The last of the summer ‘o concerts tour

Tracey, myself and Kara at Sara Bareielles last week –
sorry for cutting off your face, Kara, but this was the only shot where
I didn’t have multiple chins and I worked to hard to make those go away. And it is my blog.

My summer ‘o concerts rounded itself out with the Sara Bareilles concert at Meijer Gardens – the most beautiful setting for an outdoor concert if ever there was one. I’ve got one more concert to go this fall – Boyce Avenue (who I linked to here) with my kindred-spirit-music-loving friend, Stef. And with that one I think I’ll have hit the BINGO of concert experiences (though I am missing a coffeehouse performance): stadium tour, outdoor festival, intimate(ish) amphitheater and small indie venue. I should make it a goal to make the rounds each year, though I don’t know that the budget will allow for that too often. But I have missed going to concerts so I’m glad that was added back into my social outings.

But speaking of Meijer Gardens, has anyone else noticed that the volunteer staff/security there seems overly militant? The average age of attendees at the summer concert series is probably a generous 45, mainly middle to upper class and yet I saw more security there than I did at the DMB Caravan, where the age and class of people were significantly lowered. In fact, aside from the people working in the parking lot and at the gate, I saw maybe a handful of security the entire day we were in Chicago with nearly 100,000 other people. Apparently wine-drinking yuppies are way more untrustworthy and riotous than pot-smoking gen Xers. Though both sets are equally entertaining to watch – I was partial to the woman who sat in front of us last week who would just buy three glasses of chardonnay at a time (all for herself) so as not to be bothered by numerous trips to the drink tent. You know how I appreciate buying in bulk.

I can only wonder what the Boyce Avenue concert will bring – likely plenty of college students since it’s in Ann Arbor. Hopefully we won’t feel too old, but then, that might be inevitable. At the concert last week, I was talking to Tracey about another female and she asked if she was older and I said, “No, not really, I mean, she was like 35 or so, so not too young.” Big pause… I’m only 2 years away from 35. Apparently I don’t think of myself as old but also not too young. Sigh.