My First Concert

I attended my first concert due to pure luck. I was 12 and my brother Alex was 11. Alex had entered a contest at the local Borders, where I still shop to this day. The winner would recieve tickets and backstage passes to the upcoming Jars Of Clay show.

I cant remember if we even listened to Jars Of Clay. Still, Alex couldnt pass up the chance and put his name in the drawing box six times. It came as a complete shock to him when we recieved the phone call from Borders saying he had won.

How cool was this? We were going to go backstage and meet a Grammy winning band who...we knew nothing about. Their song Five Candles was getting a lot of radio play and thats really all I knew about them, except that they had won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Gospel Artist or something. I wasnt into Christian rock.

The thing was, Alex only won 2 tickets, and he was giving one to his best friend Eddie, who was also 11. I had the other backstage pass, and I think my dad managed to convince the venue management to let Eddie meet them too. My dad bought a ticket for me and himself, and he would be taking us.

The afternoon of the concert, I wandered into the kitchen and my mom was on the phone with Eddie's mom, telling her that Jars Of Clay was a wholesome Christian rock band whose lyrics contained nothing offensive so she didnt need to worry.

We arrived at the venue to wait for the Borders employee who would be taking us backstage. When she showed up, we were escorted through the venue to the green room, where we were introduced to the band. They were very nice and I told them I loved the song Five Candles. I got their autographs and they told me what an honor it was to win a Grammy. We told them about seeing them several years before, playing at a restaurant before they were famous, and they remembered the show.

Then we headed into the house. I sat next to dad near the front, and Alex and Eddie were about 10 rows back. The concert began. Plumb was the opening band, and they were pretty good. The singer was wearing a formal evening gown and I thought it was a bit out of place.

During intermission my dad commented on how beautiful the Plumb singer was and we all felt very uncomfortable.

Jars Of Clay started next. The music was loud, very loud. They played rock, they played an acoustic bit, and Five Candles of course, which I sang along to. I kept looking back at Alex and Eddie, and they were headbanging and pretending to play the drums.

After it was over, we piled into the car. My dad turned to us and said excitedly, "What did you think of your first rock concert?" My brother cried, "Loud!"