MJ and Transit

We had a great time at the July 4th celebration yesterday. Because my last post was lamenting our city's inconvenient transit system, I have to share this follow-up story.

We ended up driving to the park where the concert and fireworks were. The main acts started at 6pm, but they had small local acts perform earlier in the day. The first band was called Transit and was composed of employees of the public transit system. First they did a decent rendition of "Respect."

But they are not only a cover band. Oh no. They also write their own songs. Including what will surely be a classic: "Take a ride on the MTA." And I have to mention "Afterparty," which is about using public transit to get home when you partied too much that night.

But the best part came when they returned to covers. The added a new singer for the next few songs and started a tribute to Michael Jackson. The new singer did a decent version of "Man in the Mirror." Then the band started playing "Wanna be starting something."

The singer urged the crowd to sing the words if they knew them. Apparently because, as it soon became clear, no one on the stage knew the words. So we had an instrumental version of that song. Followed by an instrumental version of "Rock with me." At least the first half of that song was instrumental. About halfway through that song, they realized "hey, the drummer knows the words!"

Except his mic was not on. Oh well, nice try.

They decided to try their luck at some Jackson 5. The first verse of "I want you back" was great. And the crowd was getting warmed up as it moved into the second verse. At which point the lead singer said to take it from the top. I guess they only knew the first verse?

Well, I hope they do better at driving the buses. Overall it was a fun day and a memorable attempt at a Michael Jackson tribute.