CONCERT-RELATED THOUGHT

The farther away this event gets from me in time, the less likely I am to blog about it, so here goes: I was in the crowd at Not So Silent Night, a big show a local radio station put on at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, watching ... Bloc Party? Maybe Death Cab?* when the traditional event occurred somewhere to my left: a drunk girl passed out and fell down, making a crater in the crowd that expanded and contracted as her people tried to pick her up before the concert staff took care of her. It happened again with someone else a little later.

I'm pretty sure something like this has happened at every large-scale show I've ever been to. Where the fuck do these people come from? Have they never (a) had a drink, or (b) been to a concert before in their lives? This seems highly unlikely. What, then, is the explanation? I personally was once both a rock show n00b and a drinking n00b, but even then, I never did that. Who are these people and what do they think they're doing.

* Dizzy Balloon, a band I play violin for occasionally onstage, won the contest to open the show up, which is why I was there.