The year is 2007. I was 11 years old. I thought I was the coolest kid because I wasn’t listening to the Top 100 songs at the time. No, I was the kid who liked listening to bands like Metallica, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses and of course, Alice in Chains. So when I heard that my brother and my dad were taking me to go see Alice in Chains and Velvet Revolver, I was pretty excited. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly as enjoyable as I thought it was going to be.

I’ll admit, at the time I didn’t know much about Velvet Revolver. I only knew that Slash from Guns N’ Roses was in the band and I figured that was good enough. I listened to Alice in Chains and I did enjoy some of their songs. Though I was aware there would be a different signer at the show because the original singer; Layne Stanley, had passed away back in 2002. So at the time I just assumed the new signer would be just as good.

Another thing that made this more exciting for me was that this was my very first concert. At the time, when I had seen concerts portrayed in movies, I just assumed they were like one song and that was it. Why? Because I wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb as a child. So when I heard it was going to be potentially a three-hour-long show, I got taken back by it.

When we arrived at the Pacific Coliseum. I assumed it would simply be an hour and a half of Alice and Chains, an hour and a half for Velvet Revolver. What I didn’t know about was how long it took to get everything sorted out on the stage. I remember it feeling as if it was an eternity. Though it was probably 30 minutes tops. Once the crews were done, I thought “Okay, now Alice in Chains is starting.” Nope. I was uninformed about there being an opening act.

The opening act that night was a band called “Sparta”. Who I had no idea they were a thing and I honestly have no recollection of what they sounded like back then. So for the purpose of this piece, I did go back and listen to some of their songs from back then. And they were okay. Not one I’ll go back to anytime soon, but they were okay.

So after about 45 minutes of Sparta, we had to wait another 30 minutes to have the stage set and ready for Alice in Chains. Which, felt like forever for me as an 11-year-old. Though after waiting and waiting, I finally got to see Alice in Chains perform. And well… it wasn’t spectacular.

Mainly because I remember them playing a lot of their more popular songs later into the setlist, and I also remember the lead guitarist having problems with his guitar because, after one or two songs, one of his strings would break and then he would have to get and get a different guitar. So it just added to the time being there. So once Alice in Chains was finally finished. I just asked my dad if we could leave.

I didn’t want to bother seeing Velvet Revolver if I’m being honest. I mainly just wanted to Alice in Chains and after being so disappointed, I just wanted to get out of there. Probably also complained about either it being too loud or I was getting too tired to stay there. Though I do remember as we were leaving, an older guy said to my dad, brother and I, “Don’t worry about missing those Velvet Pussies.” 11-year-old me thought that was the funniest thing at the time.

So that was my most disappointing concert experience. And if you have your own disappointing concert experience, leave it in the comments below.