One of the New Years Resolutions that Leanne and I have is to see more concerts than we did in 2003. Since we only went to 5 concerts last year this should not be too difficult of a task. Last night we went to our second concert, and it was great. Phantom Planet, whose claim to fame is the theme song for Fox’s “The O.C.” TV show, opened at just after seven o’clock. During this set we met up with some friends at a bar. Leanne, who forgot her ID, had to be snuck in. I haven’t had to sneak a person into a bar since college. It was a nice memory. After Phantom Planet finished we returned to the lawn for Blink 182. Blink 182 has a great stage presence and it borders on comedic. At one point they were telling a guy of for leaving to get nachos during their concert. Put like that it does not sound funny, but it was. Blink 182 played all their greatest hits including Anthem and The Party Song. I do not remember hearing them playing my favorite song “What’s My Age Again” but they do have a new album that they need to promote. Before No Doubt took the stage we thought we would move closer to the stage, but when Gwen and band took the stage we realized that we could not see anything but the tops of people’s heads. We returned to the back of the lawn so that we could see Gwen running around the stage. No Doubt is promoting their “Best of” album and the set was filled with all of their classics including Spiderwebs, Just a Girl, and Bathwater. The whole show seemed to be capped with a touching moment during the song Don’t Speak which she dedicated to her brother whose birthday would have been on Friday. Now for the rant, The Chronicle Pavilion at Shoreline is an outdoor concert hall. There are some seats up front but most of it is a grassy field known as the lawn. Last year we went to Lollapalooza with friends of ours from England, Liz and John. We bought a blanket so that we would not have to sit on the grass. Everyone had them and it was handy at night when Leanne got cold. We brought the blanket with us this time but were turned away at the gate. The security guards claimed that the band did not want people bringing blankets in to the concert. WHAT?!? I’m sure that the bands could care less if I am sitting on a blanket or not as long as I paid for my ticket. On the way back from returning the blanket from my truck I determined that the security guards get together before the concert to figure out how they are going to mess with the people. “Hey Gus, today we’ll only allow left shoes into the concert. The band doesn’t want to see any right shoes!” “Excuse me miss, you can’t bring that right shoe into this concert.” Whatever. If they are not going to let my wife and I into the concert without our blanket then you should confiscate those blankets that did make it in. At least make it fair for the rest of us. We were standing most of the time anyway, but it would have been nice to have that extra layer to wrap around Leanne when the wind started blowing. All in all the concert was great. We will be adding to my collection of No Doubt CD’s with this new best of album that they put out, and I will even get Blink 182’s new CD.