Like the title says, it was a very good weekend I must say. Friday I went to Six Flags Great Adventure and then saw The Flaming Tsunamis final Jersey show and Saturday I saw Reel Big Fish and the English Beat. All of these were with my dear, dear friend Amy, who is finally home from her year in Iceland. To top all this off, Saturday ended with the playing of "The Young and the Hopeless", the timeless album by Good Charlotte...but more on that later on.
For my second trip to Great Adventure this summer, it was finally good weather. Fantastic weather, beautiful as a whore's ass, water ride good. First we went on Bizzaro (which will always to me be Medusa East), great as always. Other rides ridden were El Toro, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Nitro, Congo River Rapids, and Batman: The Ride. I'm not used to having to wait on line there, which was kind of annoying because like Shawn Spencer, "I don't wait in lines". As a result, Medusa was the only one we went on twice. I don't know why Kingda Ka was closed...oh well, it'll be open other times.
Afterwards we went to Long Branch to The Flaming Tsunamis (http://www.myspace.com/theflamingtsunamis) final New Jersey show. Opening were 4 Community Records bands, most of which were good, but I wasn't familiar with them. However, Fatter Than Albert (http://www.myspace.com/fatterthanalbert) was really good for my first time seeing them. The Venue, The Brighton, was really cool. Small bar with half of the room devoted to an all-ages show, re-entry and 3 blocks from the beach. Good shit. Then after being very late, The Flaming Tsunamis finally arrived. Their set was short, maybe only 8 songs tops, but they were GREAT. The atmosphere of the venue made it even more fun as they rock Jersey one final time. I've seen them at least 5 or 6 times, and despite being a short set, this was the best I've seen them. They will be missed.
Saturday's show was at Starland Ballroom....a venue that often pisses me off. This was one of those shows, it just gets too packed indoors. But that didn't ruin this amazing show. The Waffle Stompers (http://www.myspace.com/thewafflestompers) put on a great show, good set for my first time seeing this New Brunswick ska band. Next up were the Supervillains (http://www.myspace.com/therealsupervillains), who are much more enjoyable when not playing with Pepper. Then came the English Beat (http://www.myspace.com/officialbeatspace). After 30 years of being a band, the English Beat are still amazing. I described them as the same as Turk's ring tone in Scrubs....I defy you not to dance to them. Great set. Not as good as when I saw them in January, but this set was also about 45 minutes shorter. If you think you don't know them, listen to the song "Rotating Heads", you'll recognize it from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".
Finally the headliners, Reel Big Fish (http://www.myspace.com/reelbigfish). Probably the best set I've seen them put on. I only wish they played "Trendy" and "Join the Club", but other than that they played all my favorite tunes. Kicking it off with "Take On Me" and ending it all with "Sell Out", nothing to complain about with their performance.
On the way home we listened to "The Young and the Hopeless", the amazingly catchy album by punk rawkers Good Charlotte. This cd was great in 8th grade and it didn't take long for me to remember why I loved it then. After 7 years or so, I still remembered about 60% of all the lyrics. If you have it, listen to it again. Its just very enjoyable and hilariously ironic....not to mention oh so true..."Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money"....God damn gold diggers.
sounds like a fun weekend!
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