Valet

So, I went to see the Fray at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip last night. Great show! Augustana opened up and were also excellent (they sound a bit Travis-y). The Fray opened their set with a cover of "Elanor Rigby," and their encore numbers featured a surprise appearance by John Mayer. All around fantastic evening, until...

the valet parking. For 3000 people.

I've personally never been a fan of valet and think it is one of the absolutely ridiculous excesses of LA. If you are severely crippled or just old as hell, sure, I can understand it. Even then, isn't that what handicap parking spots are for? I can't tell you how many times I've been forced to pay anywhere from $1 to $20 just so someone can do something that I'm perfectly capable of and willing to do myself. I don't mind a little walk. Really. The only justification I've heard that makes any sense is that it gives jobs to people who would otherwise be unemployed.

You can really get a sense of the absurdity of valet parking, though, when you leave a packed concert and see thousands of your fellow concert-goers waiting in line with you for their cars. I actually didn't have to wait that long for my car, but that's only because certain situations prompt me to act less than ethically. (If you don't look people in the eye, they may not make the effort to tell you that the back of the line is about 200 feet behind you. People with their backs turned may also not notice when you slide up an extra 10 or 15 feet.) I may have felt bad about it except that my fellow concert-goers in this case were mostly college-aged kids who could probably skip a class and sleep in if they wanted to. Those of us in the real world can't wait until 3AM for someone to bring our car.

Anyway, I had a great night, but I'm constantly baffled by how ridiculous LA can be.