Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Dinner Party & Bad Religion

In early January I received one of those emails from Ticketmaster, letting me know what's going on nearby, and on the list was Bad Religion at the House of Blues in Anaheim. I called Bobby, thinking it would be a fun show, and we decided to buy tickets for us and his brother and sister. Last night was the night.

I left work a tad early, and the place was deserted. Jon's truck was out front, but he and Bobby clearly weren't there. When I called, Bobby said they went to refill the propane tanks, and would I get some steaks. Seems we were having a little impromptu dinner party as well. So I trekked over to Stater Bros. (it's farther than Ralph's, but the meat selection is always better), for rib eye, a salmon fillet for our non-meat-eater, two bunches of asparagus (did I mention my current obsession?), and a baguette too. Gotta round out the meal...

I arrived just in time for Brian and Erica's arrival; Jon and Bobby were already back and playing Halo 3. I prepped the asparagus, and left them to prep the steaks and the grill while I got ready for the show.

By the time I was ready, dinner was almost done. We sat out on the picnic table on the patio, and enjoyed our meal and the company. It was lovely outside, and I was happy to have some guests for dinner (wish we did more often, I love eating with others). The steaks were good, and we all shared in the very good salmon (grilled with fresh herbs from my garden). Apparently I am not the only one that enjoyed the asparagus, because it was quickly consumed. The baguette we couldn't stop dipping in the fresh olive oil I'm spoiled by.

Though it would have been nice to play around a bit longer, it was time to head over to the show. We said goodbye to Jon and piled in the car.

Bad Religion had two openers, neither of which any of us really cared for, so by the time they went on, it was about 10pm. Seems we could have milled around the house a bit longer, but c'est la vie. We waited too long to find a spot, so we wound up in the very back. I'm a mere 5'2", and Bobby's not a tall man, so we couldn't really see much, but the music sounded great. The lead singer mentioned a few times how long they've been doing this together (27 years), and how they still enjoy the fact that they can play around like this, and still sell out the venue.

The musicians are clearly in a groove with one another; the sound was album quality. I've never been very into Bad Religion, though I like their stuff very much - they were more a band I enjoyed listening to when with others. I don't know the words to most of the songs, just the ones that frequent the radio, but the crowd knew them and proved it.

Bobby and I felt a little old. While we enjoyed the show, we weren't excited about standing in a hot, sweaty room where we couldn't really see. For the last few songs we were out at the bar, watching the show on the screen, listening to the music coming out the doors. When the show was over, we collected Brian (Erica stayed with us), and made it home well past my bedtime...

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