I went to a concert last night. It was great. I’ll spare my usual sarcasm and get to the good stuff.

Go Betty Go opened, and they were pretty much the worst band I have ever heard. It was an all-chick band, and the lead singer was really horrible. Then she started singing in Spanish. It would have been a neat idea, if I was fluent in Spanish. One guy said, “The lead singer needs to learn how to dance.” I said that she needs to learn how to sing first. But we all agreed that the drummer was awesome.

Rufio played next. They were really good, and a welcome relief from Go Betty Go. I would recommend buying an album of theirs. But in all honesty, I wonder if they would have sounded so great if they didn’t have such a horrible band playing before them…

MxPx was really the highlight of the show. They know what they’re doing, and they have fun with it. They’ve been a band for around 15 years now, so I think they’ve just realized that this is where life has taken them, and they’re going to make the best of it. They played covers of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” originally by The Proclaimers, and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash. They played their popular songs too, of course. But they really showed what a performer should be doing on stage. They didn’t just play their instruments, they played with them. They didn’t just sing to the crowd, they sang for the crowd. And they did some crazy guitar stunts too. It was probably the best rock performance I have ever seen.

Relient K played last. I guess they were supposed to be headlining, but they were really standing in the shadow of MxPx. I think Rufio did a better job on stage. RK acted like they didn’t really want to be there. Maybe they were tired or something. They played a huge medley of everone’s favorite songs, but I hate medleys. All of us in the front row were like, “Hey, aren’t there a couple more verses to that song?” Then we realized what was going on. I would rather hear a couple of the full songs than 15 half-songs. Some parts of the blending was ok, but most of it was bad. I hope they give up on whatever they were trying to do last night, because it sucked. What happened to the Relient K of 3 years ago?

MxPx - Wrecking Hotel Rooms