Saturday night Malin and I went out with some friends to a concert. It was the first time we had been out for live music in quite some time. And, no doubt about it, we felt old.

I have a co-worker, Karen, who is a huge fan of G Love and Special Sauce, and she mentioned to us a few months back about their playing at the Tabernacle here in Atlanta. I am a fan of some of G Love’s music, so I wanted to go. To my pleasant surprise, Malin wanted to go, too. So we got tickets and have been sitting on them for months.

Saturday we met Karen and her husband, Cliff, at a restaurant in Midtown to eat before the show. We carpooled along with two other people (a couple that knew Cliff from work) to the show. It seemed that everyone there was 18 or under. There were lots of young kids there. I don’t usually go to see shows where the dominant age group is 15-25, so this felt a little odd. I like to pride myself on not listening to the crap to which most teenagers listen. That probably sounds snobby, but I honestly don’t think that many teenagers listen to much jazz, fusion, bluegrass, or Steely Dan.

The first opening act, Ozomatli, was pretty cool. Malin was not terribly impressed by their music, but we all agreed that they put on a great show. The second band, Slightly Stoopid, was a big disappointment. At a party several months back, I had heard about this band and how great they were supposed to be: the older brother of one of Malin’s high school friends is a big fan of theirs. I had heard some of their stuff before the show thanks to Karen playing a mix CD that had some tunes by both Ozomatli and Slightly Stoopid. But these guys have not yet found themselves musically. Their set was a hodge-podge of genres from all over the map – none of them being my favorite genre.

The first couple of songs that Slightly Stoopid played were a good start. And then they kept playing… It quickly went downhill. Malin and I were equally dismayed about the length of their set. After they were finished, a lot of the kids cleared out. I guess that punk / reggae / rap / metal / hip-hop / jam is a genre that is popular among today’s youth. I was unimpressed.

G Love and Special Sauce put on a good show. Karen was incredibly excited to see them play. She even poked fun of herself, likening her enthusiasm to Beatlemania and suggesting that she might faint when G Love came on stage. She did not faint, which was unfortunate because a photo of that would have been a great addition to this post!

They played a lot of tunes that I knew (though Malin was less familiar with their music), and they played well. Their keyboardist is awesome and some of his jamming solos reminded me a lot of John Medeski. By strange coincidence, the first time I ever saw a show at the Tabernacle was to see Medeski Martin & Wood in 1998. My second time at the Tabernacle was to see The Funky Meters in 1999, and it was the first time Malin and I went to a show together (we had just begun dating). Both of those were great shows.

Ultimately, Malin and I did not return home until 1:30am. We both emphatically agreed that the night would have been better (and we would have been less exhausted at that point) if Slightly Stoopid had gotten sick right before the show. Oh, well.