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MN State Fair, 9/05/05
« Thread Started on Sept 6, 2005, 11:41am »

Switchfoot at the State Fair
The Grandstand
September 5th (Labor Day), 2005
St. Paul, Minnesota

Ahhh in so many ways, a great Switchfoot show was exactly what I needed. And without further gushing, I present to you my concert review from September 5th, 2005.

Yesterday my parents gave me 20 bucks to spend on merch at the show. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head and I figured I could use the money to buy Annie a ticket at the gate. I called the place asking if this was possible (and it was), called my boyfriend to make sure he was okay with is (and he was) and when he rolled by at 4:00 after work, we shoved Annie into the car.
My parents had warned me beforehand that parking was hard to find without a handicap sticker, so we swiped my Dad’s and brought his cane in the car for effect (evil, I know). We mapquested the directions and got a little lost once we hit St. Paul. We stopped at a gas station for directions (that neither Amadou nor I remembered once we left) and managed to find our way to the fair. Amadou had been complaining the whole way down about being hungry, so we quickly bought Annie’s ticket (hallelujah there were a bunch left) and Amadou had a big nasty steak sandwich. Ech. So then we stood outside the Grandstand and there was a pretty large horde of people. There was some girls in front of us with their mom like:
“Omgosh and his hair…ack! It’s so perfect and awesome and omgosh…” and their mom was just rolling her eyes like:
“Yes…I’ve seen his hair. But did you know he got it all cut off?”
“No way.”
“Yes! Like…a back to school cut or something.”
Bwahahaha, yay mom.
So then at about 6:30 the doors opened and people started filing in and up the stairs. The grandstand was pretty big. There’s this big giant open piece of blacktop right in front of the stage, and behind that there’s a giant, well, grandstand with a buttload of seats. A lot of people opted for the seats but the braver of us head straight for the front of the stage. Amadou looked at his watch and said:
“Another hour? We have to stand here?”
“Yup. You might want to just sit down and conserve your energy.” So we waited and waited, watched the new tech dude set stuff up (he looked like something out of Good Charlotte), lamenting about the loss of our dear Tech-Gnome. Just before the show started we all stood up while these people in chipmunk costumes (for the fair, don’t ask) were throwing out free t-shirts that had a list of all the acts that appeared at the grandstand this year on the back. I didn’t expect to catch one until one hit me right in the back of the head. Bwahahaha. So then 7:30, their start time, rolls around and Switchfoot is fashionably late as always. About 7:45, the bass line for “Ammunition” starts up and we can see the guys behind the stage. The girls start SCREAMING like it’s a sale at Aeropostale and you can see the guys smiling to themselves as they walked onto the stage. They lifted off right into ammunition, which rocked hard. They then played “Dare You To Move” and Jon walked off to the side by the stairwell and put his hand in the crowd. Girls rushed over to touch him so Annie, Amadou and I hurried forward to get closer to the stage (thanks, Annissa, for that tip). So then Jon stops for a little convo with the crowd.
“Hello lovely people of the North! This is one of our last stops before our actual tour starts for the new album, and it seems fitting that we’d be here. It seems like we play the Quest every other week. I have many fond memories of playing at the Quest.”
They played a bunch of songs, and a few new ones. They played “My Lonely Nation”, an awesome rendition of “Happy is a Yuppie Word” and a new song they hadn’t played live before, “We Are One Tonight”. Jon described the song as:
"as song about people throwing rocks at you from either side who don't understand what you're trying to do. Thank you for understanding."
I thought the “We are one tonight” song was a little on the blah side, but time will only tell if it rocks. I thought the same thing of “Redemption” and now it’s one of my favorites on The Beautiful Letdown.
At one point Jon whipped out the Harmonica and smiled saying:
“Here’s a song by something else great to come out of Duluth (MN).” And he went on to play the beginning of “Times Are Changing” by Bob Dylan (Although I think Bob Dylan was from Hibbing…bwahahaha) and then managed to segway into “On Fire”, which he had worked some snazzy new harmonica parts into. When they played “This is Your Life” Amadou went NUTS. He way hearts that song. It’s so funny to hear someone singing along to Switchfoot at the top of their lungs in a French accent. Try it sometime. During “TIYL” Jon jumped off the stage and ran behind the crowd in front of it to the grandstand, jumping up into the seats and singing along with the fans. MAN security looked TICKED having to chase him all over town to make sure he didn’t get mobbed. However I think Jon secretly enjoys peeving security. He got back on stage after the song with a giant smile on his face saying:
“I’m tired of safe distances. Safe distances from life. Now you all don’t feel so far away.”
During the show Annie and I yelled out “MAKE ME REAL” a couple of times. The second time Tim looked up sort of like “what?!” but we’re not sure if he heard us bwahaha. So then the group left the stage and everyone started chanting “ONE MORE SONG”, inevitably drawing them back out to play “Stars”. Jon said:
“After this song it’s good night to you all. We’ll be back in the winter when it’s nice and chilly.” And BAM launched into stars. It was great. The crowd was awesome the entire time. Everyone was clapping along (and some times we weren’t induced) and singing the songs at the top of their lungs. It was great. Jon was visibly and audibly excited to be there, as he usually is in Minnesota. The crowds are always amped, which makes the band amped as well. So then once the song ended Jon said:
“Thank you and goodnight St. Paul! Enjoy the fireworks!” and then BAM firework-a-palooza to send off the last day of the fair in style. Man my eardrums were thoroughly assaulted last night. So then Annie and I make our way to the stage to beg clean-up dudes for artifacts but they claimed there were none so we hung over the fence in disappointment. We were waiting for the guys to come out but security was ushering us out.
“We have to clean up for next year!” they joked. Jerks. I had hoped to wait around anyways, but it was after 9 o’clock and we had to make the drive home because Amadou had to get up at SIX THIRTY the next morning. For his first ever concert he seemed to really enjoy it. I told him:
“Well you’re gonna have to get used to it, buddy. If you’re gonna be with me you’re gonna be seeing A LOT of those guys.”
We stopped by the nasty steak sandwich place to buy three bottles of water, one so annie could clean the grit from her glasses.
Guy 1: “Why do you need to clean your glasses?”
Annie: “A crowd surfer landed on me.” (Annie just can’t get a break from those crazy crowd-surfers.)
Guy 2: “How can you crowd-surf at a Christian Rock Concert?”
*flames shoot from my eyes*
Guy 1: “ Pfft, I guess you don’t know much. What kind of music would you crowd-surf to?”
Guy 2: “I don’t know, Nirvana…”
Me: “Um…you do realize that Kurt Cobain is dead, right?”
*silence*
Me: “Come on, everyone! Let’s go mosh on his grave…WOO!”
*Guy 2 gives me the look of death*
Guy 1: “Besides, I’ve crowd-surfed many times at Jewish rock concerts.”
Me: “*sings* Havanah Gila!” *pretends to crowd-surf*.
In my defense, I had a lemonade, my back hurt like crazy, and I had had almost nothing to eat the entire day. Also I was on heavy concert-hangover.
So sadly, we had to leave the joint without meeting Switchfoot which made me sad. However it was just great seeing them. I hadn’t seen an SF concert in almost an entire year, and didn’t even realize how much of a withdrawal I was going through. My spirits really needed to be lifted, and that was the medicine to my ailments. All in all it was a great show and I’m glad we took the time to go. Rock on, Switchfoot fans!

For Photos of the blessed event, click your cursor here:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v648/AimeePaige/SF%20State%20fair%202005/

« Last Edit: Sept 6, 2005, 2:25pm by The AP »