Sick Puppies/Finger Eleven/Seether

April and I went down to the Chesaning Showboat on Monday to see the Seether and Finger Eleven Concert. I'd just finished working 6 straight nights and so did not want to get out of bed to go to the concert. There are some times that skipping sleep is worth it, and this was one of those times, and I didn't have to go to work that night, so I got to sleep after the concert, but it was so hard to drag my butt out of bed after only a few short hours of sleep (5ish).

Picked April up around 4:45 and we made a short stop at Benningan's for a meal and drinks, since we both wanted to bitch about work a bit. Then we made the drive. It would have been a great drive, except we took Swan Creek Road down to meet M-52 and I did not know that Swan Creek Road was all torn up and is getting ready to get resurfaced, so we had that wonderful sound of torn up road and a great cloud of dust following us down the entire way, so we couldn't have the windows down and it was a beautiful day. :(

We got to Showboat Park and got parked. Ran into John, April's kinda-guy, and then went to get our seats since we actually had reserved seats and not general admission. Well, we get up there, and no where on the ticket or posted does it say no cameras. Security checks my purse, and sure enough, I get told that my camera (my little Kodak 3mp camera) has to go back to my car. So walk back to the car, put the camera away and walk back, we go in a different gate and the guy barely checks my purse. Gah. Get our seats, and check it out, the people in front of us got cameras in. Only the one security guard was really checking the contents of purses. Not that it really mattered, since every cell phone there had a camera on it. FAIL! On the part of security.

Sick Puppies played first, and though I'd never heard of them since they were from Australia, they were really good. And I wish that I was as tiny as their bassist Emma. I want a figure similar to that so I can wear the tiny corset-like top that she had on. They played a short set, getting us revved up for Finger Eleven.

Finger Eleven was my favorite band of the night. Probably because I'm not a total hard rock person, so the fact that I could actually understand what they were saying was a big plus for me. That and they had the coolest guitar that I've ever seen. It was nothing but a frame in the shape of an electric guitar and the neck, strings too of course. And that made the coolest sound that I'd ever heard come out of guitar. It's the one that they use for "One Thing." It was just awesome.

Now, the Chesaning Showboat is actually a boat. Kinda. It's on the Shiawassee River and there's an old Paddleboat behind the stage. And people were smart, they were taking their boats up and down the river. Good thinking, hear the concert without having to pay for it. The coolest boat though was the one with the giant swan raft floating behind it. It was freakin' sweet.

Honestly, by the time Seether played, I was tired, I hadn't had any allergy pills in a week, so I was sneezy and itchy (I lost the pills), and I had a headache because my neck was acting up. I only knew a couple of the songs, and while they sounded great, I wasn't totally into it, and I was kinda ready to go. But they played for about an hour and a half, and I enjoyed them, but not as much as I'd enjoyed the earlier two bands.

Concert ended a little before 11:30 and by the time we stopped by the merchandise table and got what we wanted, parking had cleared out enough that it was no problem getting out of the park, except I know I followed the way the guy was pointing me, and somehow I ended up on the wrong side of the barrels. Oops, but that was quickly solved. Guys directing traffic probably thought that I was drunk, but there was no way I was paying $5 for a can of alcohol that I probably wasn't even going to like, and being tired already, I knew that wasn't a good idea.

'Twas a fun night though. Good times and good music.