All Rileyed Up

“That was such a good show.” I say that about so many concerts, like this one, and these:

1. Salt-n-Pepa at the House of Blues in New Orleans. My friend brought me with her as my birthday gift, and we both describe it as the most diverse crowd (race, age, class — seriously, diverse) we have ever seen grouped together for one show.

2. Flock of Seagulls at a bar next door to John Wayne airport, in the late 90s. The real entertainment of that show came from the crowd. I encouraged a more-then-tipsy woman to attack a cardboard stand-up of Kathy Ireland and she was, consequently, asked to leave.

3. Fats Domino at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Brassy Girl and I befriended the Southern Comfort-swilling gentlemen standing in front of us and I bought a beautiful moon shaped bubble blower made of metal wire, a stick, and lots of paint. I wish I still had it, but I gave it to a little girl who wanted to use it as her wand.

4. Widespread Panic at some arena in Memphis. I’d never really listened to them prior to that show, which I attended with my friend and her boyfriend, but wound up spending most of the concert hanging out with some VW minivan driving dudes I befriended while looking for a bathroom.

5. Rabbit in the Moon in Jersey. I’ve seen them a few times, but at this particular show, when my friend and I got to her car afterwards, the battery was dead, and the guy who offered to jumpstart the car accidentally hit us when he drove up to get the car batteries close enough for the jumper cables to reach. And that was only the start of the ridiculousness. Note to self: don’t ask for help from strange men in Jersey at 3 in the morning.

6. Simon and Garfunkel at The Pond. Went with Husband and his best friend. We bought the tickets last minute and were sitting in the nosebleed section but that beautiful music made it all worthwhile. Plus, The Everly Brothers made a special guest appearance.

7. Morrissey at the Coachella festival. I have to say, Morrissey fans LOVE Morrissey. Guys and gals alike were screaming and crying, “I love you Morrissey!” He must put on a great show too because I was headache-y and tired from a long day in that desert sun and I still loved the show.

8. Green Day in Jacksonville. One of my first real concert experiences. I was a junior in high school and in the mosh pit. This girl (girl #1) was there who my friend (girl #2) didn’t like because girl #1 had dated girl #2’s boyfriend (like I said, high school) and while moshing, girl #2 kept purposefully bumping into girl #1 and the next day at school, girl #1 told everyone she got beaten up. Oh, high school, you silly thing.

9. Sublime, back in the day at a tiny little club in Jax called The Milk Bar. Dude, I paid five bucks to see Sublime. Five. Bucks.

10. Rebirth Brass Band at the uptown Tipitina’s during the first post-Katrina Mardi Gras. After this show, we were sitting outside on the neutral ground when a man dressed as an ape approached us, and we paid him a couple dollars to do some cartwheels and dance for our friend, a bride to be. And that was only the start of the shenanigans that took place that weekend.

11. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at same venue as above. I started feeling woozy mid-show and told Lawyer Girl I was stepping outside. Once I stepped outside, I started to throw up and realized I was sick and not going back into the club, and took a cab home. No cell phone, no message to my friend that I had left - just got in the cab and went home. The cab driver was so worried over how sick I was, he didn’t even charge me for the ride home (though it really wasn’t a long drive – about ten blocks), he just told me to get well. Lawyer Girl stayed after the show until almost everyone had left looking for me, before finally coming home and being relieved to see me. On the bright side, because she stayed so long, she wound up meeting and getting the autographs of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

12. Bob Dylan. Lawyer Girl won these tickets off a radio show when he played in New Orleans during Jazz Fest (he wasn’t on the fairgrounds - it was one of the night shows). We were up for almost two days listening to the radio trying to win them. I couldn’t believe it when she finally got them.

13. Garth Brooks Concert in Central Park. I wasn’t really a huge Garth fan, but I was not about to miss a Concert in Central Park. It was so packed and so fun. Billy Joel came onstage at one point and bagged on Garth for his cover of New York State of Mind. Awesome.

More lists at Thursday-13.