Awesomeness v. Disappointment

Well kids, I’ve now officially attended my first show at the gargantuan Terminal 5, located far, far away on the outer reaches of the exotic West Side. Well, sort of attended. I noted that my ticket said the doors opened at seven, so I called the venue and asked them if there were any opening bands, and what time Ween were “supposed” to go on. The kind lady told me they’d go on at eight. How very informative. After this point is when things started going horribly awry. I decided that 8:30 was an appropriate time to arrive, since we’ve all heard of musician’s time and Dean and Gene are certainly no sticklers for rules, timeliness, or even sobriety, so I figured they’d stumble out later rather than earlier. After exiting the train we still had a fair walk ahead of us, and this was a chilly evening to be sure. I remember declaring to Laura “You know, this Terminal 5 establishment, not so convenient.” But I don’t like to complain. When we finally reached the mysterious venue, we were none too pleased to see a line stretching sickeningly far down the block. By this time it was approaching nine o’clock, but we drudgingly accepted our stupid mis-planning and walked another mile to take a place at the end. The technologically savvy among the waiting crowd informed everyone that sadly, Ween had actually gone on at eight. The horror! There’s nothing like that feeling of realizing you paid a pretty penny to see one of your favorite bands live, but that you’d in fact be missing most of it.

So, I arrived pissed and pouty. True, some portion of this mess was due to no fault but my own, but I still feel justified in some percentage of my anger. We ran in just as Ween started playing one of my favorite live songs “Touch My Tooter.” This immediately stirred my juices and I began to feel giddy with the joys of seeing a band I so adore. These guys haven’t played NYC proper since 2004, and have apparently been rocking significantly across the country on their way here, so what I was able to see was at least special despite its not being the whole shebang. Spirits were high (heh) through numbers such as “Ocean Man,” “The Mollusk,” and “Booze Me Up And Get Me High.” My heart wept for one fan with an enormously proficient whistling talent who kept screeching out the looping vocal part on “Big Jim.” His requests were noted by the band, as was his perseverance, but they did not in fact play this song. Terminal 5 as a whole wasn’t too shabby – there was at least decent visibility from the various areas of the place I found myself in (bar, the second balcony, floor, bar) – but all the annoying elements listed above plus the fact that it just ain’t no intimate experience make it not the most awesome place to catch a rock concert. But hey, at least I sorta saw Ween. Sigh.