MEG-ONLINE

okay, let's discuss. i go to a lot of shows. not as many as some people, but more than the average person, for sure. in 2024, i think i went to about 30 shows in total. and i've spent a lot of money on concert tickets, and i've paid a lot of money in fees. i don't even want to think about how much money i've paid in fees in the last year.

i am fortunate that most shows i attend are usually in the $35 to $85 price range. of course, it depends on the venue and the artist. a show at LPR is cheaper than a show at irving plaza which is cheaper than a show at pier 17, and so on. (why did i name only manhattan venues? i don't know. they certainly are not the best.) and i typically don't have to pay resale prices. (a tip: i stay on top of show announcements and venue or artist presales by following both venues and artists on social media.) but sometimes i'm paying like, $15 fees on a $30 ticket, for $45 total. and in such cases: what the actual fuck? why am i paying an additional 50% of the ticket price in fees?

i do go to some larger shows, which start getting into the three digit price ranges, and then the cost of the fees become the cost of my average ticket price. for an MCR stadium show, i paid $40 fees alone, never mind the cost of the ticket itself. but i've never spent more than $200 on a ticket. so you can imagine my shock when i went to check prices for tickets to see the used at irving plaza this spring:

i'm sorry. $192 for THE USED??? at IRVING PLAZA??? i know it's a 25th anniversary tour but COME ON???

i'm not like, a huge fan of the used. i recall attending an emo night at a bar in boston once and being disappointed that all they played was the used. but the used is fine. i'm not going to use this post to talk about bert and quinn and everything. i'm just going to say: the used is fine. i actually own two of their shirts, both merch from shows, but in a "the used has pretty sick merch" way, not in a "i'm a diehard fan of the used so i own multiple pieces of merch" way. and i love the usual (the used-ual?) "you suck" booing and the good ol' fashioned wall of death during their shows. but like

TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS? for THE USED? at IRVING PLAZA? who tf

from november 16, 2024

welcome to the first edition of meg’s top 8. i do not envision this series to always end up being a playlist, but i guess that’s what my first top 8 post will be. anyways. after the 2024 presidential election, i had a few songs get stuck in my head, and i’ve decided to share them. so here are my top 8 songs to ruminate to post-election, with some unnecessary commentary from the author.

counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums | a perfect circle a truly extra re-imagining of "pet." the music video is a little ... dramatic? obvious? but ok. i think the song is better on its own, without the video.

state of the union | rise against well, perhaps cliché, but there it is

american jesus | bad religion there are many other great bad religion songs that should go on this list. but this is my blagh and i make the rules and somehow this has been so stuck in my head.

fuck authority | pennywise same as for #3 (also #2)

nazi punks fuck off | dead kennedys ditto

you hear yes | destroy boys, mannequin pussy, scowl three great bands coming together to make one great song

the decline | nofx sometimes i think i could get through running a marathon because when you think about it the time it would take to run a marathon is the equivalent of listening to this song two times in a row (this is a joke)

january 10, 2014 | the world is a beautiful place and i am no longer afraid to die well! this top 8 certainly has range.

November 16, 2024

who: drug church where: the brooklyn monarch when: thursday, october 24, 2024

venue: i like the monarch because it’s a venue that feels familiar to me. points for having food, of course. although this time, i’m docking points because the bathroom was out of service and the coat check was closed. sound was loud as fuck, as usual. this is one of the only venues that makes me feel like i need stronger loops to protect my ears. i do not know how people survive at the brooklyn monarch without ear plugs. also, have they always taken credit cards at the bar there? i feel like i have a distinct memory of trying to scrounge up enough cash for a single bottle of water. am i losing it, or did that change? i guess i don’t remember the last time i bought something there. 

merch: the merch was good, but i wish the drug church hat wasn’t a flat brim. i would have gotten it if it weren’t. i love a good baseball cap. and i was not going to spend $60 on another black sweatshirt (even though the stars drug church logo is my favorite).

bev: an orange fanta ($4.36) 

opener: first of all, do people not know soul blind??? i thought soul blind was at least moderately popular. (although i feel like i saw something on reddit a while back about them having some controversy or other. what else is new in the scene.) there was not a lot of hype for soul blind – i didn’t see any stage diving, really, and i didn’t even see much of a pit. to be honest, i guess i didn’t think they sounded that great live, even for “stuck in a loop.” when they played in brooklyn a few months ago i had considered getting tickets, and i’m kind of glad i didn’t. modern color was fine, but i probably won’t listen again. between soul blind and modern color they played a taylor swift song on the speakers. i can’t recall what song. swifties, don’t hate me. sometimes all taylor swift songs kind of blend into one giant song in my head. they all sound a little bit the same (the new ones, at least). 

merch spotted: 10/10 mix of merch. i saw: gorillaz, joyce manor, goo goo dolls, idles, militarie gun, circle jerks, nails (like, a LOT of nails??), siouxsie and the banshees, drug church (duh), modern color (duh), yankees, sixpoint brewery, crossfit sunset park, pity sex, stone pony (like, okay, damn), some metal band i couldn’t read because it was the spidery branches font, mystic pizza (nice), wawa (lol), alexisonfire, and also a guy from modern color was wearing a fiddlehead shirt (at least i think – i was kind of far back during their set)

crowd diversity: 0/10 i saw like one asian dude and one latina chick. there was actually a good amount of women though. i sometimes think of crowds as “tall crowds” or “short crowds,” and this was a VERY tall crowd. why are hardcore fans always so tall??? this was also an older crowd. i saw some white hair and definitely some graying heads in the crowd. 

setlist: solid. i’m emotionally attached to “tillary.”

notes: i arrived at the venue just as soul blind went on. on the L, it was easy to identify who else was going to the show. sometimes that’s a game i play – trying to figure out who, if anyone else in my train car, is going to get off at the same stop and make the same trek past warehouses and parked vans to get to the venue. 

i really like drug church live. before i saw them for the first time, i used to watch youtube videos of their live performances. their audiotree live session, kexp, ieperfest 2019, et cetera. they just kill it every time. and i love that there’s always an emphasis on safety, constant reminders from kindlon to fill in the gaps in front of the stage. he asked the crowd at one point to fill in on vocals for him and people absolutely fucking brought it, especially during “bliss out.” 

October 12, 2024

who: fidlar (+ sugar pit) where: brooklyn steel when: wednesday, october 9, 2024 7pm doors / show at 8 (fidlar on by 9:10)

venue: i hate a long walk from the L, but i love a free balcony. (this was actually the first time in a long time that i didn’t go to the balcony once during a brooklyn steel show. even though i didn’t use it, i appreciate that it’s there, so points for that.) another thing i like about brooklyn steel is that they also always have food. (similar to the balcony, i did not get food, but i appreciate that it’s there. they had soft pretzels.) also: why does each row of stalls in the bathroom at brooklyn steel have only ONE light? the stalls at the end are so dark it is terrifying to use them. 

merch: i didn’t really look at the sugar pit merch. the fidlar merch was all right. a lot of people in the crowd were wearing old fidlar merch and i actually preferred the old merch designs.

bev: voodoo ranger ipa. i think i paid $13? sheesh. 

opener: i’d never listened to sugar pit before. i guess it was a fun set. i don’t think i’ll listen again, but they brought a good vibe. the dude thanked every single member of the band at the end, and i thought that was sweet. 

merch spotted: i love to see what merch from other artists people wear to shows! i especially love when people wear tour merch from a recent show that i also attended. i saw: the menzingers, hot mulligan, green day (tour merch!), coheed and cambria, laura jane grace, metallica, smashing pumpkins, the new york giants (lol), and lots of fidlar, of course.

crowd diversity: 0/10 truly awful. just a sea of unshowered white people in baggy clothing and sk8-his. i’m guessing a lot of long island/new jersey. (obviously.) i think most people were probably late twenties, early thirties. 

setlist: solid. i think the only other songs i would have wanted to hear would be “bad habits” and “FSU.” the too songs that were on the setlist were ok (i think too as an album is just fine, not my favorite of fidlar’s, and “bad habits” is my favorite song from the album). but overall it was a fun selection and i loved the “dammit” cover when they came back out at the end of the show. 

notes: i started listening to fidlar a little over ten years ago. i found them through tumblr in 2014. their self-titled debut album was one of my favorite albums that summer. i was studying abroad in the netherlands that fall and at the end of the summer i made a study abroad playlist and the playlist was just “stoked and broke” on repeat. anyways! here we are, ten years later. 

the band sounded great live. they played with a ton of energy. it’s truly incredible how upbeat the performance was because some of their lyrics are really quite sad. the lighting was fun (lots of purples, very strobe-y, and i appreciated the venue’s strobe light warning posters) and the sound quality was great. i was close to a speaker during part of the show but i had my loops in so i was comfortable. it was fun that they had us do a wall of death for the second song. the circle pits were looking fast n furious. 

and of course: how could i not talk about the girls-only mosh pit? 

this was my first time being at a show that had a girls-only mosh pit. i would like to take a moment to extend my gratitude to the band. that was one of the best experiences i have ever had at a show. (my anticipation of the girls-only mosh pit was also the reason i stayed on the floor instead of going to the balcony like i have the past four or so times i’ve been at brooklyn steel.) 

jumping into the girls-only mosh pit was the safest i have ever felt in the crowd at a show. i have spent the past day thinking about how to describe the elation i felt. not to be dramatic, but it was truly exhilarating to be shoved without fearing being groped by some sweaty dude from like, massapequa or something. wow. freaking incredible. i don’t know if i’m ever going to have that experience again, but i’m going to think about it at every show i go to in the future. literally every future pit. i will think about the girls-only mosh pit. the only thing that i hated was that it ended too soon. i basically blacked out, as one does when entering the pit (or does that not happen to other people?), but i think the song was “5 to 9,” and that song is barely over a minute long. i had sixty seconds to get in and get out. the last note of the song had barely finished before men were pushing their way back to the center. already. it was over before i knew it. during the entire length of the show, only sixty seconds felt like they were for women.

and … i lost my shoe! or part of my shoe. i have modular vans and the module on my left shoe freaking came off in the pit. i was so stressed when i realized it and before the show i was like “wow it would be crazy if my module came off during the show” but i didn’t think it would actually happen. serves me right. i am so grateful i actually found it rather quickly. that would have really been a big bummer if i lost it.