Live 8. Eh.

I will admit that had I better educated myself about Live 8 itself, I probably would have gotten a lot more out of this experience than I actually did. Instead, what I did was get really fucking excited about it without too many details, to my own detriment.

As you know, my commute yesterday was exhausting. Since I had made plans to attend with Gina and her boyfriend, I called her to make arrangements for meeting up. I expressed the desire to not have to wake up to an alarm, and she told me just to take my time and head in when I could. I ended up getting there close to 3 p.m.

We drove as close to the Art Museum as we could get and then walked about 15 minutes to the stage. The place was already trashed. I was a little bewildered by it, actually, but I reminded myself that people had no doubt been there since the early morning.

We managed to sidestep much trash and sweating humanity well enough to get a somewhat decent view of the stage. I actually saw someone I had not only gone to high school with, but with whom I was also in Marching Band. I forget her name, and I don't think she recognized me. She was on the cymbal line and I always admired her for that, because that shit is HEAVY. Anyway, Lincoln Park went on at about this time. They were a crowd favorite, it seemed. Especially when Jay-Z came out and proceeded to play his entire set backed by them.

After they left the stage, we ventured toward some food and I got a very tasty chicken shish-kabob for $5. I had expected to have to pay $79 for it, but no. I guess it was the "Spirit of Unity" and the fact that the concert was being held to help end poverty, but everything was reasonably priced. I bought a water for $1!!!

(They had iced coffee and I wanted it VERY BADLY, but it was pre-mixed with cream and sugar. DENIED.)

During our shish-kabob venture, Def Leppard came on. They played "Rock of Ages", a Beatles cover (poorly...it hurt my soul...I forget which one because I blacked it out. Seriously.) Gina and I marveled at finally seeing Def Leppard together. We had been obsessed 11 year-olds when "Hysteria" came out. I still remember walking to her house to play the tape the day I bought it. I dropped it and the case broke. I was so upset. Anyway, she said:

"There's your man," meaning Joe Elliott.

"I know. I was going to marry him. And when I met him, I was going to be wearing blue spandex and red slouch socks."

She's doubled over at this point.

"What? I'm serious, too!"

They ended their very brief set with, of course, the Sugar song. Mmmmmm... sugar... It rocked, though. They never really had the camera on their drummer, which was kind of disappointing, since he has only one arm and it would have been cool to watch him play.

After that, there was an appearance by the HIV+ Muppet from Sesame Street in South Africa. That was pretty cool. We all know how I feel about puppets. And muppets!

Sarah McLachlan came on and we ventured off to the baseball fields to our left. We sat down to listen to the music and enjoy the sun. Too bad the spot we chose was downwind from a gentleman who, I'm convinced, had a load of "caca" (Gina's word!) in his pants. We moved further away.

While on the lawn, we noticed all the trash, all the kids killing nitrous balloons. The tank was about 100 yards away. We eventually started to venture to another area, and all we saw was trash everywhere. Beer cans, bottles, water bottles, food wrappers...it was a mess. The place looked bombed. And to top it all off, The Vibe was missing.

There was no "Yay! Let's Unite And Save The World From Poverty!" vibe. It was more like a "Yay! An Excuse For A Citywide Tailgating Party!"

I don't know. I wasn't expecting Live Aid, but I also wasn't expecting the biggest Frat Party in America, either, and that's what it seemed like. I did get some free nuts, though. We left halfway through Keith Urban's set.

FYI - Keith Urban is Australian, but sings country music. And even says, "y'all." But, you know, he's cute.

So, there it is. My Live 8 story. I can't even imagine being able to remember this much detail about it in 5 more hours, let alone years to come. I think the lineup was pretty weak, with a few exceptions, which is sad. Paris had Elton John and Russia had Paul McCartney (even though George Michael came prancing -literally- on the stage during "Drive My Car"). Pink Floyd reunited and played in London. America! Way to not show up!

I'm sure there are all types of extenuating factors regarding this that I don't understand, but I still feel like we could have done better. Or, do we just really suck that much?

The best part was just being able to hang out with Gina, who's been one of my best good friends since I was 5 years old. We grew up together, and it's always fun when we hang out. And seriously, she's lucky we did hang out, because she was SO FAR BEHIND on the Cruise/Holmes thing!

Unfortunately, I made arrangements for my mom to pick me up from the train and somehow our wires got crossed (she's crazy, I'm right). I ended up waiting nearly two hours for her to come pick me up. She was at the wrong station. So, now she's mad at me. I don't know how this is MY FAULT, since I'm TOTALLY RIGHT and she's COMPLETELY CRAZY, but I refuse to feel any guilt for the fact that I was stranded! I'm over it. She'll be over it by morning.

Hopefully.