Sunday, August 19, 2007

Def Leppard - the Concert

***Updated Picture of me, Rick Savage, Jay and Rick Allen- Here***
We had a great time at the concert last night. We rolled into the Amphitheater about 6:30 so we could go backstage. Jay and I met a guy who asked us to wait a few minutes and then we could go in and meet Def Leppard. We were pretty cranked up about it. I was just excited to meet someone famous, and Jay was itching to meet one of his rock idols, Joe Elliott.
The guy who was taking all of the people backstage tells us that there will be no drinking or smoking backstage. I figure that this is not going to be an issue because we were supposed to go backstage in a few minutes. Well it was 2 hours. We were asked not to drink anything because if the tour manager suspected we had been drinking he would kick us out. Jay and I ended up drinking two beers.
During the wait Foreigner was playing. We missed their entire performance. I was kind of bummed about that because Foreigner was the second concert that I ever went to as a kid and I haven't seen them since.
So finally we go backstage. The tour manager tells us the group was late because they were stuck in traffic going through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Living in Virginia Beach for the last 17 years, this does not surprise me. VDOT and their constant construction on I64 make the highway a parking lot 18 hours of every day. If it is not the "cone people," that's what I call the road workers, it is the out of towners who freak out trying to go through a tunnel and slow down to 25 miles per hour.
Anyway, we get backstage and we a traveling in a line that we have been waiting in for about an hour or more when we walk right by Rick Savage and Rick Allen. We come into this patio area and the line is turned around. This completely ticks off Jennifer Roberts, a radio personality with 92.9 "The Wave," who had somehow managed to start the line. I think she suggested to the backstage organizer that the line be formed because she said something to him and then jumped right in front of the walk way. The back stage guy then turns and tells everyone, "Form a line over here."
So, now we are faced backwards and in comes Rick Savage and Rick Allen, and they begin signing things and posing for photographs. Jennifer is not happy, and hear her say, "That's not fair." I understand what she was saying but what can you do? I guess if you go to all of the trouble of forming a line that you are at the front of, it is going to make you angry when that order is ignored. I didn't care because we were in the middle of the line anyway. Back or front it all looked the same to me.
Jay is like, "Where is Joe?" I can tell he is not pleased by this unexpected absence, but he keeps his cool and we get our Def Leppard bandannas signed. I thought it was great meeting Rick Allen. How many times do you get to meet the world's greatest one armed drummer?
Back to Jennifer Roberts for a second... Before the concert, my mother in law said that one of her coworkers was going backstage and that I should look out for her. So I asked her to describe her to me. She really needs to learn to describe people better, because when she was done, I had the vague description of a tall, attractive woman. Jennifer Roberts was the closest person matching that description waiting to go backstage. So I go up to her and ask her if her name is Sandy, she says no her name is Jennifer. I apologize for the mistake and go back over to Jay. Jay then tells me who she is, because I had no idea. A little while later Jennifer's husband (I assume) Matt comes up to her and they are looking at me like I have suddenly grown horns. He keeps looking at me like I was trying to pick up his wife with that whole male posturing thing. So I try to casually flash my wedding band in an attempt to appease him somehow. It doesn't work. Later I see him in the VIP area and he is still giving me that look. I am like whatever, it was an innocent mistake, but if I tried to explain it to him it would sound like a totally weak story.
Jay and I then headed over to the VIP area where we begin to consume in mass quantities after we meet up with our wives. Amy and Dee have been at the bar for the whole time we have been gone making friends with the bartenders. From here the story starts to get a little fuzzy. We watched Styx on the TVs in the VIP lounge and left for the lawn area shortly after Def Leppard came on.The show was great. We sang and danced and I took pictures and videos. I don't think that I was supposed to be doing that but no one stopped me so I kept on doing it. Someone wrote on me with a silver sharpie. I think it was Dee.
The trip back home was a bit ridiculous because we rode bikes. Not motorcycles, bicycles. We live very close to the amphitheater so this was easy for us to do because there are wide paths almost the entire way. Well, on the way in it was easy, not on the way out. Jay strapped a bamboo tree to his bike for the ride home. It looked like a big bike flag- we were very concerned about safety. I only fell off my bike 3 times, and I watched Jay steer directly into a tree. He was OK, it was a little tree. We all made it home and we pretended to be sober in front of the babysitter. I don't think we fooled her.
Amy made me leave the bikes at Jay and Dee's house. Probably a good idea since I had already proven my awesome biking skills.

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