I must admit I was a little confused when I arrived at Verizon Wireless Music center via the VIP entrance with Thin Fevers and loaded in our gear. Here we where, at one of the largest outdoor music venues in the country, and our dancy punk rock band was about to play at the VIP pavilion before a sold out Gwen Stefani concert. I must admit though, that I have become quite accustomed to feeling out of place.
Our evening was actually quite awesome. After a couple of awesome DJ sets by Twin Peaks, an extended Thin Fevers set consisted of arm-band induced string breakage and the earning of three awesome new fans (I never thought we would appeal to young Gwen Stefani fans), and an awesome cheesburger, we where in for a treat.
Due to the cheeseburger eating and the gear loading, I could only listen to Lady Sovereign and Akon, not watch. I must admit that I did not like the recordings of Lady Sovereign that I have heard, but she really kicked it live. I think the addition of a band may have made the live sound appeal to me more.
Gwen Stefani, on the other hand, KNOWS how to put on a show. The stage show was incredible, the wardrobe changes quick and effective. The dancers where incredible, her harajuku girls tearing it up in costume. There was a lot of stage banter, all praising the crowd of 23,000 chanting along in all the right places, and delivering Gwen flowers from the front row.
I must admit that I really had a good time watching Gwen perform. This, I believe, could be explained by the shear numbers of something I hadn’t seen at a concert in a long time: children. Seeing kids genuinely enjoying Gwen’s stardom was a pleasant turn from the disinterested faces of bar patrons that I am used to seeing.
I felt compelled to share some of this, so I present you with 30 seconds of Gwen’s crowd, with some cameos by some of Thin Fevers, as well as Antonio’s (hopefully award winning) mustache.