Welcome to English as a second language podcast, number fifteen.
This is English as a second language podcast, number fifteen. My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillan. I’m coming to you from Los Angeles, California at the center for educational development. If this is the first time listening to our podcast, please go to our website “www.eslpod.com” to learn more how best to use these podcasts.
Today’s podcast is going to be once again, about concerts and going to a concert and vocabulary we use.
On Esl podcast number fourteen, we heard about Lucy and Ben going to a concert and buying tickets. Today, we’re going to listen to what happens when they actually go to the concert.
Let’s get started.
My friend Ben and I have been waiting a month to see our favorite band in concert. This was the night. We were so excited. In a small venue like the Whiskey, there wouldn’t be a bad seat in the house.
So, we get to the Whiskey really early to find street parking and snagged a spot about four blocks away. Then, we got in line which was already about 20 deeps. There were two bouncers outside of the bar and they weren’t letting anybody in yet. We waited and waited in line. Finally, the line started to move. When we got to the head of it, one of the bouncers checked our tickets and one of the other employees of the club put a wrist band on each of us. I guess, this was to let the employees in the bar know that we belonged there and we weren’t crashing the party.
Anyway, we got inside and tried to get as close to the stage as possible. There were already a bunch of people standing in front of the stage in a special roped-off section. These were probably VIP’s or maybe they were groupies. Who knows? Anyway, I just know that security wasn’t letting anyone get that close.
Before too long, people started to cheer and I knew that the opening act was about to come on. This was a band I’d never heard of before. So, I wasn’t that excited to hear them. They did come out and they started played a set. I couldn’t believe it. They were really horrible. The people standing next to Ben and me started boo-ing the band. Other people started throwing things on the stage, like their drinks and their food. After a little while, the boo-ing got so loud, you could hardly hear the band. Finally, they finished their song and left the stage.
The concert-goers were pretty rowdy by this time. Some were yelling, others were getting up on top of the bar and dancing. Just when I thought there was going to be riot, someone got on the microphone and started to introduced the headlining band. All of a sudden, everybody calmed down and started cheering. The band came on stage and started their first number. Then, the room was full of happy campers. Ben and I were both a little nervous for a second there. We didn’t know if things were going to get out of hand. But when the band started playing, we knew that everything would be ok. This was turning out to be a great night, just like we’d imagined.

Now let’s talk about some of the vocabulary. Lucy mentioned that in the venue or the place where the concert was taking place, -in this case the Whiskey bar located here in Los Angeles on Sunset Strip, a very famous street in Hollywood- She mentioned that, “There wouldn’t be a bad seat in the house.” This is a common expression particularly for music or theater. When someone tells you, “There isn’t a bad seat or house.”, they mean, there isn’t a bad seat or place to sit in the theater or in the bar or in the concert hall whereever that place or venue is. Lucy mentioned that, “They went up to the bar early to find street parking.” Street parking means, -as the word imply- parking on the street instead of parking in a lot. You can park in a parking lot or you can park on the street. She mentioned that, “They snagged a spot or snagged a parking spot.” To snag in this case means to get, to obtain. It usually refers to something that’s difficult to obtain. For example, you go to the store and there is a huge sale and there are many people trying to buy a particular kind of shoe and you get there early and you get one before anyone else or you manage to get a shoe. We say that, “You snagged a shoe.” Because other people were trying to get the same shoe. Same as true for parking spots. In a busy street, getting a parking spot can be very difficult. Lucy mentioned that, “There were two bouncers outside the bar.” Bouncer is a person usually a big, strong muscular man who stands outside of a bar or a concert venue to prevent people from coming in who don’t belong there. It’s sort of like a security person for a bar. Lucy and Ben got to the head of the line. To get to the head of a line is to get to the front of the line. When they got there, the bouncers checked their tickets. To check your ticket means to look at your ticket and to make sure it’s the wright one. You will also remember that Lucy and Ben received some wrist bands. These are usually pieces of a plastic that go around the wrist of your arm, often used for bars in the united states when there’s a concert of some sort to show that you’ve payed that you have your ticket and it’s ok to go in.
They wanna make sure that you’re not going to crash the party. “To crash the party” means to go to a party or to a concert where you don’t belong. We use this term to refer not just to a party’s or celebrations, but to any event, any situation where someone doesn’t belong. Later, Lucy talked about going inside the bar and finding a special roped-off section. To rope-off means to take rope and put it around a place to prevent people from coming there. We usually rope-off a section or a part of a concert venue when we have special guest. What we call “VIPS” or very important people. Lucy also used the term “groupies” Groupie is a slang term to refer to someone who is a very die-hard fan of a particular music group. Usually, groupies like to go to all of the concerts to meet the members of the band and to have all of their CDs or albums and to have their autograph. A fanatic person in other words about a particular music group is a groupie. There were two different bands that Lucy and Ben went to see. The first band was called The opening act. The opening act is the first band that comes on the stage before the main or the most important or the most famous band comes on. These are what we call warm-up acts. The term act here means a group performing. The warm-up means They’re getting the crowd or audience ready for the main band. Lucy mentioned that because the opening act wasn’t very good, they began to boo the band and to boo means, to go booooooo which is negative thing. It’s an insult to a person that you are boo-ing and it’s a verb to boo. The concert-goers Lucy said, “were getting pretty rowdy.” To be rowdy means to be out of control, to be loud, to be sometimes violent. All of these means to be rowdy. A riot is when many people are rowdy and causing usually some sort of violence. The other kind of band that Lucy mentioned in addition to opening band is the head-lining band. The head-line band is the main band or band that people have paid to come to see. When a band starts playing, refer to their songs sometimes as numbers, the word number. So, we’ll say, “What’s their first number? or what’s their last number?” That means what is their first song, what is their last song that they played.
The last expression that Lucy used that we’ll talk about today is that when the head-lining band came on, the room was full of happy campers. Well, a camper is literally someone who camps or goes outside to stay in a tent or in some other temporary place, but the expression “happy campers” is an informal slang expression to mean everyone was satisfied, everyone was happy.
So, if you have a big group and you’re waiting for the band to come on they concert, when the band does come on everyone is happy.
So, you can say, “We have a group of happy campers.” That’s going to do it for today’s Esl podcast, episode number fifteen. If you didn’t hear our episode number fourteen, The first part of this podcast, be sure to go to our website at “www.eslpod.com” We also ask you to email us your comments and questions and suggestions for future podcasts.
We’d like to know who’s listening and where you are listening from. We have heard from people from all over the world. we would love to hear from you. That will do it for today. We’ll see you tomorrow on our next Esl podcast.
Esl podcast is produced by center for educational development in Los Angeles, California. This podcast is copy right 2005.