Getting things for free is utterly cool and when it’s for a concert it’s even cooler. I’ve been to a few sponsored events in my life time, mainly soccer matches and Christmas events. When I got the chance to attend a concert, where I got multiple tickets, I simply had to invite my daughter to her first concert. I had little or no idea as to who the band was, but that was at the time irrelevant.
Seriously, going to a concert is immensely fun and most of the time it’s much better than listening to the actual CD (or for some of us still the vinyl) and seeing your band on stage can be an adrenalin filled experience. Most of the time!
On the day of the concert, after having booked our favourite babysitter to mind the rest of the hobbits, my wife and I prepared ourselves. Suddenly my daughter had decided that she wanted to stay home with the baby sitter, so my wife and I made a date out of it.
Fiercefully romantic as I am, we have to trap the opportunities as they arise and the baby sitter was already at the house. So, we jumped in the family caravan and set course towards the venue.
It was only a short drive and we quickly found a parking spot, and walked slowly towards the concert area.
See, this is where the first hells bells should have been sounded, as the concert area was crowded with teenagers and it was generally pretty empty. However, it was packed with police cars, riot vans, watch towers and strange railings to guide the “crowds” toward the stage. Thinking none of it, we wandered calmly to the VIP check-in, got our tickets and joined another 7 people in the VIP area. Obviously not a popular concert or well-known artist.
Perhaps people would arrive in large masses just before the concert, but something told me that was not going to happen as the artist was meant to go on stage several minutes earlier.
The teenage crowd was getting frantic, sensing the arrival of their idol – who ever that might be. In order to not stand out too much, I decided to Google the artist to at least make sure I applauded when he stepped on stage.
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis! Not even sure what songs he made or why he was so popular amongst the younger people. It was the first time since being responsible for a youth club where I felt old and out of place. Perhaps I shouldn’t wear my shitkickers to a rap concert and perhaps my Duck Dynasty ginger contraption was slightly out of place.
As the artist jumped on stage, on his best gang-rap-coolish style, the teenage crowd went ballistic. They screamed as if they were being trampled on by some oversized reptile (Godzilla) and that’s exactly how my ears felt too. The bass was pounding my ears in deep rhythms, while the little Caucasian fecker jumped around on stage uttering some almost unfathomable lyrics about driving a Cadillac.
I looked over at my lovely South American flower, and it was pretty obvious she wasn’t impressed either. She was yawning! And, it was only track two.
Man, I felt so old and out of place. A few weeks earlier I had witnessed the rise of Black Sabbath, my childhood heroes, and now I was standing in a parking lot listening to Macklemore & Lewis. Honestly, I didn’t even know the guy was white and that he had a partner on stage.
I’m sorry if I somehow offended any of the kids who love Macklemore, but it was clearly not a concert intended for me. After six songs we called it day and went for dinner at the local Cheesecake Factory. All I can say, we are too old for this shit!