Monday, April 28, 2008

Blaze of Glory

Last weekend hubby and I went to the Bon Jovi/Daughtry concert for our anniversary. Bon Jovi for me, Daughtry for him (one place the 5 year age diff shows its face). We knew it would be a long day since Coco was getting baptised that morning but we figured we'd make it work (even thought it sucks to have a concert on a Sunday). We also had the added bonus of getting to attend the "VIP Preshow Party" which was catered with a full bar and a "show related gift" since the company I work for has connections at the venue.

Let me skip to the end for you and then backtrack: Preshow "party" sucked, gift sucked, Concert sucked (at least the BJ part - Daughtry wasn't bad), and we left at 9:45pm to go home for the night. Now... let me begin....

First we get to the preshow party. In my head I had imagined an intimate gourmet gathering with maybe 50 people lucky enough to have gotten in on the deal. I mean, we paid over $300 for the two of us to attend this party and get seats so I assumed the party and the seats would be swanky! Instead, we ended up in a concrete-walled conference room eating frozen-fried appetizers (wings, spring rolls, something that looked like jalapeno poppers, etc) and drinking cheap beer and even cheaper wine. All this with about 400 of our closest friends. I have never seen so much bad hair, acid washed denim, and black spandex in my life. Not even in the 90s. And the exciting "gift" - a metal Bon Jovi tour poster made to resemble a speed limit sign. A tin poster. Yay.

Soooo we ditch that about 45 mins early to go find our seats. They should be great seats at over $100/ticket right? Wrong. We were in the very last row (up against the back wall) of the first side/sloped section (is that parquet or something)? Granted we weren't up in the upper nosebleeds, but for the price and hype I expected more.

But the thing that pushed us over the edge (or in our case to the parking lot before BJovi had even gotten through 6 songs) was the company. Right next to us was something I hope to never witness again. There were three couples - all in their late 30s, early 40s. The men were all drunk and the women were drunker. Apparently they didn't get enough Bon Jovi when they were young enough to appreciate it and so they were reveling in this moment. And they were pissed as hell at me for not joining in the festivities (I was standing, watching the show without spraying my seatmates with either beer or spittle - shame on me). Constantly throughout the evening they would nudge each other and point at me, or try and get my attention or yell incomprehensible things my way (that is when they weren't leaning on each other, almost falling over, or yelling "Play Lay Your Hands On Me!!!" at the top of their lungs for the 7000th time). I just stood and looked at these women with their $80 Posh Beckham haircuts, Silpada necklaces, diamonds the size of dinner plates, Don Pliner boots, and Dana Buchman animal print tops (woooo edgy) acting like complete drunken 17 year olds away from home for the first time. It was one of the most annoying and yet depressing things I've ever seen. I sincerely hope I never hit that low.

I remember Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane being asked if she ever planned a reunion tour. She responded something to the tune of "I just think old people look silly on a rock and roll stage". And apparently, in certain circumstances, that translates equally well to its audience.

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