Pennywise, LG foolish

This weekend, I did several supposedly fun things I'll probably never do again*.

• The "fun" started when we went to Belltown Pizzeria. The food was good, but the service sucked like service has never sucked before. He brings a caraffe of water, so he won't have to refill our glasses - but it was early and a seemingly slow night. He never asks if we want desert. He forgets to split the bill like we'd asked him to when we ordered. We send it back, he splits it, then he runs the wrong credit cards for each half. We have to have him cancel the transactions and run it correctly again. It wasn't hard. Card A is in your left hand with receipt A, both from the left half of the table. Card B, Receipt B, right hand, right half of table. That was just too much for him. Worst was that this followed the service failure that occured the instant we sat down:
  There was a nail protruding from the booth, and with a resounding "rrriiiip!" it tore a several inch long hole my wife's pants-leg. The host/waiters reaction was almost a complete lack of reaction. "Huh, look at that. That's kinda sharp." There were more than half a dozen empty tables, and at least 2 other empty booths. He could have moved us to new spot, and fetched a hammer to make sure that didn't happen to anyone else. Hell, he could have just apologized.
  I typically tip 20 to 25%, but gave ZERO to that clown. Yes, I realize this is petty, but I needed to bitch.
  


• After that mess, we went to Key Arena for a sporting event. I don't typically "do" sporting events, but I wanted to try broadening my horizons. This wasn't a normal sporting event. It was LG Action Sports X-Games rip-off thingy. Inline skating and BMX tricks. It was kinda cool, actually, but I'm not sure I needed 3 hours of it.
  I certainly didn't need to see that many hairy asses as ill-tempered athletes did a variety of things that would have earned them Unsporting Conduct DQ's if it was a Magic tournament. Silver medalist angrily shoves his medal in his pocket, pours his water bottle out on the arena floor (trying to douse the guy who hands out the medals), gives the crowd the finger and then moons the camera. This lead to a lengthy argument with the judge/producer, who gets in the guy's face but fails to do anything to curb his behavior. If it were my event, I'd have ejected him. If it were any other professional sport they'd have kicked him off the "field". The management of the event had no control, so this sort of behavior will be replicated by him and others down the road.
  Now I know where all those asshole PTQ primadonnas I've Disqualified get their inspiration.
  


• The ad for the event said "With Musical Guest: Pennywise". Not exactly my favorite band, but the couple we were attending with like them alot, so I was willing to take the "risk". (We got free tickets via Sarah's work, so the only real cost was time.) Hey, at least I'd get to shout "Fuck Authority!" so the night wouldn't be a total wash.
  The band didn't take the stage till long after all the events were done. We joked about leaving out of boredom before showed their heads.
  There's this big pit space in front of the stage - we thought for sure we'd be going down there. Nope. The athletes, crew, and their families were allowed down there, but no one with tickets (not even those who, unlike us, paid for them). The band tries real hard to goad people into jumping the fence and rushing the pit, but security beats up the first two who try it and the crowd stays put thereafter.
  
  Now, I know you don't go to a Pennywise concert because you love their rich multilayered melodies and lyrical subtlety. Just the same, I expected something like this:
  I can rock out to that. I wanted to rock out to that.
  Instead, the distortion was cranked up so high, it was just an hour-long feedback loop. Not only could you not understand lyrics, you couldn't tell when they were singing. You also couldn't hear or feel the rhythm.
  
  I know the band played Fuck Authority, but I could discern that only from context of them bitching about the assholes that wouldn't let the concert-goers down into the pit. "You know what I say to that? Fuck Authority! This is for all those people keeping you off the floor. Fuck Authority!" Then the feedback loop kicked in and for 3 minutes they played the same sustained note without tempo variance while I tried to puzzle out whether or not they were indeed playing the one Pennywise song I knew. The same thing happens with the next 3 or 4 songs, I'm straining to figure out whether or not it's just the same song again and again, because I literally cannot determine anything about tempo, rhythm or lyrics. I have never felt so old in my life. Even the song they claim was originally by Black Flag just disappeared into the same undifferentiated blur. Sure, dude, if you say you're playing somebody else's music, I guess I'll believe you, but it sounds to me like the same unrelenting tempoless chord you've been bashing for the past 20 minutes. Are you sure your axe is plugged in? I see you moving your hands, but it's not reflected in the wall of sound. I see the drummer swinging his sticks, but I have yet to hear or feel a drumbeat. Eventually, after about 6 identical-sounding songs, there was a pause long enough** for me to yell to Sarah: "This blows, wanna go?"
  
  I don't blame the band - the venue sucked. Gigantic stage-side pit, with just 20 people in it while the rest of us looked down enviously from the upper decks. Hideous acoustics because they arena typically has 40 to 50 times as many overall attendance. Security that beats up paying customers but won't step between a badboy skater and the producer he's swinging at. What a crock of shit. With all that mishandled, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the indecipherable quality of the music were the result of some site tech mis-wiring the speakers.
  

*: Just like that post I wrote titled "Lies My Teacher Told Me", this post has nothing to do with yet another book (in this case by David Foster Wallace) that I read some parts of (mainly the David Lynch section) with great relish years ago and just kinda skimmed the rest. I'm nearly done with the thing I've been reading in the bathroom (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead), so maybe I'll go haul out A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and read it for earnest. Whether or not I do is besides the point, I'm just saying that I considered that as a possible name for the post.

**: That was the quietest bus-ride home of my life, and I suppose it's possible I was deaf for most of it. Which then makes me wonder if the pause where I shouted that at her wasn't actually a pause. Perhaps my eardrums had ruptured. Like I said, I've never felt so old.