ltj@canes, mission beach

I was excited on this 21+ show.

I got there 20 minutes before doors and i was second on line. when they finally opened the box office , I was the first to the window (to claim my will call ticket). Stupid girl working couldn't find my ticket though i stated "artist arena" three times. She just kept looking at the ticketmaster list and printed tm tickets. All the while the physical ticketholders line is going in behind me. cool, lady. she makes me stand to the side while she waits for her 'manager' he gets there and i said 'artist arena' and gave him the conf. code. he comes back in 20 secs, "when did you buy these" me, "january when they went on sale, fan club artist arena" and he says "OH the FAN club" and i said, 'i guess. artist arena'. found the ticket immediately. good work on the communication, morons, artist arena isnt even the fan club it just slipped out of my mouth.

so i finally get in and while i thought people would be standing in the amazing spot i wanted, instead there was a camera tripod. i stood on the ramp next to it to still be elevated a little above the crowd. i ask if he was there before they let anyone in and he said yes so i didnt feel bad about it, as i said. so then he is talking to his friend about how the spot is good because its elevated above the crowd and blocked off in front, i said 'yeah, thats why i wanted that spot but even if you werent there i would have missed out because they dont understand fan club ticketing and made me wait even though i was first in line,' just making conversation. he thought i was some big giant fan though i only waited 20 minutes on line and the 'fan club' was a myspace link...so he said that he could move the camera over a little and let me get that spot. that was the coolest thing of the night.

the flatliners - played a rocket from the crypt cover because they were in san diego. about 5 people knew it. then they said 'we're just going to have a john reis cover band from now on' and only 2 people got that.

the expendables - i wish i didnt have to sit through this atrocity again

less than jake - i think this band needs to learn something about distance. new york to philadelphia is only 80 miles, with a stop in jersey between. so why were those three set lists different, but the anaheim and san diego set lists were EXACTLY the same, when the distance between san diego and anaheim is 95 miles? at least some stupid girl got on stage and said 'ive waited so long to see you, play jen' and they did. too bad they didnt replace the song that was about to go on but added jen, because i had to hear overrated.

now, lets talk about skinny bouncers on a power trip. have you ever heard gainesville rock city? have you ever seen ltj play it? the point in the song that is 46 seconds in the studio track was used forever by less than jake as a time to shoot confetti or drop a banner or other type of thing. i had a cup of water in front of me. at this moment in the song i could not resist myself splashing the entire cup of water onto the middle of the crowd. as an effect, it looked awesome. i see this skinny bouncer on the stage with a goatee run off and come around to me, climbing on the rail to get in my face, about what, i really dont know. he didnt even say anything, or at least nothing that i could hear or understand since IT DIDNT MAKE SENSE FOR HIM TO CARE. pay a little more attention to not letting people stagedive, since you seemed so into that, instead of making me miss the first verse of the song. while i probably should have pushed you off the railing, that would have been bad for me. i should have paid you no regard at all and just sang in your face instead of just doing that for the last 5 seconds you were there. get a job

oh, cool

less than jake, the expendables, the flatliners @ Anaheim HOB

The first band was named the flatliners (not the streetpunk band). Decent fatpunk/skapunk, took a while for the kids to get into it. Played well and seemed excited. Up next were The Expendables who the cali crowd was in love with...i thought they just sounded and looked like they wanted to be Sublime. pretty boring and showboating solos that the vocalist wasnt even playing, nice.

Finally Less Than Jake comes on to the star wars theme playing over the PA, then they play it themselves into Conviction Notice. Band is playing really well, everyone is into it. Go on to play, in order, happyman, 9th at pine, short fuse burning, overrated (least fan reaction), gainesville rock city, a GNV FLA song, al's war, sobriety, freecreditreport.com, ghosts of me and you, anchor, a b-sides song, i think i love you, plastic cup politics, lion city, closed with look what happened. Chris comes back playing rest of my life, then they play state of fl into city of gnv, and then played the soundclip from metalheads and closed with, metalheads. they played real well, chris seems a little out of place, wish roger was the front man. Very, VERY stoked they didn't play johnny quest. I had a good time.

ben weasel kevin seconds kepi ghoulie

The Girls from seattle went on first. kind of weird not necessarily something i'd be into but it was actually pretty cool. kinda indie with light synth and weird sounds and the oddest singer who kept kneeling down RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and singing. their best song was "vas new 3". the guitarist kept just messing things up for himself: losing his only pick, getting tangled in his mic cord, getting tangled in the singers mic cord, etc. but it was funny.

toys that kill: immediately people started running up front singing along, i decided to let some dude steal my spot so he could sing since i wasnt. um they were real good, not much more to say. after they were done that guy left and i went back and this girl went next to me and asked to switch places with her (stupid me) said ok and then bluanna said oh no! you're so much taller than her (i was standing in front of bluanna now) so i said ok and let the person who flew from italy take my space and got behind girl1. ever been in the second row? yeah.

Ben Weasel: danny showed up after all. after delaying for ten minutes for no reason, everyone came onstage. such a crush from the crowd to the front, but it was awesome, danny even learned some of the solos for this show (he didnt know them in chicago). brie, who was not getting in anyones way by doing this, sat on the speakers in front of the stage, of course this invited some tall kid to do the same who kept yelling everytime they played a song he knew, and getting on his knees or standing and getting in ben's face, annoying. however justice was served when someone jumped off the stage and clocked him in the face. but like i said being second row blows.

setlist (some in order)
cindys on methadone
guestlist
cool kids club (those 3 in order)
falling apart
every night
my brain hurts
i can see clearly
let the sun shine in
mental retard
last stop tokyo
dingbat
leather jacket
peter brady
some ben weasel songs including first day of spring
joanie loves johnnie (closer)

then encored with, in order
i wanna strangle you
veronica hates me
the science of myth
teenage freakshow
this aint hawaii w/ sunshine interlude
what we hate (impeccable closer!)

awesome.
/first show review


tried to go to dodger stadium but its not viewable from the road i was on at least. then i went to echo curio and got there about an hour early and hung around in front of the gallery and checked out the inside, real small art gallery with a music theme which was real cool. so 2 rolls around and some people start showing up. apparently this art gallery is byob, but only 1 or 2 people took advantage of that. so i saw brie show up on her bike and she came inside and went up to me "You made it!!!!" and we laughed and then she went away.

so the first guy went on, dan janisch. i stood behind a speaker pole next to the doorway leading to the other room, then brie stood right behind me and we both danced to this guy and that was cool. so this guy was kinda folky and had a bunch of harmonicas, it was real good. this little kid started saying he was timing the songs on his ipod.

so then kepi ghoulie goes on. i dont know any groovie goulie songs so it was all new to me, but it was real cool. there was a bassist, AND kevin seconds playing a guitar case with a tambourine taped to it as percussion as well as that same little kid (ill guess 10 years old) playing "the egg" which was an egg shaped plastic container with beads in it like a mini maraca. janisch also played harmonica for a couple songs. it was really awesome. he mentioned something about the tour having a free date after san diego to which i said "when is the san diego show?!" and he said "oh march 25th you all should come down." i'll be there.

then kevin seconds went on. i switched to the other side of the gallery stage by the door outside. kepi played the guitar case for this set. kevin was great. i dont know any of his solo stuff so i cant say what songs he played. however the kepi set was actually better i think. so anyway kevin is done and then i say to play 99 red balloons since he told us that after the show the night before in riverside he played an impromptu set in a del taco parking lot and played that song. so he said "do you guys want a sham cover or a nena cover" and we yelled "NENA!!!" and he said "you guys just cant handle sham! ....neither can i." and he played 99red balloons and it was awesome.


so 3 hours later i ended up at the knitting factory WITH THE SAME ONSTREET PARKING SPOT. was the first person there, got inside after a while, snagged the same spot as the night before, and was i guess in my own little groove to some song over the PA and noticed some one in my PERIPH doing the same thing i glanced over and it was brie in the same spot she was last night, cool. so the girls pretty much the same though the guitar player didnt mess himself up as much.

The Underground Railroad to Candyland went up next and were awesome! Excellent music and times. Better than TTK. The drummer of ttk played the keyboard and a floor tom and it was just a great show and music.

so right before weasel goes on they play blister in the sun over the pa and brie and i had a funny singalong for that and then weasel went on and i had my excellent spot this time. so much better being able to brace against the stage than against another person. i guess i could also yell in ben's face more. played the same set as the night before. awesome. so i said bye to brie and she said she was going to try to make it to the san diego show which is awesome. then i drove home.


And to cap it off, about 10 minutes from home, the harddrive picked, on random, 99 luftbaloons from the gta vice city soundtrack.