bignoseduglyguy

In what will be their debut New Zealand gig, indie-darlings turned mainstream stadium-fillers Snow Patrol, surfing the success of their Eyes Open album down under, will play Auckland in February next year. Tickets went on sale here in NZ earlier today and, given their rapid sell outs in Oz, I scooped a pair up before they disappeared. The gig is good news on several levels in this house.Firstly, the concert is a few weeks after my birthday so it’ll a nice treat to banish the post-birthday blues. This inevitable melancholia will undoubtedly be further compounded by the fact that, between now and then, we will have hosted by two lots of relatives and a friend and her daughter and I’ll be ready for a rare night out.Secondly, the venue is the Trust Stadium, which is just a 15 minute drive from our house. This will mean a quick drive to the neighbouring shopping area to park up, and grab a bite to eat before a leisurely walk to the stadium. After the gig, a leisurely walk back passed the post-gig jams to the car and a 15 minute drive home.

However, the last reason is the best. Over the last year or so, the younger of my teenagers has moved from the mainstream poppy preoccupations of the average pre-teen towards more rock and indie, fuelled by the more edgy, bleep-worthy of Auckland’s FM stations. On the quiet, and while her mother rails against the DJ’s language and the playlists’ lyrics, this has pleased me no end for it is nice to have at least one musical ally in the house. As Snow Patrol’s output to date resides not only on my iPod but now on hers too, it is fitting that it was she who told me about the gig. It only seems right
that she is the one who gets the other ticket and goes to her first ever gig.

I can’t remember who I saw at my first gig but I can recall the anticipation, buzz and excitement that preceded going to a concert as a teenager and I saw it all in her face when I called her over to look at the email confirmation on my iBook. More than that, I am shamelessly flattered that she’d even be seen at a gig with her Dad. I suspect that the thought hasn’t crossed her mind yet and I’ll be having to swear that I won’t dance or sing along when the time arrives.