My daughter's first concert experience - thank you Eddie!
karmakvisser
Posts: 33
My wife and I had been planning to attend the show at the Lyric Opera House ever since the initial announcement. We've been PJ fans since we eloped to Vegas, got married by an Elvis impersonator, then rented a Lincoln for which I bought my first PJ tape. We fell in love immediately. I remember rewinding the tape multiple times to listen to the guitars swopping speakers. HOOKED!
Move forward 15 years... We lost out on the ten club lottery for the Baltimore show. Then we had to get single seats during the ticketasster melee. We confirmed with our babysitter on Saturday. She emailed us at 2 am that she had some family emergency and wouldn't be able to help us. Her mom called us up day of the show, frantically seeking her daughter. We let her know about the email and imagined that most likely, she was with friends. We haven't heard back as of yet.
So that left us with 2 nonadjacent seats for Eddie and no babysitter. Step in Dana, my eldest daughter, age 10. Now Dana heard/felt Pearl Jam 3 times when my wife was pregnant with her. We had great seats for the 98 tour and weren't about to miss any of the fun. Dana has also been fighting chronic reoccurring osteomyoletis. Its a bone disease that carves out holes in her bones, near the growth plates. It started in her left ankle then spread to her right ankle and then to her hip. We've been fighting this for over 4 years now with biopsies, month long iv's, daily pill ingestion, and bi monthly oxygen treatments and dietary restrictions. When ever she hurts, we listen. She twisted her ankle Saturday. I took her to Nighttime Pediatrics to return with the diagnosis of sprained ankle with a soft cast as the treatment and the need to use crutches for a while.
We decided that I would take Dana to her first ever concert as a treat to a rough year that she has experienced (we are moving to get her out of our current school district in which Dana has been a victim of constant bullying and such) But I was concerned about her hobbling around on crutches. So we bought a wheel chair. It turned out to be the best 40 bucks I've spent in a long time.
We got to the Baltimore Lyric Opera house 1.5 hours before the show. Dana announced that she was hungry. We tried to find a restaurant but there wasn't much in the vicinity of the Opera house. Man did I get a good taste for what wheel chair folks have to battle out in the real world. Crappy sidewalks and construction zones make for very difficult travel. We had to roll out in the street for a stretch because there were no functioning sidewalks that we could gravitate towards. Having to detour just for one block makes such a huge difference to a chair person in the amount of time and energy it takes to overcome that obstacle. As far as food goes, I ended up getting Dana a Butterfinger and a coke to tide her over. I'm such a bad dad.
We came back to the opera house and found some folks qued up on the side, waiting for Eddie to leave his bus and walk inside. That made me think about how difficult it must be for someone of Eddie's stature to move around. No matter what you do, you will piss off somebody that didn't get your autograph or didn't get to shake you hand or what ever. Just walking 30 steps could take him 25 minutes, just to try and satisfy everyone. I like the line I've heard, "take my hand, not my picture" We need to keep that in mind in our brushes with the famous or infamous.
As we were waiting Dana asked if Eddie would emerge from the bus with a puff of smoke (not that kind) She thought it would be a more dramatic entrance. I assured her that it wouldn't be the case. Eddie is somewhat more low key then that. It also gave insight to the impression kids have to what stardom means. I did a driveby the entrance and heard from a roadie that Eddie was already inside. So we decided to go get to our seats, way up in the balcony. I was hoping that because of Dana's mobility issue, that we would be able to get in a situation where I didn't have to carry her to a seat.
We got into the venue before Lium had started. The first security fellow (he was not very helpful) I spoke to mentioned that there might be a spot up on the balcony that would accommodate our needs. When we got up there, this lady was like "Oh no, we have some special seats for you. Let me go talk to someone downstairs." So we followed her downstairs to the head of security. They had a hush hush conversation behind a closed door. Then the second lady gave me a piece of paper with some information on it. Told me to go to the center doors of the lower portion of the house, go in hang a left, follow the the usher to our spot. She said that the seats might have an obstructed view. The usher takes us all the way up front to the first set of box seats on the left side of the house. There are 7 chairs in the spot, I remove 2, and push Dana to the right side of the box, facing the stage. We were on level with the stage! The floor seats started about 6 feet below the level of the stage.
Our seats were incredible! Eddie would be a mere 25 feet from us! In our box there were some additional seats. After making sure that Dana was comfortable, I left telling the usher that I was going to find our friends. I went back up to the balcony, went all the way to the top, found a couple in the last seats, all the way in the corner, and invited them to come sit with us. As you can guess, they were very surprised, having just mentioned to each other how they had the worst seats in the joint.
So we wound out way back downstairs. The guards knew me by now, let them follow me all the way up to the front. So there we are, front row, my cute little 10 year old enjoying her first concert and an esthetic couple rescued from the furthest reaches of the opera house, ready to enjoy us some Eddie. I kept telling her that this was a very unusual situation and that normally, the concert scene is a little ruder. She will be forever spoiled.
The concert was phenomenal. Eddie was his usual friendly self with timely remarks to quiet the shouters in the crowd. He did take one song (gone) suggestion from the crowd, had to figure out the song with the crowd's assistance and then went on to play a variety of guitars with great gusto.
Even though we were so close, Eddie didn't move from his seat that much so he never really got a chance to make eye contact with Dana, as I had hoped. But the concert was everything I could have hoped for. The music was fantastic and the quality time with my daughter was priceless.
The couple from Harrisburg that I invited down helped me get Dana back to our car. I drove them to the Hard Rock Cafe to continue their night and we went home. I asked them to someday, do the same for another couple. Pay it forward.
Someone at work had seats for the Monday show so I got those for Chris to enjoy with our middle daughter, Zara. They had a wonderful time, again, the first concert experience for Zara. She is a poet and artist. She drew something and wrote 2 poems for Eddie during the concert. My wife gave the pieces to a roadie who promised to get them to Eddie. Just the thought that Eddie may have cracked an appreciative smile at my daughter's work is cool to think of.
In the end, we all (except for the 5 year old) got to see Eddie. My little one was already saying how "its not fair!" that her 2 older sister got to see Eddie. Oh well, you can't ever satisfy them all!
rock on!
ken
Move forward 15 years... We lost out on the ten club lottery for the Baltimore show. Then we had to get single seats during the ticketasster melee. We confirmed with our babysitter on Saturday. She emailed us at 2 am that she had some family emergency and wouldn't be able to help us. Her mom called us up day of the show, frantically seeking her daughter. We let her know about the email and imagined that most likely, she was with friends. We haven't heard back as of yet.
So that left us with 2 nonadjacent seats for Eddie and no babysitter. Step in Dana, my eldest daughter, age 10. Now Dana heard/felt Pearl Jam 3 times when my wife was pregnant with her. We had great seats for the 98 tour and weren't about to miss any of the fun. Dana has also been fighting chronic reoccurring osteomyoletis. Its a bone disease that carves out holes in her bones, near the growth plates. It started in her left ankle then spread to her right ankle and then to her hip. We've been fighting this for over 4 years now with biopsies, month long iv's, daily pill ingestion, and bi monthly oxygen treatments and dietary restrictions. When ever she hurts, we listen. She twisted her ankle Saturday. I took her to Nighttime Pediatrics to return with the diagnosis of sprained ankle with a soft cast as the treatment and the need to use crutches for a while.
We decided that I would take Dana to her first ever concert as a treat to a rough year that she has experienced (we are moving to get her out of our current school district in which Dana has been a victim of constant bullying and such) But I was concerned about her hobbling around on crutches. So we bought a wheel chair. It turned out to be the best 40 bucks I've spent in a long time.
We got to the Baltimore Lyric Opera house 1.5 hours before the show. Dana announced that she was hungry. We tried to find a restaurant but there wasn't much in the vicinity of the Opera house. Man did I get a good taste for what wheel chair folks have to battle out in the real world. Crappy sidewalks and construction zones make for very difficult travel. We had to roll out in the street for a stretch because there were no functioning sidewalks that we could gravitate towards. Having to detour just for one block makes such a huge difference to a chair person in the amount of time and energy it takes to overcome that obstacle. As far as food goes, I ended up getting Dana a Butterfinger and a coke to tide her over. I'm such a bad dad.
We came back to the opera house and found some folks qued up on the side, waiting for Eddie to leave his bus and walk inside. That made me think about how difficult it must be for someone of Eddie's stature to move around. No matter what you do, you will piss off somebody that didn't get your autograph or didn't get to shake you hand or what ever. Just walking 30 steps could take him 25 minutes, just to try and satisfy everyone. I like the line I've heard, "take my hand, not my picture" We need to keep that in mind in our brushes with the famous or infamous.
As we were waiting Dana asked if Eddie would emerge from the bus with a puff of smoke (not that kind) She thought it would be a more dramatic entrance. I assured her that it wouldn't be the case. Eddie is somewhat more low key then that. It also gave insight to the impression kids have to what stardom means. I did a driveby the entrance and heard from a roadie that Eddie was already inside. So we decided to go get to our seats, way up in the balcony. I was hoping that because of Dana's mobility issue, that we would be able to get in a situation where I didn't have to carry her to a seat.
We got into the venue before Lium had started. The first security fellow (he was not very helpful) I spoke to mentioned that there might be a spot up on the balcony that would accommodate our needs. When we got up there, this lady was like "Oh no, we have some special seats for you. Let me go talk to someone downstairs." So we followed her downstairs to the head of security. They had a hush hush conversation behind a closed door. Then the second lady gave me a piece of paper with some information on it. Told me to go to the center doors of the lower portion of the house, go in hang a left, follow the the usher to our spot. She said that the seats might have an obstructed view. The usher takes us all the way up front to the first set of box seats on the left side of the house. There are 7 chairs in the spot, I remove 2, and push Dana to the right side of the box, facing the stage. We were on level with the stage! The floor seats started about 6 feet below the level of the stage.
Our seats were incredible! Eddie would be a mere 25 feet from us! In our box there were some additional seats. After making sure that Dana was comfortable, I left telling the usher that I was going to find our friends. I went back up to the balcony, went all the way to the top, found a couple in the last seats, all the way in the corner, and invited them to come sit with us. As you can guess, they were very surprised, having just mentioned to each other how they had the worst seats in the joint.
So we wound out way back downstairs. The guards knew me by now, let them follow me all the way up to the front. So there we are, front row, my cute little 10 year old enjoying her first concert and an esthetic couple rescued from the furthest reaches of the opera house, ready to enjoy us some Eddie. I kept telling her that this was a very unusual situation and that normally, the concert scene is a little ruder. She will be forever spoiled.
The concert was phenomenal. Eddie was his usual friendly self with timely remarks to quiet the shouters in the crowd. He did take one song (gone) suggestion from the crowd, had to figure out the song with the crowd's assistance and then went on to play a variety of guitars with great gusto.
Even though we were so close, Eddie didn't move from his seat that much so he never really got a chance to make eye contact with Dana, as I had hoped. But the concert was everything I could have hoped for. The music was fantastic and the quality time with my daughter was priceless.
The couple from Harrisburg that I invited down helped me get Dana back to our car. I drove them to the Hard Rock Cafe to continue their night and we went home. I asked them to someday, do the same for another couple. Pay it forward.
Someone at work had seats for the Monday show so I got those for Chris to enjoy with our middle daughter, Zara. They had a wonderful time, again, the first concert experience for Zara. She is a poet and artist. She drew something and wrote 2 poems for Eddie during the concert. My wife gave the pieces to a roadie who promised to get them to Eddie. Just the thought that Eddie may have cracked an appreciative smile at my daughter's work is cool to think of.
In the end, we all (except for the 5 year old) got to see Eddie. My little one was already saying how "its not fair!" that her 2 older sister got to see Eddie. Oh well, you can't ever satisfy them all!
rock on!
ken
Long time listener, first time caller
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
I hope Dana's ankle heals up quickly.
my daughter was 13 when i took her to her first concert...PJ in '06..Boston TD BN Garden...the night they dropped the leash...historic!...she is now a PJ fan for life...as well as your kids will probably be now also...way to raise them right Ken!
thanks for sharing & take care!
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
How true. Once you've traveled with someone who uses a wheelchair, you will always view the world differently, keeping an eye out for curb cuts, ramps, elevators, etc. You will also find that most venues are extremely helpful.
Thanks for sharing your story, glad everything worked out so well.
All the best to Dana!