"38 Special": Not Just for Shooting People Anymore
If you are from my generation if you have heard of 38 Special it is probobly because you heard them on the radio when you were forced to listen to the station your dad likes. Or because you heard a 6 second clip of "Hold on Loosely" on some commercial for a Southern-Fried Rock compelation CD. However, I assure you they are a real band, with real songs, and I saw them this Sunday night. Why did I go see 38 Special you ask? Well, because it was free... and I didn't really have anything better to do.
38 Special was preforming for free as part of Rochester's "Riverside" music promotion. Their opening band was called Fandango, which was assumed was some sort of ZZ Top cover band. We missed Fandango. We arrived roughly 6 minutes before 38 Special came on. After walking around aimlessly for about 2 minutes Jeff and I decided to try to go up front. People were not allowed to stand directly in front of the band, this was because there were thousands of people who brought lawn chairs to sit in, and us pathetic standers were not to block their view. Thus those of us who chose to stand were relagated to the sides. This being said, by showing up a full 4 minutes before the band came on Jeff and I were able to get a spot in the second row.
Standing in the second row put us in with the truly hard core 38 special fans. However, there were also a good number of hapless crowd-members who had simply wondered up to the stage moments before the show started, and suprisingly found themselves at the front of the crowd. Thus the crowd in this area was a good mix of die-hard fans who seemed to be fufilling their life's greatest ambition, and those (like myself) who have slightly loftier goals than to view a life show by one of the contributing artists to the "Going South" Compelation CD.
Throughout the roughly two hour show, the band played three songs I recognized. One I can't remember the name of, Hold On Loosely, and a cover of CCR's "Traveling Band". For these songs I enthusiastically sang along, clapped, cheered, etc. For the rest of the songs Jeff and I continuously flashed the metal sign, yelled "Goulet", and did many of the other activities that are associated with the semi-ironic enjoyment of a free southern-fried rock concert.
All this being said, 38 Special really did put on a pretty good show. They were loud, they talked to the crowd alot without really saying anything, and the one guy they got is acctually really good at playing the guitar. Acctually Once they got into their encour, and started really getting into it, the crowed came as close to knocking over the protecting fence as you can expect from a crowd of middle-aged prodominately overweight midwesterners who mostly work at the Mayo clinic and IBM.
Thus while I of chorse chose to give the concert and the people who attended it shit in this review. I must adit I enjoyed the show. And while this review was somewhat longwinded, I can tell you my review at the end of the concert was much more susinct. In fact, I held it to under 5 words: "38 Special Kicks Ass".
38 Special was preforming for free as part of Rochester's "Riverside" music promotion. Their opening band was called Fandango, which was assumed was some sort of ZZ Top cover band. We missed Fandango. We arrived roughly 6 minutes before 38 Special came on. After walking around aimlessly for about 2 minutes Jeff and I decided to try to go up front. People were not allowed to stand directly in front of the band, this was because there were thousands of people who brought lawn chairs to sit in, and us pathetic standers were not to block their view. Thus those of us who chose to stand were relagated to the sides. This being said, by showing up a full 4 minutes before the band came on Jeff and I were able to get a spot in the second row.
Standing in the second row put us in with the truly hard core 38 special fans. However, there were also a good number of hapless crowd-members who had simply wondered up to the stage moments before the show started, and suprisingly found themselves at the front of the crowd. Thus the crowd in this area was a good mix of die-hard fans who seemed to be fufilling their life's greatest ambition, and those (like myself) who have slightly loftier goals than to view a life show by one of the contributing artists to the "Going South" Compelation CD.
Throughout the roughly two hour show, the band played three songs I recognized. One I can't remember the name of, Hold On Loosely, and a cover of CCR's "Traveling Band". For these songs I enthusiastically sang along, clapped, cheered, etc. For the rest of the songs Jeff and I continuously flashed the metal sign, yelled "Goulet", and did many of the other activities that are associated with the semi-ironic enjoyment of a free southern-fried rock concert.
All this being said, 38 Special really did put on a pretty good show. They were loud, they talked to the crowd alot without really saying anything, and the one guy they got is acctually really good at playing the guitar. Acctually Once they got into their encour, and started really getting into it, the crowed came as close to knocking over the protecting fence as you can expect from a crowd of middle-aged prodominately overweight midwesterners who mostly work at the Mayo clinic and IBM.
Thus while I of chorse chose to give the concert and the people who attended it shit in this review. I must adit I enjoyed the show. And while this review was somewhat longwinded, I can tell you my review at the end of the concert was much more susinct. In fact, I held it to under 5 words: "38 Special Kicks Ass".
posted by Blake Stockdale at 1:06 PM
1 Comments:
Yes, but 38 Specials are still very good for shooting people. Let's please never forget that.
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