2/21/08---Me, my daughter....and the Brothers Van Halen

Yeah, so last night I took my 15 yr old--going on 27--daughter to her very first "official" rock concert.  Thanks (good God Almighty...am I actually saying this?) to a videogame called Guitar Hero or Rock Star or something like that....my kids actually are getting to know certain classic rock songs.  Well, my daughter is.  As I told my wife tonight, the wife has introduced Kelly to a bunch of classic rock artists that she never knew:  Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Van Halen, etc etc.  The video game introduced Andy to....well, it pretty much introduced Andy to another video game.

So Van Halen was coming to town, and Kellie had been lobbing the hints left and right that she wanted to go and see them, mainly because boyfriend de jour Cory is into them and thinks their awesome and all that.  He went to the show last week--she didn't.
Our friends Amanda & Will had gone out and gotten tickets (with nary a thought about Jeff & Kim by the way, but I digress) for the show last night and were all set to go....when fate popped up in the form of a disgruntled neighbor, who went last week and told them that the concert....ya know....sucked.  So now their wondering if they really want to go, since they have the two toddlers at home and going out on the best of occasions is a huge hassle for them and do they really want to do that and....ah screw it, lets just sell the tickets to Jeff & Kim. 
2 for 1 mind you.  You have to teach your greedy friends a lesson.
Oh I'm just kidding.  They were incredibly gracious and sold us the two tickets for the price of one.  Now Kim has always been all about your Styx and Journey...and never really gave a hoot about Van Halen, and whether or not the band was better with Diamond Dave fronting the group, or if they really had completely pretty much sold out when Sammy Hagar was with the band or.....well, you pretty much get the idea.
So she didn't really want to go.  Now my friend Greg, the one that got me the Springsteen tickets for the concert that takes place in April....I had to give him a call and see if he had any interest, since I know that he's always been a big fan...even though he's sort of an older guy and all.  (hehe)  But Greg told me that he was going to be out of town on business....and that left me one choice for a companion for the evening.

Yep.

Dad and his 15 yr old....going to rock out.  Going to bang their heads.  The way I looked at it....it would either be an incredible bonding experience between a Dad and his daughter---or one of the worst evenings in my life.  Hey, let's roll the dice people!!!

And ya know....just for the record...I don't wanna seem like I'm Mr-Hip-Dad here or anything...but I don't ever, ever, EVER recall my Dad taking my sister to see the Rolling Stones or Led Zepplin or anything like that.   So...ya know...I got THAT going for me.

So we head over to the Bank Atlantic Center--home of the incredible-choking-dogs-that-they-are Florida Panthers....but that's another story for another time....and after paying a reasonable $20 for parking (cue the roll of the eyes), we make our way towards the building.  I cue my daughter in on all of the, hmm, ya know.....IMPORTANT things that you should know when going to a rock concert.
About how the guys walking up to you holding up two fingers are not peaceniks, but ticket scalpers....about how tonight will be a night where she will see a lot of women roughly her mother's age in black jeans at least one size too small, wearing black boots, and showing off what can only be described as an ample amount of....um....boobage.
And that it was because it was a rock concert...and that the next day, they would be back in their normal clothes and wearing a normal amount of makeup.....and without all the tattoo's showing. 

As we walked into the building, I pointed out the merchandise table.  The one that had all the Van Halen shirts for $40 and up.  The same shirts that she would be able to get at the mall next week for ....ya know, around $15.  And then she went to the bathroom, and I stood there wondering what in God's name I was ever going to do if we somehow got seperated and I couldn't find her....but that's how I get sometime.  I'm a worst-case-scenario-kind-of-a-guy.  And then she reappeared and we made our way to our seats, and I asked her to walk in front of me.....so she wouldn't see me looking at the women in the hot pants, heavy makeup and boots.  Hey, I didn't want to ruin her image of me as Mr. Wholesome, ya know?

So we get to our seats....and the opening act is one of Bob Marley's kids.  Hey, how cool is that, huh?  And he played covers of songs like "No Woman, No Cry" and "I Shot the Sheriff"....and it sounded just like his old man.  Pretty cool stuff.

And then we had about a 30 minute wait for the main event of the evening.  And then the lights went to black.....the stage lit up....Eddie Van Halen kicked in the opening chords to "Eruption"....and then they launched into "You Really Got Me".  And Kellie got to look over at her Dad...and watch him wail on the air drums.  Somehow I can't picture a scenario with MY DAD doing that...but again, I digress.  A couple of songs later, they kicked into a great version of "Running With the Devil"....and it was the first Van Halen song that Kellie had really heard of....and there we were......our heads bopping back and forth like Wayne & Garth in the car in Wayne's World....flashing the hand sign for heavy metal or hard rock or whatever the hell it is......and she was laughing and enjoying herself as she watched her Dad turn into a goofy kid again....and I realized that this wasn't going to be one of the worst nights of my life, but one of the best.

Well, except for the two guys in front of us that lit up a joint.

Did I mention that?  And my daughter....MY DAUGHTER...turns to me and says:

"Do you smell that?"

YES.  Yes I smell that Ms. Wisenheimer.

And it was back to the show.  Back to watching Eddie VH make amazing sounds come out of his guitar, reminding me in a way of Jackson Pollack in front of a canvas, creating a free form masterpiece with every movement.  Back to watching Alex VH pounding the drums with amazing timing and endurance, especially when you consider that the guy is going to be 55 yrs old in a couple of months.  Back to watching Eddie's son Wolfgang (yep you non-rock fans, he named his son WOLFGANG) try to hang with one of the greatest rock bands ever on bass, and not being too bad at it either.  And finally, back to watching Diamond David Lee Roth, back with the band after an absence of over 20 years....and proving himself to be one of the alltime front men in rock history.  What time has taken away from his voice he has maintained as a showman of, dare I say, Jagger-esque proportions.

It was a truly great show and Kellie loved every minute.  Even though, as she said walking out of the building:

"My ears are ringing because the music was so loud."

Welcome to Rock-N-Roll my daughter.


While we were driving to the show, I asked Kellie if there was anyone else that she would rather NOT be going to the showwith than me, figuring that going to a rock concert with your Dad had to be a major bummer.  She thought about it a second and said....

"Well, maybe Andy....or his friend Nick."

And after a couple of minutes she looked at me and said:

"Ya know, actually your one of the people I think I'd want to most go to the concert with....because I figure even if the show was bad....you do something to make me laugh and I'd end up having a good time anyway."

And I figured that it was about the nicest thing she ever said to me.


Later,
Jeff