Mr. Ogle Goes to Hollywood: Let's See How Far We've Come

Wow, I definitely cannot believe that it is the beginning of my last work week of the quarter! My time here has absolutely flown by. I feel like I just got here. No, it's not quite time for the retrospective blog post yet, but I am really starting to look back at how great it has been and the ways I've been challenged and grown.

I'll write about that later, because continuing in what has to have been the best weekend of the quarter, last night I went to the Staples Center downtown to see the Matchbox Twenty: Exile on America Tour. And it was extremely awesome.

Frankly, it was so awesome and I took so many cool pictures, I couldn't decide which ones to put in here, so I'm just putting in a lot of them.

First of all, the Staples Center is an absolutely amazing arena. I'm not sure how old it is, but it looks brand new, and inside it is huge. That might not be a good thing for the people with tickets in the upper decks, but the sheer size inside the place was amazing.

On the way into the arena, I passed by the statue of the Great One, Wayne Gretzky (although not the greatest, of course, as we all know who's "Simply the Best".) It's a nice statue, not great resemblance, but still cool.

My seat was at the back of the floor on the risers, so I was kind of far back but I was right in front of the stage, which was awesome. At 7, Mute Math came out and played a few songs. They were actually really good and I was impressed. I'll definitely check their music out.

At about 7:45 or so Alanis Morissette came out and played an awesome show. She was up for like an hour, and played every song you would want her to play, including the Dave Coulier revenge song. She had a very cool and beautiful backdrop hanging went she performed of two clasped hands raised into the air above blowing hair and a flying dove. It was cool.

When she sang Ironic, of course the whole arena sang along and she held out the microphone and stopped singing at a few points. At another point she spun around more times in a row than I have ever seen a human spin. Seriously, it was insane, I was getting dizzy myself. The other highlight was when she had some fun and performed her cover of "My Humps" while her band members threw money and jewelry at her. She's got a great sense of humor and she rocked.

Finally around 9 came the moment everyone was waiting for. Matchbox Twenty came out to an awesome version of "How far we've come." After the song, Rob Thomas thanked everybody for coming and said to all of us, "For the next few hours, we're going to forget about all the s*** that goes on outside these doors. Tonight we are going to f***ing celebrate life!" And f***ing celebrate life we did.

Since Exile on Mainstream is mostly a greatest hits compilation, the concert did not disappoint, and the band played all of their huge hits. It was so awesome to go to a concert and know all of the songs and even more than that to know all the words to all the songs.

There were many highlights, too many to name. I was however, a big fan of "If You're Gone," one of my favorite matchbox songs, and one of the ways I was reminded why Mad Season is my personal all-time favorite album. I was also pleasantly surprised that they played "Downfall," one of my favorites from More Than You Think You Are. Unfortunately they didn't have a gospel choir to back them up like on the record which is one of the big reasons the song is so amazing, but it was still great to hear it live.

As you can see from these pictures, the stage was pretty sweet and made for a pretty awesome experience. These pictures don't show nearly all the different configurations or styles they used, the lighting and colors at times were just absolutely beautiful.

You can see the main features of the stage were these four giant screens that were lowered and raised and moved forward and backward. I don't exactly know what they were, if they were actually emitting any light and imagery themselves, or if it was just very powerful projections. Either way, it was sweet. Isn't it an awesome time to be a digital designer?

I've got to say, it was extremely surreal hearing Rob Thomas say, "Hello Los Angeles!" because I don't think its very often that I'm actually able to just stop and think about the fact that I am currently living in Los Angeles, California, the epicenter of the west coast and the center of the entertainment universe. I just don't know if I can still believe it. It's pretty amazing to think about it, and hearing Rob Thomas say "Thank you, L.A.!" and to have him be saying it to me was just crazy to a kid from Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

Anyway, Matchbox Twenty finished up before the encore with a huge version of "Bright Lights" that was amazing. I think they were even playing some Beatles for a while in the middle too. It was great. Then, at the encore, doves flew together to form the word "exile" like in the top picture and the band played a few more songs and finished with "Push." It was awesome.

Rob Thomas made sure to thank everybody in the audience very much for coming, saying he knew we could do other things with our money. He's a good guy and I like him, like Ron Miller and Brian Kelly.

Buying a ticket to Matchbox Twenty was definitely worth it, and I would love to see them in concert again. They put on a great big, emotional show and it did not disappoint. Hopefully they keep working and writing great music for many many more years.

The concert was the perfect ending to my awesome weekend, and has also been an awesome beginning of the end of my first quarter out here.