Everclear // Speed Street

I just don't know what to say about Speed Street other than it managed to bring out many people who were rather obviously not from the city. As a NASCAR event of a series of concerts and events that happen all weekend long and it reminded me of those crappy state fairs but with more terrible food and boozers. But seriously, why does this happen uptown of all places? The street washing vehicles were hard at work after the concert, going up and down the streets repeatedly to wash away the stench of beer, drunkies, terrible concession foods, and restore it back to its business-professional uptown area.  Luckily I was able to escape the crowd, including hard-to-miss cop involved drama consisting of a redneck-cat-fight, by entering the great mead-hall of VALHALLA! (Formerly the beloved Eggheads, wherein many a great time was had alongside the owners and servers. Them fishbowls were real, Eggheads.)

I would like to address some of the negative reviews and feedback I've received from friends, fans, and various internet sources: What were you people expecting from a band that peaked in the late 90's? The show was nearly rained-out, not to mention these guys are older now, playing at a free event, with terrible outdoor acoustics, on the Miller Lite stage, to a crowd 2x smaller than usual for Speed Street, who were half drunk, and half disinterested, yet all somewhat disappointed. Whatever the reasons, their performance received low ratings all around. Many mentioned that if they would have been really disappointed if they would have have had to pay - but that's the point, you didn't. You can only hope that in such a case the band may have exhibited a greater desire to put on a better show. All those angsty-daddy-issue songs of your childhood were probably ruined, because it became apparent that the band was not too sober themselves. As my first experience with Speed Street, I don't really think that many bands would put forth their best effort for this type of event. Given the conditions, why should they?