Black Cards, et al at Ace of Spades 4/1/11
Apr. 2nd, 2011 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleHaving learned my lesson from the last concert review I posted, a note to those of you who have arrived here via Google Alerts: I am the fan fiction writing variety of fangirl. Anything in here about the possibility of people mentioned sleeping together is wholly imaginary and meant for fun, not as either reality or an insult. (If you're a Vizzy fan, being upset that I didn't like him is a perfectly valid life choice.)
Ace of Spades is surprisingly not sketchy, although aspects of it do make me laugh. They let over twenty-ones in first. The will call list appears to be one sheet of paper taped to the wall inside the box office. The security guy then gallantly asks if he can have the pleasure of stamping my hand. The place is mostly a large room with red walls and a black ceiling. Pete must feel right at home. /AKjoke There are chandeliers over the bars that reflect off the mirrors. The stage is essentially a large triangle in a corner. To the left is an over twenty-one area with a bar and some seating in the form of black vinyl booths against the walls of both levels. To the right is the all-ages bar selling water, some other non-alcoholic liquids, and earplugs. There's some other sort of seating area/bar at the very back. By the end of the show, there are a lot of people in that area. There's one more small, square bar near merch. You can't really see the stage from there. It has a TV showing the baseball game. One more note about this place's non-sketchiness: the bathroom is huge. There is no line, even just at the end of a set.
There's no one here but three rows of kids who got in early because they bought the Travie meet and greet package. I stand behind them, figuring I can last out a crowded pit through Black Cards' set. This is a new experience for me. I was the last of the over twenty-ones let in early, so the teenagers start filtering in after me. To my right are three scene girls with a surprising number of facial piercings. They have brought a boy, who is not scene. He is also very tall. (Because I learned the name of the girl next to me by reading over her shoulder when she was answering Formspring comments on her phone and because I am occasionally internet creepy, I have found her tumblr. Apparently the boy was their transportation. She is also a slasher, although her fic on ff.net is all for some band/show/something I have never heard of.) He spends the whole show standing behind them. Scene girl next to me uses her hands to explain something to their boy: "Brendon and Spencer," right hand, "Ryan and Jon," left hand. "They were Panic! at the Disco." She brings her hands together. "Then they split up," hands apart. "Panic! at the Disco," right hand, "The Young Veins," left hand. "They're on hiatus. And that's why I hate him." Unfortunately, I missed the beginning, so I'm not sure if the him in question is Ryan or Jon.
I'm sure all these cool kids with their friends and their cell phones must think I, an older woman in a polo, alone, writing on a 3 x 5 card, am very strange.
Bad Rabbits are up first. Their drummer's setup is one snare, one bass, four cymbals, and a MacBook. Their lead singer is channeling the late 90s-early 2000s. Get him to pull up his pants, and he would fit right into a boy band. He even has coordinated dance moves with his guitarists. I find this delightful. There are two small contingents of Bad Rabbits fans - the one to my left is yelling their heads off - but other than them, I can only see three people dancing. (I make a fourth.) I think most of the crowd is really too young to appreciate the 90s vibe. The scene girls are not impressed. To break down after their set, Bad Rabbits actually hands their stuff down off the stage to someone standing on the floor. After a while, I remember that the Bad Rabbits toured with The Young Veins, which makes no sense at all.
XV, aka "Vizzy," is just as ridiculous as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
reni_days said. He has a John Deere backpack for no other reason than to be "the kid with the green backpack." His first three songs are all about how his name is Vizzy. The only good joke in these three songs is in his patter between where he says, "Some people call me 'Fifteen.'" There is an amazing heckler behind me who shouts things like, "What's your name?" There is also a totally hot and fantastically dressed Black girl - tall, black pants, white button-down half open over a camisole, suspenders, scarf over the front of her hair - next to me who is Not Impressed. (Later, tongue out and dead-eyed, she photobombs the two girls in front of her.) Halfway through his set, Vizzy brings out some other guy who wears a Batman mask on a chain. His first bit is really offensive, although my mind has done me the favor of blanking out what variety of offensive. He then says something about how being in Cali makes him feel like Tupac. If you're going to invoke Tupac, you have to be better than this guy is. He does get a cheer out of the crowd for something like, "love for my boy Nate / dogs go to heaven." Vizzy's DJ is named "DJ Awesome." This seems appropriate as "awesome" is the only adjective Vizzy knows.
There's a little shuffling that goes on due to a trio of some of the rudest, most entitled teenagers I've ever encountered (the scene girls and another pair of girls give them hell about it), so by the time Black Cards get on stage, I've moved back and to the right a bit. I'm still pretty much dead center, but I'm also now kind of behind the scene girls' boy and have to lean to the right to see Pete. I don't care that much because I have an excellent view of Bebe.
My Bebe characterization is all wrong. I've been thinking of her as basically sweet, but damn is that girl sexy. Pictures don't even begin to do justice to her as a stage presence. She circles her hips as she sings. I almost wish I were farther back so I could see the movement better. If you'll let me engage in a little objectification for a moment, she also has an incredible ass. Like, seriously, why have I not been writing fic where Gabe just picks her up with both hands full of her ass and they fuck against the wall?
Pete and Bebe start out with their furry hats - Pete's is actually the hood of a jacket (he's also wearing aviator goggles); Bebe's has pockets, which we learn when she sticks her hands in them while Pete's talking - but Pete loses clothes as the show goes on. He also looks like a teenager. You know howicecreamhdaches has a "patrick is aging backwards" tag? I think they need a matching Pete one.
The story worth telling about Pete's stage chatter: He tells us he was thinking about not touring, about just staying at home. His good friend Gabe Saporta told him to think of his capacity for happiness as a box. It's only so big, and no amount of fame is going to make it bigger. But if you go out there and make other people happy, then your box can get bigger. Then he tells us "I know how to make a room full of people sad. I did that for fucking seven years." Now he wants to see if he can make people happy. "Can you get happy with me?" At another point, he also says something about Patrick, and then gets us to cheer for Patrick. He swears a lot, which I find kind of charming. He is also drinking beer out of green plastic cups while the rest of his band has water. (Given that the last show I saw had Chris and his band swigging from a bottle of Jack in addition to their beers, Pete seems like something of an amateur.)
The only time Bebe really talks, she gets Pete to help her, and they face each other with their mics:
Every once in a while, Pete wanders over toward Bebe, as if he still has to be near the person singing his words. For part of a song, he presses his eyebrow to his mic like he has to lean on something. My favorite adorable thing he does is sing along, mouth opening wide on every word, even when he's far away from a mic.
I must confess that I am also walking away from this show sharing the interest of a friend who may wish to remain unnamed at this point in time: Pete/Bebe. I would totally read it. Possibly some kink where she becomes/takes over as his domme. (Or, um, kink where she and Patrick are his doms and they share him.) (Raise your hand if you're surprised I'm suggesting kink. No one? Good, you all know me well.) Bebe's handcuffs appear to just be there to give her something to fidget with as she sings, but surely she could put them to other uses.
I think Black Cards would be a better show if they had an album. I don't know most of the songs and, of course, you can't hear the vocals very well. They also do a cover of "Grenade," which gets my "what the fuck?" face when Bruno Mars sings it, but Bebe puts some real emotion into it and they rock the fuck out, which makes it a better song.
I'm tired and parched, so I work my way out of the crowd after the Black Cards' set and go to sit down in the over twenty-one area to write a lot of this down. (I have my JONAS notebook with me, so I don't have to solely rely on 3 x 5 cards.) I stay there for Donnis. I probably would have danced if I were still in the crowd, but I'm pretty happy to just watch a little bit while seated. At one point, Donnis leans down and asks, "How old are you?" then says, "Ten! I better watch my mouth." I'm pretty sure that means the rude teenagers - who were really two rude teenagers and a elementary school kid - made it up to the front.
Black Cards does a meet and greet at merch between Donnis and Travie, so I stand in line to get my picture taken with Bebe and with Pete.
The scene boy behind me - black skinny jeans with a suit coat and a red tie that matches the red satiny top of the girl with him - is super friendly when he agrees to take my picture with Bebe. Pete has me hand my camera to Marcus to take our picture. Bebe is still totally on. Pete, not so much. Honestly, it's kind of a downer how subdued and not into it he is. If you want to make people happy, you have to carry that through the meet and greet, even if you have to fake it, especially since there are probably a lot of Black Cards fans who are fans because OMG, Pete Wentz!
At this point, I am pretty much exhausted. I retreat to the over twenty-one seating for a bit, but head back down to the floor for Travie. People keep arriving between Donnis's set and his. The floor is about half full, although one of the bar areas is crowded. Generously speaking, the place might be close to two-thirds of capacity. Travie's tech has to reach all the way over his head to adjust Travie's mic. His mic stand, we learn later, lights up. I only last three songs, and when Travie starts to ramble about Gremlins, I decide I'm done for the evening and head home. (If it were a local show, I would stick it out, but I still have to drive an hour and a half home without falling asleep. Vices & Virtues takes me just to the last stoplight in Yuba City, which means I can safely switch to Florence and the Machine's Lungs to take me most of the rest of the way home.)
Ace of Spades is surprisingly not sketchy, although aspects of it do make me laugh. They let over twenty-ones in first. The will call list appears to be one sheet of paper taped to the wall inside the box office. The security guy then gallantly asks if he can have the pleasure of stamping my hand. The place is mostly a large room with red walls and a black ceiling. Pete must feel right at home. /AKjoke There are chandeliers over the bars that reflect off the mirrors. The stage is essentially a large triangle in a corner. To the left is an over twenty-one area with a bar and some seating in the form of black vinyl booths against the walls of both levels. To the right is the all-ages bar selling water, some other non-alcoholic liquids, and earplugs. There's some other sort of seating area/bar at the very back. By the end of the show, there are a lot of people in that area. There's one more small, square bar near merch. You can't really see the stage from there. It has a TV showing the baseball game. One more note about this place's non-sketchiness: the bathroom is huge. There is no line, even just at the end of a set.
There's no one here but three rows of kids who got in early because they bought the Travie meet and greet package. I stand behind them, figuring I can last out a crowded pit through Black Cards' set. This is a new experience for me. I was the last of the over twenty-ones let in early, so the teenagers start filtering in after me. To my right are three scene girls with a surprising number of facial piercings. They have brought a boy, who is not scene. He is also very tall. (Because I learned the name of the girl next to me by reading over her shoulder when she was answering Formspring comments on her phone and because I am occasionally internet creepy, I have found her tumblr. Apparently the boy was their transportation. She is also a slasher, although her fic on ff.net is all for some band/show/something I have never heard of.) He spends the whole show standing behind them. Scene girl next to me uses her hands to explain something to their boy: "Brendon and Spencer," right hand, "Ryan and Jon," left hand. "They were Panic! at the Disco." She brings her hands together. "Then they split up," hands apart. "Panic! at the Disco," right hand, "The Young Veins," left hand. "They're on hiatus. And that's why I hate him." Unfortunately, I missed the beginning, so I'm not sure if the him in question is Ryan or Jon.
I'm sure all these cool kids with their friends and their cell phones must think I, an older woman in a polo, alone, writing on a 3 x 5 card, am very strange.
Bad Rabbits are up first. Their drummer's setup is one snare, one bass, four cymbals, and a MacBook. Their lead singer is channeling the late 90s-early 2000s. Get him to pull up his pants, and he would fit right into a boy band. He even has coordinated dance moves with his guitarists. I find this delightful. There are two small contingents of Bad Rabbits fans - the one to my left is yelling their heads off - but other than them, I can only see three people dancing. (I make a fourth.) I think most of the crowd is really too young to appreciate the 90s vibe. The scene girls are not impressed. To break down after their set, Bad Rabbits actually hands their stuff down off the stage to someone standing on the floor. After a while, I remember that the Bad Rabbits toured with The Young Veins, which makes no sense at all.
XV, aka "Vizzy," is just as ridiculous as
reni_days said. He has a John Deere backpack for no other reason than to be "the kid with the green backpack." His first three songs are all about how his name is Vizzy. The only good joke in these three songs is in his patter between where he says, "Some people call me 'Fifteen.'" There is an amazing heckler behind me who shouts things like, "What's your name?" There is also a totally hot and fantastically dressed Black girl - tall, black pants, white button-down half open over a camisole, suspenders, scarf over the front of her hair - next to me who is Not Impressed. (Later, tongue out and dead-eyed, she photobombs the two girls in front of her.) Halfway through his set, Vizzy brings out some other guy who wears a Batman mask on a chain. His first bit is really offensive, although my mind has done me the favor of blanking out what variety of offensive. He then says something about how being in Cali makes him feel like Tupac. If you're going to invoke Tupac, you have to be better than this guy is. He does get a cheer out of the crowd for something like, "love for my boy Nate / dogs go to heaven." Vizzy's DJ is named "DJ Awesome." This seems appropriate as "awesome" is the only adjective Vizzy knows.There's a little shuffling that goes on due to a trio of some of the rudest, most entitled teenagers I've ever encountered (the scene girls and another pair of girls give them hell about it), so by the time Black Cards get on stage, I've moved back and to the right a bit. I'm still pretty much dead center, but I'm also now kind of behind the scene girls' boy and have to lean to the right to see Pete. I don't care that much because I have an excellent view of Bebe.
My Bebe characterization is all wrong. I've been thinking of her as basically sweet, but damn is that girl sexy. Pictures don't even begin to do justice to her as a stage presence. She circles her hips as she sings. I almost wish I were farther back so I could see the movement better. If you'll let me engage in a little objectification for a moment, she also has an incredible ass. Like, seriously, why have I not been writing fic where Gabe just picks her up with both hands full of her ass and they fuck against the wall?
Pete and Bebe start out with their furry hats - Pete's is actually the hood of a jacket (he's also wearing aviator goggles); Bebe's has pockets, which we learn when she sticks her hands in them while Pete's talking - but Pete loses clothes as the show goes on. He also looks like a teenager. You know how
icecreamhdaches has a "patrick is aging backwards" tag? I think they need a matching Pete one.The story worth telling about Pete's stage chatter: He tells us he was thinking about not touring, about just staying at home. His good friend Gabe Saporta told him to think of his capacity for happiness as a box. It's only so big, and no amount of fame is going to make it bigger. But if you go out there and make other people happy, then your box can get bigger. Then he tells us "I know how to make a room full of people sad. I did that for fucking seven years." Now he wants to see if he can make people happy. "Can you get happy with me?" At another point, he also says something about Patrick, and then gets us to cheer for Patrick. He swears a lot, which I find kind of charming. He is also drinking beer out of green plastic cups while the rest of his band has water. (Given that the last show I saw had Chris and his band swigging from a bottle of Jack in addition to their beers, Pete seems like something of an amateur.)
The only time Bebe really talks, she gets Pete to help her, and they face each other with their mics:
Bebe: I'm me, and you're someone in the audience.Then they demonstrate how we're supposed to do the "oh, oh"s for "Dominos." I'm really curious about their Pete=frontman dynamic. What kind of agreement do they have behind that? Did Pete just do it/insist on it because it's his band, he's older, and he's used to it? Does Bebe want to do more of that, or is she okay with just singing?
Pete: What's Pete Wentz really like?
Bebe, unamused: I'm not going to answer that.
Every once in a while, Pete wanders over toward Bebe, as if he still has to be near the person singing his words. For part of a song, he presses his eyebrow to his mic like he has to lean on something. My favorite adorable thing he does is sing along, mouth opening wide on every word, even when he's far away from a mic.
I must confess that I am also walking away from this show sharing the interest of a friend who may wish to remain unnamed at this point in time: Pete/Bebe. I would totally read it. Possibly some kink where she becomes/takes over as his domme. (Or, um, kink where she and Patrick are his doms and they share him.) (Raise your hand if you're surprised I'm suggesting kink. No one? Good, you all know me well.) Bebe's handcuffs appear to just be there to give her something to fidget with as she sings, but surely she could put them to other uses.
I think Black Cards would be a better show if they had an album. I don't know most of the songs and, of course, you can't hear the vocals very well. They also do a cover of "Grenade," which gets my "what the fuck?" face when Bruno Mars sings it, but Bebe puts some real emotion into it and they rock the fuck out, which makes it a better song.
I'm tired and parched, so I work my way out of the crowd after the Black Cards' set and go to sit down in the over twenty-one area to write a lot of this down. (I have my JONAS notebook with me, so I don't have to solely rely on 3 x 5 cards.) I stay there for Donnis. I probably would have danced if I were still in the crowd, but I'm pretty happy to just watch a little bit while seated. At one point, Donnis leans down and asks, "How old are you?" then says, "Ten! I better watch my mouth." I'm pretty sure that means the rude teenagers - who were really two rude teenagers and a elementary school kid - made it up to the front.
Black Cards does a meet and greet at merch between Donnis and Travie, so I stand in line to get my picture taken with Bebe and with Pete.
The scene boy behind me - black skinny jeans with a suit coat and a red tie that matches the red satiny top of the girl with him - is super friendly when he agrees to take my picture with Bebe. Pete has me hand my camera to Marcus to take our picture. Bebe is still totally on. Pete, not so much. Honestly, it's kind of a downer how subdued and not into it he is. If you want to make people happy, you have to carry that through the meet and greet, even if you have to fake it, especially since there are probably a lot of Black Cards fans who are fans because OMG, Pete Wentz!
At this point, I am pretty much exhausted. I retreat to the over twenty-one seating for a bit, but head back down to the floor for Travie. People keep arriving between Donnis's set and his. The floor is about half full, although one of the bar areas is crowded. Generously speaking, the place might be close to two-thirds of capacity. Travie's tech has to reach all the way over his head to adjust Travie's mic. His mic stand, we learn later, lights up. I only last three songs, and when Travie starts to ramble about Gremlins, I decide I'm done for the evening and head home. (If it were a local show, I would stick it out, but I still have to drive an hour and a half home without falling asleep. Vices & Virtues takes me just to the last stoplight in Yuba City, which means I can safely switch to Florence and the Machine's Lungs to take me most of the rest of the way home.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-02 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-03 01:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-02 07:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-03 01:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-03 02:49 am (UTC)BUT PETE YOU MADE ME HAPPY
Ah man, subdued!Pete, gosh. That must bring you down a lot. This is why I couldn't be an entertainer, I'd escape after a set. Meet and Greet? PFFFFTT
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-04 03:26 am (UTC)I just wanted him to smile with me!