Amanda finally got her 13th birthday present this weekend, it was just 9 months late. Why? Because I am an extreme slacker parent? Nope. She just hit an unlucky streak. Here's the story:
Last June, while looking at a concert calendar, my wife and I discovered that Amanda's then favorite artist, Kelly Clarkson was coming to Portland. "What a perfect birthday present for her," we thought. After all, she'd be turning 13 and it would be a cool experience for her to attend her first show with Dad and do something she had never had the opportunity to do. So, we surprised her with tickets to the show and she was ECSTATIC and began counting the days to the big show.
Just a few weeks before the concert, I got the dreaded e-mail, informing me that Kelly Clarkson had canceled her tour. While I really didn't want to have to break the news to my daughter, I finally summoned the courage to make the call. As expected, she was emotional.. crying for a nice long while as she worked through her disappointment. I felt terrible for her and tried to explain that in all my years of concert going.. I had never had a show cancel. It just doesn't happen very often. We vowed to continue to find her birthday show.
Fast forward a few months.. we finally found a solution: Maroon 5 announced they'd be playing in Portland. Amanda eagerly agreed to go and we got our tickets.. Floor tickets.. a few rows back from the stage. Thus, began the Maroon 5 phase of the summer where we'd be listening to the band everywhere we went making sure we were up on their music and gearing up for a fun time.
Needless to say.. when I got the e-mail announcing that due to a band scheduling conflict, Maroon 5 would be canceling their Portland show... I felt like banging my head against my desk. As expected, breaking this news to my poor daughter, slowly losing her faith in humanity, was not a fun experience.
And so we come to January. After giving up hope of having Bon Jovi come to Portland, we kept our eyes peeled for something that would work for us.. and actually happen. Then we got the announcement that Rascal Flatts would be coming in April. Keeping out fingers crossed, we yet again, purchased tickets. Luckily, this one stuck and Friday, Amanda got her show. And what a show it was! Talk about an amazing first concert!
After our drive to Portland, we arrived to a nice surprise. While we couldn't quite swing floor seats this time around, we were just a little off the floor, up one side. We knew we'd have a nice view of the stage, but what got our attention was a smaller, satellite stage, right in front of our seats. Suddenly, we realized that the band was going to be much closer to us than we had expected.
The opening act was Taylor Swift, another (very young) favorite of Amanda's, who did a great job of whipping the crowd into a frenzy during her 45 minutes on stage. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Amanda ogle the "huge" stage, as I could see the main stage peeking through from behind. After a short break, long enough for Amanda to get her first concert t-shirt ($30!!!!! What the heck!! I must be old..) we came back in the arena, and I swear, Amanda's eyes about boinged out of her head at the site of the BIG stage. And even for me as a veteran concert goer, this looked to be quite the multimedia event: the stage took up the whole back half of the Rose Garden Arena, giant video screens where everywhere, the stage itself had 2 levels.
Soon the show started, the big stage firing up. Much to our joy and surprise, the band didn't step out onto the big stage, but emerged out of the small stage.. right in front of us. At first they seemed stranded there, but before to long a large bridge was lowered from the rafters connecting the two stages, right over the top of the screaming audience.
Now, anyone who knows me knows I'm just not a huge country fan. Luckily, Rascal Flatts isn't that annoying, twangy country... It's a little more bearable. And these guys both know how to rock, and know that for every country fan, there was a rock and roll fan eager to hear something amazing. At one point, while the rest of the band took a break, the lead guitarist (standing right in front of us on the small stage) stood right behind the drum kit, hitting the foot pedal with his foot while also playing his guitar and played an awesome selection of 80's guitar riffs. Sweet Home Alabama, Black in Black, even some Guns and Roses thrown in.. he was a one man show. You can see some examples of this here and here.
Some other highlights... The fiddle player on stage with just the drummer doing his own version of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir (click here), and many of the Rascal Flatts songs such as Me and My Gang, My Wish, and the final song "Life is a Highway"
All in all... a GREAT show, and a fun night watching my daughter experience her first large scale concert. While it may be difficult having my daughter.. my little girl grow up so fast, it is also a blast doing these more adult things together.
Want to hear her take on the experience? Like her old man, she's started a blog of her own where you can read her comments and see more photos. Click here >>
Click on the video below to see a short sampling from the opening song of the concert. You'll see the giant stage, the kinds of effects it was capable of, the band's entrance from the small stage, the bridge lowering between stages and quick and even some of the pyrotechnics used. And yes.. that screaming voice you'll hear in the background.. that was my little girl... geeking out and losing her voice.
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