This WOL recently took along her not so terribly unwilling husband to see Dawes. Normally not one to go out to a music venue late at night, Dawes' gentle, 1970's Southern California sound was enough of an enticement to get him out the door. It helped that my WOL friend had her husband in tow as well. Now, as mentioned before, certain WOL concerts have better WOL/young folk ratios than others. There was a lot of gray hair and denim in the Dawes crowd. Some of the criticism I have read about Dawes' musical style centers on their seemingly recycled 1970's, Jackson Brown era sound. This trait is precisely why many gray hairs were out in force. It's a new twist on a familiar sound. Given that many of the Dawes fans at First Avenue that night were over 40, there really were no outrageously inebriated fans milling about (Drunk-o-Meter rating=1). We all stood around drinking beer and behaving ourselves. Whack ol' Ladies do like to sit down every once and a while and a good chair is hard to come by at most venues. We like our balconies and those with chairs are extra rare. While waiting for the band to take the stage I was stretching my back while leaning on the second floor railing. A kind First Ave employee mistook my stretching for feeling queasy and was a little worried I was going to hurl off the top balcony into the stairwell below. I would have liked to have overheard that employee training session .."and keep your eyes open for patrons who lean over the railings..it could get messy."
Although I never did barf in public when I was young enough for that tendency, I did help a few friends who weren't so lucky. The barf test is a sign of true friendship. I was unwillingly dragged along to an REO Speedwagon concert with my best friend Marilyn because her boyfriend bought a bunch of tickets and she begged me not to abandon her. Although I don't remember how she got drunk, I was definitely the one sitting next to her in the car on the way home. Not only did I have to get her quietly into her house, I somehow needed to clean myself off before my parents caught a whiff of me when I got home. Marilyn died from cancer 2 years ago and this is one of the many memories I cherish of her- barf and all.
