Cage the fans!

For those who may not be up to date on my little ol' blog, Zac and I had big plans to make it to a concert on Sunday.  That's right, Sunday.  We had to have a little fight that morning cause Zac hadn't fix my wiper blades that I kinda broke when we had all that ice forever ago.  I told him we had to take his car since so much rain was predicted and my driver's side wiper likes to blow clean off of my windshield and get hung up on my sideview mirror.  He was annoyed I hadn't taken care of the wipers.  I was annoyed he hadn't.  Fast forward twenty minutes and we were on our way, with my wipers working and directions not to run them any higher than the lowest two settings. 

We got into Chicago around two and headed to Zac's favorite pizza place, Lou Malnati's.  If you've never been, go.  It is delicious.  Unfortunately for us, it only killed like an hour and doors didn't open until 6:30.  We mainly wandered.  We stopped at a record store, at an antique shop, etc.  By five we were wandered out and decided just to go to the Vic and wait.  I, of course, am not a fan of the cold and would have liked to sit in the car.  Well, napped in the car really, but we opted for the line.  We figured at least then we were waiting under an awning.  We stood between a 13 year old boy accompanied by  his mom and 3 high school girls that I considered choking on a few occassions.  What can I say, it was cold and I was grumpy.  I realized quickly that we were too old for this business.  At one point I leaned over to Zac and told him, "not to be dramatic, but I may never be warm again."  He rolled his eyes and we stood....for two hours.  

After the wait we decided to stop standing and we picked front row seats in the center of the balcony.  It was an excellent idea.  Once the show started, I was slightly jealous of the people on the floor that were front row, especially since we could've been since we were like 11th and 12th in line, but then they decided to start crowd surfing and I was thrilled to have my butt in a chair and not someone else's in my face.  (If you've ever been the crowd in a crowd surfing scenario you know exactly what I mean.  Not cool when someone is tossed into your head.)

The band played a good show.  They really did.  The first song is always a little rough til the sound is tweaked a bit but after that it rocked some socks off.  The music was good, but I tell ya, the favorite part of a concert for me is the people watching.  Crowds are crazy but there were a few winners.  

Favorite #1 was a man in the balcony to the right.  He was middle-aged, balding, wearing glasses and probably going through a bad divorice considering how drunk he was by 7:30 on Sunday.  I laughed til I cried at him.  He was rocking as hard as he possibly could with fists pumping.  He had no rhythm whatsoever.  In fact, one fist would pump and the other was goin crazy and would slowly turn itself into spirit fingers.  You know, cheerleader spirit fingers.  Basically, this guy was loosing his mind he was so excited to be there.  Then he spotted a blonde with big fake boobs in the balcony across from him.  By the end of the show he had not only sent drinks over, but had moved to sit with her.  My favorite part of this....the pullover sweater he'd started the evening in was now tied around his waist, and, wait for it, had been double knotted!  I'm tellin ya I laughed. til. I. cried.  That guy was killin' it with the ladies!

Favortie #2 was a heavy set kid that got a little jealous of the other boys.  Somehow these teenagers figured out a way to fling themselves on stage.  Then they would jump around like crazy and then dive into the crowd.  Well the big kid got on stage, jumped like mad, then avoided security by a stage dive.  Unfortunatley for him, the crowd parted like the red sea and straight to the ground he went.  Again, laughed til I cried.  Lest you think I'm a bad person laughing at another's pain, I want you to know he did not learn a lesson.  Oh no my friends.  He did it twice.  And twice face-planted in the pit.  

Favorite #3 I didn't get to watch very much as he sat behind me to the left and there was no justifiable reason to stare (or trust me I would have).  He was another middle aged man but this guy had a bad hair cut and moustache combo that he fully owned while wearing his Maple Leafs hockey jersey.  Again, this guy was fist pumping like crazy.  You could tell he was dyin to get up out of his chair and rock, but was not quite sure if his lady friend would be ok with it.  

The craziness of the crowd was only compounded by the craziness of the lead singer.  Ya know how at concerts they have like 12 foot speakers on either side of the stage.  At the end of the last song ol'boy singer climbs up on to the speaker and then jumped into the crowd.  I was so glad again that we were in a balcony far away from sweaty man bodies.  

Zac and I didn't stay for the encore but opted to hit the road.  It's a good thing we did cause the rain was crazy the whole way home.  Especially when your wipers only run at a snail's pace.  We got home around 1 and were in bed by 2 so I didn't think that was too bad.  Turns out a Sunday concert will not only be fun, but will teach valuable life lessons about aging, drinking, and physics.