Sell Out For a Song Where I Don't Belong*

This is the first page of my ticket stub book, which shows a few of my first live music experiences. I love to note that Madonna's 1985 show - with Beastie Boys opening - was only $15.50. Also note - Tina Turner OPENED for Lionel Ritchie. Unbelievable.

On December 11, 1982, I went to my first live show. It changed my life.

I saw Adam Ant on his "Friend or Foe" tour. I won tickets from Steve Naganuma on KMJK 106.7 in Portland, Oregon. It's funny that I remember the story so vividly. I was up VERY early one morning, a week or so before the show. My dad was taking me skiing. I heard the contest announcement and called in. I won the tickets and the album.

I took my best friend at the time, Rhonda, to the show with me. One of our parents dropped us off at the Paramount Theater (now the Schnitzer Concert Hall) in downtown Portland. Rhonda and I were huge Winter Hawk Hockey Fans at the time and our parents often dropped us off for events. We both had/have wonderful parents, but thinking back, they were so trusting of us...wow.

The first memory is walking in smelling something strange. (No, it wasn't marijuana. I already knew what that smelled like.) It was rampant. I thought it was weird that it was such a foreign smell to me and nobody was even making a big deal of it. I mean, how could I not know what this was? After all I was 13 going on 20. Well, it ended up being clove cigarettes. (Of course, as with everything new and forbidden to me, I had to get my hands on these and not very long after the show, I had me some clove cigarettes. I digress...)

This show really did change my life. I was riveted. Even though, prior to this show, I had heard only "Goody Two Shoes" by Adam Ant, I was now his biggest fan. I thought he was singing right to me. I loved him. He was gorgeous. He could dance. The audience seemed to be completely enraptured with him. They were all just doing what people do at concerts, but since this was my first one (other than Natalie Cole in like 1977, when I was 8 yrs old), I thought they were acting like this because of him. Again, I realized later that usually people at shows are quite big fans of the act...it's normal for them to be engaged and excited.

The other funny thing I remember after this show, and shows subsequent to this for several years, was becoming somewhat obsessed with meeting the performer. It wasn't in a stalker way. It had to do with the way I thought they were singing to me...I felt like I knew them. We had a connection. It's strange. That still sounds stalker-ish. The best way I can explain it is that I felt so connected to these musicians/performers from seeing them live, that I wanted to meet them to tell them that.

Most of you who know me, now, know that I am just the opposite. I have been lucky enough to meet and talk to my three favorite musicians EVER. Every time, I'm lame and don't say much and don't want to hang around very long. I mean, what can you say to someone like that: "I'm your biggest fan" or "I love your music." It's all been said before and I just feel strange. One of them, who I adore, even invited me to a party, to which I didn't go. Again, the lameness...

That's really it. The Adam Ant show began what has become my only real lifelong hobby and true passion - music and live music. Live music became a time-consuming obsession in 1990 when I followed the Dead for five years - in between work and college for the most part - but, honestly, the Dead came first. I continued this obsessiveness by also chasing after Sleater-Kinney, then Elliott Smith, then Arcade Fire. I still don't bat an eye at going out of town for a show, but it takes a special one like the prior three mentioned to take chunks of my life and bank account and follow them for weeks on end.

Ironically, I guess I should thank KMJK, a 1982 version of Z100, for helping me find my passion...

*Division Day, Elliott Smith