A Night of Elvis and Britpop

It's the third time this year I've visited Thai Elvis at the Palms Thai restaurant in Hollywood. If only me@co had had her date there tonight, the evening would have been perfect! Heh heh...
It's decent Thai food for a good price; plus it was just down the street from the Henry Fonda Theater, where Vaj and I had tickets for Keane.
Since the people at Palms Thai are crazy quick about getting you in and out of the restaurant with food served within 10 minutes of your order, we had time to kill before the concert at 9 pm. I decided to drag Vaj down the street to Lickety Split Frozen Custard, hoping it would be as scrumptious as Scooter's in Chicago. After circling Hollywood Bl a couple of rounds, we decided that I'd run in to get some, while Vaj stayed in my illegally parked car. "It's alright. I don't mind. I understand. You're a chick and it's icecream," he said. And this is why I love Vaj.
Unfortunately, nuts... it was so not worth it. Scooter's Frozen Custard it is not.
We got into the theater just after 9 pm and caught the last two songs of opening act, Kid Beyond. He looked like a 40ish year old bald man, likely running one of those scary boot camp workouts while working as a motivational speaker on the side. Armed with what seemed like his Mac and the program Garage Band, he was a one man show, looping his own recordings live as his music and background vocals. My dislike for Kid Beyond was instant and Vaj laughed at how strongly and quickly I reacted to this odd musician.
Keane, however, was so good I'm running out to buy the album as soon as I can. The band started their show dramatically with its U2-esque spotlighting (ala Rattle and Hum) on the keyboardist and the lead singer. The crowd cheered at every song and SCREAMED every time the band played a song from their first album, Hopes and Dreams. And except for their penchant for seizure inducing flashing lights and occasionally blinding the audience with spotlights, I was impressed with the stage lighting and color sequences that were chosen. (I notice these things because one of my old bosses used to be a lighting roadie for the Jimmy Buffet tour)
Never have I seen such a grateful and genuinely appreciative band of their audience. The lead singer Tom, who resembles a 6 year old ruddy, round-faced English school boy, managed to sincerely thank all of the audience and the city of Los Angeles no less than half a dozen times. I was also amazed to see that their music consists of only keyboards and drums. I could have sworn some of those sounds from the keyboard were the wails of a guitar.
Their crowd was equally entertaining to watch. Vaj and I spent much of the concert watching the exuberant and perfectly coifed Asian boy in front of us. Throughout the show, this boy waved his hands and bopped his head like a cross between an orchestra conductor and a wannabe gangsta rapper. Amazingly enough, his girlfriend didn't seem embarrassed to be there with him. And of course there was the loud and possibly drunk guy a few persons back, who yelled "F*CK YEAH!!!!" every 5-10 minutes from beginning to end.
I didn't feel as old at this concert as I did at the Arctic Monkeys one. However, I still proudly wore my earplugs, and stumbled out of the venue, rubbing my sore back from standing so long, blinking hard from the eye strain of the flashing lights.