Monday, September 12   >>

IT IS HIP TO BE A SQUARE: "SANTA FE SPRINGS, ARE YOU READY TO ROCK!?"

Two nights ago, I picked up The Girlfriend. We had tickets to see a live show at a local outdoor amphitheatre, right by the city's library. The drive literally took us 5 minutes.

The fans (already lined up for several hours) ranged from soccer moms to grandfathers. There was even a woman in her wheel chair. She was so rock and roll it's not even funny.

After a word from the city's mayor and budget officer, Jimmy Kimmel (WTF WAS HE DOING THERE) introduced the band; the lights went down and the band came up.

The band?

Huey Lewis and The News.

You know you're so jealous that you're wetting yourself in envy. It was THAT good. We're big fans.

Huey looked at the crowd and said, "SANTA FE SPRINGS... WHO WOULDA THUNK!!!?"

And he pretty much took the words right out of my mouth.

For a good two hours, the guys just kept out crapping hit after hit after hit after hit -- it was great. Their band is intensely tight, but on the contrary, their audience isn't when it comes to clapping.

Yeah, it was that kinda crowd.

Everyone was seated most of the time, until their Ghostbusters theme rip off ("I Want a New Drug") came on. That's when the place blew up -- and when the weird Elaine-esque dancing came from the audience doing an awkward version of... some hybrid of, like, the Running Man and, err, the Macarena.

The fan base is more hardcore than Weezer fans. But still, I felt that they were all really shy to just dance balls-out, like it was cocaine induced 1982 all over again.

Their set was fantastic. It really was. Especially when at one point of dead silence, an old guy in the back yelled in a drunken stupor, "ROCK AND ROLL!" with such a campy tone. Even the weird people said, "GEESH, WHO'S THAT WEIRD GUY???"

The Girlfriend and I were easily the youngest people there, given that everyone had taken their disposable cameras on stand-by inside their fanny packs.

But still. It was killer crazy cool. It's Huey Lewis and The Freaking News, man! They're America's punchline! They have a song on Back to the Future! They have the best Greatest Hits collection from any group! They still have enough stamina to jump!

All in all, I hope you all get to see these guys soon. Maybe they'll be at your local casino or something -- BUT I KID.

Man, it was so good I wish I could go ...BACK IN TI-IIII-ME!

(Yeah, okay, yeah, that was lame)