My Aquabats Concert memories

 Up until about 3 years ago, my favorite band EVER were The Aquabats. And they still are one of my favorites. Since i'll be seeing them again in June, I thought i'd share my Aquabats concert memories.

I've been going to Aquabats shows for almost 12 years. My first ever Aquabats show was at St Andrews Hall in Detroit on May 2, 2014. It was my first real concert. I got a copy of the Radio Down EP on CD. Not counting my Yo Gabba Gabba CDs, it was my first ever Aquabats CD. Back in 2014 I would've never guessed how hard it would be to track down another copy of it. I lost it several years ago. It's now my holy grail of CDs, pretty much the last thing I need to complete my Aquabats CD collection. 

I also wanted this exact T-shirt from the merch table, seen below, but I didn't get it because they didn't have it in my size.

Koo-Koo Kangaroo was the opening act, they did their show in the audience! 

3 years after, I saw my next Aquabats concert, on July 26, 2017, also at St Andrews. During the drive we started getting hungry, so we stopped by one of those McDonald's restaurants combined with a gas station. Even though we didn't order one, they gave us a strawberry milkshake with our meal for some reason, completely free. I didn't mind at all. A free milkshake? Hell yeah! And it was my favorite flavor too! It's not too related but I still wanted to share.

Also that day, we went to the Motown museum! Very cool stuff. They're closed for renovations right now. Maybe we'll go before the show this year if 1. They reopen by June and 2. The tickets aren't expensive as hell!

Reggie and the Full Effect and CJ Ramone opened for the Bats this time. I remember nothing about Reggie and the Full Effect, and the only thing I remember about CJ Ramone is that some of the Bats came out during CJ Ramone's cover of "I Wanna Be Sedated", and even then, I completely forgot about it until I saw video of it!

Nothing too notable happened at this show. The most notable thing about it was that the Bats played "The Promise" from Napoleon Dynamite, which my mom enjoyed (she likes that movie, lol)

We got a copy of Hi-Five Soup at the show. Not my favorite Bats album but I do enjoy most of the tracks, except for a few. LOOKING AT YOU, BFF AND HEY HOMIES!

2 years after that, I saw my next Aquabats show. This show wasn't at St Andrews, but rather The Majestic Theatre, where i'll also be seeing They Might Be Giants in a few weeks. It was on September 13, 2019.

 This show had two openers rather than just one. MC Lars went on first, and I quite enjoyed his act. He did a bit where people would throw their stuff on stage and he'd rap about it. He was wearing a gold chain with an NES cartridge of The Legend of Zelda on it. When he passed by me, I asked him if it actually worked and he said yes!

By the time Koo-Koo Kangaroo went on stage, whom i'd previously seen open for the Bats, I was getting a bit restless. It felt like Koo-Koo dragged on and on! I didn't get into their act like the rest of the audience seemed to. A couple girls in the audience must've felt the same way, as during their set, they started chanting "Aquabats! Aquabats! Aquabats!". 😂

Then the Bats went on stage. This was definitely the most memorable Aquabats concert for me.

The show landed on Friday the 13th, so a few Halloween monsters came out and fought the Bats to comemorate the occasion. There's even a video of that!

September 13, 2019 was also the day that singer-songwriter Eddie Money died. He's mostly forgotten these days, but he had a top 5 hit back in 1986 with "Take Me Home Tonight". In memory of Eddie, they covered that song. I didn't know who Eddie Money was before then. I will forever associate him with The Aquabats. I really wish we would've gotten a video of that cover!

My most recent Aquabats concert was during their tour with Bowling For Soup and Less Than Jake on July 2, 2022, at the Fillmore in Downtown Detroit, right across from Comerica Park, where the Detroit Tigers play. There was a Tigers game going on the same day as the concert, so we were afraid we wouldn't find parking!! But thankfully we did.

(The Tigers won btw)

Don't Panic was the opening act. They were pretty good. Originally it was supposed to be some band called Mom Rock but they dropped out. The Aquabats came on first. Quite a good show. My mom decided to bring a pack of little pineapple beach balls she got off of Amazon. Because remember, there's no pineapples left in Detroit.

The pineapples were a hit! Even the Bats acknowledged them! The Bat Commander kicked one into the crowd and said that "whoever catches this pineapple gets free Less Than Jake merchandise for a year"! He was 100% joking about that, but still, HE ACKNOWLEGED THEM!!

During Ricky's cover of "Your Love" by The Outfield (Yet another song i'll always associate with the Aquabats), the Commander went into the audience, and he noticed me! So that's cool I guess.

They played a cover of "Jump" by Van Halen after the Gloopy commercial, which I thought was unique to my show but no, apparently they covered it at all the shows on this tour. I got a crappy video of it but that's long gone. My ass couldn't keep still! 🤣

Bowling For Soup came on next. We stayed for most of their set, but we left early because we were all starting to get tired, and we missed all of Less Than Jake as a result. But hey, at least I got to see them do the Phineas and Ferb theme.

I'm gonna be seeing the Bats in June. No opening act this time! Only one show has an opener, the Asbury Park show's opener is SUBURBAN LEGENDS!! Those lucky mfers!!