If my requirements for attending a concert included:

• Folding chairs–packed so tightly that everyone on the entire row had to stand, fold their chair, and pick up anything they may have set on the floor in order to let anyone into the row which still didn’t allow enough room for someone to pass without completely invading your personal space. And within the row we were damn near shoulder to shoulder so that I could feel the stranger next to me raise her arm to drink. Because there was no pitch to the floor and most people stand during a Rick Springfield concert, the sight lines from the orchestra section were terrible. Wait! Have I been teleported back to the late 80’s where I’m standing in floor seating at a Rush concert in Baltimore? Certainly felt like it. We ended up moving up into the mezzanine section for Pat Benatar’s show so that we could get a better view of the show.
• Surly security–Dude, I will go back to my seat (you freaking-buzzkill-at-a-Rick-Springfield-concert) but I have to wait until these people get to their seats first. Yeah, I know you have to “clear the aisle” but you really need to think about a career that’s not in the hospitality industry. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait until Rick went into the crowd for Human Touch and security was crapping Twinkies trying to keep the aisles clear.
• Lines for the bathrooms–both mens’ and womens’–every bathroom in the place–with an unusual mix of casino guests and beach goers.
• Destination Weirdness–from the parking garage elevators we flowed into a sea of people with small children, strollers, and beach paraphernalia who were going back to the garage with $5 parking. There was a picture window overlooking the beach but little evidence that we had arrived in a flashy new casino. We’ve been to the Borgata nearly every time Rick has played there and this place was tackily decorated and poorly layed out in comparison.

…then Ovation Hall at Revel Casino in Atlantic City would be the place for me.

Credit to the performers–Rick and band were great as expected. I didn’t have an appreciation for the talents of Neil Geraldo until I saw him perform last night and Pat Benatar didn’t disappoint.

Revel Ovation Hall, ORCH2, Row MM, Seat 28, standing with phone over my head

Revel Ovation Hall, Mezz, Section 207,  seated

See photos from Rick Springfield at the Borgata, January 2013

On this date in 1999, my husband experienced the real extent of my Rick Springfield obsession. After seeing Rick at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, four or five years in a row in the 1980’s, I still remember calling home from senior week and my mom telling me that the concert scheduled for the summer of 1988 had been cancelled. In a time before the internet there wasn’t the 24/7 celebrity gossip that there is today and I had no idea why he cancelled–and stopped recording new music.

In April 1999 he released “Karma” and in June he performed at Hersheypark–not in the stadium, in the amphitheater inside the park. We arrived around noon to find people already lined up for the 5 PM show so I sat down on the asphalt with the rest of the groupies, baking in the sun and listening to sound check while the Great Bear roller coaster zipped by overhead. (Wait! Is that the intro to “Souls?” Yes!)

And then the show started–and I burst into tears the minute Rick appeared on stage during the intro to “Affair of the Heart.” Before that moment, I never understood why all those girls got hysterical at the sight of the Beatles. Steve asked me several times if I was OK then he took the camera from my hands and started taking photos because I couldn’t cry, sing, and take photos at the same time.

There were two shows that day and Steve insisted we stay. There were no tears during that concert and I joined a small group of ladies near the stage. It was the first time a bouncer shooed me away and the only time one succeeded.

“We all need the human touch…”

Fast forward 14 years and 364 days–

Two cruises and more shows than I can count later–last night I went to the sound check at Rams’ Head Center Stage. The first of three shows (so far) I’ll be going to this year.

My father said, “If the boy wants to play guitar, I say we let him.”