ZZ Top!

Last night J took me to see ZZ Top in concert. And it was so amazing! I had seen them in about 1986 or thereabouts, and loved them then, but that was so long ago that I didn't really remember too much about the concert, and wondered if I would still love them so much. Well, the decision is in. I still love them just as much.

We got to the venue a bit early, so we sat down before too many people got there, and watched them come in while we talked to each other. People watching is great at concerts. Of course, different bands draw different types of crowds, and ZZ Top had some grizzled, bearded biker types there, to be sure. But what kind of surprised me is that the majority of the people who attended the show were middle aged couples. There were lots of polo shirts and bald spots and men and women alike who looked like they probably worked in offices all day. The last time I saw them, the crowd was almost all teenagers, so it was a bit bizarre, like I had landed in a twilight zone land.

While we were sitting there, a couple came in who seemed to think we were in one of their seats, but it turned out they were in the wrong row - they were supposed to be in the row ahead of us. Well, imagine my surprise when the woman turned out to be someone who I used to work with at Syracuse University, and hadn't seen since I left there in 2003. This is a woman in her 50s, I would guess, and is a typical wife and Mom of children who have all grown up and moved out of the house. She is NOT the type of woman you would expect to see at a ZZ Top concert. But there she was, and really, given the type of person the crowd was composed of, she fit right in. She didn't recognize me at first, so I said hi and we talked about the old office while J talked to her husband about musicians. She caught me up on all of the goings on, and I told her to say hi to everyone who was still around. It was nice to see her. It's strange - when you work in an office day after day for years, you get to be almost friends with everyone who works with you (or most of them, anyway). You get involved with their lives, and you hear all of the stories, and you tell them all of yours. And then you leave, and you try to keep in touch, but if they're people you only really saw at the office, then the friendship eventually fades away, and before long they're just memories. It's too bad in some cases. But then you run into one of them somewhere, and you catch up and suddenly you miss all of those people. That's what happened to me last night. I don't miss some of the people there at all, and I still see the woman I shared my office with from time to time, but there are a few of those people who I would really love to see and catch up with.

Anyway. So we talked until too many people sat in the seats around us, and then they turned to the front and we waited for the band to come on. Which they did at about 8:20, and oh man did they ever rock. Everyone stood up when they first came out, but partway through the first song everyone sat down again, and can I ask when this started to happen? I don't know if it's because the groups I've gone to see recently have been older groups who don't draw the teenagers, and have those audiences filled with middle-aged people, or if it's unique to the venue we've gone to for these concerts or what, but everyone sits down after the first song has started, and stays seated for most of the rest of the concert. In a way that's good, because when everyone was standing, I couldn't see over their heads to see the band, and when we were sitting, I could see them fine. But it just felt wrong to be sitting down while ZZ Top was on stage playing. We should have been on our feet and dancing! So instead we danced in our seats. Which is fine, but it's just not the same. And the crowd did stand back up for the last couple of numbers, so at least that was good.

So they played through their set, including a bunch of their popular songs and a couple of older ones. They played a blues number, and they played a Jimi Hendrix song which they frankly blew me away with, they were so good. And all too soon they played their last song (Tush), and left the stage, and we fought our way out of the building and walked to our car and drove home. Although it didn't seem right to go home - I wanted to go back and watch another concert! I didn't want it to end, it was so much fun. And J had a great time, too. He liked ZZ, but was never as much of a fan as I am, but he said last night that they were great, and he wants to go see them again if they come back around. So I was happy about that. Of course, I knew he was having a good time when he was playing the air guitar (or bass, since that's what he plays) on my leg for most of the songs. :)

And then before I knew it we were home, and climbing into bed, because we both had to work today. And I had a bad dream and didn't feel like I slept well, and I woke up this morning exhausted and wanting only to sleep for another four hours, but I don't even care. The concert was so much fun that it's worth every second of exhaustion I feel today. I loved it.

Thank you, J. I had a great time. And I love the t-shirt you bought me. :)

(Side note - for some reason blogger isn't wanting to add spaces between my paragraphs under the pictures, so I apologize if the entry is hard to read. And now that I've said that, it'll probably add extra spaces and you'll wonder what in the heck I'm talking about and why there are two spaces between each paragraph. Sigh. Just know that I tried to get it to look right, and it wasn't working, and that blogger sucks sometimes when you're doing entries with pictures in them.)