In a younger version of the slightly potbellied adult that I am today I LOVED punk rock/ska music. At least my version of what punk rock/ska was in the 90’s. Looking back at those days of going to concerts fairly regularly still brings a smile to my face. There was a time when the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were coming to town to play at the Cabaret Metro and my group of lazy friends did not buy tickets. As the day of the concert approached MMB was in heavy rotation on the cassette players of all my friends cars. Talks of how it sucked so bad and if only we had bought our tickets was thrown around pretty regularly. So finally I spoke up and said why don’t we just go and see if we can get tickets from someone off the streets before the show. My suggestion was quickly tossed to the side with a snide remarks of where would we get tickets from that wouldn’t totally jack up the price from $10.00 to like $20.00. No one would go with me; I quietly made a pact with myself to get into that show no matter what. So the day of the show I woke up early and went down to Wrigley Ville to get my ticket. Doors to the show were scheduled to open at like 6:30 pm; I was in Wrigley at 9:00 am. It was a rainy crap ass overcast day, nothing too exciting. I spent the day walking up to anyone who walked near the entrance of the Cabaret Metro begging for at ticket. Of course the whole day I had no luck (cue Disney music) but then at like 6:20 someone was walking in and just gave me the ticket. FREE. Their friend had blown them off and they were super pissed. I was so excited. The show was AWESOME. I had never been the kind of person to go anywhere by myself. But this show changed me; it helped me come out of my shell. I spent the night singing at the top of my lungs, slamming into fellow fans in the pit, crawling up on stage before swan diving back into the crowd. It was what would turn out to be the third best show I have ever been to in my life. When I finally left the Metro I called one of my friends and told him we HAD to go to the show the next night at the Rave in Milwaukee. We did and it was awesome. A group of 9-12 of us crammed in two cars and went and saw the show. I’m not sure how we all got tickets to that show but we did and it was cool. Not as cool as my experience the night before but still cool. Those were fun times. Oh and we were not even old enough to drink. Sober at shows acting like maniacs. WOW!
My favorite concert of all time also included Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Flogging Molly, and I think the Tossers at the Riviera for a St. Patrick day show. I actually think that was the last show a big group of my friends ever went to.
My second favorite concert was Screeching Weasel playing the final show at a place called McGregor’s in Melrose Park I think. It was the last punk show that was going to take place there. They ended up doing an early and a late show. I ended up going to the second show. I hobble out of that show dehydrated from jumping around and going crazy for the whole show. I can’t remember who opened for them but I know it was when they released the album Wiggle. The added bonus was one of my oldest friends had been in the fist show. Somehow he ended up with Jughead’s hat, the Figment Hat that you can see him wearing on the back of the Boogadaboogadaboogada Vinyl album cover. I still have that hat to this day. But as I type this I wonder if the hat that I have held onto for all these years is really that hat. I never second-guessed him about swiping it off Jughead’s head. Hmmm.I guess I’ll have to ask my old pal the next time I talk to him
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