last nite i went to the Vanessa Carleton, Third Eye Blind, and Goo Goo Dolls concert. It was definitely a weird experience because Vanessa Carleton, of "1000 miles" fame, actually has talent. She played the piano really well and her voice sounded exactly the same as in the radio. However, this "cute" girl image of her was surprisingly shattered when all her songs were about hating people - friends, lovers, and even father. She told us that "1000 miles" was originally titled "Bitterlude" but her mom made her change it. Quite the surprise indeed.

When Third Eye Blind came on stage, the crowd just went crazy. There was this tall guy to my left, very built, and resembled a bouncer, who i thought was there for his asian girlfriend. It turns out, he was there for himself and third eye blind. When stephen jenkins burst onto stage opening with "Graduate," the dude next to me went crazy. Head banging like a 80's punk rocker, playing air guitar, playing air bass, playing air drums, kicking, screaming - his elbows kept on flying into my shoulder. Aileen watched this guy more than the actual concert during that song, enough to even get me annoyed. After they finished "Graduate", they went to "Blue" from their second album. The tough guy then crossed his arms and just nodded to the song, and every song after that which wasn't in the first album. "Not a true fan..." i thought to myself. I, on the other hand, went pretty crazy. 3eb used to be my favorite band until they started going more "mainstream," meaning the audience they cater to are mostly the same fans as N'Sync, Goo Goo Dolls, or even Britney Spears. That's completely fine with me, but i feel like they "sold out." So they are still top 3, but just not on the top. As of now, my favorites are Weezer, RHCP, and 3eb.
In any case, they played songs from their new album "crystal baller" that is going to be released next year - and it all sounded the same as their previous songs. Still good, just not 'new'.
3eb is known to be a great performing band rather than their musical talents. Every concert, Stephen Jenkins tries to connect with his audience and runs through the crowd to the back section and sing a couple songs in the back. Very crowd pleasing.

Then the Goo Goo Dolls came on, and although i have not really been to a lot of concerts, the set-up was insane. Weezer had pyro and the huge =W= in the back, and i thought that was cool. Goo Goo Dolls didn't have pyro - but they sure had everything else. They definitely connected with the crowd as well, waving to almost every person that waved at them during the performance. They looked like they enjoyed the crowd, especially their bassist Robby. They told some funny stories, used the F-word a lot (causing the 1000 moms to cover their 2000 little girl's ears), and their lead singer John even smoked a few cigarettes while he was playing lead guitar (a lot of people don't know they have two lead singers... Robby sings half of the songs and John sings the other half... it's just that only ths songs John sings are famous).

the strangest sight of the concert was an old couple sitting in front of us - the man was in the 50's and the woman in her 30's or 40's that were freaking each other. it was the weirdest thing because you could smell the pot and all they did was make out and freak each other. it was just the weirdest thing. they left somewhere for a while and then came back even more ... how should i say... horny. the old man tried to take the woman's shirt off! i mean, this couple was right in front of me, so it's not like i couldn't really look the other way. during the time they left, i think they dropped e, because they were also giving each other massages. in front of them, there was a family with a little girl who was no older than 8... and their mom was horrified. i think with all the cussing on stage, talking about sex on stage, the weird biker that danced like no other and took up his whole row next to them, and the old couple basically about to do it - that's the end of concerts for the little girl.