So I saw James Taylor in concert...

My grandma and I went to Tanglewood last night to see James Taylor in concert.

But this post starts a couple of days before the concert.  It starts at the end of June, the 28th or 29th.

My grandma called me to say she heard from one of the people who works on the boat my grandfather captains that Taylor Swift was going to have a concert at Tanglewood, and she wanted me to find out more information.  So I went on the Tanglewood website, and found concerts for James Taylor... not Taylor Swift.    I thought my grandma had somehow confused the two.  So she said never mind about it, but I kept looking stuff up after we hung up the phone.  And I found that Taylor Swift would be playing with James Taylor, but I was uncertain on a date.  See, one article I read said she'd be there on the 2nd.  Another said the 4th.  Another said all three days - the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.  Then I found another saying the 4th.  And then another for the 2nd.  So I had no idea what day she was going to be there.  I called my grandma back, telling her what I found out.  She had me buy the tickets.  Well, she paid.. I just had to go on the website and buy them for her with her credit card.  The 4th of July show was already sold out, and for whatever reason, I had a feeling about the 3rd.  So I tried for the 3rd first, and couldn't get 2 seats together.  A bit disappointed, I tried for the 2nd and did get two seats together.

Now, here's what I think went wrong:

My computer decided that it needed to refresh the page right then and there, and then I had to go back and start over again.  Instead of going back to the website's homepage, I just clicked the back button.  And because the internet was going slow, I clicked the back button again.  And again.  Because it didn't look like anything was happening.  Finally, I was back at the page to buy tickets.  And so I did.  I thought I had gotten tickets for the 2nd, but I got them for the 3rd.  All I can think is that I must've, without realizing it, gone back to the page to buy tickets for the 3rd and 2 seats together must have opened up before I got back to that page.

Now, fast forward to Sunday morning.  At this point, I'm about 95% sure that Taylor is performing with James Taylor only on Monday night's concert.  And I'm SO excited because (I thought) that was the day we had tickets for.  I called my grandma to tell her how lucky we were, that Taylor was going to be there the night we were there.  That's when I found out our tickets were for the 3rd.  I thought she was joking.  I thought she was just trying to get a reaction from me.  It was only after we hung up that I realized she was serious.  I didn't want to cry, but I did.  I went out into the living room, where my mom was watching TV, and just cried.  "We got tickets for the wrong day!"

I had no interest in going anymore.  I'll say it: I'm not a fan of James Taylor.  I have one of his CDs on my computer, a greatest hits CD that came out in 1990.  I listened to it a few times, trying to make myself like his music, but truth is I just don't like it.  I feel like I should because everyone keeps telling me how amazing he is, how much they love him, how jealous they are that I saw him in concert, how lucky I am to have seen him.  He's talented.  I'm not denying that.  I just don't like his music.  Except for "Fire and Rain".  I like that song.  I called my grandma back that afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and told her if she wanted to find someone else to go with, that would be ok.  She asked if I was sure; I said yes.

Monday.  My grandma sent me a message on facebook asking me to go with her.  Reluctantly, I agreed to go.

Tuesday.  July 3rd.  The day of the concert.  My grandma showed up to pick me up to go to the concert around 4.  I held up the bag I had brought out of the house.  "Mom's letting us borrow her GPS."  She just looked at me for a second, then said "How about a change of plans?"  Confused, I asked her what she meant.

Grandma:  Moment of truth, right now.  Do you want to go to this concert?
Me: ...I said I'd go with you.
Grandma: Do you want to go?  Would it break your heart if we don't go?
Me: I'm going because you want to.  Like... you wanted me to go with you, and so I'm going with you to make you happy.
Grandma: Taylor's not going to be there tonight.
Me: I know... but I was gonna go with you because you wanted to go.  I was gonna make you happy by going with you.
Grandma: I only bought the tickets because I thought Taylor would be there, and I wanted to see you happy.  And because I wanted to see her too.  There, I said it, ok?  I like her music, I'd like to see her in concert.
Me: So... we both just wanted to go to make the other one happy?
Grandma: Kind of like The Gift of the Magi, isn't it?  So, here's the new plan:  We're going to go pick up the tickets, sell them to someone, then come back here and we'll go out to dinner and a movie.  Sound good?

I agree to this new plan, and we head off to Tanglewood.  About a 45 minute drive from where we live.  We get there around 5:15-ish.  (We had to go to Walmart and stuff after she picked me up and before we left to go to the venue).  She picked up the tickets, and we sat outside the venue trying to sell them to someone, anyone.  Here was the problem with that plan: our tickets were in the back.  Not lawn seats, but not much better.  And she was trying to sell them for what she paid for them ($150 for the two tickets), while some guy sitting right near us was selling 3rd row tickets for $50 each.

At 6:30, when we still hadn't managed to sell the tickets, we decided to just go to the concert, which started at 7.

Now, the concert.

It was... different from any other concert I've been to.  I've seen:
- Kidz Bop
- Brad Paisley (twice)
- the Jonas Brothers (twice)
- the American Idol top 10 (twice, seasons 6 and 8)
- Toby Keith
- Hanson
- Taylor Swift
I think that's it?  So 10 concerts.  Not as many as some people I know, but more than a lot of people too.

First off, don't think that I was just determined to have a bad time.  I wasn't.  I wanted to enjoy the concert.  And it wasn't bad... I just don't want to see him in concert again.  Ever.

This was the first concert I've been to where people actually stayed sitting for the majority of the concert.  That kind of took away from the fun of it, in my opinion.  I'm so used to concerts where people are standing up and dancing and having an overall great time.  Not to say that other people at this concert didn't have a great time.  I'm sure people did.  I just wasn't one of those people.

The fact that he had no opening act kind of threw me for a loop.  Who doesn't have an opening act??  My grandma said it's because he's too famous to have an opening act.  She said he doesn't need anyone to get the crowd excited before he goes up on stage.  Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers don't need anyone to get the crowd excited for them either, and yet they still have opening acts when they perform.  "Too famous" for an opening act?  Riiiiiight.  I know he's famous, but no opening act???

At 20 years old, I was one of the younger people there, judging by the people around me.  There was a kid who looked to be about 15 sitting 4 rows ahead of me though, I'll talk about him in a minute.  There were plenty of younger kids (like 5/6 and younger) in the lawn seats.  Their parents carried them out after the show, as the majority of them were asleep by end of it.  I felt so out of place there.

Now, on to the kid sitting 4 rows ahead of me.  While everyone around me was excited for James Taylor, I couldn't get over this kid's hair cut.  It was so bad.  It looked like he did it himself, and missed half of the back of it, with random bits much longer than the rest.  All I could think was "wow, this kid 4 rows ahead of me has a really bad haircut."  It was incredibly distracting.  I honestly wanted to just find a pair of scissors (I'm sure my grandma would have a pair in her purse. There's not much that isn't in there.) and make his hair a bit more even.  Or even just to give him the money for a haircut.  Or to recommend a place to get a good haircut.  Or something.

By the time the intermission was over, it was dark enough for that kid's haircut to not be a distraction anymore.  But by that time, there were lightning bugs out.  I spent a good 2 or 3 songs watching the lightning bug flying around instead of watching the concert.

Oh.  Right.  The concert.  For all the hype around Tanglewood, I wasn't a big fan of the venue.  First off, it's smaller than SPAC.  Not by much, but a bit.  I could be wrong, but I think SPAC is 20,000 people if it's sold out.  Tanglewood, sold out, is only 18,000 people.  (That's what someone there said, anyway).  And the seating is relatively flat.  Not completely flat, by a lot flatter than many other venues.  From where we were sitting, I couldn't see the stage.  At all.  I was somewhat ok with that, because I could just watch the concert up on the screens they have.  And that worked, until everyone stood up for some of the songs.  Because of the really tall guy sitting right in front of me, when we all stood, I couldn't see the screen because his head was in the way.  I like my height, but sometimes being 5'2 is really inconvenient.

The guy sitting next to me, in an effort to be able to see the stage, was leaning towards me and was, for the majority of the concert, uncomfortably close to me.  It's freaking called PERSONAL SPACE!  I don't give a crap how badly you want to see the stage.  You are a complete stranger who I've never said two words to in my life.  Stay the heck OUT of my personal space.  He was also annoying because every time someone yelled "I LOVE YOU JT" (quite a few times throughout the night), he would sigh angrily and say "Really?  Again? His name's not even JT.  It's James Taylor."

When James Taylor sings, he makes really funny faces.  Actually, I didn't think anything of the faces he was making at first.  Then, during intermission, my grandma said how the faces he makes look so much like Walter (one of Jeff Dunham's characters).  After that was pointed out to me, I saw it.  And I couldn't help but to laugh every time he made one of the "Walter" faces.

I liked the stories he told before he sang the songs more than I liked the songs themselves.  At the very beginning of the concert, before he started singing, some random person in the audience yelled out "I LOVE YOU JAMES TAYLOR!!!", to which he responded "I love you too!  Which is kind of strange, because I've never met you.  Don't even know who you are.  But I love you.  It's a strange feeling".  Which made me laugh.

If you've been to a few concerts, you probably know what I mean in this paragraph:  After a concert, a really good concert, you have a kind of "high" afterwards.  You can't stop thinking about the concert, and reliving it in your mind.  You're so happy and you feel like you're never going to stop smiling.  You feel so light and like you're floating through the air and nothing in the world matters because for that moment of time, that time right after an amazing concert, there is nothing bad in the world.  Do you know what I mean?  I hope you do.  But yeah, anyway.  I love that after-concert high.  It's one of the best things about going to a concert.  And this one?  There was no after-concert high.

Don't get me wrong.  I wasn't miserable the whole night.  It really wasn't that bad.  But I didn't think it was great either.  I did have a good time.  It was nice, hanging out with my grandma.  And there's a pretty good chance that next time I see Taylor Swift in concert (aka, next time she goes on tour), I'm going to ask my grandma to go with me to see her.

But... yeah.  I guess I can add "see James Taylor in concert" to my list of things I don't plan on ever doing again.