NFL KickOff Concert

[Warthog]

I went tonight...all I can say is AWESOME It was the best.

Because I'm military and was not in uniform, I was about 100yds or so back from the stage right up against the barrier because I got there early - not too bad of an area....after a few hours (this was way before the show started) they opened up the nearest of one of the two sections in front of me...then they opened up the front section next to the stage. HELL YEAH. I was there in a heartbeat.

I got within 30-40' of the stage

DJ Scribble did his dj mix master stuff for a bit, that was cool...then Good Chartotte came on and played about 5 songs that they didn't show on tv. The recording started @ 7pm for the 8pm ABC show with Good Charlotte doing 1 more song, Mary J Blige doing a mix of 3 songs, Britney shaking her thang, Aerosmith and Aretha Franklin singing the National Anthem (I didn't see that because I didn't want to).

Good Charlotte was really cool, laid back...great performance. I was surprisingly really int Mary J's performance even though her music really isn't my style. Britney - aww yeah ...did her typical strip down to skivvies performance. I had to remind myself every minute or so that I was actually looking at the REAL Britney right in front of me.

The best performance of all was BY FAR the performance by Aerosmith. They threw small LED lights into the crowd and instructed us to wave to the beat of "Dream On" at the end of the song - looked really cool when they dimmed the lights @ that moment. Never really got into Aerosmith before tonight...I always respected them, never did not like them but never paid much attention...downloading some of their stuff now.

I absoltuely LOVE audio and am almost turned on by the massive amounts of power used in pro audio. I swear, I'll get into pro audio someday - I love it...the huge speaker and bass/electric guitar amp arrays *SCHWING*.

Felt bad for the civilians wayyyyyyyy the fart behind me, all the way back to the Washington Monument. Why go to something like this when you have to watch the show on a screen??

Anyway...glad I went, was a great experience, besides nearly getting knocked the hell out by a flying Vanilla Pepsi can (luckly I caught it right before it hit me in the noggin)

Warthog

[Mike]

You should be at the game right now!!!

[Warthog]

I already went to a football game a few weeks ago @ that same field

[Mike]

Bleh the Redskins won. That's not going to be very good for the Eagles. Especially since we are playing last year's national champs.

[Gomer]

I think it was Chris Rock who said "Good Charlotte is bad Green Day" =) (something to that effect anyway)

[osprey4]

Originally posted by Mike
Especially since we are playing last year's national champs.

Who's "we", sucka?

Aerosmith and Aretha Franklin singing the National Anthem? That had to be painful. Aerosmith is the K-Mart of pop music.

[Theophylact]

in today's Washington Post. As a Federal worker, I especially liked this one:

I want to make sure that I understand the situation.

The federal government encouraged employees to take annual leave yesterday so that the NFL and Pepsi could throw a party on the Mall [Metro, Sept. 4].

So football trumps work. And people say we don't have our priorities in order.

JOAN SCHRAMM
Annapolis

And here's Tom Shales's review of the whole sordid affair. It begins:

American bad taste is the most powerful bad taste in the world. That seems to be what was really being celebrated on the Mall last night at an excruciating 55-minute rock concert ostensibly convened to herald the new pro football season and televised live on the struggling ABC network.

The event was deemed so auspicious that George W. Bush took yet more time off from fighting the war on terrorism to appear, via videotape, at the end of the concert and just before the game, in the manner of a TV huckster. He tried to make some connection between football and "the spirit that guides the brave men and women" of the military, much as the concert had done.

He also said pro football "celebrates the values that make our country so strong." Like what, violence and greed?

Then, in intense close-up, the leader of the Free World asked the trademarked rhetorical question, "Are you ready for some football?"

Some bureaucrat whose thinking cap had blown off authorized lending the once-solemn, or at least dignified, Mall to this very raucous and very commercial event. ...

And here's Tom Toles's political cartoon.

[J-Excel]

There's a partisan slant on sports celebrations now? Gimme a break!

[Warthog]

WTF...I couldn't give two sh*ts what some columnist says.

This is how I see it.

It was a concert
had cool bands
I had fun.

That's all the fuggin matters to me.

[Sweeper]

Wart You lucky Sum' B****!!! Britney Live!!!!!!!!!!!!! That would have made my year. I already was front stage for Avril Lavigne, to see Britney would have made my year!!!!