BRMC, Bellavista @ Mezzanine 6-25-07

The last in my series of BRMC concert reviews, makes me sad already! Anyways, this was a private Jack Daniels show that we managed to get into thanks to Grant, the wonderful Joey Fatone-esque tour manager of BRMC. The ride up with Suzanne was pretty stressful for her, and a bit traumatizing for me. Her Mustang goes really fast without seeming to go fast, but the traffic in the other lanes have to get out of the way for her to zoom past and many made the mistake of not getting out of the way. We left my house at around 11:30 AM and despite horrible traffic around Sylmar in Ventura County, we made it to San Francisco by 6:30 PM with plenty of time to primp for the show.

Jodi and Kimberly were there a bit earlier to make sure we could all get in and even snuck in for the sound check. The wait in line wasn't too bad, we walked around the corner to a sandwich shop nearby to get some eats while the people behind us held our place in line (though they were the only other people there). When we finally entered, we were greeted by a table full of swag, including hankies, buttons, guitar picks, patches, keychains, etc. Some how I'd missed the JD girls handing out harmonicas, but Jodi was kind enough to give me hers. We also had our picture taken by the JD girls, who gave us a polaroid to mark the occasion.

We claimed our usual spots in front, but no one else was really fighting for them this time. I chatted a little with a girl who said she was in a band called Gold and Sweet (or something like that), who had opened for Fujiya and Miyagi at the same venue a few weeks ago. She had never heard of BRMC, but had heard of Bellavista, which kind of shows you what the Bay area is like. Bellavista went on at around 8 PM and were really good. I was surprised because I didn't really like The Vue, which a couple of the band members were in before. I was pleasantly surprised by their music, which had some pop hooks to the mostly rock-oriented sound.

Jodi was so impressed by the drummer that she got a drumstick signed by him. I think he was interesting to watch because his kit was set up right near us instead of way in the back, so we could actually see his feet moving to hit the bass drums. BRMC went on at around 9 PM, right after a Jack Daniels Gibson guitar giveaway. They put on a spirited performance, though the audience wasn't as into it as a normal audience would be. It was annoying when people were talking loudly during the acoustic songs and later singing the wrong parts during Peter's acoustic songs. Somehow, we got an encore out of the band even though the music started already.

Here's the setlist:

Took Out A Loan
Berlin
Lien On Your Dreams
Ain't No Easy Way
Weapon of Choice
White Palms
Window
Not What You Wanted
666 Conducer
Need Some Air
American X

Fault Line
Devil's Waitin
Chelsea Hotel
Shuffle Your Feet
All You Do Is Talk

Steal A Ride
Awake
Six Barrell Shotgun
Punk Song

"White Palms" wasn't on the original setlist, as well as "Chelsea Hotel," so we got some special songs. We were trying to get them to play "We're All In Love" by writing the lyrics to the song down, but they didn't play it. We also wanted them to play "Shade of Blue" with one of our little paper signs, but we got "Steal A Ride" which made us all very happy. After the show, Peter told us that Nick was playing the wrong beat, so Peter kicked his bass drum which made Nick angry. Poor guys, not even getting along during a song! After the show, Suzanne said, "Good show" to Nick, who responded, "No, it wasn't." So, I guess no one was really happy about the show, except us, who just wanted to see them before the European tour.

After the show, me and Suzanne were trying to get food from Denny's. We had parked pretty far away from the restaurant, so she went to move the car. It seems a homeless guy asked her for a dollar when she got back, and when she didn't give it to him, he peed on her car! The nerve of some people, especially ones who shouldn't be in a position to make demands. After spending way more than expected on food and parking, we were ready to go get some sleep. Getting into my dad's parking garage was trickier than we'd expected, but we managed to get in the other side of it. It was quite an eventful evening, but fortunately, the drive back was a lot easier (until we reached LA).