I have a general rule about concerts..if someone invites me to a show and I don’t really know the music I should seriously consider going just for the experience. Toad The Wet Sprocket is one of my BF’s fave bands. Of course I heard of the song “Walk On The Ocean,” but hadn’t obsessed about Toad like people in the 90’s. I had no expectations about this show only that I new that they were playing their hit album “Fear” in it’s entirety.

As I have gotten older the whole concert experience has gotten a bit tiring. You Know, all the STANDING and waiting in lines. So I was quite relived as I waited in line for the upstairs section of the Great American Music Hall to open and there was GASP.. SEATS and tasty food available. The major draw back to enjoying a show from the upstairs balcony in the seats are the following: frozen butt (wood chair plus butt =frozen butt), the fact you had to lean over the balcony to see which resulted in back strain, and the corresponding neck strain to actually see the stage.

So besides the strain the show was enjoyable even though I only knew a few songs. The venue was not packed but noticed that there was a older gentleman in the front of the stage the entire show singing along for 2 hours straight and as we were leaving caught up with him. He exclaimed “I got the set list!” Nice to see even after many years of shows what I saw that night was representative to the band in their hey-day and to their core fans.

I was pretty stoked to scoring tickets to the sold out M83 show at the Fillmore on Monday night. There is a substantial buzz out there on Anthony Gonzalez’s (the lead singer, creator of M83) double album “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” which has been in everyone’s heavy rotation on Rdio for over a year now and been M83’s best selling record to date.

With that being said I was a bit nervous about the show, in that I wondered if the show would lack energy or even worse.. sound like two hours of the SAME DAMN SONG.

Well no fear, I was pretty impressed. The backdrop behind the band was sparkly, and there were TRON like light sticks that changed color with each song. Gonzalez’s band was on point too, a guitarist (with a two-toned shirt) rocked out while on stage left Morgan Kibby added breathy ambient vocals.

I will admit some point during the show I thought to myself, what exactly are they singing about? I was secretly hoping it wasn’t about punching puppies or anything super horrible. The music had the same type pattern: intro, build, release, and rock out. But nevertheless I see what the fuss was about the band was tight and I found myself rocking out and not pretending that I knew the words.

The crowd was interesting. I had expected the plaid hipster that exit BART at 24th and Hipster but found the crowd to be primary college age kids and high school kids and few grown folks. In fact during the encore  some high school age kids decided it would be a great time to RUN through the crowd that is when I decided it would be a great time to take off.

The Fillmore is a great place to enjoy a intimate show like this and I was very impressed with the light rig that was set up behind the band. Not only every show that sells out at the Fillmore you get a collectible poster. While this poster isn’t frame worthy this time it is a cool takeaway. Also if you see a show there don’t forget a apple in the barrel on your way out.