You Too?

There are those who might suggest that my current string of luck with concerts and cancellations has to do with the relative age of the performers that I choose to pay to see. Having an unused ticket stub for a cancelled Sex Pistols show from 1977 would be a badge of honor, I suppose. Holding on to seats for a postponed Billy Joel and Elton John concert was putting faith in the returning health of two guys who are, shall we say, taking a victory lap. When they did show up, it was a magical night, perhaps simply for the sight of seeing them both upright at the same time.
You might guess that this is why I chose to cash in my tickets for the newly postponed U2 North American Tour. Bono's recovery from back surgery sounds like an old guy type of ailment, unless you listen to his German Doctor, Muller Wohlfahrt, who reported, "We are treating Bono as we would treat any of our athletes and while the surgery has gone very well, the coming weeks are crucial for a return to full health. In the next days, he will start a light rehabilitation program, with increasing intensity over the next eight weeks. In our experience, this is the minimum time." Athletes?
Set the Way-Back machine to 1983, when I woke up to a cold and rainy June morning. A friend of mine had given me a ticket to "turn me on" to this new Irish band that had entranced him. As the day wore on, the skies never lifted, and the persistent drizzle would only be worse up on the side of the hill, outdoors at Red Rocks. There was talk of cancelling the concert anyway, and so I decided to go about my regular business. If they made it really big, Wouldn't I get another chance to see them? That night they filmed the show, which they called "Under A Blood Red Sky," showed the rest of the planet what great live act U2 was, and pieces of the movie showed up on MTV as a constant reminder for me of what I had missed. Rolling Stone magazine listed that night's show as one of "Fifty Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll". Like Woodstock, or the first time we saw Madonna lolling about on the stage in a wedding dress.
As another friend of mine used to say, "It's history now." I had the chance to catch U2 three years later on the Conspiracy of Hope Tour, along with Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Sting and Bryan Adams. That show wasn't sold out. Can you believe that? And Bryan Adams! I've had opportunities since to see a U2 tour, but this was going to be part of that process I am undergoing with my son to catch him up on my youth. Here I use "youth" as a relative term. Instead of waiting another year for a possible rescheduling, I'm getting my money back. I'm going to put that money down on a sure thing: tickets for Paul McCartney.