Live! It's Eight!

I have a confession to make: I never did see the original Live Aid concert back in 1985. I didn't have cable until college, so I was unable to see the concert. In a way, and it could be me feeling nostalgic, but I can't help but wonder if the concert coverage was better back in '85.

Case in point -- having concerts on four different continents with a metric fuckton of different time zones made it difficult to air the concert. Just as Japan was ending, London was warming up and Philly wasn't even ready yet. It was a bit disconcerting to be bounced around from the opener with U2 and Paul McCartney, to Will Smith in Philly, to Green Day in Berlin and then a quick snapshot of Good Charlotte in Tokyo.

I'm starting to think that watching the live feeds on the Internet would've probably been the better way to go -- there you could hop between cities and watch as much as you wanted of a particular act.

But there were some winners: I hate saying this, but Linkin Park and Jay-Z surprised the hell out of me with a good performance. Keidra's right -- Linkin Park knows how to perform in front of a crowd.

U2 mercifully didn't wear the Sgt. Pepper costumes. I have a feeling if Bono suggested it, Larry would have popped him in the nose. I also thought they did well -- what I could see of them (since they only showed two songs by the band).

Green Day also did a pretty damn good job in Berlin. They were one of the few performances I began dancing around the living room to.

Losers? How sad is it that I actually liked Coldplay when they played someone else's song? The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony is still a great tune to listen to and Richard Ashcroft makes for a more charismatic singer than Chris Martin.

The snapping commercial that illustrated that every three seconds someone in Africa dies? Highly annoying. Very, very annoying. So annoying I wanted to smack all the celebs (even Bono -- I know, yank my U2 fan card). Africa deserves more than our pity. It deserves (like everyone) to be given a fair chance. Canceling the debt is good -- now let's move onto the next step. Maybe it's free trade, maybe it's something else, but it sure as hell isn't pity.

No Annie Lennox or Robbie Williams for me. BOOOOO on MTV! No Spice Girls reunion. *sigh*

We'll see how long this lasts. For people still floating on a concert high, it's not over yet. There's still the Long Walk to Edinburgh, where the G8 leaders (heh. I so want a punk band with that name) will be meeting on a golf course to discuss the fate of the world. And take lessons from Tiger Woods. OK, I might be wrong about the Tiger Woods part.

In any case, it ain't over.