I can’t believe I forgot to write about this.

This past Sunday, as in four days ago, the local radio station, Hot Kiss 106.3, had a free concert at Graham Central Station featuring the Gin Blossoms and Smashmouth. When Steph heard about it she was really excited. The catch was, to get tickets, you had to listen to the station for a location where you could pick up the freebies. So our friend Marty managed to score tickets for four of us (even though only the three of us went, but that’s a whole other story in itself) and it made our week. That is, until we got there.

We arrived at the club at 6:00 in anticipation of a line.  One began forming pretty soon afterward, so we lined up and waited. The doors opened at 7:00 so we waited some more. A few mothers showed up with a group of children in tow which caused a lot of eyebrows to be raised. The tickets stated that anyone under 17 needed to be accompanied by an adult. I don’t think however, that they meant that this was an appropriate event for seven to eleven year olds to attend. At first, when the management caught wind of it, they told them they’d have to leave.

That’s when the fur started flying.

It seems the ire of wealthy white women from Sharyland knows no bounds, as the sounds of cat hissing and yowling could readily be seen and heard. After a bit of this, the management caved and said the kids could come in. Through the rest of the night, the MC kept reminding the crowd with “Parents, please keep an eye on your children”. Lame.

Anyway, they finally let us in around 7:00 and we rushed inside, found a good spot and waited for the fun to begin. Fast forward to 9:00 and the Gin Blossoms (well, two of them) finally take the stage. I could elaborate on what happened in those two more hours of waiting, but there might be children present and I’d rather not scar them for life as I may very well end up cursing. In short, it was loud, smoky, and hot. Being a virgin when it comes to clubbing, these were all new experiences for me. I don’t intend to ever go back if I can help it.

So, Robin (singer/acoustic) and Scott (electric) took the stage and began their acoustic set. They played the follwing (I forgot the order except for the last one):

• Come On Hard (New Album)
• Learning the Hard Way (New Album)
• As Long As It Matters
• Found Out About You
• Allison Road
• Hey Jealousy (Closer)

There were a couple more, but those were the highlights. It was a very intimate set. Robin was very self-deprecating and toward the end he started picking up cell phones at random and sang into them. The tone of the show was really nice…until Smashmouth came out an hour later. Maybe it’s just too hard to shift from laid back acoustic to full on rock, but I had to sit down due to my ingrown nail making a hell of a lot of noise about just how much pain it was in. After Smashmouth wrapped, around 11:00-ish, we went to Whataburger, ate, and went home.

All in all, it was fun. It would have been nice to see all of Gin, but I can’t complain. It was worth the loss of sleep.