A Long Day, But a Great Day

Fenway Park, Boston
(Source)

From Chez Sarge to Fenway Park is roughly 60 miles by road. Should take about an hour if we were located in the wilds of Iowa. Seeing as how we are actually located in southeast New England, that trip could take up to two and a half hours on a weekend.

And it did.

But what a day, what a great day.

Now I've had some great adventures with my kids, when they were young and now when they're adults. I've got great kids, like the man said, "No brag, just fact." (A reference to an old TV show, the quote was one by Walter Brennan's character. Who can tell me the show and find me a clip?)

Anyhoo, I had expressed an interest in attending a Foo Fighters concert some time ago. The WSO, who shares my enthusiasm in such things, thought it was a capital idea. And wouldn't you know it, she would be home right about the time the band was going to be in Boston.

Fortuitous, neh?

Plans were made, options were examined, meanwhile real life stepped in and we kind of forgot about it.

Then a couple of days after she and the bairns arrived, she brought it up, "So Dad, still interested in seeing the Foo Fighters?"

"Why yes, yes, I am!"

So online we went, seats were chosen, tickets were purchased, for which The WSO paid I might add, and then parking was discussed.

I mentioned to her that her uncle, my kid brother The Musician, lives in not-too-far-away-from-Boston - Somerville actually. My plan was to visit him before the concert, go out for lunch, then he'd give us directions on the best way to get there, leaving my vehicle at his place.

"Dad, why don't we just see what's available for parking near the stadium?"

"Um sure, we could do that too."

We acquired parking within a stone's throw of Fenway for a very reasonable price.

The circle at 55 Jersey St. (ex-Yawkey Way) is where we parked.
The yellow line is the path we took to the stadium.
The yellow circle inside Fenway is where we sat.

I thought our seats were pretty fire trucking awesome.

The view of the stage from Right Field Box 97, Seat 13. Yes, that IS my lucky number.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Like I mentioned above, with no traffic and with fine weather, we could have gotten to Fenway in like an hour. When does that ever happen you might ask, why never would be my answer.

Okay, my brother's place is only four miles farther than Fenway, same deal right. Yeah, right. It took us roughly two and a half hours to get to my brother's crib. The direct path to Boston would have taken about the same amount of time but a big chunk of that would be sitting in traffic, like, you know, not moving.

So we opted for a longer route (it skirted Boston to the west so we entered the city from the west, rather than the south, which would have been the direct route), which while time consuming had the benefit of constant movement at normal highway speeds.

So yeah, it took a while to get there. But as I have a couple of Foo Fighters CDs, we listened to those, ya know, to warm up. One thing I'll tell you right now, the front man of the Foo Fighters expects the crowd to sing along. They, and we, did. Foo Fighter's concerts are very interactive!

We did get to my brother's place without much ado, though he's lived there 14 years, it was my first visit to his place. Liked it I did. Oddly enough, he lives not far from where the previous President lived while attending Harvard Law. Odder still is that there is a marker in front of that building with that fact and a picture of the former President contained therein. The odd bit is that this marker is painted on the sidewalk.

Think about that. Painted on the sidewalk. Where people can walk on the former President's face, have they a mind to. Though I'm not a fan, I assiduously avoided stepping on the former President's face. May not like the man, but you have to respect the office.

And this in what is arguably one of the most liberal bastions in a very liberal state! Go figure. (What, they couldn't afford a plaque or something?)

Anyhoo, we had a very nice lunch, then it was time to climb aboard Big Girl and navigate down to Fenway. About two miles I think it was, took close to half an hour. City traffic dontcha know?

But we got there per my plan, which was to be in place no later than one hour prior to the official concert start time, which was 1730, local. Mind you, the Foo Fighters weren't going to play at that time. Often there are one or two opening acts to get the crowd riled up, or something. Often it's to give bands a bit of exposure by opening for a major act like the Foo Fighters.

Not to worry, we had our seats, we had beverages, and the day itself was drop dead gorgeous. Warm with a nice breeze, a bit of cloud to keep the sun out of our faces now and again, like I said, gorgeous weather.

So we did some pre-concert photo ops...

The obligatory "normal" selfie.

The equally obligatory goofy selfie.

Why yes, I did want to show off my concert going attire!

Prior to the show, The WSO, true to her aviation roots, had to have an adult beverage

The WSO is all smiles...

Whereas the pilot, the vehicle commander if you will, is beer-less. And is signalling his distress...
(Well, I was driving and didn't want to spend a portion of the show seeking the lavatory. Which someone else did...)

The first act, The Monsieurs, consisted of a rather odd chap wearing what appeared to be a leather hat, leather trousers, no shirt, and wearing (brace yourselves) a cape.

Yes, a cape.

Oh, two blonde ladies wearing identical dresses made up the other two thirds of The Monsieurs. One on drums (oddly enough, she played while standing up) and t'other on guitar. (Really, two chicks and a guy and they call themselves The Monsieurs?)

The Amazing Andy California, and his cape. No, seriously, he's wearing a cape.

As the chap kept making "pouty face" or "duck lips" I think it's called as well, The WSO and I felt that we should follow suit, just so that folks knew we were paying attention.

Yeah, we bad...

While The Monsieurs weren't that bad, The WSO found them très amusant, I found them to be painfully loud. It struck me that there had been no sound check prior to them blasting away. I felt rather like I was in the midst of an artillery barrage, I felt the need to plug my ears and scream. Well, I did plug my ears.

For the grande finale, the Amazing Andy shoved the microphone down his pants, threw his cape up over his head and wandered rather blindly off stage. You cannot make this stuff up, no one would believe you, but I swear it's true. The WSO and I laughed until I thought we were gonna die.

The second act? Much, much better. They did do a sound check and as a result their music (for such it was, unlike the first act) was much more enjoyable. I had checked these guys out on YouTube, pre-concert like, and felt that "they didn't suck." Hearing them live, they didn't suck at all, pretty good actually. Chase them down on YouTube if you've a mind to, they're really pretty good.

The Struts, from the UK. Not bad at all. Pretty damn good actually.

But none of that was why we paid so much and drove so far. Finally, at 1930 local, the Foo Fighters took the stage.

I was torn between recording stuff and actually watching the show. I opted for the show, I have a bunch of pictures but only four short clips of the band. Someone else recorded the first song, All My Life...

That guy got the whole thing.

The Foo Fighters are magnificent in concert, the energy is unbelievable. And you might have noticed in that video that Dave Grohl likes to say "fire truck." A lot. My kinda guy. It might surprise you that Your Humble Scribe has been cautioned once or twice at his place of employment for his use of certain Anglo-Saxon epithets. Especially the one that rhymes with fire truck.

Sigh...

Anyhoo. Here's the other three clips I shot.

It was an amazing experience, I guess I can claim to have been a back-up singer for the Foo Fighters. Yeah, me and 35,000 other people.

It was amazing. Even fighting traffic and again going way out of our way to get home (round about 0100 I think it was), I would do it again in a heartbeat.

A buddy of mine went to the show on Sunday. It rained like crazy. I had sent him this picture from during the show...

His response?

"You bastard."

"It's gonna fire trucking pour tomorrow..."

No, he didn't say fire trucking, but close. (He's a co-worker, he likes his Anglo-Saxon epithets nearly as much as Your Humble Scribe.)

Sigh...

Will I go see them again?

Oh yeah, in a heartbeat.

I can't wait.



Happy now Beans? 😁