I'm just a normal boy...

I can remember the first time I ever heard of Blue October. It was way back in the Tyler days, and he was attempting to win me back (I say attempt, but he never had to try very hard back then) and he told me 'Look up this song. It's called Calling You'. I did, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the lyrics.

Fast forward eighteen years later, and I'm going to see that same band, Blue October, play at the House of Blues. It was a bit of a pain in the ass because we kept leaving things back in the car and having to go get them/leave them (HOB now has a clear bag policy, like the Superdome, of which I was unaware until we got there) but when we got in there, the opening band was already on. They kinda sounded like Jason Mraz. The lead guy looked like Mr. Shu from Glee and was just as happy to be there. I think their name was something having to do with sweet potatoes. I went upstairs and got myself a Blue October tank.

Scott's back was hurting so we had to move against the sound booth. It was hard for me to see, but I'm short, so that's always a fact of life at concerts. That wasn't the problem. The problem is that we were next to a group of these younger kids (suspiciously young for Blue October fans, pretty much 95% of the audience was our age or older) which consisted of these two influencer Instagram-type girls and this fucking dudebro in a yellow hoodie with a baseball cap who was drinking Pabst (I know, can the stereotypes get any worse? but wait! yes! they can!) who showed up (I guess he knew the girls) and immediately began to be loud and obnoxious. The two girls (the one next to me, especially) was dancing and bopping and bumping into people. She apparently thought she was attending Coachella. It was extremely distracting and you could tell that she thought she was hot shit. I could deal with that, even if it was distracting. The dude, though, kept WOOHOOing at nothing. And loud. Like, every 5-10 seconds. A few times he would loudly proclaim, 'They hate us cause they ain't us.' As Stephen King would say, that is most assuredly not the case, friends and neighbors. The people around him (which def included Scott & I) weren't charmed at all, to say the least.

Blue October came on at or around 9pm and Dudebro was still screeching and swaying and saying things like 'Play Hate Me!' right when Justin started his first song.

The concert was really good, though a lot of their songs were new. During the whole thing I'm trying to avoid Coachella dancing like a lunatic and trying to tune out Dudebro squawking 'I LOVE YOU' at Justin every time there was a break in the music. He stopped woohooing halfway through. When they played 'Hate Me' & 'Into The Ocean', everyone sang them together. It was awesome. Then he played an acoustic version of 'Calling You', which was extremely lovely (I didn't know if they'd play it) even though I generally don't like acoustic versions of songs. Ole Dudebro started woohooing again. The band 'left' until the screaming for them to return got too loud to ignore. At this time, DudeBro & his slutty cohorts disappeared until I saw his yellow hoodie in the middle of the crowd, nearer the stage. Well, he said something/did something to piss someone off, because there was a disturbance in the force. We watched gratefully as a HOB bouncer led him and his entourage off, hopefully out of the venue.

Spoke too soon.

They came back and of course stood right next to us again. I guess Dudebro was pissed off that he got hauled away because he was being purposely louder/more obnoxious. He wasn't the problem this time, though. The other girl (not the Coachella girl) who had a blue shirt on, was pretty drunk/on something, and I think the older lady in front of them said something to her/them about being disruptive, because they started going off on each other. The whole time, the band is playing, even though everyone's eyes were on this asshole. Blue Shirt girl started screaming 'WHOOHOO' in this lady's face, like right up in her face, and then a bouncer came in and broke it up. Had to literally drag them all out. Ugh, we thought. Get them the fuck out of here, goodbye.

We all turn back to the concert.

Nope.

This Blue Shirt girl comes stumbling down the steps and makes a beeline for this older lady. Now Coachella is trying to pull her back, but she is determined as fuck. You could tell she was one of those spoiled kids who aren't used to being called out on their shit and threw a petty fit about it. This time they put a spotlight on her ass and the sound guy pointed her out. They led her out again. Ugh, we thought. LOCK THE GODDAMN DOORS.

We go back to the concert. A few minutes pass and we all forget about her. We sway to the music. Justin croons. He has great stage presence. All is good, all is calm. A security guy comes and stands very near to us, keeping an eye out. He wasn't there for five minutes before this girl comes back. She was like the fucking Energizer bunny, the way she just kept on coming. This time, this security guard meant business. I guess he was the one who threw them out for good. I don't know why it took that long to do it, but who knows.

All in all, great concert. We got a show and then we got a Show. When we left, I kept on looking around to see if the douchebag brigade was hanging around, but they had slithered off back to their trust fund palaces.

Today has been a completely annoying day. Holly & Zach's Halloween party tonight. Jersey Mikes & 2nd & Charles tomorrow. Shopping for birthday-gift card stuffies on Sunday.

I am not going to let other people's lame ass decisions bother me. Their loss, not mine.

-Rae