For my 10th birthday, my sister got me tickets to see my favorite band, Smash Mouth, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. So my dad drove me and my two best friends, John and David, two hours to the city to see them play “Allstar” live.
My dad and David, neither of whom gave a crap about Smash Mouth, stayed up in the balcony the whole time while John and I went crazy in the FRONT ROW. After a great set of lesser hits, the band left the stage … without playing “Allstar.” John and I were devastated. We trudged back up to the balcony to find David sleeping in his chair. I almost started crying to my dad, completely flabbergasted at how they didn’t play their biggest hit. Then, looking down from the balcony, I watched as they walked back out and the crowd went nuts as homeboy picked up the mic and sang “Somebody once told me …” This is how I discovered what an encore was.
I was pretty upset they duped us into losing our front row spot, so I quickly forgot about them and adopted Blink-182 as my new favorite band.
- Nic Henry – video producer
