I titled this post and saved it as a draft in January and today I find myself going back to it. As relevant last winter as it is today.
August kicks of a 2 month span of live events – mostly concerts – that leave me questioning if I felt youthful and well rested when I bought the tickets or if I thought “to hell with it, let’s do this live” or if I just lost track of what we already had planned and “oops… well, it’s just one more concert”. Maybe it was a combination of all three.
I alluded to this in a previous post, but the list has been updated. So far, tickets are in hand for Marc Maron at Revolution Hall, Pink Martini at Edgefield, Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge x 3, Dave Matthews Band at Sunlight Supply Amphitheater, Death Cab for Cutie at The Oregon Zoo, Steven Page at Hawthorne Theater, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in concert at the Schnitzer and Incubus at The Keller Auditorium. All of this between now and the end of September and 6 of those in a 9 day span of time.
My dear, sweet, patient husband leaves it up to me to get tickets to a show or not. Because of that, he’ll raise an eyebrow when I’ve done something crazy (like the first week of September) but he doesn’t complain.
Not yet anyways.
I know how our conversation will go as we leave each show. After remarks about how good the show was (hopefully), how great the lighting design was, how drunk the person next to us was, how the guys who wear rope lights in the first row of the terrace seating at the Gorge continue to entertain me to this day, how annoying the parking was the amphitheater and how expensive that one can of Dos XX was (and likewise, how tragic it was that there were no regional beer options at the big venues), how good that one song was and how it nearly brought me to my knees in the best way possible, I’ll talk about how I’m missing out.
Yes, I know I wrote an entire post about this just months ago, but it sits heavy with me and sometimes writing is the only thing that helps me move on, even if just momentarily.
I’m missing out on working behind the scenes, behind the stage, working to book those shows, route the bands, missing out on what I really should be doing.
Live events… the concert kind, not the conference kind.
Do not get me wrong. I adore my job. I’m thankful everyday to work at my venue, with my team, on the events we get, but something in me cries out every time I go to a show that I should be doing something different. This has gone on since leaving performing arts behind… maybe I should listen to that voice for once.
Thankfully I’m still young and since my generation will probably never reach retirement, I have plenty of time to figure this whole career thing out.
In the meantime, I’d gladly raise my hand if you need an extra body to help with your upcoming music festival 😉
IdyllHands 