I never in a million years would expect that I would be lucky enough to see U2 live in concert. I mean, let’s face it, they are getting a little old. Combine that with the steady decline in my own concert going attendance and the fact that I live my at-present expatriate life and the odds aren’t in my favor.
More than a year ago (maybe two?), we got an early-on-sale email about U2 tickets. The concert date was set for the end of June. We would be pushing it to time it right with the end of the Belgian school year and our first few days of our summer vacation in Minnesota, but it was the first star to fall into place. We shelled out for four tickets and made plans to go with my brother and his wife.
Then there was some sort of accident…a back surgery…(Bono’s, not mine) which lead to an indefinite postponement and shake-up with the ticket plans. (Although, it’s not like they are hard tickets to get rid of). We sold them to my brother’s friend. But to be honest, it was a little bit of a relief not to have to pull the kids out of school early to try to get back with a plan to go to a concert on our first night back in the U.S. etc. etc.
Living overseas, we never dreamed that the concert would get rescheduled for a time that we were going to be in town, but that’s exactly what happened. Fortunately, my brother’s friend recognized the cosmic enormity of this occurrence and agreed to sell us back the tickets.
Last Saturday night, I got to go to the concert of all concerts in my experience to date.
The anticipation in the Twin Cities built steadily throughout the week. From the time the semi-trucks rolled into town, through the assembly of the massive stage, to the wary eye the meteorologists kept on the weather reports, as the concert date approached.
It was a hot and steamy week. Saturday morning brought a few thunderstorms and rain showers. We were wishing that the heat and humidity would therefore be broken. But it was not to be. The forecasts called for showers and the ever-vigilant news media advised concertgoers to pack a “rain poncho,” diligently spreading the news that umbrellas would not be allowed into the stadium.
(Side note to my Belgian/European friends that are following this story: the U.S. likes to have a lot of rules and regulations, especially when it comes to public venues and massive congregations of people. Saturday night, it was something about no umbrellas). And I’m not even going to try to explain the concept of a “dry” stadium or elaborate on how we handled that. Anyway, I digress.
Back to the rain. We live in Belgium. We laughed. If there is one thing I’ve learned over the last few years of living here, it’s that we don’t melt in the rain. We have rain all the time. And it’s usually a cold, damp, unpleasant rain. The thought of a rain shower that would follow one of the hottest and steamiest weeks of summer weather that Minnesota has seen in decades, sounded just a little bit like heaven.
Here was the extent of our preparations: I packed a plastic grocery bag inside my new, cool, painted leather, vintage purse. The purpose of this was to keep said vintage purse and the contents thereof, dry in case of rain. We also put a stack of towels and a change of clothes in the car so we wouldn’t have to drive home all wet and soggy in case predicted weather reports came true. Which of course you know by now that they did.
It was amazing. The rain made it even better. Just as we thought, it was a hot and steamy night. An hour into the concert, it started to rain. Everyone around us pulled out their plastic ponchos. I pulled out my plastic bag and safely tucked away my purse, the cell phone and my camera. It rained steady for the rest of the time, only letting up at the end. The concert goers in our immediate vicinity were a stoic bunch. Their eyes were fixed on the stage and occasionally they lifted back their hoods if weather conditions allowed for it. Clapping at the appropriate times, of course. We jumped and danced and tried not to knock into them too much. And in the meantime, we forgot for a few hours that we left a whole bunch of kids at home with a babysitter and just got to be at a rock concert.
No comments:
Post a Comment