Looking back on my adult life and remembering some of my more notable experiences, there are two nights which always are first and foremost in my mind. I consider them to be the very best nights of my life. One night brought me the closest to God I will ever be in this mortal life and the other was just about as much fun as I could imagine anyone having. They were nights that I will be telling stories about for the rest of my life, however long that may be. They were perfect.
In July of 1994, I saw Pink Floyd at the Pontiac Silverdome. I had been able to get seven tickets and I went with my boyfriend at the time and my cousin and his wife. My brother and two of his friends took the other three tickets. This was my brother’s very first concert and he has said he wishes that perhaps he had a chance to see another concert before seeing Pink Floyd because no other show will ever compare. I know he is right and he has been ruined for concerts ever since. I had gotten these seven tickets to the first show that went on sale. Because the tickets sold out in only a few minutes, another show was added but it was added the day before the first concert. I know quite a few people who were extremely irked by this because they felt that they were being penalized for being able to get tickets to the “first” show, which was then technically the second. As it turned out though, Pink Floyd ended up playing “Dark Side of the Moon” straight through for our show and didn’t for the concert the day before . That’s right, I’ve seen “Dark Side” played all the way through live. I think it was their way of thanking those who got their tickets first. It was very, very cool.
For those who have never seen Pink Floyd live in concert, all I can say is they put on one hell of a show. It was breathtaking, spellbinding, and magical. It was rock and roll combined with amazing imagery. I won’t go into the gory details but let’s just say I experienced Pink Floyd the way you are supposed to enjoy their music. The videos and music seemed to be created just for me that night. My chest really felt like it would burst from the sheer joy I felt. There were times afterward that I felt melancholy because I knew I would never feel anything like that again. It truly seemed like I had some sort of spiritual experience that night.
What makes that night more extraordinary were the other events happening in my life right then. My dad had just been diagnosed with stomach cancer two days before that concert and I started, what I now consider to be, the best job I’ve ever had the very next day after that show. My cousin’s wife also found out that she was pregnant after that show to which my cousin uttered the now semi-famous line, “The baby was at Floyd!” That Pink Floyd concert happened at a moment in my life when a big page was turning and in some ways, sums up that whole period for me.
The second greatest night of my life took place in Tampa after seeing a Detroit Red Wings game with my best friend in Florida. We were two chicks who drove four plus hours to Tampa to watch hockey. That night, my Wings had lost and after the game we had gone to the sports bar across the street to have a drink or two before making the trek back to Jacksonville. While we were there, these three guys came up and started talking to us. It turns out they were from Kelowna, British Columbia and they were in a band that had booked some shows in Tampa. In between shows they had decided to catch some hockey, as any good Canadian would do. They were completely floored that two chicks would drive four hours to watch hockey without men being involved. Basically, they thought we were so cool.
Ultimately, we all ended up in the same car driving around Tampa late at night looking for some place to hang out for awhile. We were driving through Ybor City and finally heard music coming from one of the buildings. We stopped and went into this bar. We were the only people there and the bartender seemed appreciative that some business had come in. Finally, around midnight other people started rolling in and that’s when we realized we had ended up in a gay bar. I have to give it to those Canadians, they never blinked an eye and completely went with the flow. The gay men loved the guys from Kelowna and our boys never gave a moment’s inkling that they might have been uncomfortable. We danced and laughed and were crazy. Their manager, who was also a lawyer, ended up dancing partially naked on the bar with crowds of men cheering him on. The night finally ended with my friend and I saying goodbye to our Canadians and we all went our separate ways. A few weeks later, we received some CD’s in the mail from their band, which was awesome. I know we both have incredibly warm fuzzy feelings for those boys and that night. It was just a lot of fun and good will. There’s not enough of that in this world.
So to recap, I felt God with Pink Floyd, and felt cheer and good will with some Canadians. Sure it’s not like I married the future king of England in a televised broadcast watched by billions of people around the globe or anything, but I would never, ever trade those two nights for any other experiences. They were the best nights of my life.
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