I'm usually not into Matt Costa's type of music, that folk-tinged, raspy kind of stuff. But when you're a reporter in my position, open-mindedness comes very handy when you have a prominent OC performing arts center inviting you to his sold out show. So, there I was, Thursday night at the Orange County Performing Artscenter for the Matt Costa show.
I had been to this Costa Mesa venue about a month ago for the Cold War Kids concert, but the vibe in the air was different this time. The lobby surely wasn't buzzing and the lines at the bars weren't snaky either. The demographics, to put it simply, were different. Conversations I overheard in the bathroom consisted of cramming for lab hours in a high school AP class, to older women chit chatting about working with the lead singer from the opening band, Satisfaction, at a nearby skin care corporation in the finance department. Oh, the interesting landscape of random-land.
The vibe, anyway, was enhanced by juicy remix hits from some of my favorite bands—like the Cold War Kids, the Klaxons, Interpol and Peter, Bjorn & John—that played at the break time between the Satisfaction and Matt Costa sets. (I arrived after Satisfaction ended their set, about 20 minutes before Costa took the stage at around 10:05 p.m.) I found my way to the front row, finding a spot to the side of the stage, uncomfortably in front of the loud speakers. I could feel wind coming from those speakers—that’s how close I was.
But the crowds were thick with teens dressed to the nines in their best knee-high gladiator sandals and Newport Beach jewelry. Yes, the front row was lined up with precious young girls hoping to lock deep stares with the singer.
Finally, with my paper Moleskine notebook and pen in hand 10 minutes into Costa’s set, I attracted a few fans of my own. One man brushed his way to my right for a while, and then to my left, at last asking, “What are you writing?” I’m usually quite secretive about my note-taking, and so this kind of question made me so much more self-conscious than ever before. It made me realize something: Matt Costa, or even his band musicians, could possibly see me from the stage and identify me as “the critic.”
This inquisitive stranger didn’t quit, either. He repeated stared at my notebook every time I opened it for more notes and asked me the usual questions—like, Who do you write for? “Cal State Long Beach. Daily student paper,” I said loud enough over a stompy Costa ditty. “Do you know a writer named Sean—?” “Sean Boulger?” “Yeah, I just got through interviewing with him.” “Oh, the Union Weekly.”
Then I started thinking of all that rivalry talk I hear around campus—how the Union has something better. May be. But they weren’t around scooping up all the Behind the Scenes treatment I was just digging into.
For about the next two hours, the lead singer of Satisfaction (yeah, that's who that was), Michael Rosas, and I pretty much stayed on consistent wavelengths. He tamed some wild fan girls, for example, who jumped their way onto the stage, while I shot footage and snapped their glittery wickedness on our side of the stage where we all collected in front of those woofing speakers. Rosas made new friends, while I greeted some old ones (yep, Cassie, the girl from the Cold War Kids show was there this time, too). By now, people knew Michael was someone exclusive, either recognizing him from the previous set, or recognizing his authentic rock star behavior. As for me, I was handling myself with more mystery, but still looking quite “in” with my nice notepad and careful reporter eye.
It turned out that Rosas liked me more than I thought, being completely uninhibited as I snapped candid shots of him having flirty moments with his new admirers. After the show, we even got into the “free fun” photo booth outside where we took some pictures of us two together. There, surprisingly, I also ran into Jonny Bell from the Crystal Antlers and then we took photos in the booth, too.
I’ve got to admit, the music wasn’t the center of attention at this show. (OK, OK... It was actually pretty good and fun and different.) But on top of it all, I felt like I slipped into a new dimension I hadn’t experienced before, concluding that rock shows, or any show/concert/event, is not always about why you ever went, but about who’s there (yourself included) and how they’re going to make things happen.
Photos by Barbara Navarro.
No comments:
Post a Comment