August 8, 2009 was the last night of the "Blazed & Confused" tour. Much blazed and highly confused I was.
We arrived in Mansfield, MA around 5:30pm. I immediately felt like I was at a Taylor Swift concert or here to see the Jonas Brothers. Surrounded by white teeny boppers.. this wasn't exactly how I pictured seeing 'Snoop Dogg'.
We found our seats and headed to go get drinks and meet up with some people. I headed to the Heineken beer vendor... He rejected me. Seriously? I look younger than 21... Thanks. No, lady, your ID says you are younger than 25 and we don't serve under 25. Wow. Good thing I had friends who were over 25.. It would of been a sucker sober night. And who the hell likes those nights? Not I said the drunk.
We sat down, 2 beers in hand, and thought we were in the pit of hell. I turned to my friend Heather and we were trying to figure out what music this was. Marilyn Manson... I'm so old... That's what it sounded like. It was Mickey Avalon. Wow. A cross between a drag queen and a crackhead, I was overwhelmed by how much I did not like his music. I was honestly psyched to see him perform, because I saw him in a sprint commercial, and had to Google who he was, because I had no idea. Again, I prove myself as old. I can def see why they put him as the first act! The crowd was null.
As the seats started filling in, they announced Stephen Marley. So exciting! Extremely exciting! I am a reggae fan if anyone ever knew one. I was singing every song, praising Jah, lighting up.... it was bliss. He played a ton of Bob Marley tracks and those got a huge reaction from the crowd.
Snoop Dogg came on after the intermission. AMAZING SHOW. They started off by bringing out about 60 marijuana plants.... We highly doubt these were real, the way the stage crew was handling them.. but it made for good atmosphere and conversation before he came out on stage. Everyone started chanting his name, and the crowd started to fill in, to pretty much a packed event, like a small elevator with just enough room to rock out. We were toking and choking and enjoying the music from the DJ, then appeared Snoop. Amazing! I was pretty much star struck by this time. And the loser that I am had to look at the teleprompter next to me the whole night, because I forgot my glasses. We were close enough to the front of the stage, so I could see who was on the stage, but I wanted to see his face. He played all classic Snoop Dogg songs and brought out a guest appearence by "Lady in Braids"... rough and stuff with her afro puff. I proved myself as old once more, as Snoop asked the crowd who had been fans of his for 5 years, and most of the crowd went wild, but then he asked who had been a fan of his for 10 years, and it was like me and 4 other people who shouted .... lol. Awesome. He closed with us all having our middle fingers in the air and chanting Snoop Doggy Dogg. We were all laid back with our mind on our money and our money on our mind..... sipping on Gin & Juice.
Then came the apparent "big" event of the night. Slightly Stoopid. I can show love because they are from California, but I was just not impressed. It was apparent that these tweens surrounding us were all here to see them perform. The first song was OK, the second was OK, the rest, just went down hill from there. There music is a mix between reggae and "Sublime" ska punk type... but their stage presence was boring. We were all drunk and stoned by this point, so we were either sleeping or frozen in our seats. We decided to leave early, as it was almost 10:45pm, and the old foggies needed to go to bed!
Overall my reflection on the show was that it was an awesome night, amazing performances, and good people. Stephen Marley was by far the best that played, then Snoop. Snoop is just amazing anyway, that I can rock out just as hard in my car as I can in an outdoor venue to him, because he's that good! Slightly Stoopid was good, I wouldn't buy there CD but enjoyed watching them play, and the only thing I'd do for Mickey Avalon would be to buy him a bacon double cheeseburger and send him packing.
