Before the concert there was a reception for a local organization that basically is doing the same thing we are. This particular organization works with the public schools in the city, setting up after school and Saturday tutoring sessions for students who want to do better. They have the same goal of sending these kids to area independent schools and hopefully onto college. They also do a lot of fundraising to help offset the costs of the schools they're aiming for, whereas we depend more on the kids earning financial aid. It's a great organization. Bitterly, though, I realized that we are in competition with them. Instead of working together with other organizations we're all competing. It shouldn't be like that. I feel like we should all be working in tandem, since we have the same goal; but, unfortunately we're working with a relatively small pool of students compared to other cities with the same source of donors and investors. It's really sort of sad. Each organization is great and really works for certain people. It's not right that we should have to compete when we're doing such great things for the city. But, because we're all privately funded and we're working on helping people only within our city, we have to. I talked to one of the women who is a leader in the organization and she says we will be collaborating on certain projects, but it still strikes me as sort of depressing. Not only will we be competing with one another for funding, but our kids will be competing for admission into the same schools. I suppose it will be better for the kids in the end, because we're all going to have to work harder to be better than our competition; but part of me feels like these kids are struggling enough - why should we really make it any harder for them?
Anyway, the concert was fun. Started off with Sara Bareilles (she sings that hit "Love Song"). I've never really paid attention to her, but she's pretty talented. A little bubble gum-ish for my tastes, personally, but she's got a voice on her. I like the fact that she actually plays her own instruments. I was discussing with one of my friends once that you rarely see women in the music biz who do their own instrumentals anymore. So that was cool.
The Counting Crows were pretty awesome. They all just had so much energy! They really enjoy what they do and it shows. I was disappointed that they didn't play Mr. Jones, since that's the only song of theirs I really like. They seemed more interested in doing their new stuff, which I didn't find as stimulating. It was a little too chill for me. I like that kind of music, but if I'm going to see a live show, I'd like to see something a little more... adrenaline filled, I guess. Best concert I've ever been to was to see Badfish (a Sublime cover band) in Providence. THAT was fun. Mosh-pits and everything. I was looking forward to seeing Maroon 5, but I was rather disappointed. I like their music, but they really stink when it comes to putting on a live show. The lead singer just had NO energy. And the music didn't sound as good (to me, anyway) as it does on their album. On the album, Adam Levine's voice just exudes this very raw sexuality. Sounds like he's just crooning into the mike. And I really enjoy the pace of the music. But that was lost on stage. He seemed... well, slower, more static. More deliberate. I saw them open for the Rolling Stones a few years ago, but I don't really remember anything about the performance.
I had fun, anyway, though. It was cool to go out and I had good company. All in all, a pretty cool night. I'm guessing once school actually starts this sort of thing isn't going to happen much, so might as well enjoy it while I can, right?
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