“You two are having too much fun!”
That's what the Dad sitting behind the
Princess and me at the One Direction concert in St. Louis last week
said to us.
And you know what?
He was right.
I should point out that when he said
this we were chair dancing enthusiastically during the hour long – that's right hour
long – break between the five-song opening act and the
main attraction. And did I mention the opening act started late, too?
And that we waited in a glacially-slow moving t-shirt line before the
opening act?
In other words, approximately two hours
into our 1D concert experience we had not yet seen a glimpse of the
lads, and we were still having fun. Or already having fun, however
you want to figure that.
So, how was the concert? Well, One
Direction is no Billy Joel. But then again, I doubt the real 1D fans
(tweens, teens and post-teens) know who Billy Joel is.
And you know what?
That's OK.
It's probably a sign that all we have
to look forward to during our handbasket ride to heck (or during
music time at the nursing home) is non-stop Muzak versions of
bubblegum pop. But that's OK.
And I'll tell you why.
But first, I'll admit I was somewhat
less than excited about going to this concert. My reasoning:
A. I had just seen Billy Joel live and
in concert. Really? What could possibly compare to that, besides
another Billy Joel concert? Nothing. But....
B. Screaming tweens, teens and
post-teens. This was even worse than I had imagined. They screamed
whenever a new video started (during the 2-hour wait). They screamed
whenever the safety announcements were made (in English accent). They
screamed whenever the cotton-candy vendor walked by. (OK, I made that
one up, but I did scream when the beer vendor walked by.)
But....
And 3. According to the Ticketmaster
map, our seats were somewhere above the nose-bleed section in an area
of the Edward Jones Dome accessible only by trained Sherpas carrying
oxygen. But....
But....
You know what?
3. Our seats weren't that bad. Sure we
were in the third tier, but we were only three rows up from the edge
of the balcony. Granted, that was straight up. And I do mean
Straight. Up. But the Princess and I had trained earlier in the day
by riding the ferris wheel on the roof of the St. Louis City Museum
(my hands never unclenched from the safety bar). And by sitting in
the school bus that hangs over the edge of the roof – 20 stories
up. And by going down the 10-story slide. Best. Museum. Ever.
And... the 1D stage cat-walk extended
out to at least the 50-yard line. Combined with the obligatory
Jumbo-Tron Screens this made our seats... not bad.
B. After while I became immune to the
screaming. In fact, I started to rely on it. All those 1D songs sound
alike to me, so the only way I could tell they had cued up a new one
was when the girls started screaming.
True Confession: I did scream. Once.
Harry (or one of the lads, they all look alike to me, too) asked if
anyone in the audience was having a birthday. The Princess and I
looked at each other, shot our hands in the air and started screaming
like... well, like teens at a 1D concert.
And finally, A. It wasn't a Billy Joel
concert. It was a One Direction concert for One Direction fans. I wasn't the target audience. The pre-teen-posts
were. And they loved it.
They danced, they sang, they screamed,
they cried, they laughed, they smiled. They beamed. They radiated happiness.
They had the time of their lives.
I finally recognized one song near the
end of the concert (after only 90-minutes, as opposed to 65-year-old
Billy Joel's 2-hours... just sayin'). And as I sat there watching the
Princess singing and swaying, I thought about how the lyrics to that
bubble-gum, boy-band song summed up how I felt:
“Baby you light up my world like
nobody else...”
I looked at the Dad behind us and I
could tell from the smile on his face as he watched his girls that he
felt the same way.
Oh yeah. We had fun.
“You don't know you're beautiful.
That's what makes you beautiful.”
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