Friday, July 25, 1997 -- Monkee's
They really can play their instruments.		I drove to East Tennessee again today. I went to see Marie, and she took me to see the Monkee's. I made the mistake of trusting the computer's directions a little too much, and when I stopped and asked for directions people couldn't help. Either I was a lot further away than my directions implied, or they were so out of whack with the way the locals refer to their streets, that all i got was blank stares. On top of that, I got out of Charlotte late, making me overall two hours late by the time I got close enough to call Azura, and send up signal flares. I had taken a wild-assed-guess, and driven on an interstate, then when I felt like I'd gone too far, i got off. Ironically, that road was the highway I was looking for. Unfortunately, though, I had no idea which way to drive or where my address would lead me. Eventually, I found a gas station, and called her. She asked me, "Did you pass a lot of people?" "I passed something that looks like a gathering, or game," I told her. "Yeah," she said, "That's where we're going." Somehow, I'd found my way to within walking distance of the concert. It was pretty good luck, since we would have had to travel much further, if I'd actually found our meeting place. Since I was so late, we might not have made the concert. We walked over to the concert arena, which was basically the local high school's football/baseball field. We originally sat close up near the stage, in the field, but later moved backstage. The warmup band was a beach music band called the Catalinas. They are out of Charlotte, and were pretty good, if you like beach music. I like it because it's completely danceable, and has lots of different ways to dance to it (besides the random twisting type of dance you run into in discos). Basically, you can dance with your Mom to beach music, or you can dance with your lover. It's the same dance but it's also very different. The Monkee's arrived, and played. Some things I noticed.. They had a case of "We'reStarsItis". Everyone backstage was berated with "If you don't back up they won't come out." Come on guys, you're playing a football field. You can't con us! They really can play their own instruments, but since one of them was missing, and they aren't that great at playing, they had a backup band for the really cool riffs. Well, they did play some decent bits, but they were very specific, not general throughout the concert. They weren't bad, and put on a good show! Hey I had a good time, just because I criticize doesn't mean I thought they sucked. All in all, I had an excellent time. Generic Joe's A Typical Male