There's always a general gamble whenever you go to concert. What if you went and saw one of your all-time favorite bands play, and they just plain sucked? Or maybe you go into a concert having never heard a chord of the band's music and it blows you away? This is the duplicitous edge of live performances "” which in a way, makes them rather exciting.
So having blindly gone into Nada Surf, the preconception of either being disappointed or incredibly thrilled was thrown directly out the window. Ah, I remember back in the day when MTV wasn't just pandering to Generation D. A time when "Popular" was the year's overplayed video that got ingrained into so many minds. But outside of that, I knew a whole lot of nothin'.
Which is great because after 20-years in the game, Nada Surf rocked pretty damn hard. Ripping through 24 songs and a double encore, they had the ability to keep the crowd (it wasn't the most sold-out show I'd ever seen at 9:30 Club) rocking until midnight. "Jules and Jim" from their latest album, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, was a personal favorite of mine from the set, slowing down the mood a bit.
Having blindly gone into Nada Surf was definitely on the lighter side of being a blessing rather a curse. I enjoyed what I saw, and heard from all aspects, even though my mind wasn't blown clear into the sky. Either way, blind leading the blind, three blind mice (I went with two new-comers as well), any type of blind pun you can think of... it was all worth the gamble.