I just got back from the Sum 41/supposed-to-be-Starting Line concert. For some reason, Starting Line left the tour and was replaced by No Use for a Name, a band that has been around for awhile but I had never heard before. They were ok, but the first opening act, Bigwig, was quite bad.

Opening acts aren't supposed to be good, but it wasn't just that the lead singer couldn't sing and the songs all sounded the same. This band committed the cardinal sin of opening acts and spent minutes between songs sounding off on politics, American foreign policy, etc. etc. If I wanted to hear an uninformed loudmouth with a microphone spout off on current events, I would watch Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Sum 41 was surprisingly good though, much better than I thought they would be. I've seen them twice before, once before they were famous when they opened for The Offspring and once on Halloween with Unwritten Law when the band members were so trashed that they couldn't play their instruments or speak coherently. Tonight they weren't drunk, and the show was much better off for it.

They played a funny medley of Metallica covers, going from For Whom the Bell Tolls to Enter Sandman to Master of Puppets, but most of the people in the audience didn't seem to recognize the songs. These kids today...