Allentown Rocks

Last Monday, my buddies and I had ourselves a little road trip across the state to see a concert in Allentown. Andrew W.K., the rocker-turned-philosopher, was performing a solo show at a little venue called Crocodile Rock. We couldn't miss it.

The lure of seeing AWK (as he's called) is that you never quite know what you're going to get. When I first saw him at Warped Tour years ago, he was promoting his first album with a full band of crazed metal-rock musicians. You may remember that album, it had a lot of songs with the word "party" in the title. The last time I caught AWK, he was giving a lecture at Carnegie Mellon. He's sort of been toeing the line between inspirational speaker and fun enthusiast.

His show in Allentown was a little bit of both worlds. Andrew took the stage (after a grueling lineup of four opening local bands) armed with just a keyboard. He informed everyone that they weren't necessarily here for a concert or a performance, but rather they were here to have fun together, to have an experience that will be unlike any other. His philosophizing isn't of the Plato or Aquinas variety, really-- it's a much simpler, more optimistic "you feel good, I feel good" flavor. After telling the audience how much he was looking forward to having fun, he launched into some of his hits (you know, "Party Hard," "It's Time to Party," "We Want Fun," etc...) all of which were converted into thumping dance songs.

After a few songs, he invited the audience up on stage. About fifty kids climbed on stage and danced with him. It was sheer insanity; wisely, I just watched from a safe distance in my normal "concert-wallflower" stance. He put on one heck of a show, to say the least--a show definitely worth the five hour drive.

Occasionally, between songs and speeches, Andrew would discover someone's lost set of keys on stage, or a cell phone, which sent him into an improvised song about claiming them. When a girl, who was one of the folks dancing on stage, stepped forward to claim the phone, Andrew proclaimed it a miracle that anyone could find their cell phone amidst all this chaos. It was a "cellular miracle."

Reading about a concert is never as fun or as effective as being there. My friends and I made the trip out there not just for the music, but for the experience. AWK exudes a kind of positivity that I don't see too often in rock music. He proclaims a message of making the most out of every situation, and doing all that we can to look on the good side of things, because after all, he says, "No one can change the world with a bad mood."