#69 - Attend a Concert - Jethro Tull at the Greek

Well, it was just pathetic.  Not the concert, the fans.  There was not a lot of growing old gracefully on display.

There's something surreal about waiting for a Jethro Tull concert, old men with trophy wives, conversations quoting Rush Limbaugh and shopping for Porsches in the theatre pavilion.

At one point Denise commented that I was the cutest person she'd seen in attendance, which I considered a sorry indictment of the Tull fan base.  She and the guy seated next to her were speculating on the average age within amphitheater; Denise went with 60, her neighbor was a little more kindly, coming in with an estimate of 58.

So the good news was that I was not the oldest, fattest, baldest, frailest or stupidest of the assembled masses.  The guy sitting behind me was going all out for the latter title.

Fuckin' A!  "Hot Night in Budapest!"  My favorite!

"Farm on the Freeway!"  This is my favorite!

Oh, my fuckin' favorite!  "Locomotive Breath!"

He was either extremely fickle or not clear on the concept of "favorite."  I'm pretty sure he and his party were all co-workers at JPL.

Cannabis, Lipitor and Flowmax were probably all present in about equal quantities.  There were more than a few people "Living in the Past."

Ian Anderson did make a few jokes about the assembled decrepitude, at one point during a flute finale he was making his trademark gyrations, grabbed his groin and said "Shit!", suffering a mock hernia.

Speaking of Ian Anderson, this WAS a Jethro Tull concert after all, he was very good.  Can't quite hit the same notes that he once did, 35 or forty years ago, but who can.  Started off with a bit of "Thick as a Brick" and over the course of the evening played all the tracks from "Aqualung" along with other selections.  I read on the Jethro Tull web site that Ian Anderson had broken his finger back around March.  Apparently, he was able to adapt to playing the flute with one finger splinted, but the guitar was impossible.  The band was forced to cover for him.  Fortunately for us, the splint was off last night and he was playing his own guitar.  Lead guitarist, Martin Barre was excellent, as ever.

A funny thing about Jethro Tull songs, and probably more specifically Ian Anderson's voice, is that they were never the sort where one could easily sing along.  Naturally, that didn't stop people from trying.

This was only my second event at the Greek Theatre, the first being a showing of "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor.   I will say that the PHC fans were better behaved and apparently smarter or maybe just less disoriented by the concept of stacked parking.

And speaking of pathetic, I give you the following...