My Life in Concerts

I'm not a huge concert goer, so here's a quick list.

• 38 Special - KY State Fair
• Bad Company (w/o Paul Rogers) - KY State Fair
• The Violent Femmes (College)
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville
• Jethro Tull - Jacksonville
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville (yes again)
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville (yes again)
• Queen plus Paul Rogers - Jacksonville (closes a circle of irony with Bad Co at the state fair)
• The Police - Wrigley Field
• The Moody Blues - Southern Indiana (yes, yet again)
• Lady Gaga - Louisville, won tickets at work

So, one thing that should be immediately apparent is that I really haven't seen bands playing in their heyday. Many of my favorite bands, The Doors, Hendrix, The Rolling Stones had members die before I was born. Others like, Led Zeppelin and The Who had members die before I was a teenager.

A side effect of this, the crowd at The Lady Gaga concert was more energetic than any I have been to so far. There were a lot more women in their thirties than I would have expected. The number of mothers their with either their daughters or a group of teens was about what I would have expected. The number of women in the 30's or 40's in the crowd was really quite surprising.

At other concerts I've been to, being dressed up was owning one of the band's t-shirt or a tie-die shirt. At this concert, fishnets and heels were nearly ubiquitous, even among guys in the crowd. Frilly little tutu things were also popular as was face paint and caution tape worn as clothing. Then there were some more exotic costumes elaborate costumes that mimicked something Lady Gaga had worn at shows or in videos.

This was also by far the biggest production at a concert I've been to. This is the only one with props, fire effects, costume changes, and dancers. Actually, there were multiple stage changes where the entire set of props in use changed.

My biggest fear was that Gaga would just phone in a performance since this was just Louisville, but she was high energy from start to finish, still jumping up and down during the 2nd encore. She was also good at getting audience participation, however, I have to confess, the Gaga claw as a form of crowd participation still mystifies me even after having seen the show. Still, the bottom line was that I was entertained. I'm glad I won the tickets and went to the show.