Bittersweet Roadtrip

It is one thing to go see a show in your hometown... leave work around 5 or 6pm, grab some dinner and drinks with friends and then head to a venue probably named after a car company, sugary soda, or strangely enough, the newly named Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It's a whole other thing to drive more than a couple hours to see a concert. More than likely it's not some random artist you're iffy on. It's someone who means something to you and can take you to a good place or reveal their latest material which you can only hope can match their previous art or expand on it.

That was largely the case when three friends and I decided to take a roadtrip from NYC to Philadelphia to see Richard Ashcroft, the lead singer of the Verve, which disbanded prior to him releasing a solo album. Richard to me is one of the great frontmen... on a good night, a singer who could go into a Christ-like pose and have the crowd worship him.

So we off we went on a school night in a pricey NYC rental car, taking a trip prior to all these fancy computer-based mapping or navigation systems. It was all analog, my friend. Maps... rumors... guesses. I remember us driving in the dark and at one point someone said "Why are we in Delaware?"... now, that could be a bad thing, could be a good thing. Who knew. But eventually we pulled into Philadelphia and made our way to the venue a little before 9pm. Perfect timing! We thought about grabbing a cheesesteak or two before the show, but eh, didn't want to get stuck in the back of the hall.

We roll over to the venue and strangely enough see a large crowd filing out... some giving high-fives to each other, some saying what a great show and how it was like seeing The Verve. Holy crap. We were on NYC time, where shows start after ten, and in this town of Brotherly Love, we missed the show before we even arrived. Uhhh.

Bubbles totally bursted, we were left to drown our musical sorrows in cheesesteaks while reminiscing about how great the show may have been.

On our way back into NYC, there seemed to be some disturbance at the tunnel. We pulled into the presence of an NYC cop with a flashlight wondering where we came from. We explained the situation, he laughed and then looked at us... he wanted to know us four guys wanted to hang out later. "We're REALLY busy and need to get back to our hypothetical girlfriends immediately. But thanks for the offer, man with a gun who wants to share in our company later."