Concerts in the Park (and other venues)

If Kulani and I are two pieces of bread, the peanut butter that keeps us together is made up of sundry items--items that may seem inconsequential to some, but are like glue for us. One of the first things that attracted me to Kulani was when he said he liked Morrissey and the Smiths (and BYU football and that he came from a small town and big family, etc.). A guy once told me, before I was married, that I couldn't marry anyone unless he had the same taste in music as me. I wouldn't think I was as shallow as that, but gosh, there's probably a little bit of truth to that. Listening to my iTunes as I write this has reminded me of some pretty good concerts Kulani and I have seen over the years. Let me share a few with you ...

Our first concert together was Morrissey on Halloween at Saltair outside of Salt Lake City. We took Greg Riche along with us. (Greg Riche is the Godfather of Kulani's biking world. He was going through a messy divorce at the time, and we thought a little concert might help get his mind off of weightier matters.) It was amazing, as I thought I would never see Morrissey in concert in my lifetime. It was a pretty sandwiched show, as we were very near the stage and people from all over were pushing to get closer; to possibly feel his sweat land upon them as he sang, "You've got to hold onto your friends." We've seen Morrissey two other times since then. Once in Nampa, Idaho. Yep, Nampa. Needless to say, the show did not sell out. We took my little sisters Mary and Hetty to that one. And then earlier this year we saw him again at the E Center in West Valley. He still really makes me smile, even more so now that he's greying (like the British spelling?) and getting ponchier.

Another early concert I remember is a tour (I can't remember the name now--was it Horde?) that had Barenaked Ladies as the lead group (oh, and Ben Harper and the Criminals, but we didn't stay for that--what were we thinking?). I remember Kulani's friends from Blanding being there: Casey, Jeremy, Dave, etc. But maybe they weren't and my memory is failing. If you haven't seen a Barenaked Ladies concert, they're pretty dang good and they like to inject a lot of humor. A couple years later I managed to procure some BNL tickets to the show they played at the Olympics Medals plaza in 2002. I got four tickets; one for me, one for Kulani, one for our best concert going sibling AKA Lani, and one more. Who should I give it to? Let's see. How about little sister Hetty? She's in town. I'll call her up. Hetty, would you like to go to the BNL concert with us tonight? Biggest scream I've ever heard in my life coming from the other end of the phone line. I guess that's a yes. That concert was worth it just to make Hetty's day. She'd been trying feverishly to win some tickets to the show by calling 107.5 every 1/2 hour or whenever they played a BNL song for weeks.

Kulani and I have both seen Depeche Mode seperately, Kulani seeing them the most because of his brother Lani, but we saw them together at the Delta Center a few years back. After the show we ran into cousin Meredith. Sister Mary came with us, as she was unmarried and a student at the time (I think we were students too). Sister Mary is also a very good concert-going mate.

Last year was a bit of a banner year, since I think in total we saw four concerts. We saw Tori Amos last fall and took niece Leilani, a newish BYU student with a penchant for feminist rockers. We saw Deathcab for Cutie in October at the McKay Events Center in Orem, me being well with child. Kulani nearly got into a fight when someone pushed me from behind and almost knocked me over. We also saw Pet Shop Boys with Lani and Patrick, a treat for Lani's birthday. And then Morrissey to cap it off.

Other groups we have seen: 1964 (a Beatles tribute band), the Cure (Kulani only), 10,000 Maniacs (sans Natalie Merchant), that guy in Chicago when we visited Ben and Amy (can't remember his name, but he played at the House of Blues--that was pretty cool), Kulani went solo to Cake two times (well, not solo, but without me--he really loves their shows), the Diddy Bops (an opener for Cake, but Kulani bought their CD and I really like their stuff too), and Creedance Clearwater Revisited on the grass of Springville High School (two of the original CCR band members reuniting to crowds of hundreds--Kulani and I still argue whether CCR is from the South or from Southern California--quick Google search says "Though hailing from the Bay Area of California, the group was influenced by the swamp blues genre that came out of south Louisiana in the late 1950s and early to mid-1960s."). Oh, and the MoTab. I'd better include them for me brother-in-law Nathan's sake.

And the only big regret is the following conversation only two months after we were married:

Kulani comes home with neon wrist band. "I have a chance to get tickets very close to the stage for INXS."
Cindy: "We don't have money to go to INXS."
Kulani (defalted): "But this might be the last time they come on tour."
Cindy: "There'll be other tours."
Kulani rips off neon wrist band.

A month after INXS comes to Utah, we're driving around listening to 107.5, when the DJ announces the death of INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.

Kulani: "Other tours, eh?"
Cindy: "Good thing we believe in that whole life-after-death thing."