2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
Garbage @ the OC Fair
Concerts? Yes.
County fair? Umm...
... haven't been to one in ages... sure, why not.
Garbage and Hot Hot Heat at the Orange County Fair. The fair wasn't nearly as fun as it was when we were little, but the limbo-with-the-flaming-bar guys were kind of cool.
Hot Hot Heat was passable as an opening act. I'd say they were on par with Kings of Leon, only with a little less show and a little more variety in their music. Not by much, though.
Nick and Emily arrived after Hot Hot Heat, but before Garbage, joining up with Sherry, Bill, Sophia, and myself right as it really started to get dark and Garbage took the stage.
The set was quite long for a fair show, about an hour and twenty (or thirty) minutes, and had a fairly long setlist. Unfortunately it was every song from the new album except for It's All Over But the Crying, which is a lot of new music and very little room for the old stuff. Of the older stuff, we got to hear Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!), Stupid Girl, When I Grow Up, and ... I think it was Push It.
To their credit, Shirley Manson is a lot more fun when she's not sick, and when blasted at appropriate volume levels, the new stuff has nice basslines. We were 25 or 30 rows back from the front seats, unlike the eight-feet-back-from-the-speakers that we were at the Wiltern, so our ears survived as well. The acoustics at Pacific Ampitheater aren't as good as the Wiltern so some of the subtle aspects were lost, but hearing songs like Happy Home felt very good: the new album isn't as strong as the old stuff, but there are a few glimmers of the old moments of genius buried in there. They screwed up leading into one song (can't-remember-which), going straight into the chrous... hilarious!! =) The rant about pop music and Jessica Simpson wasn't bad either-- the most fun was the "random" dash into the crowd. It felt like it got cut off a little early as Shirley barely made it around 1/4 of the lower level, but it was unexpected for Garbage. Nice. =)
Crowd was pretty average for a Los Angeles crowd. Much to my amazement we were able to hold on to a pretty long interlude, making a decent bit of noise for a long time (again, by Los Angeles standards) in order to get an encore from Garbage, in the form of Happy Home, a-song-whose-name-I-have-forgotten, and When I Grow Up. Not bad at all. The only things we really missed were two songs from Version 2.0: Special and Hammering In My Head.
As for the fair itself, it was much like I remembered past ones, but now that I'm about 2 feet taller and many years older, the coolness factor is gone. Munching on funnel cake is quite tasty.
Video: Stupid Girl and Why Don't You Come Over.
Apologies for the poor video quality: we were pretty far back from the stage, lighting was crummy, and opportunities for video were not flattering. Plus, I kept waiting for Special and it never came. =(
