Saturday, February 9, 2008

Musings at 39- Concerts


As the dad of teen and pre-teen daughters, one of the inevitable events has come to pass. It is the dreaded concert scene. We're talkin mondo bucks here people. Seriously. But hey, that's what second mortgages are for. In this case, it is the Jonas Brothers, one of whom my youngest is quite convinced she will marry.

Personally, I'm just glad I didn't need to endure Hannah Montana.

It brought me back to my first big concert, which was in 1985 at Nassau Collesium: Prince and the Revolution, with opener Sheila E, on the Purple Rain tour.

Sheila E, by the way, was worth the price of admission alone (I believe the tickets were about $85, which was a huge chunk of change for a $3.35 minimum wage part time dishwasher like moi). But as the electric organ held its first note to "Let's Go Crazy", and the lasers and smoke poured fourth, and Wendy and Lisa and the Doctor rocked in sync as the purple one rose up through a trap door in the floor, it was pure magic. They continued through his huge catalog of music for the next three hours, hitting fans with twenty minute renditions of "I Would Die 4U" and others, joined onstage by Jerome and Sheila E toward the end. Say what you want about Prince- he is a master entertainer.

I guess it is one of those "coming of age" things, as you begin to realize how huge the world is and how you can be a part of it, standing in the same (huge) room with the likes of Prince or the Jonas Brothers. It's amazing to see a celeb live and in person for the first time. It's exciting and inspiring. And I look forward to sharing that with my girls.

2 comments:

Kneon Transitt said...

The last concert I was to was the Doobie Bros./Steve Miller Band in 1995.

I went with my mom.

I think I got stoned from the second hand smoke.

Yeah, I'm lame.

jeremy said...

My first concert was some lame Christian pop band called Contender. They sucked.

But hey, my last major concert was U2. They more than made up for it. :D