About 6 months ago the Wife and I somehow drink ourselves into the decision to take M to her first concert.  Some of you may feel that 6 years old is much too young for a concert. We are on the fence, but decide to let it ride.  I mean, how bad could it be if we are there with her?  Hell, we have another few drinks and even end up purchasing a ticket for Lil B too.  Some of you may feel that 3 years old is much too young for a concert.  We are…oblivious.  We are…drunk.  All this being said, we are music lovers and like any good, strong, overbearing parents would do, we cram our personal interests down the fragile, noisy, little throats of our children.

It’s December.  We are hungover…and the proud owners of 4 shiny, new Taylor Swift mega-concert tickets.   These golden tickets are to be M’s Christmas gift from her awesome parents.  Being such a media darling (excluding the endless stream of ex-lovers), one might be inclined to think that tickets to Taylor’s show are somewhat affordable.  One also might be a dumb-ass.  We have, quite possibly, the shittiest seats in the stadium and we have to take out a personal loan from local Craigs-lister,  Eddie “Fingers” Grimaldi, just to afford the them.  Not sure why they call him Fingers…He seems nice and even gave us some “special juice” or something like that…I wasn’t really listening…All I heard was, “Blah, blah, blah…40%…blah, blah, blah…I will cover all of your thingers.”  Whatever, dude.  Fork over the cash!

The “magical”Christmas morning ticket unveiling goes as expected.  M gives us a half-hearted smile, a bro hug, and then bounds off to see her “real presents” from Santa.  Wifey and I are a little booty hurt, but quickly cast our disappointment aside. “The real excitement will be when we actually go to the concert!”, we reassure ourselves.  Who needs an aspirin?

Fast forward to May.  Taylor Swift is in town and M is starting to get excited.  LUCKILY, we have a G-Ma in the house (or “hizzy” if you prefer) and she agrees to keep Lil B.  This solves the huge concern that we have.  Once we sobered up, we quickly realized that we would be lugging a toddler around a pro football stadium amidst capacity crowds and unimaginable loudness.  The likes of which, he is no way prepared to experience.  WTF were we thinking when we bought him a ticket?  (Note to self: Don’t drink rubbing alcohol again) Instead, we let M invite a friend and all is right with the world.  Load up in the family truckster! It’s time to make our way west…into the waiting arms of sweet, cute, money-grubbing, slutty Taylor.

We arrive at the majestic Jerry World and it is gratifying to see the awe and excitement in the girl’s faces.  By the time we park, walk to the stadium, and get the girls some grub (arm-length hot dogs…mmm) we have missed the opening act.  We hit the seats, cram some cased meats down our gullets,  and listen to the stylings of the remaining opening acts. It should be noted that the house lights are up and the stadium is fairly empty.

Gimmie that Tee, Bitch!

Once the last opener finishes, we decide that it’s a good time to run down and grab some T-shirts.  We hit the swag shop and promptly plant ourselves in line with about 1000 preteen girls.  The line moves slowly, but we make it to the small shop eventually.  By the time we get to where we can actually put our hands on any merch, it’s picked over and we are pretty much left to fight each other for scraps.  I felt like the kid from District 1 duking it out at the cornucopia.   We manage to  scavenge a few T’s for the girls and make our way to the cashier.  “That’ll be $130 sir”  WTF?  “There must be a mistake.  We only have 3 T-shirts and 2 light wands.”  “No mistake.  The T’s are $40 and the wands are $5″, smirked the teen cashier.  I wanted to grab his greasy, pierced head and slam it through the countertop. (like I did to that little bitch that tried to grab my light wand.  Nobody Effs with District 1!) Alas, I am with my girls, and I have severe indigestion from the baby arm that I previously consumed, so I reluctantly pay the little bastard and we scurry off to our seats.  Taylor.  Is. Coming.

We emerge from Jerry’s underbelly out into the stadium and are greeted with a much different scene from that which was there when we left.  Now, the stadium is FULL.  The stadium is DARK, and the stadium is LOUUUUD.  We scramble up to our seats in the dark (thank you light wands!) and get seated just as Taylor takes the stage.  The roars of 55,000 prepubescent girls is deafening.  All four of us cover our ears instantly.  (I feel like a Turkish protestor after a percussion grenade has detonated)  As Taylor works her way through her first song, Wifey and I both notice that M is just sitting quietly in her seat.  She’s not dancing, singing, or clapping along.  She’s just sitting there…scared…almost tearful. (and quite possibly bleeding from the ears) We do our best to communicate with her over the ear drum-piercing  squeals, but it’s tough to hear anything.  I jokingly ask if she wants to go home and she stares up at me with her blue doe eyes and meekly says, ” Okay”.  Are you effing kidding me?   Of course, I don’t say anything…Instead, I simply hug her.  Her Mommy does the same.  Another Taylor number and M is up dancing, singing, and clapping along with her friend and the rest of the crowd.  Hell, I even caught myself twerking!

Family Twerk!

In the end, a good time is had by all.  M experiences the awesomeness of her first concert and then sleeps peacefully while Mom and Dad endure the 2-hour car ride home in an ocean of shitty traffic.  All-in-all, I think we can put this event in the memory bank and we will eventually look back and share funny stories…If our hearing ever returns…