Shoreline

Started: 2024-06-19 20:03:16

Submitted: 2024-06-19 22:06:09

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Third Eye Blind at Shoreline

I saw the 1990s alt-rock band Third Eye Blind in the fall of 1998, as a freshman in college. Multiple albums later the current incarnation of the band is still making music and touring, giving me the chance to see them again in the middle of June at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View.

I ended up with two extra tickets to the show (they were intended for my sister, who ended up not being able to make it). My spouse has sworn off loud noises and crowds. My kids declined the invitation, possibly because I introduced attending a rock concert as a "cultural enrichment exercise" (even though I provided video of actual Third Eye Blind concerts to demonstrate what sort of culture I was trying to enrich), or possibly because it would involve driving to the other side of the mountain and returning late at night. I tried listing the tickets for sale on Ticketmaster, but they set a minimum reserve price that was well above comparable tickets in the vicinity. Eventually I found a friend of a friend interested in the show, and it turns out that hitting the "transfer tickets" button in the Ticketmaster app did work as I expected it to.

I have not previously been to Shoreline Amphitheater so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Some of the reviews I read complained about the parking and the crowds, so I made sure to arrive early, after a mid-afternoon walk at Casey Forebay on the other side of Shoreline Park. When I arrived, traffic control was in place, directing everyone into the right parking lots. I parked in lot A, just across a suspiciously-placed hill from Google's Crittenden Loop campus, where I first interviewed nine years ago. (I assume the hill is the remains of a long-capped landfill, because I don't expect to see natural hills in this part of the San Francisco Bay shoreline.)

Third Eye Blind on the marquee at Shoreline Amphitheatre

I arrived early enough that the gates hadn't actually opened yet. When they opened I stepped into the outer ring of , behind the main stage. At first there were more employees staffing the booths than there were concert attendees, with large empty spaces for people to mingle with food and drink, giving the impression of the calm before the storm. I bought a t-shirt at the merch tent, ate street tacos from a taco truck parked on the lawn, then found my seat a half-hour before the first opening band started their set.

I sat near the top of section 103, the leftmost (facing the stage) section of amphitheater seats closest to the stage. There was another section of amphitheater seats behind me, and a large lawn behind that. People brought blankets to sit on the lawn, and the venue was renting lawn chairs for the lawn. (They used to allow guests to bring their own lawn chairs, but stopped that in the past few years.)

Yellowcard on stage at Shoreline

The first opening band was Arizona ("the band, not the state", the lead singer quipped). The second opening band was Yellowcard, which I also hadn't heard of before the show.

When the show started the late afternoon sun was blazing over the rear wall of the amphitheater, but by the time Third Eye Blind took the stage it was past sundown, and the air had finally cooled down enough that I could wear the tshirt I bought at the merch tent, rather than hold it awkwardly in my lap.

Third Eye Blind on stage at Shoreline

Third Eye Blind started their set with the song "Motorcycle Drive By", which means a lot to me because of one stanza:

Audience watches Third Eye Blind at Shoreline

They played the most songs from their 1997 self-titled debut album, which I appreciated because it's their album I'm most familiar with, but I couldn't help but wonder what the right mix of nostalgia and new material was. (Do they get bored playing songs from that long ago?) But only two members are still in the band from their 1997 debut (and the 1998 tour where I saw them): frontman Stephen Jenkins and the drummer. At what point does a band become its own tribute band, faithfully reproducing old songs?

Third Eye Blind plays acoustic at Shoreline

In the second half of the set the band sat down on benches at the front of the stage for a (mostly) acoustic set including "The Background" (performed with an acoustic lead guitar on the studio album) and "Blinded" (reinterpreted here as an acoustic song).

Whatever philosophical questions I may have about the continuity of the band with fewer than half of their original members, I enjoyed seeing the band live performing their twenty-seven-year-old hits. The rest of the audience enjoyed it too; they stood and sang along and danced to the music and fed energy back to the band on stage.

Third Eye Blind ends their concert at Shoreline

One of the last songs the band played was "Jumper", and after leading a sing-along song's first verse and chorus, frontman Stephen Jenkins held the microphone to the audience to sing along with the repeated guitar riff from the bridge. I've sung that distinctive riff before, but never in public, never in a crowd of people all singing the same melody.

And then (after only one encore song, "How's it going to be") the concert was over. The house lights came up and we began to shuffle towards the exits. Here the traffic control on Shoreline Boulevard was even more important, as everyone tried to leave at once. One lane of normally-northbound Shoreline was repurposed as a south-bound lane (which confused the traffic trying to head north, but there were way more vehicles heading south). By the time I reached the onramp to 85 traffic had cleared, leaving me to drive the rest of the way home after seeing one of my favorite 1990s bands.