...Featuring His Holiness The Dalai Lama...
Day Three of my crazy week is over, and I've had a nice long sleep to recover from the epic show we witnessed in Chicago. Dispatch was Spectacular! I was about to compare it to the Elton John show I saw in April and attempt to rank them, but that would be a fool's errand. Elton was fantastic, yes, but loving every single minute of that show has no effect on whether I loved every single minute of Dispatch, which I most certainly did.
...AND OUR SEATS! WHAT!?!?!?
The famous Skylar decided that our seats weren't good enough for someone of his reputation and status, and being the bold, explorer-type that he is, started talking to ticketing people looking for an "upgrade" to floor seats. I thought the seats we bought originally were pretty damn good (despite their less-than-generous proportions), and was VERY skeptical that such an "upgrade" could be aqcuired (not doubting Skylar, just doubting that such a policy Existed). And even if such a thing Could be done, it's certainly not something I would have the audacity to inquire about, and I wasn't evevn that thrilled with the idea of moving to some seat on the floor that was further away than our decent seats above the crowd (so we could see the band).
But in true Skylar fashion of "making things happen" he trotted back to Blake and me (skeptics or lazy, we stayed in our seats) and said, "Come on!" With a wave of his hand we were off to the ticket counter, my freshly purchased merch and skepticism firmly gripped between my anxious fingers. He handed over our three tickets to the box office lady, she disappeared for a minute, then magically returned bearing floor seats in the TENTH ROW. What!?!? High fives and hand shakes all around ensued, then it was off to get a wristband to prove we were legit "floor seat" people, and only a few minutes (perhaps only seconds) after we reached our now completely-baller seats in Rox J the lights went out and the rock commenced.
The show was epic, the set list was wonderful, and the crowd chanting for "EL-I-AS! EL-I-AS! EL-I-AS!" at the end perfectly embodied exactly why I decided I wanted to be a musician all those silly years ago. It was an inspiring show, incredibly entertaining, and I smiled the entire time because I quite literally could not help myself.
Big props to Blake for doing the difficult driving into town - one of these days I'll do the hard leg of the trip, bro! Just hold me to it!
Day Three was wonderful, and I don't suspect any of the next few weeks will come close to touching it. I'm so glad I got to share that experience with Blake and Sky, and I'm looking forward to whatever happens next in my life with renewed spirit.