You know it's a good concert when you can enjoy it without knowing most of the songs and the lead singer's name. My mom really wanted to watch
Train live after seeing a concert on Palladia. They have been a band for 15 years. I'm actually familiar with a bunch of their songs because they're played on the radio.
I parked in a neighborhood downhill and saved $20, and got a free workout xD. The hike up wasn't bad. The houses are really pretty (and look really expensive!). I don't think I have been to
Griffith Park since grade school. People were hanging out outside having picnics.
Inside the Greek's front plaza, there were a couple of cool preshow activities: Food and merch stands, of course. A band played a few songs on a small stage set up. My 104.3 gave away
Dane Cook and
Dodgers tickets. There was a coloring booth and you could get a free concert tee with a Sunday New York Times Subscription.
My favorite were the FREE face paintings and henna tattoos! Check out what my mom and I got:
It wasn't until after that I realized what my tattoo looked like. What can I say? I love
stars and
dragonflies.
We caught the end of the opening act,
Needtobreathe. Our seats were on the aisle next to the railing of the South Terrace. Pretty awesome, especially considering they were
FREE.
The lights dimmed and the sound of train tracks and "choo choo" came on. There was
Train.
(Note: When I say "He," I am referring to the lead singer)
They released beach balls into the audience during Meet Virginia.
They countrified
She's on Fire. He wore a cowboy hat and they sped up the song-- it was really fast!
7 girls from the front row got to go up on stage. They got shirts and became known as the "
Train-ettes." He told them to sing
"She's on fire" with him while the audience sang the rest. He said most of us probably didn't know the words to the song, so he told us to just sing
whatever words we wanted. Haha.
During
Ordinary, clips from
Spiderman 2 played on the screen. He wore the blue tour shirt with the Superman design. After, the took it off and threw it to the audience.They gave away a lot of guitar picks throughout the night.
Before he sang
If It's Love, he asked us to have our cell phones ready. We all held them up when he sang, "Hold your cell phones up in the air" He took a picture and
tweeted it.
He changed into a white shirt to sing
Marry Me. He said he wanted to come out and say hi to everyone. I didn't know
he was serious. He jumped off stage and walked around the entire venue. People with aisle seats totally had it made. It was super awesome! At this point, I realized
I didn't know his name! Haha! It's
Patrick. Yeah, I could totally love you. I think I do after this.
Our "first dance" song was
Hey Soul Sister.
They sang
Drops of Jupiter, Dream On, and
This Ain't Goodbye for their encore.
They all performed really well. The sound was great. Pat was really energetic and funny. He wore shirts that said "
Hollywood Girl" and "Stay
Cali," which grants extra points.
There wasn't a dull moment.
P.S.
The Greek wasn't really strict. I could have brought in my own water and food. They didn't check bags. Flash photography and video recording were prohibited, but a bunch of people, including myself, did it anyway. There was no cell phone service.