ATP, part two
Saturday, March 30, 2002 x 2 - 16:50

This is part two of my ATP review. Here's part one and part three.

So. Okay. Finally we got to UCLA.

It was about quarter to five. The sun was rather low in the sky, shining its golden rays on the lovely lovely big buildings, the lovely green open spaces, the lovely people playing frisbee. At my campus, we don't have lovely lovely buildings, any open space, and consequently no people playing frisbee. My campus sucks ass. I considered transferring to UCLA. But our freptology department is better than theirs.

There was a very long line to get into the theater. There were about 500 people in front of us. (Like I really know.) The doors were supposed to open at 4, but they hadn't. After a while, they opened the doors, but they only let in like 20 people at a time. I had two cameras that I hid in my armpits. The security was a joke.

We were eight rows back on the right side. The auditorium was just lovely. It only holds 1800 people. I guess there were people lined up outside all night who couldn't get in.

I left to go to the bathroom. As I was walking back, I heard music playing. It was Quix*o*tic. I'd never heard of them, but I liked them. It was two girls, who kept switching back and forth between drums and guitar/vocals, and a guy on bass. I was impressed. Someone at the side of the stage told them one more song, but they played three more. That was fine with me, because they were good.

Then it was Christina Rosenvinge. Are there any boys who sing with an all girl back up band? This was a girl with an all boy band. They were okay. I wasn't all that impressed. I would have preferred Quix*o*tic to keep on playing.

Then it was Ikue Mori, Kim Gordon, Jim O'Rourke, and DJ Olive. They played a bunch of feedback. Ikue Mori had a computer. I don't really know what she did with it. Kim had a trumpet. At first I thought, "Cool, a trumpet", because I used to play the trumpet. But Kim didn't really play it. She just blew through it and made fart noises. Then she started saying stuff like, "Kiss me. No, really kiss me" and someone in the crowd started yelling rude things. During this performance, I turned around and looked at the people's faces behind me. Some were flabbergasted. It was funny.

During these first few acts, I realized why indie people hate mainstream people: You don't have to be a music fan to be a fan of mainstream musicians. There were a lot of people there who weren't music fans. They were just there to see Eddie Vedder and didn't even try to pretend otherwise. We were just there to see Eddie Vedder too, but we listened to the other acts. We didn't talk on our cell phones, or get up to get drinks every five minutes, or talk really loudly to each other.

Then Eddie Vedder came out. Everyone stood up and hooted and hollered, and then they sat back down. Someone threw a joint at Eddie, and he caught it.

He has a mohawk, as I'm sure everyone knows by now. At the show he'd played at before this, he had kept his hat on for most of the night. But this night he just came out bareheaded.

There were three ukeleles and one guitar set up. Mr. Pooh also saw a harmonica. There were two microphones. While they were setting up, someone came out with a violin and stood by the second microphone.

Okay. So he started playing. The first song was Soon Forget on ukelele. Then after that people were shouting things out (like they were ALL FUCKING NIGHT) and someone said, "It's my cousin's birthday!!!" and Ed said, "What's his name?" and they guy said, "Oh me!!!" and Ed said, "Oh me? Congratulations." Then he started playing Happy Birthday to Oh Me. Ha ha, it was so funny.

Then he played Can't Keep, and dude, you've never heard the ukelele played so well. Speed thrash ukelele. Dude. Motherfucker. Seriously. (You can, and should, download the mp3s, by the way, at this site. You can, and should, also download the mp3s from the Concert for Artists' Rights there as well, especially the ones with Beck, because they are too fucking beautiful.)

Then some fucking bitch yelled out, "Where's Hovercraft?" Some fucker kept yelling, "Free the West Memphis 3, Eddie!" Dude.

Then he played a new song. It was lovely and sad. "I guess that this is goodbye ... And for what feels like the first time, I don't know where you are tonight."

Then he played Broken Hearted, a nother lovely and sad song.

Then he played Satellite, a song that had been speculated about for a while. He'd played it at some guy's birthday party, the CEO of Real Networks I think, and a lot of stupid fuckers on the internet had been pissed about that. ("How dare he play at that asshole's birthday party, because all CEOs are assholes, when he's MY musical hero? I never gave him permission!") Satellite is a lovely song. Right after this song is when that moron first yelled out, "Free the West Memphis 3, Eddie!"

Then he got the guitar and played Thumbing My Way. Lovely. Yes, all the previous songs were on ukelele.

Then he played I Am Mine, which we saw first performed at the Bridge School Benefit. He's changed some of the words since then, and it always alarms me to hear the new words.

And then he brought back the ukelele for a nother new song, You're True. This is actually a relatively happy song. Lovely and happy.

And then he said that he'd met this kid out surfing and found out that the kid played the violin, so they'd been practicing some songs after school. So then the kid came out. I guess he's like 15. His name's James. So they played a nother new song, Longing To Belong, with Ed on ukelele, and they played Parting Ways, with Ed on guitar. It was lovely. Just. You know. And very cool.

At the end of Parting Ways, they both jumped at the same time. Eddie had kicked one of the ukeleles off its stand, and he jumped on it and smashed it. Then he handed it to someone in the audience. Afterwards, someone came from the back and gave that person the case for the poor broken ukelele.

Of all these songs, only two are old songs. All the others, except Happy Birthday, written by Traditional, are new. Hurrah. And only two songs were played on guitar. All the rest were on ukelele. He never played the harmonica though.

And his set was WAY TOO SHORT. Only 40 minutes, even though he'd been scheduled for an hour. Pisser.

I used up all the film in one camera, mostly at the end when everyone was standing and cheering. Through most of the songs, I just sat there entranced because it was so nice. It really was.