concerts

A couple of weeks ago Mark and I went to see The Pretenders. It made me think about all the concerts I have been to. Mark has been to a LOT more concerts in his time. The 80s were filled with excellent heavy metal concerts for him--and he had the t-shirt collection to prove it.

I, on the other hand, have not been to a lot of concerts in my life. My first concert was Chicago in 1985. I went with my dad--cool. My next concert was John Denver in 1987. Again, with my dad and mom. That was truly my favorite concert ever. I love John Denver. He is gone, but it is like he is still here for me because I love to listen to him and I sing his songs all the time. Especially "A Baby Just Like You" to Zachary...."Merry Christmas, Little Zachary." My first date with Mark was in December of 1991 to see America in Park City. That was a very fun concert out in the snow. In 1992 I went to a Metallica concert with Mark. I should dig out the picture from the event. I borrowed a black leather jacket, and used a hair crimper to really make my hair look nice for the occasion. Luckily, Mark had brought ear plugs for us, which was very thoughtful.

Many years went by, and Mark and I went to 2 Barry Manilow concerts here in Portland about 8 and 10 years ago. They were very fun. Mark likes Barry Manilow's music, which is lucky for me. Let's see....Kenny Loggins about 7 years ago was fantastic. And then I don't think I had been to a concert in all that time--until this summer. Lots and lots of symphonies, but not a real concert.

Late July we were treated to a Sugarland concert by some friends. Mark and I had never actually heard Sugarland, but we went along and had a really great time. I LOVED her voice. The concert was general admission, and we were there super early and still ended up with booney-ville seats, though. But it was fun nonetheless.

The Pretenders concert was amazing--at least once Chrissie finally made it out after the horrible opening acts. First opening act was Juliette Lewis. Yes, that same actress from Christmas Vacation. Her costume was very disturbing. At first I thought it would be better if she took of her vest made of enormous feathers. I was wrong. I wish she had left the vest on. When you are on the 2nd row, you see a lot of things you can't see while seated further back. As much as I disliked WATCHING her prance and jerk around on the stage, I disliked listening to her sing/scream/screetch even more. She just looked very sad and lost. Perhaps there are some with a more critical ear for hard rock who could judge whether or not she is actually talented in this area. All I can say is she sure was enthusiastic. In my opininion, it was just shocking.

The second opening act was Cat Power. I had never heard of her before, but I did a little internet research to see that she is actually quite well known, and that she has been through some alcohol-related issues recently, but that she was currently on an upswing. Well, maybe she WAS on an upswing, but it was clearly a downswing the night I saw her. She walked out on stage and didn't say a thing. She didn't look at the crowd at all. She looked like she had rolled out of bed and put on someone else's black stretch jeans that were a size too small. Again, being on the 2nd row we could see everything. She wanted to be done before she started singing her first song. It was the most agonizing 45 minutes of depressing songs I could imagine. Not so much her songs that were depressing (well, OK, they were), but just the way she was twitching and tweaking and grabbing her pockets, jeans, shirt over and over. She was clearly on something. She kept turning her back to the crowd, not once every looking out at the audience, except when she finally finished her set, she walked off the stage and mouthed, "I'm sorry. I'm $%^&-up." No kidding. Really? The only question was what her drug of choice was that night.

And then The Pretenders finally came out and made it all worthwhile. I love Chrissie Hynde's voice, and immediately jumped up out of my seat and started singing along. So did everyone else around, so I was OK. It was a very fun night.

Overall, I'm glad we went. Although, next time I go to a concert at McMenamins, I will skip the opening acts and show up 2 hours later for the real show.