Last night Artie and I went to see Don Henley in concert at the Rosemont Theatre, my favorite venue of all in the Chicago area. This concert was a birthday gift from Artie to me. It was an awesome concert, as we anticipated it would be. A while back we had the pleasure of seeing the Eagles and just enjoyed them so much that this concert was yet another opportunity to hang on to our youth. Yes, I said hang on to our youth. Let's face it, concerts are a chance to be young again. It's dark in there, the music is loud, and people all around you are rockin' out, so why not us? It was fun to look around and see "peers" - meaning Baby Boomers - clapping and singing along with Don, one of the greatest singers and lyricists of all time. Chances are no one you know is there in close proximity, so who cares if while singing along you sing the wrong lyrics. Ask my kids, I am great at making up my own words to songs. Who cares? It is just plain fun to be singing along with someone whose music has touched so many people. Concerts seem to bring out the rock star in all of us. Who hasn't dreamed of being a rock star? I know I have, as dorky as that may sound. So, because that will never happen, concerts give me (us) the chance to have rock star status in our own minds. I love bopping my head from side to side, clapping, hooting, getting totally into the music. Artie, of course, is much more conservative than me. He claps or stamps out the beat with his feet, but NEVER sings one single lyric (truth be told, I don't think I've ever heard him sing a song out loud, unless he was changing the lyrics to be naughty). Aren't we just the perfect couple? He never sings and I sing the wrong words..typical for 50+ year-old rock star wannabees.
While Don Henley didn't disappoint, his opening group certainly did. I have never seen (or heard) such an awful band. The lead singer was horrible! I cannot believe that Don Henley would choose this group to open for him. When I mentioned that to Artie he said they were probably cheap, and Don would get more of the $$$. It was definitely NOT a sellout last night, so maybe Don did bargain shop. I cannot even remember the name of this New York based group. They did have an awesome lead guitarist, but even he did not save them. Sadly, they played for the first HOUR! I have never seen so many people get up to get drinks or use the bathroom. At one point Artie and I were among two people in our entire row!
So, I guess my rant today is it is fun to get to be young and shameless during a concert. I sure had fun...and I sounded great!
I saw Amy Grant at the Rosemont Theatre and at the former Rosemont Horizon. Both concerts were packed, both were amazing, but the theatre venue was so much more intimate and somehow more meaningful that I became a fan of smaller and less obnoxiously cavernous performance spaces.
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