Top Ten Concert Observations for the Elderly

When I first looked into the tickets to see Boyce Avenue, I never really checked what the venue was, I just knew it was Ann Arbor (at least according to their website listing). But it wasn’t until I purchased them that I realized the concert was not actually in Ann Arbor but a few miles away in Ypsilanti at Eastern Michigan University’s campus. I shrugged and didn’t really think anything of it… until we pulled up right in front of the auditorium in my minivan and looked at the waiting crowd of teenagers and barely twenty-somethings and both burst out laughing. We spent a few minutes playing spot the old person and then we bucked up and joined the crowd.

A few observations from the evening… perhaps a slight insight in to how concert-going is a bit different now that I’m *cough* older.

1. I had no desire to rush the front door and as I noted yesterday, when the doors open, instead of rushing forward, Stefanie and I stepped backwards and waited to join the fray.
2. The tickets for the concert were just print outs with a scannable code on them, but at the door, the workers just took our papers and didn’t even look at them. This seemed like a flawed system, something I wouldn’t have even thought twice about in college, unless I was trying to figure out a way to only have purchased one ticket and used it for multiple people (which would be wrong, yet cost-effective, and only reasonable given their flawed system).
3. While the girl next to me was swooning over the opening act and declaring her love for him, another YouTube-launched singer, Stef and I were very concerned that perhaps he needed some medicating to slow him down a bit or some guidance in putting his nervous ticks in check and pausing between ending one song and jumping in to the explanation of the next song. I suppose if I were 15 years younger, I might have found him attractive, instead I found him distracting.
4. We did not have to worry about being inappropriately old – there were other grown ups there who were there chaperoning their teenage children so they were clearly older than us. There was also a couple that brought their toddler and at the end of the concert they were scooping her up off the floor where she had fallen asleep… why didn’t I think to bring Liam or Jack with me? Oh right, because it would have been a stupid idea.
5. Earlier in the week, Stef and I texted back and forth over finding a coveted dark circle erasing and age rewinding concealer at Walgreens – and I feel I can confidently say, none of the other friends at that concert had a similar text exchange.
6. During the second opening act, Stef and I burst out laughing at each other because we were singing along with everyone else to the band’s cover of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” – though Stef pointed out the other girls knew the song because they loved the Biebs whereas we knew the song because our kids like it. [Confession: I actually know the song because of you, Stef. Grin.]
7. At 9:30 when we were waiting for Boyce Avenue to come on, we were both yawning and checking our watches. I remember when 9:30 was the starting time for a night out, not the time when I was thinking fondly of my warm bed.
8. There were lots of little couples cuddled up together, but if they were actually paying attention to the lyrics, they would perhaps think twice about making out during a song about childhood abuse, just a thought.
9. After finding out Saturday was the last concert of the tour our reaction was not to burst into tears and rend our garments but instead Stef hopefully said, “I hope they get to go home and see their mom!” (the band is made up of three brothers) It’s all about priorities and momma should always come first.
10. At the end of the night, the swagger wagon is a great way to pull into and out of a college campus and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In case you couldn’t tell, that’s me in the mini(van) in front of the auditorium – I iz 2 cool!

This post is linked to Oh Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday.