Feeling old

We took Maddie for her first concert last night to see the Jonas Brothers. Slight miscalculation on my part. I was booking the Jonas Brothers of Disney fame. I really didn't understand that they had reached international pop star status. Expecting to see other parents like us with their elementary-age kids in tow, we found a packed house of screaming teenage girls. The decibel level was beyond belief. We may have some permanent hearing damage, not from the music volume, but from the shrieks of a thousand 21st century-style teeny boppers.

The doors opened at 6:30 and we expected the show to start around 7:30. At 7:45 some generic girl group that the crowd seemed excited about took the stage and sang four songs while dancing around in really short dresses (see how old I'm getting?). Then there was an intermission that lasted FOREVER. Maddie was asleep in my lap when the Jonas Brothers finally took the stage at 8:45. That roused Maddie and she was really excited. If she stood on her chair, she could see really well. That is, until all the other people in front of us started standing on their chairs. The girl in front of me turned around to ask if we could see and when I said, "no, not really", she just shrugged and turned back around to watch from her elevated position. So Skip held Maddie for a big portion of the concert. You realize your child is caught in some odd in-between age when she is resting her head on her daddy's shoulder with one fist raised in the air pounding to the beat.

At 9:45, we called it quits. Maddie said she would like to stay, but she was just too tired. Since we left early, we were able to grab a cab home, rather than walk to the tube, wait for a train and walk home. Maddie was asleep and in bed by 10. She rallied this morning to put on her concert t-shirt and catch the bus for school.

I knew that my age had caught up with me when I commented to Skip that it was really too bad that there were so many hysterical teenagers, because the Jonas Brothers really do put on a good show. It would nice to see them without all the screaming. Skip commented that he now had a sense of what it was like when the Beatles hit the US.


Despite the late hour, the screaming and all the waiting, Maddie says she had a really good time. She even got to see Demi Lovato (the Jonas' Camp Rock co-star) make a special appearance on-stage. So at age 7, Maddie has been bitten by the concert bug. Next time, I'll take along some ear plugs.