Monday, May 14, 2007

Avril Lavigne 'The Best Damn Thing'


Kristina and I ventured down to Charlotte for the Gwen Stefani concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre this past Saturday night. I like Ms. Stefani’s music, but when I heard about the show I didn’t give it much thought. I just don’t hit the road like I used to for just anybody… No. I’ve gotten pretty selective. And unlike most men, I find nothing all that attractive about her. To me… She’s always looked like she was strutting on the clean side of “skank”.

Kristina dropped the hint that she wanted to see the show and so we made plans to attend.

I must admit, Stefani puts on a damn fine show. I was impressed with the performance. But I did notice that Stefani’s voice sounded a little shrill and it lacked power on some of the slower numbers. Altogether, it was a damn good time.

I was very surprised at the turnout. I had never seen the lawn area so full. We had lawn seats and we upgraded to seats under the pavilion so we could be under some sort of shelter if the rains came again. Honestly, I wasn’t looking to forward to getting my ass all wet from sitting on the grass.

Here’s a picture I took with my cell phone with the crowded lawn in the background…



We missed the first act and sort of skipped most of Akon’s performance. We sat in the Verizon Wireless lounge drinking overpriced beer from plastic cups as a Verizon rep yelled at folks passing by to come on inside. But admiring the beautiful sunset was all worth it… In my opinion.

We upgraded our tickets, but they weren’t on the same row. There were very few folks on our row so we had plenty of room to pick and choose our seats. We took the aisle seats because Kristina is just a sweet pea over five feet tall. She stood and danced next to that red bar in the picture above.

We left early to get a jump on the traffic and made it out in good time. We decided to hit a place that I had never been before… Dave & Buster’s. I couldn’t believe that on Friday and Saturday nights, they were charging a $3 cover. As we dug around looking for dinero in our coffers, we explained our predicament to the doorman. He felt sorry for us and our $7 dollar a beer habit. He was kind enough to let us slide in for nothing.

Dave & Buster’s is a big joint in a warehouse looking place. And quite frankly, it’s a wonderland for adults. You can’t look any direction without seeing a bar… Just my kind of place.

It had a sports bar type of restaurant, a pool room, an arcade area, and a bowling alley. Yes. A bowling alley. And it was the cosmic type of bowling with lots of black lighting that lit up the fluorescent looking balls. It was pretty damn cool!

She told me that Dave & Buster’s would and could be the ideal place for an open and close kind of fantasy. But my calm reasoning deduced that we could easily drop a grand or more during the adventure. Like getting a threesome going with your wife and her best friend… It sounds good in theory, but it would be the worst thing to try.

Kristina showed me around the place like she was Cruise Director Julie and I was inspecting the Pacific Princess on an episode of The Love Boat. We settled at a bar in the arcade to soak in a couple of adult libations.

Although I’ve never been to Vegas, Atlantic City, or any other type of gambling establishment… Dave & Buster’s was, to me, like a miniature casino with lots of lights and noise. I just wished the booze was free.

I was taping the race on the VCR at home and didn’t want to see anything about it. I knew that I wouldn’t hear a thing at the concert, but Dave & Buster’s presented a small problem… Many small problems. There were TV’s everywhere!

But when we walked in… All the TV’s in the sports bar/restaurant were tuned into the Buffalo Sabres game.

I thought to myself… "That’s odd… We sitting on Speedway Boulevard, a dead possum’s throw away from Lowes Motor Speedway, and they don’t have the NASCAR race on?!"

I didn’t question it. God, the angels, and the good spirits were helping me. Just shut up, drink beer, and enjoy myself. Because normally… I’ll do my damnedest NOT to see anything about the race or the race winner. But somehow, someway… I will always look up towards a TV at the wrong moment and it’s all shot to hell.

When I got home… I checked my VCR to make sure all was good. But DAMMIT!… I forgot to turn it off and the race wasn’t caught on good ol’ dependable VHS tape. I was a little pissed at myself.

When I got up the next day, I got online and went to NASCAR online to see who won and watch the highlights if there were any. And imagine my surprise when the headline read… Rain Postpones Race. Yep! The race ran at 1 pm on Sunday. Let heaven and nature sing!

Unfortunately… It was kind of a boring race and Jeff Gordon won another, damn him.

Afore I split… There’s a new number one friend on my MySpace page! Benjomatic slides into the top spot for their week of glory. So drop on by and show them some love. I’ve also changed the song on my page to a Benjomatic tune… “Nicotine And Gasoline” Check out their calendar and make it out to a show some time... They get the Too Dangerous For Daylight Official Seal Of Approval!

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:07 PM

    Avril Lavigne reminds me of the kid sister of a friend. You don't pay much attention to her until she starts getting older and looking more grown up, and then you feel weird for staring.

    For some reason, I felt compelled to share that nugget.

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  2. Anonymous9:25 AM

    Forget Gwen, her husband Gavin is hot! I heard he was there. Saturday I went to Hickory to pick up a kitten from my friend. Since she became cat free, she was able to go to the show. I, on the other hand, dealt with a scared 8 week old cat. It's suppose to be my daughter's responsibility, ha!

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  4. You're the second person I know who went to this show and didn't see Lady Sovereign (the first opener). What's it take for a guy to find out how the first female Brit grime rapper to cross-over here in the States is making out in a live setting? Jeez.

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