I went to my first gig in ages last night. An all-day event at Grays civic hall that was comprised of unsigned acts and local bands, it was also the first time my daughter was to see any live acts.
I can’t say it was a particularly pleasant experience, we arrived late due to other commitments and missed the first six hours (this turned out to be a blessing). I knew I would probably stand out as a bit old for this but was a little unprepared for the youthfulness of the crowd, I felt like a 70 year old in a school play. The sound was awful, the bands while all looking different all sounded the same though I don’t think this was an intended feature of the night, the only decent act we saw was a DJ who I never caught the name of doing some quite impressive stuff on his decks.
The crowd provided some amusement, watching over emotional alcohol fuelled teenagers interacting was interesting, with the homogenized style of dress and identi-haircuts it did make me wonder if this was how my crowd was viewed 19-20 years ago. The other odd thing about the young masses who inhabited this strange little get together was the tidal action you always get when bands come and go from the stage, normally you expect everybody to go to the bar between acts but here it was the other way round with people charging on to the dance floor to bounce around to the likes of Baggy Trousers or Enter Sandman and then all file out when the band came on. Weird or is it just me?
I will have to make it up to the poor girl, I thought this would be something she enjoyed but I know she was not impressed.
Last time I went to one of these events at the local civic hall was fifteen years ago, I now know why.
