The Aquabats, July 14 at the House of Blues San Diego

I've gone to the San Diego comic con every year since I was 16 and the last few years I've been able to meet up with Seth, who's there reporting for CBR, and we party a few nights after the con is over for the day.  We both check the local concert listings when he's here but rarely does anything come up.  (There have been chances at seeing Soundgarden and the Toadies while he's been here but those would have involved a trek up to L.A.  Better to just keep it in San Diego.)  This year we noticed that the Aquabats were playing downtown during the convention.  As it turned out, it happened to be promotion for the Aquabats' TV show (which I knew nothing about) and Seth got to interview a few of the band-members for CBR during the day, which he's done before but this time they put him on the guest-list for the show.  We were planning to go anyway so he put me as his +1 and we were set.  Carla was going to hang out with Dayna that night, until Dayna said that she had an event for work she'd have to go to, but maybe she could meet up with Carla beforehand.  We were communicating about this over text as I was on my way to the show, then when we got there it turned out that Dayna's work-event was the Aquabats show, so all we really had to do was get Carla in.  Turns out it was just about chatting up the guy with the guest-list and it was that easy.  We figured it was just getting into a show, no big deal (except for getting in for free, which was awesome enough), though they were shuffling us in to the overhead balcony area.  Turns out we were on the VIP list.  Well, okay.  And that included an exclusive area away from the pit crowd down below.  Cool.  And also a catered buffet of mini-pizzas and munchies.  Cool, we hadn't eaten beforehand.  Then... an open bar.  Oh, shit.  Unlimited drinks with this crowd... it was on.  There's always an intention to be careful when drinking at an open bar, just because too much of that kind of good thing can't always lead to all good, but after three or four free drinks, all that good intention goes out the window.  Seth and I, along with Dayna's boyfriend Carlos, stayed up at the standing area, easier to hang out and be dudes and, especially, to get more drinks.  (Lincoln met up with us later, and I ran into Trent and Jonah, some of my HeroClix buddies from Burbank.)  The girls sat below, not knowing how much we were drinking, thinking they were the ones tying it on with the two or three drinks we brought them.  We were putting back shots and mixing drinks and talking loudly and being rowdy and drinking as much as we could, challenging how many drinks they would give us, just like any sensible person would at an open bar. Roll The Tanks opened and they were perfect in every way for an opening band: they were background music for waiting for the main band to take the stage.  And for getting a good pace for drinking.  The only thing I remember about the band is that they were a pretty straight-forward rock band, which was an interesting choice to pair with the Aquabats, who were in front of a lot of con geeks.  It's hard to see if the Aquabats were there as only promotion for their TV show, like it was an event for the convention, or if they were treating it like a standard show.  Because I don't remember a thing about the performance itself. Nothing sticks out in my mind that it was any different from the wacky show that I've seen them put on before, and that's significant enough, and enough to say that it was a good Aquabats show.  But I probably remembered more about what we were drinking than anything the 'Bats did on stage.  So maybe less than a performance and more a night out with good, fun friends, and getting our (free) drink on.  Whatever it was, we had a great time, and that's what it's about.