The Cure in Ohio
September 27th, 2008Ok, this post is about four months late. Which is better than never, but only just barely. An unintended consequence of Cooper’s birth was that it coincided with some incredible Cure tickets I had for the same evening. I know, to even mention such a thing provides fairly strong evidence that my priorities are screwed up. I don’t dispute this. No worries though, a friend went in my place and thoroughly enjoyed my 8th row tickets for the show.
My method for making peace with this was that I told myself that on the next occasion that I could see the Cure, I would allow myself to do whatever needed to be done to see as good a show (if not better) as the one I missed. No expense or effort would be spared. I imagined this would be a few years from now, after a few more rumored Cure breakups and subsequent new albums. Imagine my surprise when I saw on Ticketmaster that they would be in Ohio a month later.
The original plan was for Jim and I to load up the Mini Cooper with a cooler of orange soda (preferably Sunkist) and an iPod of Cure albums and drive to Cleveland for the show. But it turns out I had a meeting that morning that I couldn’t miss. Lucky for me, my work is both profoundly flexible and generous. They agreed to fly Jim and I to Cleveland in order to both make the meeting and correct my concert karma.
A Few Words About Concert Karma
Concert karma is when by some unfortunate circumstance, you miss a show. As a child, my father and I missed a Robert Palmer show because our car overheated. I corrected this event by seeing Robert Palmer fifteen years later at the House of Blues with my mom. As a child, I missed Pink Floyd because my parents thought I was too young for a concert. I corrected this event by seeing Pink Floyd years later in Des Moines (or was it Ames?). Actually, I brought that one full circle by taking my dad to see Roger Waters perform Dark Side of the Moon in Chicago. The point is, once you’ve missed a show for any reason, the clock is now ticking. It may take you a year, or three, or thirty to correct it – but correct it you must. It’s one of the only ways you can preserve any kind of harmony in the universe. Either that, or I’m just kind of obsessive about this stuff.
Back to Our Story
After the meeting and a convertible ride to O’Hare (sunburn included), I gave Jim a call to see where he wanted to meet up for a beer before the flight. The conversation went something like this:
- Me:
- “Hey, I’m here – where you at? Want to get a drink before the flight?”
- Jim:
- “Why are you there so freaking early? Our flight doesn’t leave for like 3 hours.”
- Me:
- “Our flight leaves in an hour. I e-mailed you the itinerary from Expedia.”
- Jim:
- “Oh Jesus, you’re right. I’m not going to make it.”
- Me:
- “Dude. Not right. You have the tickets. You HAVE to make it. Get in the car, break some laws and I’ll see you at the gate in less than an hour.”
- Jim:
- “I’m leaving now.”
My next call was to TicketsNow, the place where we got our tickets from in the first place. While Jim raced to O’hare, I arranged to potentially purchase another ticket in case we got separated. The next 45 minutes was a flurry of phone calls, e-mails and text messages to try and put together a concert ticket for me and an alternate flight for Jim, just in case.
Long story short, Jim made it to O’hare but missed the flight. My last text message to Jim before liftoff was something to the effect of “buy another ticket, get on your flight, see you at the show.” An hour later I was in Ohio.
Despite making the flight and arranging for another ticket, it seemed that life just didn’t want me to see this show. The car never showed up to take me from the hotel to the venue, so I began walking. On the way to the venue, a car pulled over to the side of the road and asked me if I knew how to get to the venue. I said I didn’t, but I had an iPhone that could probably help us out if they didn’t mind if I tagged along. They said to jump in, and offered me a Pabst Blue Ribbon for the ride.
We arrived at the venue just as the opening band finished. The Cure began their set and put on a tremendous performance. About midway through the show, Jim arrived and we took our 8th row seats for the remainder of the three hour show. Jim mentioned later that this was a nearly perfect way to see this show (he had just seen them a month before) because the earlier songs were a lot of newer material he didn’t care for, but the later part of the set was comprised of all the great older songs they rarely play.
By the end of the show, Jim and I were both a bit hoarse from cheering. To top things off, The Cure finished with “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” which I have never seen them perform live before. After all the effort and drama to see this show, it was completely worth it to see one of my favorite bands with my best friend.
The thing I kept thinking all this time was, when I was a kid, none of this was possible. I wouldn’t have known about The Cure’s Ohio show in the first place, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to find use a handheld gadget and the Internet to find tickets, flights, cabs, directions and everything else. It’s amazing to me still, the kind of access to information we have now and the freedom it affords us.