Sunday, April 26, 2009

Thank You, Proud Walkmen Parents

As previously mentioned, I wrote a Post preview about the Walkmen and Kings of Leon. The former's PR person said I'd be on the guest list to see the show but, when hubby and I got to the Patriot Center box office, after being stuck in traffic, the band was already onstage and the BO ladies had no record of our tickets. Luckily, I had printed out copies of the online version of the story, and had the PR email to back up my story. While they didn't seem to care about the article, they took my personal story seriously (one benefit of being older and not looking too groupie-like) and made some phone calls.

Through the open door, I could hear the Walkmen playing, and what I heard I liked a lot, which made it all the more frustrating to be stuck just outside the lobby. I heard a fast-tempo song I really like that I am trying to track down as I write, and heard someone onstage "thank the parents for coming." I assumed he meant the parents who had dutifully driven their kids to see the show.

But no. I had forgotten that The Walkmen is made up of guys who grew up in the DC area and formed the band after moving to NYC. (I also forgot that a few of them had been in Jonathan Fire*Eater, too.) After the band's set ended, the BO woman finally called me back to the window and out comes a good looking young guy wearing a "Support Act" laminate and profusely apologizing for the ticket mix-up. I tell him I liked what I heard, and ask how he's associated with the band. "I'm the keyboard player," he answers, and I think he said his name was Peter (as in Bauer? as best as I can tell via Goolge image search, that was he). Oops. Again, I said I liked what I heard, and again he apologized for the ticket mix-up. "Do you still want to see the show?" he asked, and yes, we did. So, he hands us two tickets, which he says are his parents'. I protest that I can't take his parents' tickets, but he says they left right after the band finished their set. And that's when I realized that the band had been thanking their own parents for coming! Such nice boys!

As was Peter, who then walked us past the ticket guards, explaining that he was in the opening act, that we were his guests and, when the guards went to re-zap the tickets, faked them out (since the tickets had already been scanned) by saying we had left without knowing there was a no re-entry policy. So, a Walkman scammed us into the show. That was a new one for me.

The band's family gets pretty good seats, too, in the same section that I have sat in many times before as a press person. This not-so-great shot, still using my daughter's cheapie cast-off camera, shows our position vis-a-vis the stage.


As for the Kings of Leon, after having seen a most amazing, intense show at the 930 Club around the time of "Aha Shake Heartbreak," this larger venue would almost inevitably be a disappointment to us. The band is as sharp as ever, and the songs still prowl/growl with great, pounding rhythms and prickly hooks, but that other time the band seemed practically feral ("They scared me then!" Terry said, with admiration). And that was awesome.

So now was good - the band deserves to play larger venues and does so with cool panache, including restrained/engaging lights and video - but then was better. You're only that lean, mean and hungry once.

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