Thursday, July 15, 2010

Happy Birthday Husband!

Way back in March-when winter still had its grips on me and summer seemed like a far way dream-my husband asked me to buy him 2 Iron Maiden concert tickets for his (June) birthday.  He planned this well.  Had it been warm and sunny out I would have been thinking clearer.  I agreed.  He wanted seats, not lawn because he has a back issue that flares up unexpectedly....and I am not a fan of the Lawn at Star Lake...Post Gazette... First Niagara Pavillion.

I bought these tickets with the understanding that we were not going to have a repeat of the Judas Priest concert of two years ago-where I ended up being the person he chose to take.  While I like some of this genre of music, I don't LOVE it and 1) I am not a headbanger, 2) I don't dress like one and 3) I only recognize a couple songs from the group playing-and that is because my husband plays their CD's in the shower.  But, guess what-my husband couldn't get one of his 2 friends to go (one of whom really wanted to, but 4 kids, a 4:30 am job and wife studying for exams = no go) -and wouldn't take my offer of introducing him to my friends fiance-a metal head---I got to be the proud holder of the second ticket again.

It was the typical scene-lots of black clothing...lots of hair...many more men than women (I walked right up to the body-pat search while my husband had to wait in a long line).  Many of the women wore very little-some should have worn much, much more.  There was a mix of ages-from 4/5~ish up to a couple I am pretty sure are retired/near retirement since Iron Maiden has been around forever...I saw fathers (and maybe one mother) passing on the Iron Maiden musical experience to their kids.  I saw a few young kids (too young IMHO) on their own And (major kudos to these men) some fathers obviously there to chaperone their rocker pre-teens/eraly teens.  These Dads were so NOT wanting to be there..obviously not even a little bit-but they were there because their sons wanted to go.  (How to spot them?  They are dressed in khaki's and dress shirts/golf shirts and have a uncomfortable looking young boy next to them).

So-all of this I noted prior to the opening act (Dream Theater-and in between acts.  But in reality, these groups put on a good show-great voices, lots of movement and good set designs.  I actually had a good time even if I recognized only 2 or 3 songs total.  I took lots of pictures (but we were too far back for them to be great, even with a zoom) for my husband.  He told me the basic pictures he wanted and I tried to accomodate him (I say try because the guy with the huge cast on one arm, a big head and a large  uncasted arm holding an equally large cell phone kept getting in my shots.  I took 3 videos and 120 pictures...so he will be very happy-I guess this means I have to edit them and scrapbook them or something.

My only complaint, other than the guy 3 rows ahead that blocked all my shots, is that the people on our left took over one of our seats when we stood-I literally had to stand in front of my husband the entire time-and he would reel me back in when I drifted in front of the boy on my right (sorry about that) trying to get a shot around the bighead/arm/cast guy.  The couple next to us refused to move back to their seat area.  Oh well.

In the end-my husband had a good time--which was the point of it being his birthday present... and don't tell him-given the choice- I would go to a metal concert any given day over a country concert. 

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad it wasn't nearly as bad as you were fearing! I've been to concerts I didn't like and it's MISERABLE. So kudos to you- you got some good quality time in with your husband and he had a good birthday!

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  2. i like the way you observe the world ...just enough judgement, just enough openmindness.

    thank for kind comments, they mean so much. oh and yes, i did write that piece myself :)

    x xx

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