Life, With Sound
Is it sharing? Is it bragging? I don’t know
Sometimes when I am thinking about things they start to coalesce into words and I know they are going to become a blog post. Except this time I was not so sure — I feel like I am just sharing my joy, because it is quite joyful, or at least it fills me with joy. Your results may vary.
But it quickly occurred to me that this might be more bragging than sharing. That was certainly not my intent, but I am unsure, you’re going to have to tell me yourself. But first you’ll need the background.
Living in The Middle of Nowhere, North Carolina, had many advantages but even more disadvantages and one of the most glaring disadvantages was the lack of ability to go to concerts. This might seem like a very minor disadvantage, how often you go to concerts? Except in my case I love music, especially live music.
It was a bad fit. A lot of bands didn’t play North Carolina, and even when they did it probably wasn’t in Raleigh (the closest large town), it was probably in Charlotte or Greensboro and that added a two or three hour drive — each way — into the equation and that generally made it unworkable.
Even when the band was in Raleigh, relatively local being only one hour away, there could still be problems.
For instance, last summer I somehow persuaded my GamerGirl — and I have to emphasize “somehow” because I don’t have any idea how I did this and I’ll never be able to replicate the feat — somehow I convinced my GamerGirl to go see Gogol Bordello and Flogging Molly appearing together at an amphitheater downtown.
It is hard to understate how unexpected this was. Her tastes run more Beatles and classic rock but she agreed, and not only agreed but was enthusiastic!
So we bought tickets. Not cheap but totally worth it: Gypsy Park and Irish Punk at the same time!
Then the day of the concert dawned and it was 99 degrees outside and 99% humidity. The concert was going to start while it was still daylight and Raleigh doesn’t cool down much at night anyway.
In other words, we were not going to the concert. The South had once again conspired against us to foil our plans.
This is nobody’s fault, it just is. Yvonne can’t handle the heat and I get skin cancers. I can apply a swirl of heavy sunscreen and deploy a floppy hat but there is no way to circumvent the heat and humidity.
So again, no one’s fault, it just is. I knew there was a risk, though it is not usually that hot that early in the year. But it sometimes is and we got bit.
It meant a waste of tickets and more importantly, a lack of experience. We didn’t get to go.
Now spring forward only one year, change our locale, and suddenly everything is different. We live in the Big City. All the bands come here. There are multiple venues: indoors, outdoors, all over the place. Great big stadiums and tiny old theaters that have been converted into small venues. It’s a concert goer’s paradise
Tuesday night we both sat at our computers and started seeing who would be here and when. We ended up with tickets for five concerts! Five, that we’re both excited to see! Some indoors, some outdoors, and best of all, one at Red Rocks Amphitheater.
Red Rocks is worth a couple of paragraphs all by itself. It is a natural amphitheater that was built between two gigantic rock formations. It’s famous for
I can’t wait to share Red Rocks with Yvonne, it’s so exciting, and the fact that we’re going to see a great band there is only even better.
Sometimes the only way to improve your life is to make a change, maybe even a big change. We’re early into our Denver experiment but so far I can tell you it has been awesome, really really awesome.
I know I’m getting gushy, and this whole thing may be empty bragging, I mean five concerts? In one summer?
But life is good right now and I wanted to share. As my Amazing Daughter put it, “everything is coming up Geoff and Yvonne”.
It’s so lovely.
Thanks for letting me gush my joy all over you. Or was it bragging? What do you think?
