Confession: I Didn't Watch the Superbowl. But I Love Music!

I might be one of the few people who didn’t watch even a teensy little bit of the Super Bowl this year. There! I said it! And let the judgement begin.

It’s weird, really. I like football, I am into sports in general (though I am far more passionate about baseball), and I come from the South, where football is basically a religion. Basically, the trifecta of sports-ness.

And yet, this year I didn’t care about either of the teams playing, and am only bummed that I didn’t tune in for the Destiny’s Child halftime show, or the blackout. I suppose that is what Youtube is for!

Don’t worry, though. Simply by reading through my Facebook feed, I was treated to a play-by-play of the entire game and halftime show and commercials.

When I was 14, I went to my first real concert with 3 girlfriends in my Freshman class at high school. It was put on by MTV, and featured Destiny’s Child, TLC, and 3LW (does anyone remember that last group?)

I was 14 in 2000, if this gives you any clue as to how the people were clothed. It wasn’t the hammer-pants era, it wasn’t the 90’s plaid-short-sleeve-button-down-over-white-t-shirt era, either. These performers were wearing...gold lame. I wish I knew how to type the accent over the e, so that it didn’t seem like I was just calling the color gold lame and silly.

GOLD LAME. BAM.

Anyway, Destiny’s Child always had those matching-yet-not-matching little outfits, and these were bright gold, and short. If I remember right, 3LW was wearing frayed one-strap overalls. Which we ALL can agree will never truly go out of style.

We were 4 14-year-olds out for a night on the town in Orlando, Florida. And I’m not going to lie, we felt pretty badass, in the arena by ourselves, dancing to the bands and singing along. Less badass was being dropped off and picked up by our parents, in a minivan. But what can you do? How else are a pack of broke Freshman supposed to get to the next city over?

It was actually the following summer that I upped my concert-cool-cred by attending Warped Tour for the first time. Ahhh, Warped Tour. Tons of great music, a lot of idiot kids, fun dancing, ridiculous prices to buy bottled water, and port-a-potties.

There are few things in life more fun than Warped Tour at age 15.

I may have gotten older since then, but my taste hasn’t changed much. I still love Something Corporate and Green Day, I still think overalls are pretty rad and deserve more credit than they receive, and I still get nostalgic thinking of the groups of the 90’s.

Destiny’s Child, I am pretty sad that I missed your reunion, and I am glad to see you still went with matching outfits. One reunion I DID NOT MISS, was the Spice Girls. I maybe watched all of half an event at the Olympics last year, but I saw the whole Spice Girls reunion at the closing ceremonies. I kept switching back and forth on TV from Big Bang Theory to the Olympics in order to catch it!

...so, tell me what you want, what you really really want!

Music is such a huge part of our lives. Everyone knows what was most popular when they were 14, whether you liked it or not. Everyone remembers their first concert. That awe of watching someone who’s CD’s you’ve heard about a million times, standing in front of you, playing their music live, and you being almost close enough to touch.

Personally, I love live music. I love getting lost in it, and dancing, and singing along, and feeling the press of bodies around you who are all feeling the same way. One of the best concerts I have ever been to was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in Orlando. It was an amazing and fun show, I was there with one of my best friends, AND we were served beer, even though we were 19 at the time. Winning all around!

Katie was one of my best friends in college, and we were both music nuts. Being from the North (Ohio), she had a surprising affection for country music, while I have always preferred classic rock and current punk rock. We shared the love of live music, and bought each other concert tickets for every birthday and Christmas for the 4 years we lived together. Together, we have seen Bruce Springsteen, Brad Paisley, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Taylor Swift. You can see our differing tastes! But oh, it was so much fun together. Music up, windows down, road trips to the concert halls.

One of our many car pics during our road trips.

This is Petey, my drummer friend! Love him!

Live music is infectious. One of my other best friends in college, Peter, was the drummer for a band called the Rooze, a local band in Gainesville. They were really great, and regularly got gigs at bars around town. And there was a group of about 4 of us girls, who were all good friends with each other and the guys in the band, and we’d go to almost all their shows. To support them, to be with our friends, and mostly: to DANCE.

It’s hard to explain this accurately with only words as the medium, and not a video for reference, but they way Lauren, Jessi, Caroline, and I would dance was this funny way of being together but not really together. We were NEAR each other! We were all dancing, but not dancing together as girls often do, holding hands or swaying together, or looking at each other. Mostly, we would all flail and dance in our own little worlds, in our own little space, but near each other, and all feeling the music. And not just for the Rooze. We went and saw tons of local bands in bars around Gainesville. Most notably, Sublime and Beatles tribute bands, which were always hella fun, and The Righteous Kind, a local kind of hippie band that rocked!

This is 3 of the 4 of us, and one stranger, at a Righteous Kind show.

Ahh! Here is our 4th! We do so love karaoke!

I even saw MC Chris (he raps the very rad Boba Fett’s Vette song in his high-pitched voice) at a small bar on the other side of town, and once, a metal band with a guy I was dating. That one was very fun, as I am not a metal fan, but I will get into any kind of live music. There was a mosh pit that took up almost all of the smallish 20 x 30 space, packed with the bodies of long-haired men all trying to shove each other straight into walls. Actually, while I was dancing and had gotten separated from the guy, a very nice, incredibly large man that was standing near me actually helped shield me from the mosh pit. There I am, dancing in my own little world and rocking out, and whenever the moshers got too close and were starting to shove me back, into people, or walls, or draw me into the craziness, this large, nice dude, would simply stick out one beefy arm to hold back the crowd and protect me from flailing fists, legs, and hair.

I’m telling you, people. Trusting others and being nice, and expecting niceness in return...99.9% of the time, it really does happen.

My love affair with music will continue on! Live music, whether it is concerts, shows in a local bar, or musicals on Broadway, will always fascinate and amaze me, and make me grab my dancing shoes (they’re Converse, of course) and wade into the crowd. If you’re in New York, and you see a slightly uncoordinated Jewish white girl flailing about in her own bubble of happiness and singing along to band onstage, while holding a Bud Light in one hand and a lighter in the other...it’s probably me.

...don’t get too close to the flailing! I am not responsible for injuries other than my own! And even those that are my own, I often feel like those walls and door jambs just JUMP OUT AT ME! Attacking in the night! And the day. And also, they move when I blink. Don’t let them convince you otherwise, those walls are evil!