Two stages of man...

...were fully on display at that Guster show I took in the other night.

In the row in front of us, there were three mid-30's-ish guys, with their wives/girlfriends, who were clearly deprived of fun nights out. They just had a bored, suburban aura about them. And the guys were hell-bent on re-creating the glory days of their youth. My guess is that they went to college together, because they were acting very much like frat boys. Lots of high-fiving and the like. And a whole lot of trying too hard to have! big! fun! As soon as the lights went down, the pot came out. Not unusual, but we did notice that the wives/girlfriends didn't partake (and one of them remained in her seat the whole time and even fell asleep at one point!). The guys were also fully engaged in that white man's overbite style of dancing. They even had little synchronized moves at times.

These guys were also intent on getting the band's attention (we were close; 8th row!) and one of them actually did. And got gently mocked by the band, though he didn't seem to realize he was being mocked. He was too busy high-fiving his buddies.

In the row behind us, there was a group of young fellas who couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 at most. Not only did they know nearly every word to every song, they sang LOUDER THAN THE BAND! I'm not kidding. There were times we couldn't hear the Gusters at all. My friend Ellen said it was annoying at first, but then she decided it was also helpful, because there were lyrics she'd never understood until Saturday night.

She also wondered if they were idiot savants with the Guster lyrics. I had to break it to her that I'm an idiot savant where another band's lyrics are concerned...

Also, everything Guster did was "sick," according to these boys. And they all agreed that they "totally" identified with the Guster who talked about what a nerd he was in high school.

All in all, a hilarious experience. And the band was awesome, too.

I mean, sick.


(And on my way home, I got to look at the moon shining brightly over the bay, creating a beautiful reflection in the water... and I decided my dad had something to do with that.)