i gather no moss.

i categorize myself as a spontaneous person.

i am not a fan of plans and will try to get out of them as much as possible, regardless of how much i want to do whatever the planner has in mind. its just that sense of obligation that i dread.

there are exceptions to this rule however. vacations. lots of money (without the work requirement), plans that involve ice cream, etc.
concerts, however, do not fall into the exceptions category.

allow me to travel along the tangent superhighway for a moment. i enjoy shows. they are fun when its a good band and/or a lot of dancing is involved. however, since my move here, they have lost their luster. nights out rarely involve the dive bar down the street and a few bang up games of pool and shuffleboard. instead they involve going to a show- which is normally loud, crowded, overpriced and filled with people standing in a crowd staring at a stage. its like getting that really good cookie (a tim tam for instance- see previous post) every day. over and over and over. the magic is lost, but my ears are still ringing.
and now we return to regular scheduled programming.

sunday night i was relieved when a friend wanted to bail on a show she had bought tickets to (i am from ohio. i can end my sentences in to's and for's anytime i want!). one of these tickets was a birthday present to me (read- plan was made way back in july).
last night i was looking forward to an equally quiet night in. maybe some dancing with the stars, peppered with a little law and order svu. you could even venture to say i was PLANNING on it. that was until jason called with two free tickets to the rolling stones.
i have never seen the rolling stones in concert. sure, ive seen the videos. i took history of rock and roll course as an elective. but never live. i hesitated to say yes. i had stayed home that day and didnt want to be seen at a show that night, but i agreed to it in the end. i mean, fuck. its the stones.

spontaneous!

i was even more excited when i found out dave matthews was opening for them.

another tangent takes us back in time to the days where mandy wore hippie dresses and listened to a lot of phish, just like everyone else who was sticking it to the man by being "different."
fast forward to the present.

i love dmb. the old stuff. some of the new stuff too, but the acoustic guitar resonates with me. it reminds me of that time where all the friends, who are lost to me now, were part of my daily routines. they were the people i borrowed clothes from and had the rooms i would escape to every night (not like THAT!) we also went to the dave matthews concerts (2 in a row) every june.

last night, though, the show was different. it was a stadium for starters. ive only seen dave in amphitheaters, barefoot and in the grass. we were late secondly, and only saw about 3 songs. but the feeling there was different. granted, people were there to see the stones first and foremost, so the cheering for dmb songs wasnt too loud. but it was just different. i turned to jason after the set ended (no encore which is absurd) and told him this might be a really sad show- a failing dave matthews crowd and the stones, who seem too old to be rock stars like they used to be.

we saw them pull into the stadium in their black busses. they came out onto the stage after two bouts of fireworks and they put me in my place. they were old, yes. and very wrinkly. but they put on a great show. i dont have anything to compare it to, because ive never seen a show with a large production, but it truly blew me away. the stage moved, mick jagger ran around like a crazy gyrating man, and they were great. hunched over? gray? sure. but great nonetheless.

im pretty sure i wont see dmb or the stones again. its bittersweet. i thought i wouldnt see the stones ever, so that was a nice surprise. i was 90% certain i wouldnt see dmb again, and i was 100% that i wouldnt see them with jason of all people (he hates dmb). so that worked out nicely as well. just seems like the closure for me of an era that ended a long time ago.
(by the way, i still have and love my hippie dress and a few choice phish songs- scoff all you like)