Last night I had the honor of taking a friend of mine to her very first concert in NYC. A few weeks ago we had exchanged some banter via the interwebs about how awesome Best Coast’s Crazy For You album is, so I figured their show at Music Hall of Williamsburg would be a nice girl’s night out (kooky!) for us. As we sat in the balcony waiting for opening band Male Bonding to take the stage, we talked about the kids camped out at the front who were willing to endure hours of hot and sweaty uncomfortableness just to be close to Best Coast while they played. Flash forward to the middle of their set when I’m leaning on my arms with hearts in my eyes like I’m watching Elvis sing me happy birthday, and contemplating stage diving onto some pre-teen faces to join in on the heart-thumping ruckus that lead singer Beth Cosentino was unleashing.
Starting from the second half of the first song, a thick wave of pot smoke appeared at the top of the venue and danced around the stage lights for the show’s duration. Maybe it was the contact hight that we all had from this, but people were seriously losing their minds at this show in a way that I have yet to experience. Dudes were doe eyed with bliss, singing lyrics and mouthing “I love you” up at the stage. Two young girls who I think were on something a little stronger than pot were wind dancing (hippy style of dance that involves dramatic flailing of limbs. I made this term up. You can ask me about it later) and propositioning Cosentino from their post at the monitors. “This is super weird. This girl just told me her address. She said she wants to get down,” the singer laughed before dedicating a song to her would-be suitors by saying, “this one’s for you, girl.”
While Best Coast played song after song of upbeat surf-rock, I never once wanted to be somewhere else, and I never once felt grumpy about anything. This is saying a lot. The band’s set seemed to fly by in roughly five seconds and I spent my walk home listening to their songs on my ipod. Had I had the money to spare, I would have bought a t-shirt and worn it proudly all day today … high school style.
