Jen's Page
Good Charlotte/Halo Friendlies/Homegrown Concert Review
11/1/02
Printed in January 2003 issue of Spotight Magazine & Appearing at PA Rocks
On November 1, 2002, my friend and I went to the Good Charlotte concert with her sister, and her sister’s roommate at their school, Gettysburg College. The building where the concert was held was about two blocks from their dorm. We walked over to it at about 7:00, where we saw the mass amount of people waiting for get in. There wasn’t really any type of line, just a small line that led into a big room where everyone was just sitting/stand around. After staying there for about a half hour, they started letting people into the auditorium. At this point, people were shoving and pushing to be first in line to get in, and we did the same. We ended up being some of the first people in, and landed ourselves a spot in the second row. At about 9:00, the first opening band, Halo Friendlies came out. Before the show, I actually had no idea that they were an all-girl group, let alone who they were at all. My first thought was sort of unsure about them. I didn’t know what to expect, but after the first song I was hooked. They’ve got some amazing vocal ability, with catchy lyrics about relationships and love, that has just their own personal touch of punk-rock sound in it. I was definitely impressed by their performance, and really glad that I had the chance to see them. It was a worthwhile experience. The second opening band, Homegrown, came out after the Halos, with their bed head/baggy pants/band t-shirts look. They quickly had the crowd into them, and rocked with an awesome performance. While I had heard of this band before, they are certainly no stranger to the punk scene. With 6 albums already completed, they played a variety of songs, and bounced around the stage like a little kid who had too much sugar. All in all, a energized show, with proof of what good music skill they have. Homegrown is sure to continue to grow bigger and bigger in the music scene.
Now, after about a half hour wait, and a million sound checks, the new punk rock stars Good Charlotte took the stage. The crowd was so overcome with excitement, and everyone cheered as they came out. With Joel and Benji’s angry lyrics towards their father, and their not so good high school days, Good Charlotte relates to their fans in many ways making them become huge in the music industry. Their music makes you want to get revenge on the high school kids that thought they were too cool, remember where you came from, make you realize how suicide is not the answer if things in life are rough, love your mom, and much more. Even though they’re huge now, just like J. Lo, they haven’t forgotten where they’ve come from. Constantly through the night they gave props to the East Coast, and the energized Pennsylvania crowd, as well as Maryland, and Washington, D.C. They were throwing a lot of stuff out into the crowd (mostly water bottles) and I did catch one, but many people just went nuts and grabbed it off of me, so I didn’t get to keep it. Their show had so much energy, you could never get bored, even if you saw them 10 times live, you’d still want to go back for more. By far, one of the best concerts, check these bands out if you ever have the chance, because they are well worth it!
After the show, if you stuck around a while, you could catch the bands loading up and chat with them or get an autograph. While I didn’t get any autographs or anything, I did get to talk to Ginger from the Halo Friendlies. She was more than nice to me, and was really happy that they got such a great response from the crowd. I didn’t want to hold her up, so I didn’t talk to her very long, but it was really nice to see the band members talking to some of the people. We then left for a little bit, but went back for a few more minutes because we thought Good Charlotte was outside signing autographs. Turned out to be some Halo Friendlies members, and the other band, Homegrown. We didn’t stay then, but again it was nice to see them talking to the fans. There weren’t many people there, so they were signing a lot of autographs and giving stuff out. I guess I am all into that because I love meeting the people behind all the music, and I didn’t think that I’d get the chance to talk to them. Anyway, about a month after the show, I e-mailed the Halo Friendlies and did a short interview with one of the members. If you’d like to check that out, you can see that here.
To see pictures from the concert, click here
Band Websites:
www.goodcharlotte.com
www.halofriendlies.com
www.homegrownonline.com
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