Long gone are the days of Woodstock.
Long gone are the days of Coachella.
Long gone are the days when concerts were about creating the best experience and not how much money could be made.
So far, April has been a great month of concert goers around Florida. We have Juvenile, Santigold, Tokyo Police Club, BlackBird Blackbird, all headed to the bay area at some point this month.Although the Tampa Bay area will be littered with amazing artists touring through, on a recent trip to Orlando to see Chon, Ployphia, and Strawberry Girls at The Social I was reminded that the venue is just as important as the performer, in any concert going experience.
Chon is a very talented math rock or progressive rock band from California with a very clean, crisp sound. They rarely stop in the ole sunshine state so naturally I purchased my tickets months in advance so when tickets sold out, I was prepared.
I was excited to get to this concert more reason than the fact that bands avoid Florida, it would be the first time in a long time I'd get to see my close friends since we live far apart.
Before our shadows even fell the block where The Social is located on in downtown Orlando, we could see the line for Chon trail from inside the venue and bend around the corner. About 150-200 people standing in the sweltering sun all lined up for Chon, all ages, races, sex, one lady was even on crutches.
"This is going to be such a good show," I thought.
I tapped the lady with crutches on the shoulder.
"Are you waiting in Line for Chon?" I asked.
"Actually, I'm not sure," She replied." I sent my friend to go ask, but I'm here for They might be giant."
After a few minutes, her friends returns, informs us that this the line for They Might Be Giants line and the Chon line is on the other side of that line, Then she continued passed us spreading the information down the line. We left our long line and trekked our way to the back of an even longer line. I still felt optimistic, I was going to bust my Chon-cherry, so the hour wait in line seemed worth it.
I watched the line fluctuate between stagnant conversation. Six people would walk to the back of the line, stand for a few minutes, ask the person ahead of them which line this is and the two of them would walk away towards the other line. More people walk up, stand, survey the line, someone one would come by yelling " Whose here for They Might Be Giants?" and lead them to their promise land. I'd watch many They Might Be Giants fans disappear before I could even catch a glimpse of the security guard working the door.
Step by step, I make it to security and the first thing the guard says is "Aw, Man. I'm Sorry. The Social doesn’t allow cameras into their venue."
Leaving me with a dilemma, Should I leave my camera with security and risk someone taking it or walk 15 minutes back to the car and safely put it away walk another 15 minute back but miss part of the show.
After a moment of contemplation, I decide it was best to trek back towards the car. When I returned back to The Social, the line for Chon seemed to have grown twice as long and the show already began.
So of course, I go through security again before getting in due to their no re-entry policy. None of this bothers me until I entered the venue.
One of the best feelings is when you walk into a venue for an event and it packed. Everyone is having a great time, dancing, singing, laughing. However when everyone is sweating, pushing against each other, puking, kneeing, and you can barely catch your breath, it makes the venue seem too stuffy.
The door to The Social would open every couple of minutes and you'd see the top of a person's head bopping into the venue. According to The Social policies, the front half of the audience is called VIP and the back half of the crowd was cattle. As security poked and instigated crowd movement in a certain direction.
Fans would try to retrace the steps security made through the crowd, but there was barely any give for the brawny security guards to muddle through. Those fans became frustrated enough to head outside.
When Polyphia took the stage and asked the audience to mosh around there wasn’t enough room to move, dance, mosh, nada.The crowd, cramped, only able to flail their torsos from side to side. Adding insult to injury , I kept getting elbowed by a drunk audience member, focusing on holding his iPhone up the entire show.
So while the venue was crappy I still got the chance to see Chon live and had my socks blown off by the opening band, Strawberry Girls.
While trying to catch a breath of fresh air, I witnessed a guy who was so pissed off about security losing his Canon EOS 7D Mark II, he was cursing the cops, the security guards, and other fans, so I think I made the right decision on walking back to the car.