things in this world that make me happy:

that boxwars is more of a draw than aquabats + allister. yes.

went to allister and aquabats tonight (after softball, results: infield fly, two decent doubles. and the win tonight cements our place in the top of the league tables - yay). arrived a bit into allister's set. was terrified as allister was being promoted as the headlining band; missing aquabats would destroy all desire to be inside studio 24. wow. they were really terrible. actually, no, they weren't terrible, just really really really inneffectual. simply, boring punk rock. it is okay to be pop punk. i like pop punk, but do something more with it. to be fair, the sound wasn't great, but still, boring punk is boring punk. maybe they carted in their own sound guy? or maybe studio has a new sound guy. anyways, boring cute boy punk rock (what i'd imagine taylor's band to sound and look like) was to be had (yawn). i was happy to find that aquabats hadn't played yet and that my entire reason for coming to this gig was not spoilt.

to be honest i'm not really sure why i really wanted to see aquabats. i'd seen them free at glass house in socal about 6-7 years ago (free KUCI passes) and although i had bought my ticket soon after the show was soon announced, there was something nice about being guestlisted again (boxwars related free passes). when i'd seen them in socal it was soon after my knee incident, and aquabats were enjoyed at a distance bandaged up on crutches. i remember not being particularly excited by aquabats save the stage show. seeing 5 grown men kitted up in lycra, although not especially *hot* per se, does have some sort of appeal. and again, this is where the "doing something" with y our pop punk works well. aquabats aren't hugely exciting musically, but they are fun, and they play with this fun side, and it works. still, i wasn't particularly excited this time around either. a big part of the non-excitement was the crowd.

boxwars has a bigger (or equivalent) draw.

yes.

this makes me happy.

very happy.

aside from the small crowd, there were IDIOTS trying to crowd surf and stage dive. now, there isn't anything particularly wrong with either of these activities, BUT, when there isn't the numbers to support it, these activities simply DON'T WORK. if the (packed) crowd is 4-5 people deep, you aren't going to stay up. also, when you stage dive, always, always do it head first. some chick got a nice double footed kick in the face thanks to this moron 15yearold kiddo. i feel like i should design some fliers and distro them at gigs.

also (in true mateo style) i stopped a fight. yes. took a good conk in the nose for it, but good fun nevertheless.