The Peasant's are Revolting! "I'll say! They stink on ice!" That exchange came immediately to mind after I experienced tonight's Los Lonely Boys concert at the Rio Grande Zoo. The Zoo must have offered a special discount to members of the "Drunk and/or Obnoxious A@@hole Club of Albuquerque", because a large contingent was in attendance. But I'll get back to that in a minute.
First I must recount my experiences of the evening.
I arrived at 4:30 to stake out a place in line. I was shortly joined by the lovely ladies Sheryl, Vivian, and Sonya. So far so good. Everyone pretty mellow. Hot, but we are in the shade. Gates were supposed to open at 5:30. Oh, this is lawn seating only, by the way. They opened at 6:00 pm. To my surprise and delight, Sheryl and Sonya take off like roadrunners toward the concert area, with Vivian and myself lagging behind. The ladies stake out a brilliant spot center stage, about 15 feet back from the very front. All is well, John is pleased. Surrounded by three wonderful ladies, it is good to be the King! The lovely Barbara joins us shortly later and buys me a beer as thanks for helping to secure such great spots, though I protest that Sheryl and Sonya did most of the work. Life is still great. Show starts late because the bad was late arriving on their plane due to weather. Still cool, all is well.
Then the show starts. The fine gentleman sitting on a blanket directly in front of me decides he has a beautiful keister and wants to display it for my pleasure and that of everyone who has the honor of sitting in back of him, so he decides to stand up for the first 5 songs. John's a bit cheesed off (Why do the idiots always sit in front of me? My "Victim" light starts flashing.) I decide to not let Mr. Insensitive to the Needs of Others spoil the show, so I attempt move my chair to one side. Unfortunately I forget that I had my beer in the cupholder in the chair arm, so when I go to move it, the beer spills all over the chair seat. Alarms go off! Time for John to get pissed! A@@hole boy caused this, He's going down, time to get enraged! Or at least this is how I may have reacted in the past. I amaze even myself by not panicking, dumping the beer out of the chair, and slowly reaching for the spare chair we brought. Sheryl scoots over a bit, and by God, I can see past a@@hole boy! All is well, for me at least. Some other people start throwing food at our friend, and all he does is turn around and snarl, not at me though. Finally his legs get tired and he sits down for at least three songs.
Meanwhile, to our left, we notice a couple of guys who are on about their sixth beers, screaming at each other. They get up and walk away. Later, one guy comes back with more alcohol, and kisses another guy square on the lips. Time to cut you off, Sparky. Besides I thought all that kinda stuff wasn't supposed to happen until the Indigo Girls concert in a couple weeks.
A few minutes later, a big ol' fight breaks out to the left of us, apparently between two women. My suspicion is one asked the other to sit down, and the other refused. Catfight ensues along with much screaming. Security guards rush over and hang out to keep the peace. A few minutes later one can see the Zoo Director, a stout older man, running back and forth in front of the stage, apparently trying to decide whether or not to have a heart attack. I can hear him thinking "this is the last damn time I agree to have a $15 rock concert here!" By now I have had about $300 worth of entertainment, including the music.
Oh yeah, the music. The Los Lonely Boys were awesome. They went through nearly every song in their album, and even brought their Dad out to play and sing a few tunes. Turns out he wrote "The Bottle Let Me Down," and a couple other country classics. Best part of the show. The Boys themselves are masterful musicians, and their playing was brilliant. It's amazing that they can get such a big sound out of a three piece band. They had tons of energy and were massively entertaining.
I am proud of my behavior tonight because, unlike last years Los Lobos show, I didn't let the idiots get me down and cause me to ruin my evening. I blessed them and let them go. I had a great time and was not about to let them take control over me. Hummm. This Unity stuff must be starting to take hold. By writing my experiences in this blog I vent, with humor, instead of blowing my top.
Just some thoughts to put out there for the Zoo people. Perhaps you ought to rethink the selling of alcohol at these events. I saw more booze consumed at this show than any in recent memory including at the El Rey, which is a drinker's paradise. The booze definitely brought the nasty out in more than a few concert goers. A@@holes and alcohol never mix. Yes I know it is a money maker. I don't know, maybe $15 is just too cheap. Maybe $25 tickets would have kept out the riff-raff.
Anyway can't wait to see how many lesbians start fistfights at the Indigo Girls show! Hopefully, it'll be mellower.