Yet Another Barenaked Ladies Concert Unlike Any Other Barenaked Ladies Concert

Things I like:

• Dogs
• New Orleans
• BNL

Last weekend the three came together at the pre-Mardi Gras Pet Parade downtown. It was the trinity of fun. The Purple, Gold and Green of silliness.

First we drove to the Pet Parade. Driving was not fun, and that was all my fault. At one point I said, “I’m upSET because I’m DRIVING and I can HEAR you CRITICIZING ME IN YOUR HEAD.” The poor man. (However, in my defense I think we all know he was criticizing me in his head.)

We arrived and saw every manner of dog decked out, some parading, some on the sidelines, some showing their teats, some sniffing butts, all of them barking. Every single one I approached was happy to be petted.

The Pet Parade could have been called the Dog Parade because it was all dogs, all the time, but for one chicken wheeling by in a coop.

BNL played after the parade, and the BNL concert was unlike all the other concerts because this time they had a focus. Ed’s first words were “WHO’S A GOOD BOY?” All the jokes were about dogs. Dogs and bacon. Dogs and meat. Dogs and beads. It was some heavy dog pandering.

Speaking of pandering, you may remember the last time they were here, in October, they made the mistake of “not giving a shit about baseball” during the playoffs. I waited until Canada clinched the gold medal that morning and then tweeted:

I think it must have been the dogs in the audience distracting me, or the fact this is the first concert I’ve been to in the sun for a while, but this time I was far more into the audience than I was into the band. I was aware of my fellow concertgoers and you know, everyone really, really enjoyed themselves. People had children up on their shoulders, one guy was teaching his toddler how to fist pump, and the guy behind us just howled at everything.

It was nice. I think toddlers and dogs should come to all BNL concerts. It was a sweet day.