I have to admit I wasn’t fully prepared for what awaited me this evening.

It’s true, I was sceptical when I found out Caltech was thinking about hosting a “big” band (not to be confused with a Big Band, which is something completely different and much easier to get tickets for). Then, when my own concert got rescheduled because it would conflict with some Jimmy Eat World concert on campus, I raised an eyebrow and thought perhaps it was possible.

When I showed up at the event, I pushed my way to the front thinking this would be the least fatal “up front” experience I’d ever get. I didn’t expect a lot of moshing. Crowd surfing didn’t even cross my mind as a possibility. For one, it was Jimmy Eat World. For another, it was Caltech.

I grossly misjudged both the band and the students.

I don’t dislike Jimmy Eat World. I actively like a couple of the songs, having formed associations between a couple of the singles and a game I really like (and miss, dang it) as well as a friend. There are bands I’ve enjoyed less, it’s true, and I’d heard they were pretty good live.

They did not disappoint. Despite being dragged (possibly kicking and screaming; I don’t know what the negotiations were like) to the college that is the poster child for Dork Central, they didn’t hold back a single bit.

Caltech didn’t either.

I started off by following Idaho to the front where Colorado and Texas were standing. Alabama, Kansas, and Kansas’s SO followed us, and we collectively took up the last remaining space in the front of the crowd. Paul.za showed up a little later, though he was stuck a little farther back on the border of the Very Front and the Crazy Moshers. We were about four people back from the barricade. By the end of the show, I was about half a person back from the barricade, and very tired.

I’ve been in some scary crowds. The first, Linkin Park/Metallica, remains the scariest. I will maintain that it was not just because it was the first time I went straight to the front and therefore it seemed scarier than subsequent experiences. It was, dang it, and I will defend this opinion. Never once at Jimmy Eat World did I think I’m going to die. There were, however, a few moments when I was concentrating more on remaining standing than singing along.

I was very favo(u)rably impressed.

The best part of going to see a band you know solely from the radio is that chances are excellent that you will hear your favo(u)rite song of theirs. It’s when you start buying albums and really getting into a band that you end up being disappointed ’cause they didn’t play that obscure but really good song off their third CD that you just adore. All I really wanted to hear was “Pain.” I did. I also got to hear “Crimson and Clovers,” which I really like but never remember is one of their songs. Wootsauce. I went home happy.

Before the show, David Baltimore (the president of the Institute) addressed the crowd. He ended his speech by saying (I paraphrase) “This is, to my knowledge, the first such show to happen at Caltech. May it not be the last.”

Amen.