Summer 2012 Concert plans and other musical ramblings

The other day I bought tickets  for all four of us to attend our first concert as a family, the band of choice Cake!

As parents, Babu and I learned quickly that if we didn’t  want to go insane listening to another Dora or Diego song  a musical education for our children was in order.  So far they have been educated on Cake, 311, Presidents of the United States of America, Alkaline Trio, Linkin Park and  others.    As they have gotten older we have discovered that a lot of rockers from the 90’s are putting out kid music because they have kids of their own now.  Agent 23 Skidoo and Casper Baby Pants come to mind.     MinieMe is 9 now, so I have to find ways to enjoy and/or tolerate  boy bands and  bubble gum teen pop/bop as well.   We try to strike a balance in our household so no one is musically unhappy.

It’s summer so that means concert season, I have plans for:

1. Rock of Ages Tour: Def Leppard and Poison on the lawn at our outdoor venue with my girls. Can’t wait.
2. Big Time Rush: I’m taking MiniMe and a lot of other mom’s and daughters will be joining us.   I’m excited to take her to her first on the lawn concert but absolutely heart broken that I will be missing Florence and the Machine on a smaller lawn venue the exact same night.  I cannot pawn this concert off on Babu as he and The Destroyer will be at a wedding.  So I had to cinch up my Mommy BGP and just get over  it.  The things we do for love. Maybe  Florence will be somewhere else within driving distance shortly before or after, I may have to look into this.  While we are on the topic of shows I am bummed to miss, Fun! is coming here next week. Not only was it sold out by the time I figured it out, but also I will be up north for work working 12+ hour shifts in a command center for a big go-live.
3. Cake:  It’s roughly my 4th time seeing them and taking the kids will be so much fun, I really can’t wait to introduce them to the very grumpy lead singer. Then they can see how rock stars really act.
4. 311:  Babu says he is buying these tickets for the whole family including his  sister, but there may be a conflict with the kids school  ice cream social event and I am betting they choose the ice cream social. I’ll take them and he and his sister can go to 311  if that happens.
5. Linkin Park and Incubus: I almost peed my pants while squealing and jumping up and down when this concert was announced. It was the best thing I could remember happening in years!  It made my whole day, week, month. I’m still super excited about it.   I’ve seen Incubus twice but never LP and the two of them together just blows my mind.  I’m one of those weirdo’s with a set list started  for songs to play at my funeral and both bands have songs on it.  I sprung for pricey pavilion seats for Babu and I.   I bought them on pre-sale asap through the LP web site, fan club offerings.  Turns out the concert is the SAME DAY as the Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon I will be running at 6:30am.  The concert is at 7:30 pm, it’s going to be a very long day,  but the hotel room for the half is already booked and is non-refundable. We will  already be losing our $$ for Sunday night, as we won’t be doing the relax after the half and enjoy a nice dinner out after all, we will be driving 4 hours back down I-65 to attend the show.  This is  a fine indication of the state of fracture my brain has been in recently. I total scheduling fubar.  But, I think I had a Rock N Roll bib before the concert was announced, so we would of likely been squeezing both into our schedule anyway,  I’m  crazy,stupid, adventurous like that.
6. AWOLNATION, on pre-sale as we speak and I’m wasting time writing this when I should be buying tickets darnit.

I wanted to see The Killers, but they aren’t coming anywhere near me. I keep hoping for a Blink 182 tour in support of their newest album. We already saw Mike Doughty and even though I’ve seen him 3 times now, I don’t need to see him again until he gets the Soul Coughing chip off his soul, does the work to properly heal and gets the hell back out there to play some of the songs that made him who he is.   Currently he is too poisoned from the experience and has sworn off playing any and all Soul Coughing songs.  I can respect his journey, but I’m not spending anymore of my time or money on Mike until he works that out.   If he doesn’t, shrugs, I have my  itunes library of Soul Coughing songs to get me by.  Best of luck buddy.

I’m sure there will be others if time and money allow. Rock On Lovies!