2/24/2004- They're Not My Favorite Band Anymore, But This Was Still Cool

Tom, Dan, Michelle and I saw Barenaked Ladies at Continental Airlines (nee Brendan Byrne) Arena in Jersey the other night. So I'm sitting there, watching these pudgy Canadian pop-music guys do their goofy little dance number, and laughing at their goofy little show, and having a grand old time, and I started to wonder if I'd lost my edge, at which point I started to wonder if I had an edge to lose in the first place. Then I wrote off that line of thinking as stupid, punched the guy in front of me, and continued enjoying the show.

But in all seriousness, those guys put on a good show. Edge or no edge, they're my favorite band (though only because I think of the E Street Band as "Bruce's band" and not really an entity unto themselves, but that's another entry altogether), and it was one of the more unique concerts I've been to. Most of the other concerts I've been to have been these venerable old acts like Aerosmith or Elton John or Billy Joel or Bruce, and in a way, being at those shows was sort of like being in Church. There were just certain points where people would go "Shut up, shut up, Bruce is gonna say something before they sing 'The River'"

or

"Oh, wow, he's doing Piano Man, he never does that anymore,"

or

"Oh, they're gonna play 'Big Ten Inch,' everyone pipe down!"

This show was more like everyone was just out to have a good time, including the band, and the only time it got like serious or anything was really unexpected and effective, so that was cool.

They have this one song called "War On Drugs," which is about a bridge in Toronto off of which people jump to kill themselves all the time, and it's sort of like a serious, sometimes-depressing song about suicide and stuff, and before he sings it, the singer (Steven Page) starts talking about how they put a fence up to keep people from jumping, which is all well and good till they go down the road to the next bridge and jump off that, and how society and government doesn't really understand mental illness or depression or suicide and it's up to individual people to help other individual people. Then near the end of the song, they turn all the stage lights onto the audience so everyone could see everyone else, and from where I was sitting there was just this sea of people. I was looking all around and best I could tell, that's what everyone in the arena was doing too. It was just really striking and effective.

That's all I've got to say on that topic.