First Concert

In 2014, my wife and I went to a Mike Doughty concert. He has long been one of my favorite music artists, since all the way back in the nineties when he was the front man for Soul Coughing. my daughter really wanted to go to that concert with us, because she also loves Mike Doughty. I guess all the times that I've played his music while she was growing up made it rub off on her. Unfortunately, the show was not an all ages show. It was 21 and up. We got a shirt as a souvenir for her, but it was all she got.

Then, last winter, there was a band that my daughter and I both like called Courage My Love coming to play a local dive. We were planning on going to that show together, but sadly I got busy, and forgot about the show. It came and went, and then I remembered it, and looked to find that I was too late to attend it with her.

My daughter and I have a lot of similar tastes in music, so there's always another chance. When Blink-182 came out with a new album, I knew that they had to come on tour soon, so I watched for it, and when I found out that they would be playing the Usana Amphitheater, I made sure to get us tickets. And I got them way ahead of time so I couldn't forget it. At last, she would have her first concert.

Notice on the ticket that it says "rain or shine?" That turned out to be important.

When the day came, I groaned. It's been such a pattern with everything that I try to do with the kids this year. The day dawned cloudy, and the heavens opened and dumped rain all day long. When we headed toward the show, it was looking up. The rain thinned out, and it seemed like it wouldn't be that bad.

But no, it was not to be. Instead, the rain started back up as we arrived at the gate. When we got inside, it was pouring. And it never let up. We spent the whole show in rain ponchos. We still had a lot of fun, but we also got really, really wet.

An interesting thing about the show was that Blink-182 recently changed their line-up. They made themselves famous with Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, and Travis Barker, but over the last ten years or so, the band has broken up, reformed, and then broken up again.

They have now replaced Tom DeLonge with a guy named Matt Skiba. Matt sounded all right on their new album, which I really enjoyed, but I have to say that he did not sound very good live. I wasn't very impressed by any of his vocals. I might be biased. Tom DeLonge was my favorite part of Blink 182, so they really aren't nearly as special to me without him. I think, unless the band reforms with their original line-up again, this will be my last Blink 182 concert.