One Hot Concert
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
The concert had been really good, and, yes, it had been a bit of a surreal experience, as Collette expected. Carrie had on her black leather jacket and was all psyched for the mosh pit.
“This is so exciting, you guys,” she raved. “It’s going to be one hot concert.”
It was always fun to drive into U. City, especially in the late afternoon. Several years ago, she had driven there every week. But now, it had already been seven months since she had seen the activity of The Loop. And as usual, the grand castles and mansions and ancient budding trees sat beautifully in the fading sunlight of Hanley. And the shops of the streets – bubble tea, exotic fashions, The Melting Pot (high-end fondue restaurant), many Thaiese cafés and small clubs, Blueberry Hill, the Tivoli movie theater…
And then the Pageant came up. Collette had never been inside. A red ‘X’ was lashed on her hand at the entrance. And as all the SLU and WashU students began piling in, and the cloves were lighted, the drinks ordered, she knew Carrie was right. She was not particularly going to enjoy the environment.
They waited an hour with the Halo Bar above and the mosh pit growing down by the stage. Carrie had opted to stay down, while Elizabeth, Peter, OLeif, and herself sat up at the top. And then, Razorlight was admitted to the stage to various cheers and clappings. The English toothpicks rocked on for about forty-five minutes, and were then cleared for the big band. It was around another half-hour of waiting.
Meanwhile, Peter talked with Elizabeth about his new religion major at MBU, and OLeif went for a bottle of water. Both he and Peter were getting bored. Then OLeif folded a strange shape out of a dollar bill.
“For you,” he passed it on to her.
“What is it?”
Collette picked it up, thinking it looked rather like a spaceship. It was like the old days, back in high school, when OLeif frequently folded such things when there was nothing left to talk about.
“It’s a triangle thing,” he said, a little dazed from the smoke himself. “Let’s go bowling,” he concluded.
But of course, the girls were not about to leave.
Meanwhile, Collette tried not to scrub at her eyes too much, as they were becoming irritated by the smoke. She tried to find Carrie-Bri in the crowd below, but couldn’t see her in the sea of heads.
Finally, as she rubbed her eyes once more, a great shout went up, and upon opening her eyes, the lights had gone out. The drone of the base had begun and crashed to a deafening roar as the piano banged and Muse walked on. St. Louis screamed – it was like the reemergence of Elvis. And on they played; the audience rocking along, for the next hour and a half. “Bliss” was played, Collette’s favorite, and at the end, two great white balloons were dropped down to the mosh pit where they were burst by the crowd and red confetti flew out in the air. By the time they left the stage for Columbus, Ohio, at ten till eleven, Muse should have had no doubt about St. Louis’ feelings toward them.
They soon met Carrie coming up from the mosh pit, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“Oh, you guys missed it all! I was right up in the front. I was so close, that when he was down there with his guitar, the sweat was flying. And I know it hit me.”
“Gross!” Collette laughed aloud.
Peter and OLeif did not seem impressed. Elizabeth was disappointed she had missed the greatness.
“He is so hot,” she sighed, matter-of-factly.
“He is. Oh, Liz, you should have come down with me. You could have been rockin’ out.”
“I know. I would have felt stupid doing it back there. No one else was.”
And so there was a trip by Steak ‘n Shake on the way back. Carrie ordered a side-by-side strawberry and vanilla milkshake and Collette had a large order of fries. They were mostly deathly tired, but it had been such fun. Collette decided she would definitely be making a trip back the following year.