Last week, my hubby and I had an awesome night out to see my favorite band in the world, the Barenaked Ladies.  The show was awesome, but I think my favorite part was the people watching.  As I mentioned before, living in the burbs, I don’t escape the bubble of my car enough to really see people out and about and experience street life.

But, oh…those summer night concerts…they do attract some good stuff, right? Between the spastic dancers, the dude with the “Keep Calm and Chive On” shirt (is he a chive farmer? is ‘chive’ code for weed? does he just really, really like chives? is there a ‘parsley on’ or ‘basil on’ alternative? unfortunately, after a google search, I learned that it’s just to promote a thechive.com.  how anti-climactic.), and the air musicians, my night was spent laughing more than grooving.

So, in the spirit of soaking up life and having some good fun, and inspired by conference call bingo, I came up with a scavenger list of sorts of what to look out for at a concert (perhaps a drinking game?):

Air Band: Can you spot an entire air band?  There’s always someone playing air guitar, air bass and probably air drummers too.  Bonus points for unusual instruments, like keyboard or the air harmonica solo we saw (Blues Traveler was playing).  I had high hopes for an air standing bass when BNL performed, but I think people just couldn’t afford $10 beers that late into the show and the air-orchestra-inducing buzz had worn off.

Oldest/Strangest  Concert T-shirt: I think the only thing to do with concert t-shirts is wear them to other concerts.  Can you find the oddest or oldest?  I think we had a combo winner: a circa 1992 Toad the Wet Sprocket shirt.

Spastic Dancers:  They are all there.  People hula dancing without meaning to, hippity-hopping, diva-snap arms…It was awesome.  I noticed the more spastic the dancing, the more fit the people were, and they were all having a blast.  I think once I’m able to drink again, I’ll join their ranks.

Praise arms: I worked at a church, so this is pretty common knowledge to me, but it might not be to the rest of the world.  You know when people hold out their arm out towards the stage and kinda ‘grab’ towards the band?  It’s most common with one arm, but double arms aren’t rare, either, if the band playing is especially moving. Usually it’s acommpanied by eyes squeezed shut and a painful, longing face.  These are praise arms.  I think they are trying to soak up the power of the power ballad (because that’s usually when you see them appear outside Christian concerts).

Woo Girls/ Drunk Girls Who Know Every Lyric EVER:  WOOOO!  These girls will yell that randomly at the oddest moments, presumably to be noticed by the band.  It might be girls that are too old to throw their bras onstage, so they hope their WOO!s will do the job. These girls also possess an amazing power as the evening progresses: even when drunk, they know every lyric to every song ever. They might even sing stuff that’s not even playing at the moment.  I am in awe of these girls.  Also? Somehow their makeup always looks good too, no matter the weather.  How is that possible?

Have you seen any on this list? Did I miss anything?