I went and saw Styks, the band, live in concert this past weekend at Rio Tinto stadium. Along with 38 Special and REO Speedwagon. The music was good but the show was better. There were a lot of burned out rockers from the 80's, you know it's going to be good. Before the concert even started one of our seat buddies showed up drunk. He really liked the music and had no shame in letting you know it. There was also another lady. About 2 rows up that got progressively worse, or I guess progressively more party like, as the night progressed. If you made eye contact with her she'd tell you to get up and enjoy the music. Midway through the concert this made sense. Near the end of the concert, not so much. As the night progressed she stood as a bastion to true rockers, she never would sit down and was stammering out the lyrics like a trooper.
I also would wager a great deal of money that the next unabomber was sitting in front of us. He had a camo hat, long hair, and a garbage bag poncho. He was also balding and had some really powerful binoculars. He was the type of man that inspires fear when you meet him in a dark alley, or as he drives past you in his windowless panel van. It just goes to show, the 80's hair bands bring all sorts of people together.
Perhaps my favorite part of the evening was when some of the boozed up audience members gave a true salute to the spirit of rock and rushed onto the grass of the stadium. It was impressive. The police and stadium security where promptly on the scene and tackling the rockers. Those rockers, with too much responsibility, voiced, safely from their seats, their protest of state intervention by screaming obscenities and showing their favorite finger to the man. The smell of hops, the incoherent babel, and the screaming music combined to make for the quintessential rock atmosphere, I'd definitely do it again.
$460
8 years ago