I don’t think it is unusual for people to have several personal anniversaries. For me, April will always bring back memories of the Wrap Tour. In 2004, my partner and I were in the middle of writing an urban fantasy. Ok, most of our books have musicians in them but this one actually featured a rock star on tour.
Our of the blue, our favorite musician announced a tour, the first in several years. The problem, since it was not a planned tour, new dates kept being added while the tour was in progress which means the musician did a lot of crisscrossing the country. We had a deadline. What were we going to do? Keep writing and leave our concert destiny to fate? Nope.
I am known in some circles as the Queen of Ticketmaster. If I set my mind on getting good tickets, I stalk Ticketmaster until I get them. But tickets to each of these shows was a surprise. We would have no idea where our seats would be until we picked up the tickets right before the show. I’m sure you can see the problem here. How far were we willing to go for unknown seats?
The tour started in the Midwest in March. Our first show was in Pennsylvania in April. From there were drove to Columbia, South Carolina. Then, because of late booking, we backtracked to Knoxville Tennessee. Then crossed to Raleigh NC. Next Stop was Jacksonville, Fl, the up to Birmingham, Alabama, and then Atlanta, Georgia. We were exhausted and briefly were sick in Florida, so we took a short break and rejoined the tour for 2 shows in DC, then up to Hartford, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. We did a total of 12 shows in in 11 states in a period of 3 weeks. We lived on 2:00AM IHOP omelets and BLT or chicken salad wraps from Arby’s while on the road.
We noted some interesting coincidences. Every time I wore t-shirt and jeans, we had front row seats. If I dressed a little less casually, we would be a little further back. For most of the shows we were in the first 5 rows. There really isn’t anything like the thrill and the intimacy that is created when you are literally at the feet of your idol, watching him do his thing.
But it isn’t always as wonderful as it sounds. There is an implied social contract with the band when you’re up front. You have the responsibility to REALLY show that you’re enjoying the performance which usually means standing up, cheering uncontrollably, and singing along. We had 3 shows that were on the first balcony That is a whole different experience. You can see the whole stage, not just the front. We learned that we missed a lot of cool interactions by being in the front row. The best thing is being able to sit down if you want to.
To make matters worse, we are both short and feared that people from seats further back would crowd around the stage and we wouldn’t be able to see. But we began to recognize and be recognized by the artist’s security so that was never problem. On several occasions people blocking our view were moved back to their seats.
I still have that “front row guarantee” T-shirt and many amazing memories that will always remind me of one of the best times of my life. We also have an extra memento. Our writing club awarded us a “trophy” for best use of procrastination under the guise of research.
