concert report

The Vanilla Ice concert was a good time. Opening band The Brodys were awesome, Ice himself was inked, toned, wearing his ever-present ball cap [is he going bald under there? hmm....], and looking pretty good. His rapping was good, good beats, played well to the crowd. Not a spectacular talent, nothing to really make him stand out other than, dude, he's VANILLA ICE, yo! Ended up the evening soaking wet, ears ringing, and tired but happy.

But let's start at the beginning...

Susy and I grabbed a bite to eat at The Boardwalk in Los Altos [mmm, chicken philly], then headed up into the city [sorry, I mean The City (tm)]. The Red Devil Lounge is easy to get to, even for a non-city-driver like me, which is nice. Tried to find a parking place with little success...drove and drove and drove and drove, spiralling out and around and coming back in then back out, block by block. Finally gave up and paid the $15 plus tip to park at a garage near the venue, and headed out.

First stop, Good Vibrations, just across the street. Love that store, though Susy and I are pretty stocked up after two recent Passion Parties. She did get her "OhMiBod", the <ahem> device <ahem> that you hook into your iPod and it responds to the beats [is that cryptic yet obvious enough?]. Wanna know the best part? It costs $69 <snicker>.

After dropping her purchase at the car, we headed into the club. I love the Red Devil...it's awesome. Dark, black walls and red lights, gargoyles over the bar, tiny tiny tiny...did I mention tiny? They make a kick-ass "Strong Island Iced Tea" [it's fun to watch them make it: glug-glug-glug with the alcohol, four types, then <splish> a teensy amount of mixer...whoo hoo!!], which has become Susy's and my standard drink [one each before the show, then we share one in the break before the headliner comes on].

The place was *packed*. And the crowd was white. White white white. Yeah, not a big surprise, I know. <grin> Even folks who weren't caucasian were white, if you know what I mean. A *big* difference from the Mix-A-Lot crowd, and pretty much what we expected. A fun crowd, all of us smiling and sharing the vibe, with almost a slight embarrassment and "yeah, I know, it's Vanilla Ice" feel to it. We were all in it together, darn it. :^)

The opening act was The Brodys, and they were really good. Fun, rockin', amped, hyper, punk sound. Mix up Social Distortion, The Clash, The Ramones, some Dropkick Murphys, shake well, and you get The Brodys. They were cramped on stage [Ice had his stuff set up and covered with tarps, so the openers had to squeeze in on the smallest stage ever], but managed to give a good show. Some original stuff, and an awesome 80s medley done punk-style [can't remember many of the songs, though "Hungry Like the Wolf" and a Madonna song were in there].

Ice was running late, so The Brodys kept getting the sign to keep playing. "We're going to do one more song...two, two more songs!!" It ended up being four more, and then almost another hour before Mr. Ice came on stage. Crowd was good, though, and we all just hung in there, chatted, bounced to the house DJ who was spinning to keep us distracted.

Then the man himself came on. If you've seen any "where are they now?" shows, you know what he looks like...inked arms, long shorts, white sneakers, ball cap, sleeveless jersey with "187" on the back, little billy goat beard hanging off his chin. Looked good, aged well, came out rapping hard, dope, yo. The stage was done up Halloween-fashion, with small cauldrons hanging from the drums, a ghost/skeleton with creepy clown mask hanging behind Ice's DJ, and a ghosty/spirity thing with flowing sleeves hanging over Ice's head. Well, more like *on* Ice's head...the stage was really small, and he was standing on a platform, so he had to keep peering through the sleeves to be seen. They eventually got the thing tugged up a bit higher, but it was still hilarious to see Ice having to rap around and through his own prop.

[An interesting aside: they found a way for pyrotechnics in such a crowded venue...a small metal grinder. Start it up, then slap a piece of metal to it with the beat and showers of sparks go flying. Pretty cool.]

Like I said, the rapping was good. Not spectacular, but good. He had a very annoying habit of taking a drink of water from a bottle and then throwing the rest onto and into the crowd [hence the "ending the night soaking wet"]. Ice pulled various pneumatic ladies up on stage and made sure to dowse them with water as they were dancing and gyrating, which was quite entertaining. Susy had much fun dancing with some cuties around us [we seem to trade off...last time was me, this time was her, next time should be mine again :^) ]. Crowd was hyped and kept pushing hard...I kept getting knocked over and falling onto the stage [like I said, small club, and stage is only about 18" off the floor]. Everyone was polite though, and kept helping each other up when we tumbled, or catching each other before we fell.

By the way, I do have to give Ice some props...he reworked "Ice, Ice, Baby" and hardened it up a bit. Still the same song we know and love to make fun of, but with a harder edge and more modern rap feel to it.

Ice loved his Jagermeister. He asked for a bottle, someone bought him one, and he drank copiously from it. Then he passed it around, and Susy was on the ball, baby...she snagged it as it went by, and made sure I got a turn [another tradition-in-the-making: at Mix-A-Lot, it was the Hennessey mono bottle]. Hey, alcohol kills germs, right?

Sadly [and lamely], Ice's voice gave out about an hour in, and he had to stop rapping. He took his turn at the drums, which surprised me...and he wasn't bad, which also surprised me. His voice was shot, so he let the DJ do his thing while he drummed, then said basically, "Sorry y'all, thanks San Francisco, peace, out!" and left. But not before throwing his sticks to the crowd...

...and I got one. w00t, I am now the proud owner of a Vanilla Ice drumstick. Look at me go!!! Go white girl, go white girl!!

Then Susy and made our way to the car and headed on home, with a side trip to the Mountain View 7-Eleven that is done up as a Kwik-E Mart [fun!]. Squishees in hand, we ended the night happy, vowing to keep an eye on the Red Devil for more fun, cheesy, oddball concerts. Thanks, Susy...can't wait for the next one!!