In Which They Got the Beat
Jun. 29th, 2018 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aI'm pretty sure that the first time I ever came to Berkeley, it was to see a Go-Gos concert. I only have the vaguest memories of it, and it's not the concert I remember, it's walking down the hill afterward, along some asphalt road, with hundreds of other concert goers ranging about us. I've always assumed that was walking down the hill from the Greek, through the Berkeley campus.
I think I met Jane for the first time that day. Again, I'm not sure. I know that she was super sweet and she gave me a little handheld Donkey Kong game that she said she'd gotten in Japan. I literally played it until it was falling apart, and then I superglued it and played it some more.
Memories have a weird way of conflating themselves, and so I've come to assume that first Berkeley experience must have been not long before I came to Berkeley for college, but obviously that's wrong because Jane left the Go-Gos in late 1984. Unshockingly, the web now has the answers. The Go-Go's played at the Greek twice, once in August 1982 and once in September 1984. I'd guess it must have been the 1982 concert, if I really was meeting Jane for the first time, especially since there was a Japan tour in the months prior, but that seems so impossibly long ago. It could have been 1984 instead, if J. got left with a baby-sitter. Whichever one, I find it kind of amazing now that I got to see one of their concerts while they were at the peak of their popularity and success.
I was the most connected to the Wiedlin family in the '80s, when we were constantly going down to LA for Wiedlin kid weddings and Wiedlin holidays. One of my strongest memories is Bob and Betty so proudly showing off one of the Go-Go's videos, perhaps even before it hit MTV. There were so proud of Jane's success.
I was disappointed that K. and I missed the Go-Go's Farewell tour of a few years ago, so I was thrilled to hear that they were doing a show this year at the Fox in Oakland — apparently a little "test" show, in advance of them playing at the much larger Hollywood Bowl next week (Fox Theatre: 2,800 seats; Hollywood Bowl: 17,500). It also felt like a personal bookend for me, remembering my first visit to Berkeley just a year and a half before we're planning to leave.
The other bonus: K. and I had been wanting to see the Fox since it reopened in 2009, after being neglected for the entirety of our lives: it had "temporarily" closed in 1965, then permanently in 1970, and since had been a site of arson and massive homeless squatting, and was even flagged for demolition in the late '70s.
So on Thursday evening after dinner, K. and Lyfted down to Uptown to see the Go-Go's.
The Fox Theatre is indeed beautiful inside. There are high ceilings and all of the architecture has a Middle-Eastern feel to it (well, except some soulless modern additions, but they're to the outsides). The main theatre itself is amazingly vast. It was really one of those places that felt bigger on the inside than the outside, like there was this whole secret world inside the Fox that I've biked by hundreds of times without ever knowing. And, the heart of the theatre is also the heart of its beauty, with a gorgeous patterned ceiling and secret box seats off to the sides, and iconic Middle-eastern gods (or buddhas or something) to the sides of the stage.
We had seats that were pretty high up. I wasn't price-concerned, but only the cheap seats were left when I got our tickets. Still, we had a good view of the stage.
And momentarily it was filled with blasting rock music.
The opening band ... well, it was clear that they were influenced by the Go-Go's, and that sort of legacy is pretty cool. But they were mostly 45 long minutes of cacophony.
Hearing the Go-Go's again, though, that was very cool.
I kinda forget that a rock concert isn't exactly about hearing the music, or at least not all the words. It's instead a deafeningly loud and immersive experience where you're shaken by the music, where you fill in the words because you know them. So, I enjoyed songs like Vacation, We Got the Beat, Our Lips Our Sealed, This Town, and others that I'm familiar with. K. and I both agree that the best song was Cool Places, which is of course heresy because it's not a Go-Go's song. (It's a Jane and Sparks song, but I've always liked many of Jane's songs better than the Go-Go's.) They even choreographed it so that Jane and Belinda danced across the stage much like the singers danced in the music video from 1983.
The reason that we got seats up in the balconies of the Fox, instead of on the main floor is because that's where you go if you want to sit down. But this being a rock concert, the crowd was of course on their feet by the second song, which was Vacation. I reluctantly rose to my feet. I didn't want to contribute to the whole wave of people being forced to stand up because the people in front of them did, but I wanted to see the Go-Go's. Poor K. couldn't though, because of her bad foot. So she saw watched peoples backs for about half the show. (Fortunately, Cool Places was one of the songs when people were sitting down.)
When I stood up though, I did start dancing to the music with the rest of the crowd, and at the best of times I lost myself in it. That's one of the reasons I like music, and especially live shows of music I know. It's about the only time I can make my brain totally stop, when I just start swaying to the music and singing the words that I remember. It was nice.
And, the concert was very nostalgic. Not exactly for the Go-Go's per se. But for my tween and teen years. For a memory of a very young, skinny me with huge glasses wearing a black Go-Go's shirt. For the memory of this trips down to Bob's parents house up above LA.
It was so very long ago.
K. unfortunately did not have nearly as good of an experience at the concert. The crowds and sounds and light were too much for her. Alas :(.
I think I met Jane for the first time that day. Again, I'm not sure. I know that she was super sweet and she gave me a little handheld Donkey Kong game that she said she'd gotten in Japan. I literally played it until it was falling apart, and then I superglued it and played it some more.
Memories have a weird way of conflating themselves, and so I've come to assume that first Berkeley experience must have been not long before I came to Berkeley for college, but obviously that's wrong because Jane left the Go-Gos in late 1984. Unshockingly, the web now has the answers. The Go-Go's played at the Greek twice, once in August 1982 and once in September 1984. I'd guess it must have been the 1982 concert, if I really was meeting Jane for the first time, especially since there was a Japan tour in the months prior, but that seems so impossibly long ago. It could have been 1984 instead, if J. got left with a baby-sitter. Whichever one, I find it kind of amazing now that I got to see one of their concerts while they were at the peak of their popularity and success.
I was the most connected to the Wiedlin family in the '80s, when we were constantly going down to LA for Wiedlin kid weddings and Wiedlin holidays. One of my strongest memories is Bob and Betty so proudly showing off one of the Go-Go's videos, perhaps even before it hit MTV. There were so proud of Jane's success.
I was disappointed that K. and I missed the Go-Go's Farewell tour of a few years ago, so I was thrilled to hear that they were doing a show this year at the Fox in Oakland — apparently a little "test" show, in advance of them playing at the much larger Hollywood Bowl next week (Fox Theatre: 2,800 seats; Hollywood Bowl: 17,500). It also felt like a personal bookend for me, remembering my first visit to Berkeley just a year and a half before we're planning to leave.
The other bonus: K. and I had been wanting to see the Fox since it reopened in 2009, after being neglected for the entirety of our lives: it had "temporarily" closed in 1965, then permanently in 1970, and since had been a site of arson and massive homeless squatting, and was even flagged for demolition in the late '70s.
So on Thursday evening after dinner, K. and Lyfted down to Uptown to see the Go-Go's.
The Fox Theatre is indeed beautiful inside. There are high ceilings and all of the architecture has a Middle-Eastern feel to it (well, except some soulless modern additions, but they're to the outsides). The main theatre itself is amazingly vast. It was really one of those places that felt bigger on the inside than the outside, like there was this whole secret world inside the Fox that I've biked by hundreds of times without ever knowing. And, the heart of the theatre is also the heart of its beauty, with a gorgeous patterned ceiling and secret box seats off to the sides, and iconic Middle-eastern gods (or buddhas or something) to the sides of the stage.
We had seats that were pretty high up. I wasn't price-concerned, but only the cheap seats were left when I got our tickets. Still, we had a good view of the stage.
And momentarily it was filled with blasting rock music.
The opening band ... well, it was clear that they were influenced by the Go-Go's, and that sort of legacy is pretty cool. But they were mostly 45 long minutes of cacophony.
Hearing the Go-Go's again, though, that was very cool.
I kinda forget that a rock concert isn't exactly about hearing the music, or at least not all the words. It's instead a deafeningly loud and immersive experience where you're shaken by the music, where you fill in the words because you know them. So, I enjoyed songs like Vacation, We Got the Beat, Our Lips Our Sealed, This Town, and others that I'm familiar with. K. and I both agree that the best song was Cool Places, which is of course heresy because it's not a Go-Go's song. (It's a Jane and Sparks song, but I've always liked many of Jane's songs better than the Go-Go's.) They even choreographed it so that Jane and Belinda danced across the stage much like the singers danced in the music video from 1983.
The reason that we got seats up in the balconies of the Fox, instead of on the main floor is because that's where you go if you want to sit down. But this being a rock concert, the crowd was of course on their feet by the second song, which was Vacation. I reluctantly rose to my feet. I didn't want to contribute to the whole wave of people being forced to stand up because the people in front of them did, but I wanted to see the Go-Go's. Poor K. couldn't though, because of her bad foot. So she saw watched peoples backs for about half the show. (Fortunately, Cool Places was one of the songs when people were sitting down.)
When I stood up though, I did start dancing to the music with the rest of the crowd, and at the best of times I lost myself in it. That's one of the reasons I like music, and especially live shows of music I know. It's about the only time I can make my brain totally stop, when I just start swaying to the music and singing the words that I remember. It was nice.
And, the concert was very nostalgic. Not exactly for the Go-Go's per se. But for my tween and teen years. For a memory of a very young, skinny me with huge glasses wearing a black Go-Go's shirt. For the memory of this trips down to Bob's parents house up above LA.
It was so very long ago.
K. unfortunately did not have nearly as good of an experience at the concert. The crowds and sounds and light were too much for her. Alas :(.