FUN

At the end of school this past year,  Liam was invited to the FUN concert by one of his buddies who had two tickets in this Easter basket.  Liam was over the moon excited and when we determined that it was not on a Sunday we gave him the green light.  I did warn him though that friends can be fickle and being that the concert was nearly 4 months away, things could change. I even suspected that there would be great disappointment because even though Liam had said they were best buds, these two had never had a play-date, never.  We heard from this friend once over the summer when they invited Liam to another concert that he couldn't make it to.  But it was then that I apprehensively asked the mom if the talk about Liam coming to the FUN concert was still in the plans. When she said that yes,  I will admit that I was very relieved.  It's hard to be the bearer of bad news for your kids.

So last night was the culmination of 4 months of anticipation. When the U2 360 tour came around Jared took both Caleb and Liam to Baltimore to see the show.  It was huge with thousands of people and the whole 360 stage set up was mind-blowing in it's scale and very cool design.  That was a rock concert! (Jared and I saw them previously here in C-ville). But FUN was going to be something entirely different.  Held at the Charlottesville Pavilion where President Obama set the record for number of attendees at 5,000 two years ago, there may have been only 1,000 or so concert goers with the majority being young people, teens and preteens and the accompanying parents.  The stage was close...about 30 rows in total and the remaining space was standing/dancing room.  There was a big screen so he could see everything going on on stage, but it was close enough that if he wanted (he didn't) he could have walked right up the where they were playing.  He said they mostly stayed behind the last row of chairs, which were useless as no one sat, and spent the 90 minute show dancing, singing and screaming.  He also said his favorite part was when they dropped all of this confetti at the end of the concert. Magical. It doesn't get much better for an 11 year old!

He was home by 10:45, much to my surprise as I was expecting him to show up at 11:30 or later with the traffic congestion, and wow was he BEAMING!  He went on and on about the how awesome the whole experience was.  A mom sent video of Liam and all his preteen friends, both boys and girls, jumping and singing all the words to songs like We are Young or Carry On and I cannot describe what vivid memories that elicited and even made me choke up.  Seriously...but ever since having babies I get choked up and teary with any sort of event that involves a heightened sense of emotion.....calling out of the players names at a NBA basket ball game, I'm done, the tears are there.  But  I LOVED "stomps"...dancing and singing to all the latest songs from bands like B52's, Oingo Boingo, Lionel Richie, Culture Club, Prince, Cindi Lauper, REO Speedwagon, Madonna, Pet Shop boys and all the other 80's hits .  I also remember my first concert: Oingo Boingo.  It's a far contrast to Jared's favorite bands at that time which included Boston, Rush, Van Halen, REO Speedwagon, James Taylor, and these are still some of his favorites!

Here he is with all his buddies on this night that he will never forget: