KROQ Acoustic Christmas (Xmas?)

127 mph in a 550 horsepower black BMW M5, with seats that quite literally reach out and push you in the opposite direction of your turn. That was the “Mr Toad’s Wild Ride” home to a wild night, capping a very filled couple of weeks.

Tonight — much thanks to great friend Mark O — was “performer’s passes” to KROQ’s Acoustic Xmas. (If you’re not from SoCal, then you probably don’t know that it’s one of the year’s hottest concerts, put on by a local radio station.) Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: It’s not acoustic, and there was pretty much no “christmas” involved. Other than that, it was amazing. With the passes we had no lines at the bar, and a pretty nice salmon and steak dinner (and we got to watch the fight — oddly — in the middle of the concert.) Out on stage: First up (that we saw) was basically System of a Down (by a different name now) … who were amazing. Next up: Rage Against the Machine … also, another amazing performance. We missed the next band, and ended with Linkin Park. Seems like I always feel this way during a great concert, but it really seemed like of the best shows I’ve seen. The singer spent a lot of time right up in the crowd, and the audience went crazy the whole time. At one point they played the “slow” song (never all that mellow with Linkin Park), and a few lighters came out … but a SEA of cell phones came out. It was a little eerie and beautiful to see thousands upon thousands of lit cell phones waving back & forth across the stadium. Anyway, it was an incredible show. Top notch, huge thanks again to Mark, and congrats to all the fans who get to see tomorrow’s (Dec 9, 2007) show.