Last night Brian and I had the opportunity to see the stellar lineup of Jars of Clay, Switchfoot AND Third Day at the Irvine stop of the Music Builds Tour. To say that anticipation for the night was high would be an understatement. Not only are Jars and Third Day his and my favorite bands, respectively, we had *fantastic* seats. Or so we thought.
As we located our seats and saw how close they were to the stage, we were pretty pumped. We gave a passing glance to the 20-foot-tall speaker about 15 feet away from us, but we'd sat near the speaker before at other venues and not had too much problem.
Over the sound system came the pre-show music. You know, just random songs to fill the time. Usually these songs are played at a dim level, since people are arriving and ushers are helping people finds seats, etc. Well let me tell you... the Verizon Amphitheatre is not like every other venue in this regard. You know how usually in the middle of a concert you have a hard time speaking to the person next to you? You might even have to get right up into their ear to speak to them, right? Well it was like that during the pre-show, no joke. We looked at each other and said, "Uh, that's LOUD," or at least we would have if either of us could have heard each other.
Soon Jars of Clay came out to get things started. The minute they started to play, I literally felt like my ears were going to burst.... horrible buzzing/ringing/piercing sound... not fun. It was so loud, there was no distinction to the sound, and therefore nothing that sounded like music was reaching our ears; just sound... very LOUD SOUND.
Brian went up to the upper section where the usher was standing to ask if they knew where we could get some earplugs. He didn't come back with any, but did find out that the sound was at least somewhat bearable a little further back. We didn't want to give up our $65 seats, but there was absolutely no way we could spend the whole concert there. None of the security guards would let us into the upper sections because that's not where our seats were. The free-admission lawn area in the waaaay back was closed off for the night. We contemplated finding a couple that we could trade seats with, but figured that might be a hard sell.
Finally I started asking people who had the sense to be wearing earplugs if they might have any extra. Nobody could really hear what I was asking, even though I thought my hand motions were pretty self-explanatory. One guy even broke out his pack of smokes and offered me one. I'm not sure if he was thinking I looked stressed and needed a smoke, or if he was recommending I stick them in my ear.
Grasping at straws, we figured we'd head out into the plaza area outside the amphitheatre and somehow find some earplugs. Later it was suggested to me that we could have used TP or a paper towel, but for whatever reason we were fixated on getting actual earplugs. The first lady we came to was selling ice cold sodas and water, but we figured we could see if she knew of anyone selling earplugs.
To our surprise, she turned around to her personal belongings and said, "I think I have some; I know we brought some to the last place we worked." Lo and behold, after a couple of minutes of anxious searching, she did find an unopened package of earplugs. Those things looked like little blue marshmallows from heaven to me at that moment. Assuming she was a generous soul, it caught me a little off guard when she said, "So whatever amount you want to give for them is fine..." We don't carry cash. Great.
But wait! Over there! There's one of those ATM machines that charges you $50 to withdraw $20! We didn't care. Off to the ATM we went. The lady did turn out to be a generous soul, as she gave us the earplugs before we paid her, with no guarantee we'd come back with the money. But of course we did, and let me tell you, that was the best $5 I've ever spent. Well, $7 after the ATM fees, but who's counting.
Now I've never been one to wear earplugs at a concert, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only could I hear actual *music,* but it really sounded good! I couldn't hear the crowd yelling or the clapping, but by gosh I could still hear myself think.
I have no doubt that had the Pepsi lady not had those earplugs, we'd have either left the show (and missed the 60-year-old hippie next to me getting his groove on... even doing spin moves in the aisle...absolutely hilarious!) or had irreparable hearing damage. So THANK YOU Pepsi lady for your kind deed. Let me know if I can ever return the favor.
