Success for one night

Last night was awesome for me!  I went to an 80s concert and had a blast!  I wasn’t sure I even wanted to go.  I bought tickets over 6 months ago.  Lately I’ve been growing apart from the friend I was going with.  And with working that day (couldn’t get out of it) and being depressed, I wasn’t sure I wanted to use the energy to go.  We had decent seats, and I probably could have resold them.  But… I went anyway!  I’m so glad I did.  I met my friend at the place where we used to work together and carpooled to the concert.  It was hot, I had to drive through a dust storm and rain storm, but we made it.  The tickets said the concert started at 6:30, but we weren’t sure we believed that.  I’ll tell you, it didn’t start much later than that!!  I guess they have to be on time with 3 acts to have in one night and not have us there till 2am.

The first act was Cheap Trick.  I only knew 3 of their songs in the 80s, and they only played 2 – “I Want You to Want Me” and “The Flame”.  They were high energy though, and I liked the songs I didn’t know.  Robin Zander was decked out in all white and looked every bit the rock star.  When they played “The Flame”, it hit me pretty hard.  I really liked that song in the day, but it didn’t hold any personal significance for me.  No attachment to a BOY.  Last night, when I realized that, I started tearing up.  Tears of joy!  Finally, something that pre-dates “Alan” in my life.  Something romantic and happy that was free from any relationship baggage or disappointment!  It’s such a beautiful song.  And I was able to enjoy it just as it is.  I realized after that, that I was feeling happy!  Strange, but cool.

The second act was Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.  I knew more songs than I thought I did. She did “Light of Day” and “Crimson and Clover”, both songs I had forgotten about.  I still remember roller skating to “I Love Rock and Roll” – one of the best rock songs ever!  While I have always thought “I Hate Myself for Loving You” is just a rehash of “I Love Rock and Roll”, I rocked out to it.  She was bad ass!  She had on this purple sequin number that showed off her arm tattoos and a breastbone tattoo.  Her hair was all wild and she looked great.  Yeah, older, but still great.  Unfortunately the songs she played that I didn’t know, I didn’t like as well.  Except one that she wrote with Dave Grohl.  I love Foo Fighters, so naturally, I liked that song.  It was a high energy set, and she even did an encore of “Everyday People”.

Finally… the band I considered the headliners: HEART.  I was really stoked and excited to see them!  At this point, I couldn’t believe I had thought about skipping the concert.  They came out strong and fun.  Ann Wilson has lost a lot of weight, and I read last night that she had a lap band surgery back in 2002.  I feel so bad for her with her weight struggles, especially since I’ve been struggling for 2 years like never before.  It made me feel old to see that both Ann and Nancy looked their age.  That was a bit of a shock for me.  Actually Ann looks like she may have had some work done.  Maybe just some botox, but her face didn’t look quite the same.  Nancy just looked like an older version of herself.  But they rocked out like they were in their 20s, and Ann’s voice was as great as ever.  I was a huge fan of Heart in the 80s and played the albums Heart and Bad Animals constantly.  Unfortunately for me, they only played 3 songs from that era: “What About Love”, “These Dreams” (a solo by Nancy), and “Alone”.  I was blown away when they played “Alone”, which is pretty much my favorite Heart song, although now I really like the 70s music too.  I hadn’t really considered which songs they would play from the 80s.  I naively thought they would play them all lol.  But of course they didn’t.  When they started “Alone” I was caught off guard (again) and super happy!  It was a slower tempo than the album, which I didn’t like as much, but it’s still a great song, and I was glad they played it.  They rocked out the big 70s songs “Magic Man”, “Crazy on You”, and closed (!) with “Barracuda”.  I looked at my friend and said “Is that it?!?  It can’t be over!”  Fortunately they came out for an encore!!  But to my utter shock, they played “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin!  What? Where did this come from?!  But Ann knocked it out of the park.  It was pretty cool!  Then Nancy picked up an acoustic-looking guitar and Ann said that this next song is their number one requested song.  Well I couldn’t imagine it wasn’t “Barracuda” so I had no idea what was going to happen next.  Then Nancy started playing the intro to “Stairway to Heaven”.  I died.  Yes, folks, I’ve been living under a rock since 2012.  After I got home, I learned about how they played the song in Led Zeppelin’s honor at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in 2012.  And they brought the house down.  I’d have to sit down and really doing a lot of pondering, but off the cuff, I’d say “Stairway” is probably the best rock song ever.  It was magical to hear Heart perform it.  A great ending.  There was part of me that wished they’d played more Heart music, but I was still glad I got to hear the Led Zeppelin songs.  I told my friend – I never expected to hear “Stairway to Heaven” live in concert!  What a night!

The best part of all was that I felt a little more connected to my friend, and I felt genuine happiness all night long.  It was great.

-t