Face? Rocked!

Bowling for Soup is most likely my very favorite band in the entire world. Not only did we originate from the same home town (which we all thankfully got the fuck out of), we also spent a good amount of our formative early and mid 20's in the same town (that would be Denton, TX). Now most people probably know them from their radio singles such as Girl All the Bad Guys Want and 1985. Those are their radio-friendly happy pop hits. They also do such gems as Ohio and Belgium. Very geographically minded lads, they are. And in the non-geography category, The Bitch Song and Suckerpunch. Listen. Any band can have catchy songs and put them on a CD and sell them blah blah blah. But BFS does the best freakin live shows ever. I DEFY YOU to leave their concert in a bad mood. It will not happen. They are fun times 7 billion and 4. Jaret is the man and I might have a weird crush on him even though he is very happily married and could possibly live like, four blocks from me.

As the perceptive among you may have guessed, I just got back from their concert at the historic Granada Theater on Greenville Avenue. I hate Greenville. HATE! There is seriously never anywhere to park even if you're willing to pay $80 plus tip. Before tonight, I had not been to Greenville probably since I was freshly 21. I don't remember drinking there, so I might've been 20. Anyway. Long time. For good reason. But for my boys? I'll sacrifice.

So we head out there. This is for those of you in Dallas: We get on LBJ and mix it up with the High Five and all and we're merging with LBJ westbound and we get down to Central and it's like... where's the rest of it? All of the traffic on Central was from LBJ. Yeah, no through traffic. ??? I kept looking for the rest of southbound Central traffic and it was like... not there. I was so weirded out. This is like the busiest interchange in all of the Dallas area and.... nothing. And in the dumbest move ever, we all had to merge into one lane before merging onto a very empty expressway. Yeah... confused.

Uh... anyway. We get down to Greenville and there is the most retarded traffic ever. Nowhere to park and we just end up driving around the residential areas thinking about how much we do not want to get accosted at 2 am. We go back to the main drag and I'm like, "Let's just find some overpriced lot or valet or something. I'll pay for it, I don't care, it's worth it not to get shot." We start to pull into what looks like a valet station near the Granada and the guy is all, this is for [insert stupid bar name here], and gave us directions to the Granada parking lot. We get there and it's closed. But wait! Someone's leaving! There is ONE PARKING SPOT! The parking attendant gives us the best come-hither look in the freakin world and we pull in and pay our eight bucks and park like... right behind the place. Unheard of for Greenville at 9:45 on a Friday night. At this point... the blood pressure is less for stress and more for ecstatic. We park, we walk around the front where two people try to sell us tickets. Jessica is all... no, we have tickets. Which was a lie because Annique is the coolest girl like... EVER and put us on the VIP list!!

!!!!!!!!!!!

We get to the ticket counter, the girl checks for Jessica's name and whips out these freakin badass VIP bracelets and tells us the rules blah blah blah no smoking, re-entry is fine, yadda yadda. We go in and it's literally an old huge two-level theater and American Hi-Fi is playing and we go all the way to the top level. Freakin sweet view and a bar with no line. We get up to the bar so I can get a beer (Jessica was driving) and this cute boy is also ordering a beer. He drops a couple dollars and Jessica picks it up and hands it to him. He says, "Thanks! Hey... don't I know you?" They have that weird moment where you try to figure out how you know someone and then it just clicked for both of them. He turns around and points and there's a whole group of people we know standing one section over. Suh-WEET! So we go over and yap for a while and then Annique wanders up there and it's a whole big party and we rock out. Then Annique explains just why these VIP bracelets are so damn fresh. We get to hang out in the VIP area. Behind a rope! !!!!! With guys from the Riddlin Kids and parents and wives of BFS. Dude. DUDE! We were standing right behind Jaret's dad. Seriously. It wasn't crowded or hot and we had a badass view because it was on the first balcony. We had a great view of the crowd and, the most important part, the band. WOO!

I just cannot tell you how much fun I had. Freakin A. I had to reminisce about the first time I saw them. It had to be in like, 1996 or something. At Rick's in Denton. I practically had to be dragged since I'd never heard of them and I just assumed that if I hadn't heard of them, then they must be speed metal and I would immediately hate them. I get inside and we get up to the balcony and Jaret... with his blond soccer-boy hair... is singing Living on a Prayer and I was immediately in love. Thus began my so-far 9 year crush. Any man who can make Living on a Prayer sound good WHO IS NOT JON BON JOVI HIMSELF is a freaking god in my book. Seriously, y'all. Of course, now he is tattooed and has tri-color hair that is completely beyond any sort of description. Still hot if you ask me and I know you didn't. Don't care.

I always have the best time at their shows. I will be on a high for at least a week. And let me tell you, I needed this very badly. Especially after my Dad told me I needed to put new tires on my car. $350!!! I'm like.. uh, can you give me a little more warning instead of waiting until I'm driving a large metal death trap around town? He's all, "Haven't you been budgeting for this inevitability?" I'm all... "Uh....NO!!!" Sigh. I mean, tires and other things. I've also been beat down by other things that, for once, I will not go into. Just know that Bowling for Soup healed my cold dark soul and turned it into a lovely flowering plant with cute little blooms on the tips.

Oh, and for their last song, they did 1985 and had American Hi-Fi and the Riddlin Kids come up there and do it with them. That's right. Three bands. One song. And it was awesome. Sound chaotic? It was a lot better than you think it might've been. Very cool. So dope.

Anyway, mad props to Annique for the VIP hookup. I hope she knows how much this meant to me, and probably Jessica too. We BOTH needed this so badly.

Wickety whack! Thank you, Night Ranger!