Louella, aka Terri, is on the blog today!  She shares her love of Adam Levine (echoed by her two boys), her crappy cell phone photos and some things to think about the next time you go to a concert. 

Thanks Louella!! Love always, Hedda xoxo

On September 8, 1984 my mom and I headed to Mile High Stadium to catch THE concert of the decade…The Jackson’s Victory Tour.  The lady standing next to me caught Jermaine’s leopard print shirt that he ripped off his body and tossed into the crowd.  That’s how close we were to the stage.

My mom isn’t exactly what I would call a Jackson fan but she took me because I begged and cried and pleaded and begged some more.  I can’t remember one actual song from that concert but I remember seeing Michael for the first time and I remember how excited I was the entire night – it’s one of the most vivid memories of my childhood.

Last night – just over 29 years later,  I took my 6 & 8 year-old to their very first concert – Maroon 5.  To my boys, Adam is the ultimate rocker.  He sings, plays the guitar and he’s a judge on “The Voice!”  Here’s a few lessons learned while at the concert:

·         Kelly Clarkson has more class in the tip of her pinky than just about any other female musician out there today.   The girl can sing.  The girl can make fun of herself.  The girl is proud of herself.   The girl is someone I’d want to be BFFs with.

·         Kelly Clarkson has the biggest, most gorgeous diamond ring on her finger that I’ve ever seen and she so deserves it…her man is a lucky guy.  She waited a long time to find Mr. Right.  Looks like it was well worth the wait.

·          Adam Levine can rock skinny jeans and tattoos like no other.   If you are not Adam, you should really consider Henna – it’s washable.

·         Teenage girls can SCREAM.  I mean SCREAM.  The sound that comes out of their mouths can raise the hairs on your arms and leave a ringing in your ears for days.  You can turn around and give them funny looks and plug your ears but it doesn’t matter because when a teenage girl wants to scream…she is going to scream!

·         Just because you THINK you have the Mooooooo-veeees like Jagger, doesn’t mean you should perform them in public.  Especially if you are in your fifth decade and drunk.  Drunk is generally not a good look.

·         Little boys get tired no matter how excited they are.   There are seats at concert venues for a reason.  It’s OK to sit.

·         There is NO reason to try to record an entire concert on your cell phone.  The video looks like crap.  Live in the moment and enjoy it.  Live.  There were no cell phones in 1984 but to this day, I have a very vivid memory of Michael and his bros performing.

·         Corporations can spend money to change the names of stadiums/venues all they want, but they can’t make those stupid names stick.  We saw the concert at Fiddler’s Green.  Tickets said, “Comfort Dental Amphitheater.”

·         Smoking sucks.  Seriously.    Not sure why there seems to be more smokers everywhere we go but it’s disgusting.   Smells bad.  Looks bad.  Not cool.

·         Sometimes you have to miss the encore.  We left before Adam sang Payphone but we heard it as we were walking to the car so we sang it at the top of our lungs…completely out of tune.

I can think of a dozen more lessons learned but by far the most important is there are opportunities every day to create memories with my kids.   Some of them will be small moments that happen in everyday life, others will be epic moments like when they saw their favorite musician live for the first time, and got to stay up way past their bedtime.

As I was carrying the 6 year-old to his bed, he squeezed me extra tight and said, “Thank you mommy – I had the best time ever.”  And that made it totally worth the cost of the tickets!  (Special thanks to my husband for not asking me what I paid!)

Have you taken your kids to a concert?  What was the experience like?  What was your first concert experience?

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