June 09th, 2016

Idk why the Title feature is broken and I have to put one here "Recapping The Night That Was At the Florence + The Machine Concert"

Before the Show

Tuesday night I saw Florence + the machine and Of Monsters and Men at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield with 3 of my boys, and man let me tell you it did not disappoint. Best live performance I've ever been to. I talk about them a lot on my blog but a lot of people are still kinda surprised I like this kind of music. I don't like it, I love it. Just because I don't like Bernie Sanders doesn't mean I can't get down with some awesome tunes.

However, The night did not start off so great, on the way up it was wicked cloudy and looked like it was going to rain, we had seats in the lawn (uncovered) so this was a major problem. I could tell my friends didn't want to go at this point because of the rain and shit, but I didn't really give a care. I drove and had been looking forward to this show for months since I got the tickets. We were fucking going no matter what.

We were getting ready to park when I went into the wrong parking lot. I'll own that one, that's on me, it was pouring and I was freaking out.  I just wanted everybody to calm down and I fucked up. I raise my hand for that. I ended up in some lot where it was like $40 to park a mile away from the venue. Can you say fuck that? Because that's what I said when I heard that price. I'm not paying 40 bucks to walk a mile in the rain sweetheart, especially when I guess you can park for free at the Xfinity center as long as you don't mind waiting two hours to get out of the parking lot (I'll get to that at the end).

So we got into our spot in the lot around like 6:15 and the show wasn't supposed to start until 7 which is really 8 so we had time to ride out the rainstorm. Luckily it stopped around quarter to 7, which allowed us to hang outside of my jeep for a little bit to "get ready" for the concert. Only complaint here was the car next to us, we were next to some certified freaks, like they had to be fucking with us they were such stereotypical freaks. They were standing way too close to my jeep for my liking when we were all still in the car, it's like they were trying to listen to us. Stay away freaks and no you can't hit this.

Tension was kinda high but then we noticed this pretty sweat rainbow, which after the rain and some fighting between friends gave me a good feeling about the show. Luckily things turned out all right. Life isn't too bad.

Now at this point we're out side of my car tailgating and tossin the ole pigskin I had in my trunk. Never have I felt so out of place throwing a football before. Definitely not the right kind of scene to show you like sports at. Still had to show off my wicked 20 yard spiral. Again you never know when you're going to run into a scout. That's a phrase I live by.

Now it's close to 7 and time to start heading in, we all stop at the porter potties real quick (which had not been cleaned out for the show) and start a walk to the show. Oh I should mention the dudes we met in the line to take a piss, maybe the highest guy I've ever seen. Fat little Mexican dude around my age just on another level, he said he was there to meet chicks which is cool, I just wanted to hear my girl sing her heart out. Even after dropping a quick hundo lbs I knew my game was not strong enough to make a move at this show. AKA I'm a huge pussy and at 24 still don't know how to talk to girls unless I'm drunk which even then isn't very good. But I'll never see that bro again, I'd like to think he got some that night, but I'm a realist. Dude was like a 3-10.

At this point all four of us are on another level, and we decide it's a good idea to not let anybody split up... we're either in teams of 2  or 4 for the rest of the night. That lasted for about 2 minutes before someone wandered off.

We get up to the lawn and obviously it soaking wet because it just rained for like an hour. I was smart and thought ahead packed some blankets and towels for this exact predicament.

However I am also stupid because I left them in my jeep. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ One of my buddies talked to a security guard to see if there is re-entry or not. He said there isn't but because of the rain they'll prob let us go to my car, we just had to go to guest services first to make sure. So me and one of my boys goes to check while the other two just chilled in the lawn.

When we got to guest services and explained our case at first I was bummed because  they told us there is no re-entry no matter what.  That sucked at first because of the weather and everything we thought they'd allow it, especially after what the guard bro told us.

But this is when the night went from good to great, the lady working told us because we can't leave, but if we want she could upgrade us to covered seats. At first I was so shocked I didn't understand, I was like I don't want that just let me get my towel, but then a light bulb went off and I was like wait this is a great trade, some may even call it trade robbery. We just had to give them the shitty printed out tickets in the lawn and we'd get covered seats where you can actually see the stage. We make the deal and headed back up with the great news. Of course the other two guys aren't answering their phones. Least surprising news in the history of news. We wanted to avoid walking back up the hill  to find them and instead just have them meet us down low to go to our new seats. Even after all this weight loss I'm still not about walking somewhere I don't have to.  Now the friend I went down with says he'll go find them, what a guy, so we break our cardinal rule again of splitting up.

This was fine for me because I had to piss again. I should mention this concert was the opposite of sporting event where the men's lines are a mile long and the women go right in. I didn't even have to wait it was awesome. Weird ass bathroom though, they had a huge sink in the middle that was operated by a pedal. I'm still not convinced it wasn't one of those urinal troughs they used to have at baseball stadiums in the 1940's (and still at Fenway I think). Ironically, it was me who found our other friends as they were getting beers. We finally all get reunited again and go to our new section. Pretty good seats for free if you ask me. Right by the sound board so it sounded sick.

The Show

We get split up again as guys wanna get more beer, I can't blame them there, if I was drinking I prob woulda spent like 70 bucks on beer alone (aka 5 beers). But now it's different groups of two. Now it's me and a different friend then before with the towel situation.  At first we watch this cute, but kinda chubby girl try to hook up with a guy who was clearly her gay best friend. It was about as obvious as a punch in the face. Really felt bad for the girl. I definitely woulda helped her out since her friend was not interested.

Then after watching that, my buddy who are left in the seats started talking to couple who was around my parents age, maybe a little older, definitely under 60. They were the nicest, coolest old people I've ever fucking met. I'm so bummed I forgot their names but they were the best. The husband just hands me and my friend his iphone and says scroll through my music, I scrolled for a good 20 seconds and wasn't even out of the "A's" yet, but I liked what I saw musically, I could tell I fucked with these two. They asked me about myself and I told them everything, about how much I love music, how I've lost 100 pounds and how I went to school to be a history teacher. They asked me my favorite time period in history and I told them it was the 60's which it is. Side note I could do a whole different blog about how interesting and important the 60's were but that's for another day. We ended up talking about the 60's for at least 20 minutes it was pretty fucking cool. Really a lot about 1968, which IMO is one of the worst years in American history. The lady said she lived through it and remembered it but I didn't believe her she looked like 55, that's like me saying I remember the 90's well. But whatever I guess she was older than she looked. We talked about music some more, best shows, favorite bands, you know all the generic shit, then my man took me for a loop and asked me the worst show I've ever been to. Was not expecting that one I was in way  too happy of a place to have negative thoughts like that. (Very unlike me) I couldn't give an answer, but he had one for me, "The Ramones" which surprised me but made  a ton of sense after his explanation, he said they were so drunk and high when they performed that he couldn't even understand them, which looking back makes sense.

Our other friends come back and the opening act, Of Monsters and Men is about to begin. I should mention we were not all sitting near each other at this point and that pissed me off. Finally we got together, all I wanted was a nice picture of all of us but everybody was being too much of a hardo and I didn't get a good one. we were sitting and it came out like shit. But OMAM are sick, I saw them last year at Lupos and they were great live. That didn't change Tuesday night, they're unreal. I love how they use two singers and have a big brass section. Shit sounds so good live. Video quality sucks but that's because your boy was cuttin a rug plus I still have an iphone 5 like a peasant. When I think summer 2013 they are one of the first things that comes to mind, during my first 21 summer, they were on the radio a ton. Little Talks and Mountain Sound are classics even though they aren't that old.

OMAM pic.twitter.com/nCh8iW1Ch5

— Ryan (@rhodydoz) June 9, 2016

OMAM were great, played all their best songs. Honestly no complaints with their set whatsover. Once they finish there was like at least 20 minutes until Florence went on. Don't really remember what happened during this part.


Finally the anticipation is over, F+M is on and it is something I've been waiting years for. I can't remember what they opened with by Ship to Wreck was second and my boys were wicked into it. We're all vibing and dancing it was amazing. When I say this shit was a religious experience I mean it, I felt like I was in something bigger than me, I was all in, Florence could've told me anything and I would of done it, I would've dranken the kool-aid if there was any, it was that intense. You could've told me anything and woulda bought it.

After a few more songs, Flo stops and talks about how much we are all on our phones which is true, I know my head is down on my phone way too much and she was just saying how we need to live our lives more and that for this one song if everybody could not have their phone up that'd be awesome, of course I obliged. That song was How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, the title track to their latest album. Can't describe how good it was live.

A few more songs happen then Florence comes out to the middle of the crowd, some what close to where we are sitting/standing and does a Rabbit Rabbit out there it was amazing. She has the best voice in music and I've been saying it for years. They should have more mainstream success it's a shame such shitty music gets more play. Such a great song.

Florence pic.twitter.com/BkCKawsZLS

— Ryan (@rhodydoz) June 9, 2016

They must've done a two hour set, it was so sick. I have to see them again, I feel like I'm not doing the show justice with my description but it was unreal. I can't even say what was the best song because everything was so good. If I had to I'd say everything. My only, and I mean only complaint is they didn't play "No Light, No Light" I was shocked. Especially because they did do Sweet Nothings which isn't even technically a Florence + the Machine song. It's just Florence, (no machine) and Calvin Harris.

But no light no light is easily one of their biggest songs. After Dog Days I'd say it's that or Shake It Out for their next most popular/successful song. When they came out for the encore I thought okay now here it comes, then when the encore ended I was like they must be coming back to play that, then the lights came on and the roadies came out and my dreams were crushed. I fucking love that song "you can't chose what stays and what fades away" is one of my favorite lyrics of all time, it's in my IG bio for God's sake. But it is weird they didn't play it right? I'm not overreacting? It's like if you went to a Mumford and Sons concert and they didn't play the Cave. Definitely not their signature song, but still pretty fucking popular.

My theory is they didn't play it to make people want to go see them again to hear it, leave them wanting more.  Which if that's the case, it worked perfectly because I am 100% going again next year or some time after to get that song and also another entire concert because it was that good. Even if you don't know a single song by them you'll enjoy the show, soooo much good energy, so much passion in Florence's vocals it's unreal. I have more videos on my phone from snapchat but most of them have me signing a long in the worst falsetto of all time so I'm not gonna put them up.

Post Show

After the show ended the real fun began in the wait to get out, we saw a guy get rear ended, then the dude got out of his car, freaking the fuck out and punched the other dude's van like 3 times, took the mirror right off. You do not expect to see that kind of shit at a Florence + the machine concert. Shit was so emasculating to the old dude in his van. Felt really bad for him, he did nothing, but in his defense I probably wouldn't either, not worth getting murdered over, you feel me?

Then I saw the most savage thing I've ever seen, I feel like that term gets REALLY over used but it fits here. Some shitty car from the 90's had "ILLEGAL LIVES DON'T MATTER" WRITTEN in SHARPIE on the trunk. Not a sticker, the dude fucking got a sharpie and wrote it on his car. Now you really have to hate a group to do that shit. I joke around about politics a lot but that shit was insane to me, total psycho move, even if you think that shit you don't vocalize it, especially your mode of transportation. Another thing I was shocked to see given where we were. I tried to get a pic of it but it was very hard to do while driving, but I have 3 witnesses that can back up my testimony that that was a real thing that I saw with my two eyes.


Overall it was a sick night, best $30 I ever spent.  Got upgraded to good seats, was another planet and heard some awesome tunes with my boys, made some new friends who could be my parents, and got a like on my rainbow IG from a girl I matched with on tinder over a year ago that I still am very much interested in if she is, so overall I'd say it was a fantastic experience. Going to DMB tomorrow night, it's gonna have a LOT to live up to.