I had a chance to see Disturbed and Shinedown at the House of Blues in Orlando in 2002. Unfortunately, I knew only one Disturbed song ("Down with the Sickness") and had no real clue who Shinedown was, as we did not listen to that genre until 2003. I know, call me stupid. Chris frequently gave me he** over choosing not to see them. We rectified seeing Shinedown and they are since our most viewed live band. When I heard Disturbed was coming to Jax, I bought tickets immediately. I knew that they would put on an intense concert and I could think of few places that I would be safer attending a concert like that than Jax. They played on Friday the 13th, right before Valentine's Day.
Chris found out mid-January that he would be in Abu Dhabi over the concert. I told him too bad, I was going anyway, but I was really upset that he couldn't go. He offered to fly my friend from Austin to go with me. All was forgiven and she spent Valentine's weekend with us. It was a blast and we really enjoyed having her. Her kids were quite incensed that they did not get to go to Florida, but she needed the break. Many thanks to her husband that watched the kids and let her come stay with us. It's really long, but it always is so, on with the show...
The opening acts were Skindred and Sevendust. I have known of Skindred since 2003 and Sevendust since 1997. Skindred is actually outside of what I like. They are a little too reggae for my tastes. So I end up liking half the song and not being able to stand the other half. We skipped them at Buzz Bake Sale and discovered Ghost of Gloria, definitely check them out. I had heard that Skindred was labeled Ska, but the band labels it "Ragga Metal". I think that is a much better label. Sevendust has been around since 1992, but under a couple of different names ("Tomorrow's Pain" and "Crawlspace", not to be confused with the West Coast band of the same name that prompted a name change). Before we get into the actual acts, let me review the venue...
The Venue: Morocco Shrine Auditorium, Jacksonville
I have never been to this venue and all Chris knew was "that was where they have the gun shows". We end up not making it until 7:30 (doors opened at 7:00) due to running kids to activities and catching some dinner before the show. I was not upset, because I had no real desire to see Skindred. All the songs that I had listened to of theirs ended up annoying me and I would turn them prematurely. We pull in and the parking lot is really busy. The attendant is not paying attention and Chris easily could have driven past without paying. The fact that there was no display ticket showing paid for the windshield would have made that all the easier. So we park and this lady goes, if you park there I will not be able to get out. Wah! This is a concert. Eryn says, unless you are going to stay here the whole concert, you will be blocked. Chris however moves over and parks in another place. As we are trading spots with a Vette, so that we can drive off the curb and he will be able to back out at the end, someone pulls in blocking her. It was funny. In the meantime, some friend of this woman comes up and tells her (and anyone listening) about the center line at the front that has practically no one in it. Since Eryn came and Chris did not end up going to Abu Dhabi, we had to buy Chris a ticket that day for the concert. So I started looking for the "Will Call" office. Most of the time it is not at the same place as the entrance.
The line is stretched around the building to where we parked, but I have to find where they are holding Chris' ticket, so we walk to the front. Sure enough there is a short center line, since I do not see a box office, I get in the short line. Chris and Eryn are holding back, because there are no signs about what this line is for. They finally come and I ask the person beside us if this is a special line and she goes, Shh! So we stay put. The lines start moving and sure enough we move at the same rate as the other lines. I look around inside and still see no box office, so I lean over to where these people are sitting at a table and they are helping the 2 "official" lines that streamed in. They ask my name and mark it off the list. I ask where the ticket is and they look at me funny and then someone asks how I got a printed ticket. Um, hello...I bought it off Ticketmaster a long time ago. Chris and Eryn are completely oblivious and wander in. There is no one to take tickets and if you wandered in through the center line, then you would not have had to buy a ticket. Hmm.
We get inside the main room and it is set-up similar to a multi-level club. The main floor is surrounded by a rail and a couple of ramps lead to the second level, which also has a rail. The concession stands are located on two sides of the room. The drinks were horrible and expensive. A cranberry and vodka should not have carbonation. We end up only getting the one drink apiece, because we are trying to push forward after that point.
The only real problem with the venue was the seeming lack of air conditioning. It was so hot that people were literally suffering from heat stroke. They had to keep pulling people over the front railing as they were near fainting. By the time Disturbed came on, we were covered in 4 layers of sweat, as Eryn put it. We all felt the need to bathe in Germ-X, as we kept rubbing bodies with all the sweaty people around us, some who looked really questionable.
Basically, the venue was not as intimate as a club setting, but it was similar. It was GA only, so no chairs, which I really liked. Getting inside was crazy since they had a list that they were checking everyone's name against. Not to mention getting in without a ticket was not only possible but easy, as Chris and Eryn inadvertantly proved (although we all had legit tickets). I would definitely advocate more efficient admission procedures. I have no idea how long some of those people waited to get in. They also need to turn on the air conditioner when that many people are packed that closely. I don't care if it is chilly outside, it was steamy up there.
Grade: B (Setting: A, Drinks: C, Entrance Procedure: F (but since we cheated, I did not count off as much on the overall grade))
Opening Act: Skindred
We got inside about 7:45 and Skindred was already on stage. Since I was not hot to see them, I was not upset by this fact. Thomas, Eryn's husband, never lets her get down into the pit, because he is too afraid that she will be hurt. A valid concern, granted, but a total buzzkill. She is a little nervous and Chris is trying to assess the audience "threat level" (potento ial of being hurt by the audience). I decide we can hang back for now as I was not real anxious to see Skindred and I knew that we would do a biobreak after the act for bathroom and drinks. At one point I tell Eryn and Chris not to be a drag and that they need two drinks apiece to loosen them up. Chris glares at me and Eryn gets defensive that she is not being a drag. I figured that goading her would get the desired reaction. (Sorry for the manipulation babe, but you know it was worth it.)
However, the lead vocalist was extremely entertaining. He puts on a great show. Also their music was much harder and less reggae live. Chris told me I messed up not seeing them at Buzz Bake Sale. Even Eryn agreed that the guy was entertaining. At one point, he tells the crowd that we had to say "Oy" when he pointed. So he sings and then points and the crowd delays for a second, then says "Oy!" He goes, "No, no, no. Faster!" He starts over and finally the crowd gets it right. His reaction the first time was funny though. He kept us laughing and the performance that we saw was great. He also did a great job of hyping the audience, which can be quite a challenge at some shows. I don't know if they catered to the audience or if they are normally harder when playing live. Buzz Bake Sale had several different genre types, so it would have been interesting to see their performance there. I would definitely say they are worth seeing live with someone else. I can't say yet if they would be worth the ticket price as a headliner.
Grade: A
Opening Act 2: Sevendust
Chris and I have been Sevendust fans for a long time (since 1997). They are a solid band, but don't generate quite the excitement of some of the other bands that we listen to. They take the stage and bust out. I start pushing forward and Eryn and Chris are a little nervous about moving ahead. I get us about 10 people deep from the frontline, but we are on the far leftside of the stage and near the speaker. Chris complains and pulls me back. A mosh pit starts and there are some guys that Chris is concerned about. Unfortunately it is too loud for me to make a logical plea that we are safer up near the frontline, so we migrate a little farther back. Chris forbids me to move and tells me to be considerate of my friend. I glare and don't move for the remainder of the song, then opportunistically push forward. Eryn follows and Chris is behind her creating a sloped line. (I'm a geek, so deal with the terminology.)
Sevendust gave a solid performance and the crowd went wild when they announced "Black" and then went straight to "Denial" afterwards. The only real complaint I had was that their set seemed really short. They finished about 9:15 and Skindred finished up some time after 8:00, so if they played an hour, then it really wasn't short, but it seemed it. I could not find someone who had published the set list from the show, so I wasn't sure if it was me or not. Since Chris was watching over both of us, I had to watch more for potential crowdsurfing injuries, which definitely could have skewed my perception about the set length. I can definitely recommend seeing them, because they put on a solid performance. However, the lead vocalist was not nearly as entertaining as the guy from Skindred.
Grade: A- (They followed a highly energetic, entertaining personality and I would be really surprised to find out that they played a full set, but their music was completely on.)
Main Act: Disturbed
By this time, Eryn had lost a lot of her nervousness (calling her a drag really seemed to kick in that defensive, I am not attitude 
) so she was good with going towards the center and pushing forward. I told her to just follow me and I always opportunistically push forward. During the break, we met 19-year-old college boy Robby, who ended up being quite the Southern Gentleman and provided protection from crowdsurfers with no funny business. He even tried to protect me once by asking Eryn if she wanted him to pull me back (because I was pushing forward again), to which I yelled and shook my head emphatically, NO! Sweet thought, but really, don't mess with my concert experience. So thanks again Robby!
This was a completely new and different experience for Eryn and the most physically intense crowd that Chris and I have ever been in. We were only buffered from the mosh pit by a couple of people, so any surges from moshing, we felt. At one point, I was like a sardine with my arms trapped and being pushed from the right with the resistance of the existing people on the left. Yet, it was not a rough crowd, so I did not feel unsafe. There was the girl that was with her boyfriend that completly started freaking out every time the crowd surged. She would be ok when the surge stopped and enjoy the music until the next surge. Her boyfriend tried to get her out by moving forward to security, because we were only 5-6 people deep from the front, but it was a solid wall of people. Screaming did not help his case, because Disturbed was playing and you couldn't hear anything but the music. He finally backed out with her. Concert tip: There is no personal space near the stage of a concert. So if you are claustrophobic or can't stand to have people touch you, don't come down anywhere near the stage.
There was a really funny, so Eryn moment, when I thought she was going to go psycho and jump in the pit to "save" the 8-year-old in the pit. He was not being harmed, but he kept trying to get them to go tougher on him. Eryn wanted to drag him to his mom and ream her. All this I could tell from glancing back and seeing the look in her eyes as she watched the kid. We explained that this happened every concert and that we had seen even more appalling incidents at other concerts. There are just stupid people in this world and Eryn got to see how stupid at this concert.
Eryn asks if I am going to move up and that she will follow. I do the best I can and do manage to move us up some, but it becomes a solid wall of people with no space. During the encore, this drunk chic nearly falls all over me moving ahead of me (some space has opened up since the mosh pit has dissolved). I roll my eyes and forget it. When she comes back in less than a minute and nearly falls on me again, I shove her as hard as I can out of the way. She stumbles and comes back apologizing and wanting to give me a hug. I held my hands out and told her to back off. I expected Chris to intervene and call me down, because I was ready to really strike her if she touched me. She backed off though. Then I found out that she had apparently been rubbing up against his back before she came through the first time. He was throughly disgusted, so he might have let me strike her. Even though she outweighed me by more than 20 pounds, she had no fight in her due to the intoxication.
Disturbed completely rocked the house. They were absolutely awesome. I did not hear all the songs that I would have liked, but I did not feel cheated. They played an hour and a half or more, so we definitely got our money's worth. He opened the show with this cool intro (he has such an awesome voice) that tonight "brothers and sisters" we were going to release our demons. If I remember (and feel free to correct me), they opened with "Inside the Fire". "10,000 Fists" was awesome. He introed it and told us he wanted to see our fists in the air. The energy was amazing. "Prayer" was another killer track that they just slayed. "Indestructible" and "Liberate" were off the hook too. They closed the encore with "The Sickness". It was so awesome. He started the song and goes, "Can you feel it?" and the drums are going and when it comes to the sound "Waaa-aaa-aaa" (closest approximation I know), he goes silent. The crowd made the noise and then we all laugh because he hasn't. Then he goes on. It just made it that much more awesome.
The energy at this concert was on par with Linkin Park in A tlanta and Avenged Sevenfold at Buzz Bake Sale. Jax did a really great job at this concert. Apparently in 2006, Disturbed came and the audience was so lame that they said they were never playing here again. Thank goodness they reconsidered and we delivered this time.
This was definitely one of the most intense concerts that we have been to due to a combination of the venue, crowd, and band. Eryn is completely sold on the pit now. She said it is a completely different experience when you can feel the bass travel through your body. She said we were the most fun people to go to concerts with (sorry all her other friends) and she was not letting Thomas hold her back anymore (sorry Thomas, but you knew I would corrupt her some more without you here 
). Eryn got so into it, she said that she wanted to jump in the mosh pit at the end. Chris and I laughed. MUHAHA! It takes so little to corrupt her so completly. 
I will go see Disturbed at every opportunity and pay for the pit tickets, regardless of the cost. I can wholeheartedly tell you to go see them.
Grade: A+++++++
Overall, this was a great experience. It would have been really fun if Thomas could have come too. Although I don't know if I could have overcome 3 people's crowd anxities to get down to the front. (I have to corrupt them one at a time.) We then went to the beach (since Eryn had never been here) and hit an Irish Pub. Walking to the pub, Eryn reaches in her jacket and pulls out a Disturbed pick. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? Her jacket was tied around her waist at the concert, so the pick arced through the air, no one caught it, and on its downward trajectory managed to fall into the pocket of her jacket. Chris claims it had to hit me in the face, but I am so short that I never saw the guy even throw it. I would have had the t-shirt that they threw if I had not been so short. It was literally over my head. Da** genes!
So worth the experience!
It has been quite a while since I last blogged. Chris and I had the opportunity to see Taken recently. I normally refuse to see movies about kids being abducted, so it really surprised me that I really wanted to see this movie. White boys normally do not appeal to me, but Liam Neeson gets the Eastern European nod, so that is foreign enough. Then there is the fact that he is just a B.A. operative in this movie. I can tell you without ruining the movie that it is about the sex trade of young girls. This was my mother's favorite reason for denying me the ability to go to the mall with my friends, etc. At the time, I thought that she was extremely paranoid, to the point of delusion, in the "humble" opinion of a middle schooler. Now as the mother of a middle schooler, I consider this film quite educational. rest assured that my daughters WILL see this movie before they are allowed to go places independently. This movie was so good! I would definitely recommend it. It was so good that I was going to go see it a second time with my friend that was in for the weekend. (We had second thoughts and decided not to see it, when we realized that it was Valentine's Day.) It also catapulted Liam Neeson to a whole new spot for me. Grrr!
Grade: A
WARNING: Spoilers ahead!
There are so many lessons for young girls to take from this movie. Let's delineate them, so that we can point them all out.
- The movie starts off and the girl is lobbying to go to Europe with her friend. We quickly find out that she has deceived her father (Liam Neeson) and is subsequently abducted.
Lesson 1: Don't lie to your parents. They have reasons for what they do.
- Liam's daughter finds out upon arrival that her friend's relatives are not actually in residence while they are there as she had informed her parents.
Lesson 2: Your friends may lie to you in order to get your parents to agree to a situation. You should immediately come clean with your parents when you discover this situation has occurred.
- She and her friend decide to share a taxi with a cute stranger to the home that they are staying at for the summer. They also give said stranger lots of private information, like that the host family is not actually there and they are alone. He subsequently quickly routes the abductors to the address.
Lesson 3: Don't ride with strangers, even in a taxi. Who knows their motivation.
- Liam's daughter has time to call her father before she is abducted, but her friend does not. He gives her some pointers and this gives him the basis for the search.
Lesson 4: Not everyone is going to be able to call for help in these situations. Not everyone is going to have someone who has the ability to come find them. This point is also emphasized throughout the movie with all the other girls that he runs across in the various rooms.
- Liam uses his contacts in law enforcement to get information on who is holding her. Then he finds out that his friend is dirty.
Lesson 5: The government knows that these things occur and either suppress them or are unable to do anything about them.
- The scenes that show girls strung out and tied to the beds illustrate how this can happen.
Lesson 6: Sex slavery is real. As paradoxical as it may seem. middle schoolers will believe a movie more than news articles. This is probably the case because it is presented in story format and gives them some way to comprehend it. This movie is quite pragmatic about presenting a realistic situation on how this so easily could happen.
I am sure that I have missed some of the lessons to be gleaned from this movie please feel free to add to the lessons that I can point out to my daughters when they view it.
The only reason this movie did not get an A+ was for the scene where he is driving an SUV through their camp. Bullets are flying in all directions, including through the car and he manages to escape unscathed. It seems a little too incredulous. Yet it does not seriously detract from the movie.
There was also one important lesson that I wanted to point out for parents. The girl's mother knows that her plans are to follow a band around Europe for the summer and aids in the deception of the father to obtain his permission.
Lesson: Being your child's "friend" is not always what is best for the child. It is much more important to be the parent. This is especially true as the child becomes a teenager.