A band called what?

Hizzah and hoorah for ska bands. And fie on stinky opening bands that play bad songs.

So, as you may know, I WENT TO THE AQUABATS CONCERT THIS WEEKEND! And it was FANTASTIC. Here's the story. So, Saturday at about 1:00pm we headed down to Salt Lake City, we being Ben, Jenny, Jen and myself. A quick stop to pick up Lex in Pocatello (there because her sister's baby decided he wanted out 3 weeks early and was born...congrats, Shallys), and then onward to the capitol of good ole Utah for a little ska band goodness. (By the way, we listened to a lot of fun Christmas music on the drive, including the album "Barenaked for the Holidays" by the Barenaked Ladies, which I highly recommend.) (Uh...I recommend the album and the band...not necessarily actual nude women...) Anyway, the point is this...the weekend was fun. We got to the club at about 5pm, and the concert didn't start until 7pm, so we got some food and explored this cool outside mall thing. We returned to the club and stood in line for far too long in the cold, and nothing exciting happened except for Ben met some guy who recognized him and he recognized the kid right back, but neither of them could figure out where they recognized eachother from. The guy incidentally also forgot to mention his name, so we will probably never know who he was or how Ben knew him. Oh, and I made up a story about a magical lamp-post, too.

So, we finally got in at 7:30 or so and listened to the first opening band, which was AWESOME, and we really liked them. Too bad nobody knew their name. (Vista Five, or something like that, maybe...?) Then the second opening band performed and they were HORRENDOUSLY, HORRIBLY, DISGUSTINGLY, MAKE-YOU-FEEL-KINDA-PHYSICALLY-ILL, PLUG-YOUR-EARS AWFUL!!!! And here's the weird thing. Every time we tell people this, and then tell them who it was, they exclaim "What?! Vendetta Red was there!? They're awesome!" To which we have no choice but to reply "Well, they suck, live." The main singer was nothing but hair and a tight black muscle shirt who would have had a gorgeous voice if he actually sang the whole time instead of screaming his head off. (Kinda like Aerosmith, you know?) Part of the suckiness might have had to do with just really bad balance and not a good set-up when it comes to the sound system, but that's also no excuse to sing evil songs. Defintely heard the f-bomb more than enough times from this happy little band. And you could tell they were only saying it because they were in Salt Lake and KNEW it would upset people. Luckily, most of the crowd agreed with us in disliking them. I got the feeling that they were embittered ex-Mormons. (The band, not the crowd.) Talented musicians, but definitely not the kind I can agree with on many many things. Music being one of them.

But the Aquabats, on the other hand. Wow, the Aquabats. Whew, lemme tell you something, sonny boy. The Aquabats are quite possibly one of the coolest bands on the face of the earth. Oh, wait...lemme think about that for a minute. Actually, they're DEFINITELY one the coolest bands on the face of the earth. And I like them a lot. Their show is so much fun! The second half was even more fun, because we decided to escape the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd and go to the edges where we could dance and jump around and stuff. We found a perfect spot where we had plenty of room and could still see perfectly well. They played some all-time greats, including "Martian Girl," "The Cat With Two Heads," "Pool Party," and "Pizza Day." They also played a few new ones from their NEW ALBUM, coming out next year, namely a little song called "Melt-down" and another one I didn't recognize called "Throw Away the Trash." A+ and much approval. Hizzah.

We also managed to bring them out again for an encore, for which they played "The Robot Theme Song" and yes, my friends, how could they have left it out before? They played "Super-rad." As the Bat Commander said at the end of the night (by the way, that guy is insane and awesome and really essentially is the whackiness of the Aquabats personified), it was an awesome show. We sang about those wonderful people, the "Lovers of Loving Love," we taught Security Personnel about web-sites, and we helped make the world a better place by throwing away trash and cutting down trees. The show ended with the Bat Commander performing several backflips and the rest of the Aquabats, in a last, noble effort to throw away the trash and rid the world of evil...wait, actually, I think they were just following impulses and that making a sculpture out of instruments and elements of the sound system in a trash can was totally unplanned. But that's what they did. And it was fun.

To those who are familiar with the Aquabats, I have these things to say to you:

Good thing--The songs are ACTUALLY FASTER live than they are on their albums, if you can fathom that.

Good thing--My roomates and I all made shirts for the concert that said the following 4 things (there were 4 of us so it worked out well)...Lex's said "I am the baker" and Jen's said "I bake the cake" and mine said "You're the decorator" and Jenny's said "And you decorate." It brought us great joy to make and wear them.

Sad thing--The Aquabats are shrinking in number! The only ones at the concert were Ricky, Crash McLarson, Chainsaw, Dr. Rock, and the Bat Commander. What happened to Cat-boy and Prince Adam!? We were much grieved by their absence.

Good thing--Really cool new T-shirt available, combining the Aquabats and the Incredibles. See if you can check it out on the webiste. Can shirts get any better than that? I submit that they cannot!

To those of you who are not familiar with the Aquabats, I would say this:

You should be. Then again, they're a bit of a "cult band," if you will, partly because there is only a small portion of the human population that really dig ska music. And partly because...actually that's the whole reason. But if whackiness, fighting evil-doers and singing songs for the kids sounds like your cup of tea, check 'em out! (www.theaquabats.com)



PS: Apparently, Addison's real name is Zack. Strange? Yes. I think I like the name Addison better.