. You HAVE to come!!!!” She had woken me from my near REM cycle daytime sleep, but I was not angered, I was excited.

I enjoy Alkaline Trio. They are a punk rock band from Illinois. It had been a while since I had been to a concert where people do more than twirl their cowboy hats. I told Casie, yes, on the condition that my friend Melisa could come along. Melisa and I had plans to make t shirts for a basketball game we are going to this coming Friday (Go Warriors!!!). It turns out the tickets weren’t as exclusive as Casie had believed, so Melisa was able to come along. She too, is an Alkaline Trio fan. I then started to feel bad because I hadn’t seen Danny for a few nights in a row since I was working. I forced him to go too.

I was getting pretty pumped. There was something so satisfying about saying I was going to a secretive Alkaline Trio concert for $10 with my best friends that I could hardly go back to sleep. I had to think of what to wear, what type of drink I was going to have, and how much fun was going to be had.

My bubble of excitement was slightly deflated when Casandra (that’s what I call her when, I’m serious) told me that in fact, the tickets were going to cost $18 rather than the super cheap $10. I then decided to look up the venue and figure out directions. My bubble deflated a little more when I found out the concert was taking place at Plea for Peace-a youth based club. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for peace, I would even plea for peace; it’s the youth part that concerned me.

Pleaing for Peace

Granted I’m not old, I may even be considered young by some, but I am no longer a youth. Visions of pimply faced teenagers, with Justin Bieber haircuts, wearing skinny jeans, danced in my head. Since it was an all age’s event, I wouldn’t be able to have an adult beverage, which sounded so nice after a slightly hectic night of work.

Even with these setbacks, I was determined to have a good time. We arrived at Plea for Peace ridiculously early. I was secretly happy about this because I got to people watch. My observations are mainly concerned with earlobes. A strange increase in the size of teenagers' earlobes is occurring. Stretching earlobes is the new eyebrow piercing… and I am not a fan. I just keep thinking about when these kids are 80 and have those long hanging grandpa ears with giant holes in them. To each their own, I just happen to have the soul of a 60 year old.

Attractive

Plea for Peace is not what I had envisioned. It is basically an abandoned building with some random couches, two small stages, and a makeshift snack bar. I did appreciate the clean restrooms and lack of graffiti. Plea for Peace is a “graffiti free zone.” How peaceful of them.

Plea for Peace’s website boasts that it is a drug free zone. While us old folks were standing around waiting for the first act to start, I smelt “peace” in the air. Not puppy dogs and rainbows peace, but 1960’s marijuana peace. So much for drug free. Maybe they didn’t get the memo that Prop 19 didn’t pass.

A big hit to the, “I feel a little old to be here issue,” was that, Danny, who is a molder of young minds and bodies, saw some of his ex students there. Of course Danny is the young hip teacher on campus, so his students were more excited than anything.

My amazing view

During the first act, which was pretty good, I realized that I can no longer stand in one place for hours at a time, before my back starts to hurt. I eyed one lonely chair near the make shift t shirt store. It was occupied by an older lady, but I made sure to keep an eye on it. The second act, Heartsounds, was pretty good too, except that the music was so loud I couldn’t hear the lyrics. I really had no idea what they were saying. I’m guessing it had to do with butterflies and kittens.

Finally Alkaline Trio came on. The crowd cheered as I felt my personal space being invaded. I had the joy of standing right behind a 6 foot 8 behemoth. If I arched my head just so I had a nice view of the lead singer.

Crowded

Soon the crazy ear lobe stretched kids starting getting even crazier. Pushing and shoving each other in a circle of death called a mosh pit. I yelled to Casie that if anyone bumped into me I was going to punch them in the face….I may or may not have been serious.

No thank you

Alkaline Trio was great…minus the comments from the band about how doing mushrooms is fun. The band did semi make up for it after realizing what venue they were at. They warned the kids to wait to do mushrooms until they are in high school…. My inner nurse wanted to yell, “No! Kiddos no! Drugs are bad!”

At one point the band invited a member of the audience up on the stage to play guitar. An enthused Danny look alike fan was picked. This fan turned out to be more of an annoyance as he took over the microphone and hopped up on the stage for a second time uninvited. He had to be kicked off. I was impressed that the band was able to keep playing even with the freaky fan. The whole situation just made me laugh hysterically.

Normal eared boys

While us girls were giggling, I finally got to sit in the coveted old person seat. I told Danny that I punched a mosh pitter in the face and for a split second he believed me. Giggling to myself and nodding my head to the music, I looked around and felt like maybe I wasn’t too old to be there after all.