Poisoned Purple Pen

Concerts

Fun Fact Friday! On this day in 1973, musician Lou Reed was bitten on his rear end by a fan during a concert in Buffalo, NY....the male fan was ejected from the show. Do you have any fun or interesting concert stories involving bands you've seen that you'd like to share with us? Alternately, you can share any fun concert story you've heard if you don't have one from experience.

The first concert I ever went to was in 9th grade. 6 of us went to see the B-52's at Pine Knob. We had great seats, main floor, row eight, left of center stage. I was on the end of our group of girls with my friend's mother. We are dancing, screaming and having a blast, when suddenly the guy next to me passes me a joint. Oh man how I wanted to take it My friend's mom started yelling at the guy, but he was too high to realize we were all about 14 at the time. Must have been the 80's high hair, mini shirts, and makeup I suppose.

I saw Prince in 1994 at Joe Lewis Arena. And where did that tour kick off? The D! Deeeetroit baby. We Detroiters love our Prince. That's right, we claimed him. And I'm not really from Detroit, but I do live in the next city. But I claim Motown, Red Wings, Lions, Pistons, Tigers, and anything good that comes out of the city, just so we're clear. What I remember most about the Prince concert was him climbing on top of the huge black speakers that were on stage and jumping off of them, and then him and Sheila E pounding away on the drums. I screamed the entire night and could barely speak the next day.

I drove a group of us downtown to see Pat Benatar. Here's a story. I locked my damn keys in the car, and didn't realize it until after the concert. We met up with friends, who piled 6 of us in a Mustang GT. Do you know how insane that was? We were able to go back to the venue and get a wire coat hanger and jimmy the lock. OMG, it was so crazy. I kept swearing up and down I had the keys in my pocket. But alas, they were actually still in the ignition. That 79' Nova was so ugly no one would want to steal it!

My most recent concert was Luke Bryan last year at Ford Field. It was his last concert of the Kill The Lights Tour. I was so damn happy because I couldn't really remember the last concert I had been to. Was probably 20 good years ago. So it was just me and my mom, and that was cool. I even bought a beer, and I usually don't drink, but I thought what the hell. The place fills up, Dustin Lynch comes out and opens. It was a pretty good performance. Then Little Big Town hits the stage. I wasn't really a fan of theirs until I saw them live. Hell, I was buying their songs on the drive back home through iTunes. Just before Luke hits the stage the 4 empty seats in front of us are finally occupied by two couples. The girls were smashed, and could hardly stand on their own, not that they needed too since they were determined to be hanging all over each other. Now the couple in front of me had a huge age difference. The girls didn't look older than mid 20's and this dude was a good 40+ and all gray. I mean I know the tickets were like $250 each, which makes me think sugar daddy. Hey! I'm not judgemental. Much. Anyway, for the love songs, they were hanging on the guys. For every other song, the girls were hanging on each other, rubbing up against each other. It was really quite difficult to figure out who was with whom.

They were a huge distraction to the concert. Even the family next to me were commenting every time they did something outrageous and laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. Drinks keep coming; like they needed more. The couple in front of my mom starts fighting. I think her date was a little jealous of the attention her girlfriend was getting. There was yelling, a lot of pushing and shoving, and of course, she broke down crying. Her friend and Mr. Gray were all over her, ready to comfort and lend support. The girl blew the fight off and went back to having her drunk on. They didn't even stay til the end of the concert.

Who pays that much money for a concert ticket, misses the two opening acts, gets too damn drunk to even remember it the next day, and leaves in the middle of the main event?

All I know is that I wasn't impressed. And I really, truly, painfully pray that that wasn't me twenty years ago at ANY venue I attended back in the day. I'd like to think I had a little more class than that, and that I didn't drink myself into missing out on a fantastic concert.


I believe my concert list goes this way, [if memory serves] B-52s, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Lone Justice, Foreigner, 3 times in the 80's, INXS with the Soup Dragons, Prince with Sheila E, and Appolonia 6, The Cult, Pat Benatar. Oh and Rick Springfield a few years ago here at our yearly Homecoming and that was free. Best free concert ever!! I'm sure there are a few I'm missing, but I can't recall who.
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