Kim bought us tickets to .38 Special’s 50 Year Legacy Tour, and that was really all the excuse we needed.
September 5 took us to Vibrant Music Hall in Waukee for one of those nights that sounded fun when we put it on the calendar and ended up being even better once we were there. Fifty years is a long time for a band to keep doing this, and .38 Special did not feel like they were simply showing up to celebrate the number. They came to play.
Pregame
Before we ever got to the venue, we had already decided this was going to be a fun night. A couple of pregame pictures at home, a little excitement about getting out together, and then off we went.
The seats were fine. Standing was better.
We had Floor 3 Center seats in Row W, and there was nothing wrong with them. We could see the show, hear everything just fine, and probably could have happily stayed planted there all night.
We just didn’t want to.
Once the show got rolling, standing up felt more like our speed. We wandered back toward the bar, found a spot where we could still see the stage and hear everything clearly, and suddenly had room to move around, dance a little, laugh, grab a drink and enjoy the show the way we wanted to enjoy it.
It was one of those small decisions that changed the feel of the night. Not because anything had gone wrong. We just found the version of the concert that suited us better.
And the show absolutely delivered
The sound was excellent, the lighting and effects were fantastic, and the whole production had the kind of energy we were hoping for. The staff at Vibrant were great too. The room felt big enough to feel like a real show without feeling disconnected from what was happening on stage.
We were not there to grade the set list or take notes on every song. We were there together, hearing songs that have been around for a good chunk of our lives, singing along when the words showed up, and appreciating a band that can still walk onto a stage after half a century and make the room light up.
The stuff worth knowing
Parking was $15 and the drinks were definitely concert-priced. Worth knowing if you are headed there, but neither one is what we carried home from the night.
What we remember is Kim buying the tickets, us heading out together, deciding standing sounded better than sitting, finding our spot by the bar and having a hell of a good time.
Fifty years later
There are concerts you attend and concerts that get folded into the running story of your life together. This one feels more like the second kind.
Thanks, Kim, for buying the tickets. We would absolutely do this night again — and next time we may skip pretending we are going to sit down.