As you may or may not know, I recently had the golden opportunity to see Lostprophets in concert. Lostprophets started out as a band who simply caugt me attention with a catchy tune on the radio called "Shinobi Vs. Dragon Ninja" (based on a popular video game, oddly enough). It was downhill from there, buying their CD and getting lost in the unusual riffs and surprisingly thought-provoking lyrics. (By the way, picture courtesy of Dragon Ninja.

It was only too fitting, then, that I should jump at the chance to finally see them in concert. I called up a friend of mine who also happens to love live music, and he quickly agreed to come along. And thus my experience began for one heck of a Tuesday night (that Tuesday being September 5, 2006). I will recount here, in only mildly proper sequence, the night that unfolded.

• Lining up to wait for doors to open about 40 minutes before they were to open (to get choice seats in the bar area), we wound up behind a rather unique group of people. Directly in front of us were two teenaged girls, accompanied by their mom. The girls were all decked out in black, with dyed black hair, and one of the girls even had black horn-rimmed glasses. Yikes. And in front of them were four guys, all dressed in a combination of all black or black and white. They were sporting tattoos and were a rather rowdy bunch, the sort of people who desperately want to be funny and loved by everyone for being so funny, and yet failing miserably to actually be funny. They tried to put off a 'tough guy' image, and yet were each of them drooling when a few members of the Lostprophets walked by. Still, despite the chain-smoking and repetitive behavior from this group, the fact that they made things at least mildly interesting was nice.
• Once the show finally got underway, we were sitting happily at a table we had snagged in the bar area. We had a great view, we actually got to sit to enjoy the show, and best of all, we were set apart from the mosh pit fools. While I love to dance or jump or what have you, I hate being right at the front, where people shove you every which way, and where a bunch of really immature and possibly drunk idiots are running around trying to hurt people. It's just not my cup of tea.

  Anyway, the opening band comes on, and instantly we're drown in to the sounds of The Rasmus, a rock band from Finland. They played an astounding forty minute set, completely blowing us away. That was a most unexpected and pleasant surprise, as I had never heard of them before, and wasn't sure how good they would be. I was not disappointed. They were nothing short of amazing.

• The second band who was supposed to play, Kill Hannah, never made it, as their van broke down. That was a bummer, I'd heard they were pretty good.
• And so then, it was time for Lostprophets! We had to wait another forty minutes for them to set up the stage, but once they finally started, I knew I was in for a treat. The band has so much energy, and everyone on stage had so much fun playing, that it was impossible not to get utterly caught up in the show. They did not have huge distracting light displays, or anything of the sort. They just went out onstage and played their hearts out. But I do have one gripe, and I have to direct it to the incompetent sound technician:

  When you have a band with six members (two guitars, bass, keyboard, drums, and vocals), it's generally really, really stupid to have every single sound feed at full blast. Especially when said band has complicated music, in which each instrument adds its own unique piece to make for fucking amazing music. And when you have everything up full blast, the result is that individual sounds cannot be differentiated, and thus all we hear is a horribly drowned out version of music many of us devoted fans know quite well. I'd also like to add that, when you have anything turned up full blast, you tend to not only ruin your speakers, but also you make sound that is perfectly fine at even appropriately loud volumes sound tinny and unimpressive. Not to mention deafeningly loud. Loudest isn't best, jackass.

  And now that I have my rant completed, let me add that the band was fantastic. It's amazing to watch people who get together and want to play good music, and also want the whole crowd to sing along. There's something unifying about it, and save for all the jerks moshing (I mean, really, who pays good money to completely ignore a show in favor of shoving other people around?) and not paying the least bit of attention to the splendor on stage, it was incredible.

• Lastly, I ran into some guys I knew back in high school, who were each of them pissed off and sputtering about how much they hated the show, to my amusement. They complained that the band didn't play enough off the first CD, which in their opinion was their best. Never mind the fact that they just released a new CD barely two months ago and are touring in support of it. Apparently, the new stuff to them is not as good, and they would rather have the band simply reusing old riffs with new lyrics, or something of that sort. But given that these guys haven't changed one bit since I knew them in high school, I suppose their opinions sort of make sense. Sort of.

Needless to say, though, I had a fantastic time, and will gladly go seem them again next time I get the chance. And if I have to, I'll even jump in and take over the sound board.