Thunderstruck Chronicles P.1
We Prep for Headbanging and Get a Surprise (Day 46)
On the way to the venue, in the car, as I’m driving, I get a text from Chris Jones, the bass player of Thunderstruck. It reads: Let me know when you guys get here and I’ll bring you backstage.
“Whoa,” I say. “We’re going backstage!”
“Seriously?” both girls yell together from the back seat.
Looks like our big rock and roll evening was about to get even more exciting.
Seeing an AC/DC tribute band with a nine and ten year old is tricky stuff. Are the girls metal heads? Yes. Do we have our proper ear protection? Yes we do. Are they totally pumped and jittery? You bet.
But live music is unpredictable. I’d worked hard in the weeks leading up to the show to reach out to the band, to see if we could do a quick meet and greet, to confirm the show was all ages, where we’d be sitting and that the band itself caters to kids.
If Little Bean (and now her friend Di) were going to pursue their Degree in Heavy Metal, and I was going to be their professor, then a few bridges needed to be crossed.
The three of us had a little chat before we left the house. The girls sat in front of me decked out in their Thunderstruck and AC/DC gear. My daughter had deliberately spiked up her hair because she said it looked “rock and rolly.” They had full bellies, bottled water was packed and all our posters we wanted signed were tucked neatly into a string back pack. I had even called the venue to make sure we could bring in the back pack.
“Ok listen,” I began, “shows like this can be a lot of fun. But we have to set some rules to not just make sure we have fun but we keep each other safe.”
“Like what if somebody stage dives right on top of us?” Di said.
“Or what if it’s so loud that things explode,” Little Bean said.
“Uh, yes, well… I don’t think-”
“My sister said that there’s stampedes at heavy metal concerts,” Di pleasantly offered.
“Or I have to go to the bathroom, like, 6,000 times,” my daughter said.
“Ok yes, all of that could possibly happen, but there’s other more likely things that could happen that we first need to make sure we’re aware of.”
I set a few rules. 1) Neither of them go anywhere without the other and they are always in sight of each other 2) If they feel any discomfort from other people or the music or any kind of weirdness, they immediately tell me 3) If I tell them to move or give them any kind of directions, especially once the show starts, they listen without question.
Once we established these three rules, we were then able to talk about things exploding from the sound.
So now a new twist. I hadn’t arranged for a back stage pass. This was new, and sort of amazing. (I must admit that it made me look pretty good in the eyes of the girls, so I didn’t let on that I was as surprised as them.)
The band really was serious about catering to their littlest fans. We were getting our first back stage with the band experience.
“We should give them our lollipops,” Little Bean says. Di agrees.
“What?”
“Lollipops we brought for snacks. They’d like those right?”
“I do think they would,” I say.
I have a car full of hyper girls, and we are minutes away from meeting an AC/DC tribute band backstage and giving them lollipops. I have no idea what is going to happen.
Tomorrow on Part 2: The girls meet the fellas in the band and, no surprise, they charm them and end up scoring big. We’ll continue then with our musical adventure. Meantime, please do share and help us grow our community.
Know any rock music fans? Tell them about us. Let’s keep these numbers going. Till then, rock horns in the air. See you tomorrow!
You're incredibly brave to take two young girls to a concert, and I'm impressed with all the planning you did. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's post!