There's more to concerts than just hearing live music performed

Over the past five weeks, I have been to five concerts.

That's more concerts than I've seen over several years, much less several weeks. Exactly how I was able to swing this, I'm not sure. It's probabyl just coincidence.

The concerts were, in chronological order:

• Green Day, Arco Arena, Aug. 24;

• Blink-182, Sleep Train Amphitheatre, Sept. 12;

• The Ataris, the Boardwalk, Sept. 20;

• The Killers, Arco Arena, Sept. 22;

• Brad Paisley, Sleep Train Amphitheatre, Saturday.

These were the headlining acts. Artists that opened included Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, Dierks Bentley, Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Wayne.

As far as best to worst goes, that list is: Green Day, blink-182, the Ataris, Brad Paisley and the Killers.

Yes, a country concert — a genre I'm not that into — was more entertaining than a rock concert — which, as you can see, is my music genre of choice.

The reason why is what I learned from going to all these shows about what makes a "good" concert: A "good" concert is one in which you not only see your favorite songs by an artist performed live, but one in which you also get to know the artist on as personal a level as a concert allows.

At every concert except for the Killers, the artists all personalized the show to the audience. At the Green Day show, for instance, singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong discussed how the first time Green Day performed as Green Day was in Davis; at the Blink-182 show, the band dedicated a song to Chris Baker, who grew up in Sacramento and who died on the plane crash that almost killed drummer Travis Barker.

Brad Paisley, meanwhile, showed photos of himself as a senior in high school before playing "Letter To Me" and the Ataris wished someone in the crowd a happy birthday.

Little touches like these go a long way in working a crowd, and getting you, the audience member, into the show. The Killers didn't really do any of these things.

This is not to say the Killers show was bad, but they fell short compared with the other concerts. The Killers show, in fact, will probably end up the most surreal concert experience I've ever had: A mariachi band was among the opening acts (seriously — a mariachi band), the sound mix was strange throughout the Killers' set (Brandon Flowers's vocals sounded off in places) and between sets, a guy in a red shirt got the entire crowd's attention by dancing to the music playing (you can see video of this on YouTube).

Speaking of crowds, the people-watching at concerts can often be as entertaining as the bands themselves. The Green Day and Ataris shows mostly had suburban 20-somethings; the blink-182 show had a lot of emo kids blasting 3OH!3's "Don't Trust Me" in the parking lot; the Killers show mostly had hipsters in skinny jeans.

The Brad Paisley show was every stereotype about country music fans brought to life. So whatever you believe country music fans are like, well ... that's who was there. Furthermore, at a country concert, you'll never find more attractive women in short-shorts and cowboy boots — outside of a "Dukes of Hazzard" convention.

Other things I learned: The parking situation at the Sleep Train Amphitheatre is a mess; pay the extra for premiere parking unless you want to sit in your car for an hour trying to leave the venue. Also remember where you parked, so that you're not wandering around aimlessly for 20 minutes trying to find your car. Unless you want your ears to ring for three days afterward, wear earplugs to every concert.

Also: Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" is still the official song of summer. The Ataris got famous for covering the song back in 2003, and of course they played it at their show. Brad Paisley also covered it during his encore. That I saw the song performed twice in one week is probably just coincidence.

I don't have tickets to any other concerts, but I see Metallica is playing Arco Arena in December ...