Fan Mail

I'm a big fan of White Arrows. The music group, not the roadway markers. I saw them at San Francisco's Warfield last week. It was a Saturday night show and my family went out together. This alone would make this band important in my life, since the opportunities to go do something as a family sometimes eludes us. And we met friends, who went to the show with us. It was a night out. With the White Arrows!
Okay, so it wasn't the White Stripes, which for my son would have put us into contention for Parents of the Year. Still, we were out on the town, having a little dinner and taking in a rock show at one of the Bay Area's legendary music venues. We were there to see White Arrows! Okay. We weren't there to precisely to see them. We were there to see OK Go. White Arrows was the opening act. When the lights went down and the stage was dark, and then the spotlight came on the lead singer and guitar player whose name I can't recall right now, there was polite applause. This Los Angeles-based quartet powered through a set of psychedelic power pop that kept the crowd distracted, at least those down front. The rest of us were milling about, looking at the T-shirt stands, checking out the ridiculous prices at the bar. Five dollars for a bottle of water? I'll watch the opening band instead, thanks. And participate in that ritual in which I have been involved for the past forty years: making fun of the opening band. These were the young men who may someday be the next big thing, much in the same way that OK Go was the next big thing some fifteen years ago. Back before they were the darlings of the Internet set with their clever YouTubes.
Now, OK Go is a headliner. They show up with trucks full of equipment and dozens of roadies whose job it is to prepare the stage for the artists while the members of White Arrows hastily grabbed up their equipment to make way for the featured attraction. The featured attraction which was already in evidence via the racks of guitars and the six pillars of robotic lights and projection screen in front of which White Arrows played their quick set of introductory rock and roll. They didn't have a lot of fancy lights or special effects. They didn't have the use of the confetti cannons located on either side of the stage which OK Go had loaded and ready to go. These confetti cannons which turned out to be a source of wry stage banter by the headliners who joked about their potential over-reliance on confetti cannons.
OK Go put on a heck of a show. Fun, funny, and loud with costume and scenery changes that went on for hours. And more confetti. And the reason I like White Arrows? They did it all first. Without confetti. I may never buy a White Arrows CD or T-Shirt, but they won my respect. Without confetti.