Hey Mercedes isn't necessarily one of my favorite bands, but my buddy loves them and the show was free so I went. Another plus was it was at the Metro, a Chicago venue I had never been to but am planning on going to for The Hold Steady. Hey Mercedes is actually suppose to be broken up, had the last tour and everything, yet decided to put on one more show for the first Threadless store bein' opened up. Since I had never seen them before I didn't know what to expect. So when four older guys came out in button down shirts and slacks, I was like, "these guys are suppose to be a punk band?" But they rocked, and they rocked HARD. A great show, made even better by the fact that the Metro only holds about 300 people, and we were able to get up to the second row without much trouble. Made me even more excited for The Hold Steady.
Now something I need to cover and maybe get some comment on from others. This big guy started a mosh pit in the middle of this tiny venue. Now I'm all for mosh pits, they can be a lot of fun if they don't get dangerous, but this was a emo kid show, not a death metal show. I came expecting to see the band and jump around a bit and rock out. But instead, I was gettin' shoved around and instead of watching the band, I ended up watchin' the mosh pit behind me, worrying a bit about the girls that were in the vicinity.
Like I said, if it was a death metal show or something where moshing is common, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But this was not the place for that. I dunno, am I justified in my anger or is that something I should just deal with as something that happens a lot at shows?
