No Doubt

So Monday night was the Paramore/No Doubt concert. My brother and I were probably the oldest and largest guys there until No Doubt took the stage (when the rest of the 30-somethings showed up). The Paramore crowd were a few thousand 4-foot high, 15 year old girls and a couple of 4-1/2 foot guys. I began to wonder if Paramore somehow resonated with the horse jockey crowd.

Thus, we were feeling a tad out of place (I’ve never heard of Paramore until I knew I was going to the concert), though our little neighbors on the floor loved that we formed an impenetrable Great Wall of Easton. We skillfully repelled many an ale-swigging Mongolian trying to make their way to the front.

One of the funnier moments was a poor teenage guy who was there with his twin sister (they didn’t speak to each other the whole night, my guess, for fear of breaking his coolness). I knew this was his first concert, as the usual jostling in general admission clearly annoyed him. But he enthusiastically sang along to the Paramore lyrics

That’s what you get when you let your heart win. Whoa!
I drowned out all my sense with the sound of its beating

I wanted to tell him that real men don’t let their hearts win. EVER. But it was loud and he probably would have only heard "real men [muffled noises] clever.” I also wanted to add “if you can’t willingly silence the sound of your heart you will never amount to anything, let alone qualify for advanced training in the Ninjitsu Ryu (a long story, for another time). You have a lot to learn, buddy.”

But I started to listen to my conscience: “who am I to point out one’s shortcomings?” Just as quickly I shut it up so that I could sing along to that one Twilight song:

Do you see what we’ve done?
We’ve gone and made such fools
Of ourselves.

Man, that’s the soundtrack of my life. Anyhow, the moment No Doubt took the stage, they smashed any thoughts that they may have lost their edge. That was truly one of the great concerts I’ve seen over my 20-year money-wasting (well, this one was free) concert-going career. Great set list, amazing stage presence, high energy, and the sound was as perfect as one could expect.