Friday, January 14, 2011

screaming infidelities

it's true: the wheelers know how to rock a date night.


(here i am showing off my hard core concert entrance stamp -- 
i think it might be the international sign for fanta.)

bryan and i determined recently that live performances is the activity that i bring to our marriage. it's something i inherited from my parents (first concert at eleven) and which was solidified at alanis morissette in 2001. corina (shout out!) and i stood around for hours and hours and hours, but when alanis got on stage, and everyone in the crowd who had ever been screwed over by someone else (which is, like, everyone) screamed along with "you oughtta know," it was electric.  the community feeling of all these people who have felt the way you have felt and who are listening to the same music you're listening to -- it's incredible and a large part of why i love live shows. the other part being the fab talent, of course.

anyhoo, bryan and i have been to a decent number of concerts together (fun wheeler family factoid: the only concert that bryan has gone to sans emily was his first, dave matthews in 1998), but one has always itched at the back of my brain -- dashboard confessional in 2006.  for a reason that i can't quite remember (my guess is that the opening acts took an incredibly long time and that dashboard was not all that great live), we left early.  chris carrabba performed maybe three songs and we were gone.  

enter the swiss army romance 10th anniversary tour of 2011.  i knew we had to go and give dashboard a second chance.  this time, the venue was much, much smaller, and the show was acoustic.  luckily, both turned out to be pluses:  i loved the intimate setting (we were about fifteen sweaty teenagers away from being able to touch the stage), and chris can really rock an acoustic show. as added bonuses, the openers were phenoms (particularly loved lady danville), and the entire crowd knew all the lyrics to every dashboard song -- even harmonizing (like we were in a flashmob) on a few select pieces.  

however, while the show was great and made us feel like uber emo punk rockers, there is an unfortunate ending to this tale. as much as we wish we had the bodies and responsibilities of seventeen year olds (heck, i'd even bargain for twenty-one), we do not.  after four hours of standing in a hot and crowded space, getting our eardrums blown out, the clock struck twelve (okay, eleven), and we had to leave early again.  after all, it's a school night and would be irresponsible of us to leave our babysitter alone much after midnight.  plus, our backs hurt, and we have 8am meetings and children who will be up wanting breakfast unspeakably early. bummer, i know.  

so sadly, we missed the last half hour of dashboard's show, our song, "as lovers go" (a point that i am still upset over), and at the end of the day, i guess dashboard is going to suck some more money out of us, 'cause we're going to have to try one more time to see if it's possible for us to make it all the way through a show.  fingers crossed.

in the meantime, child: bryan dedicates this remix to you:







No comments: