I went to a free concert up in Fullerton today, but I didn’t buy anything of the bands’ or get any mementos or such, so I must quickly write about my day before I forget it all.

My friend Pete told me a while ago about this free Something Corporate/Starting Line/Homegrown concert in a Wherehouse parkling lot that was coming up, and how we should pile up in a car and head up north to catch it. I invited a bunch of people and they all accepted, but almost everyone ended up bailing because of work or girlfriends or dance troupe so that the group that ended up going was me, Pete, and Other-David (that would be, non-Switch David).

The concert started at 2 PM, and we didn’t get there till 2:05 because of food stops^*/traffic/poor map reading/the fact that I drive a not-so-fast ‘89 Toyota 4Runner. The first band, Homegrown, was in the middle of their opening song, so we quickly tried to absorb ourselves in the crowd. They’re mildly popular and had some decent songs, but were a little too let’s-cuss-at-everything for my tastes. The cruel cruel sun was also bleating down on the parking lot, so the three of us were stuck in a crowd of sweaty-shovy people. I was starting to dread the rest of the afternoon.

However, The Starting Line came up next, and they’re one of my fave groups so we started gettin’ into it. All of us ended up moshing to their great cover of “I’m Real” (that one horribly inane Jennifer Lopez song) because a pit opened up right next to us. At first I was kinda freaked out, because eek, I’m in a mosh pit I’m going to get stomped into tiny Charliepieces. But, I started getting into it, as I found mutual anger release miiiiildly amusing.

(Actually, I thought it awesome getting into a pushy-current of people and jumping about to a fun-loud song, but don’t tell anyone that. I’m not punk rock.)

After that whole pit experience, we all really started enjoying the concert and jumping up and down and waving at the stage and such. Since we ended up pushing closer to the stage, there were droves of crowd surfers passing onto and over our heads. Let me tell you, having overweight, scantily clad girls crash into your spine from the heavens is quite the terrifying experience.

Something Corporate was last up, and we thought that being the relatively tamest group of the three (they have a piano in most of their songs and all) that the moshing would subside somewhat. What actually happened was that the whole crowd got a great deal crazier and there was a great deal more jumping and bumping and crashing and we had a great deal more fun. Going crazy to “Punk Rock Princess” is my new fave rock show moment, second to the whole crowd swaying at the Jimmy Eat World show when they played “Bleed American”. Teehee.

(I even ended up crowd surfing for a short bit on SoCo’s last song. But don’t tell anyone that. I’m not punk rock.)

After the show, we all went to the nearest non-gross food joint, which happened to be Burger King. We all got drinks and collapsed on the benches. Their soda machine’s carbonator or whatever puts the bubbles in was broken, so after gulping a gallon or two of their Coke, I began to notice how much it resembled drinking watered down maple syrup. Maybe not so non-gross.

We ate at a Mimi’s Cafe near Downtown Disney after that, where one of the waitresses said that another one of the waitresses thought Dave was cute. Dave looks no older than 18 and the waitress looked no younger than 25. Yes. Ew.

We walked around Downtown Disney after that, and found absolutely nothing of interest after perusing for thirty minutes found absolutely nothing of interest. Dave bought something that resembled and tasted like Tropical Urine Soda, because we thought we had to buy something to validate our parking. Turns out we didn’t, and Dave quietly enjoyed his human waste. Mm.

So anyway, an two hours of car banter and a collapse on the bed later, here I am typing everything up. I’m probably not going to remember writing this in the morning, and not want to read it for a loooong time. But y’know, it’ll be good for the memories.

* Our first food stop before we left also happened to be at a Burger King. The ice machine at the one near my house has two levers to pull, one for ice and one for water. When trying to get ice, I accidently pulled the water one, getting my hand all wet, and Pete & Dave both laughed their heads off at me, saying stuff like, “High school graduate, eh?”. As we were leaving 15 minutes later, Pete went to go fill his drink up again and pulled the exact same lever, soaking his hand and astonishly screaming “OH CRAP!”. Hilarity.