Concert Memories

I intended this post to be about tonight’s Depeche Mode concert in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the band cancelled due to medical reasons. While I’m disappointed, the mere idea of sharing the first live-music event with Jeff in about seven years reminded me of some of our favorite concert moments.

• 1994 Pink Floyd - Division Bell tour at the long gone Vet in Philly. Jeff bought our tickets in December 2003, I believe. I held off on paying him back for months, because I was certain he’d break up with me before the June show. By late spring it was apparent that nothing I did would scare him away, so I paid for the ticket. The show was memorable for many reasons, not the least of which being my first encounter with "high" people (not my friends) and flying pigs (and no I wasn't high either; it's a PF thing).

* 1995 REM concert – Jeff got front row center tickets. Due to a glitch with Boscov’s Ticketmaster station, I got tickets for the next night, which happened to be Senior year’s Homecoming—Jeff and I were on the court, so clearly, I had to attend. By the time I figured out the mistake, the only seats left were in nosebleed. All night I could see Jeff and his friends bobbing up and down right in front of Michael Stipe while my friends and I were stuck getting high off of second-hand pot smoke from the completely-out-of-it fans around us. Yes, I’m still bitter.

• 1997 David Bowie’s 50th birthday bash – We drove through a blizzard from Reading, PA to northern PA to meet up with our college friend, Joe S., who scored tickets to the event. When we arrived at Madison Square Gardens in NYC the next night, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that our tickets gained us access to the general admission floor area right in front of the stage. Watching Bowie and his who's-who-in-rock guests perform a handful of feet away from us is not something we’ll soon forget.

• 1998 Depeche Mode concert – We went with a few of our college friends to the Spectrum. Our seats were in the front row of the first level. Considering I’m so short, this was the first concert where I actually saw the entire performance. The band and audience’s energy level was through the roof.

• 1999 Billy Joel – The show was rescheduled. However, due to a miscommunication, Jeff and I showed up on the wrong night. We got into the venue and to “our” seats until another group showed up claiming the seats were theirs. What a mess. Once we got to the right show, the Piano Man put on a fabulous performance.

• 2000 Filter – Jeff and I worked backstage. Show attendance was low as this was a college concert at SJU. Richard Patrick (lead singer) walked off stage and finished singing “Cancer” to me and Jeff.

• 2002 Lisa Marie Presley - Seven summers ago, Jeff and I attended our last concert together—Lisa Marie Presley at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. The venue was cozy but the location was a combination of beauty and horror. The Stone Pony is right off of the beach, which was gorgeous. However, the eerily empty boardwalk could’ve been plucked from a John Carpenter flick. This was one of her first shows and, although she was still testing the waters, her songs were as wonderful as she was/is beautiful. Still, I was scared to death that someone was lurking in the shadows waiting to kill us on our walk to the car after the show.