On Tuesday night, I had the great pleasure, nay, opportunity to see Van Halen at Madison Square Garden. It wasn't my idea to attend, nor Hubby's; our recently bar mitzvah-ed nephew is a big fan, and since his parents said "hell no, we're not going" we stepped up and offered to be the escorts for the 13-year-old as his birthday gift.
Now, I can't really say that I have specific musical tastes. My iPod's got a fairly crazy mix of music. But I don't listen to commerical radio (never have, really) and don't have a clue about what and who is popular. So perhaps Van Halen would reawaken something from my musical past, and I'd have a great time?
The answer was No. Despite a number of people at work singing the Van Halen canon at me, I didn't really know any of their songs. Things started out well; I didn't know that "You Really Got Me" was their song, so it was a nice surprise to hear that start out the concert. But frankly, it was kind of boring. Loud, but after a while everything just sounded the same.
The most amusing part of the concert was definetly David Lee Roth ("He's Jewish!" my nephew gleefully reported on the way). He's a year younger than my mother, and needs to put a shirt on. The rock star lifestyle isn't easy on the body. Likewise the second-skin leather pants. Ew. But his jumping around and high kicks were hilarious, as were the circus ringmaster jackets and top hats. And the audience was eating it up! I just clearly wasn't enough of a fan.
Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo was pretty extraordinary, though.* I always enjoy hearing gifted musicians pushing the edge of their instruments. The upshot was that our nephew had a great time, and thinks that this was the best gift he received. My hearing is starting to return (yes, of course I wore earplugs), so it's all good.
*Also shirtless, but wearing linen cargo pants and Chuck Taylors.
1 comment:
Abby, this was a very funny post. Even from the first sentence. Jason points out that all the Van Halen songs probably sounded the same to you the way that all glasses of red wine probably taste the same to him, at least at first taste (or first listen for you.)
When pressed, I was able to come up with just one Van Halen song I knew, "..tell me why can't this be love..." I also didn't know though that they sing "you got me going."
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