My Wife’s First Concert

Shortly before my wife and I got married, I had the chance to check an item off of my bucket list. The one and only,,,, the man, the legend,,,,, Sebastian Bach was going to be playing a show in Jersey. Some of you may be saying, “wait, who?” Shame on you. Sebastian is probably one of the greatest vocalists in hard rock/metal history. He is the former front man of the late 80’s/early 90’s band Skid Row. You remember that era. Back when rock music knew how to have fun. Before every single song was self-loathing and super depressing.

This was my wife’s first live rock concert. As she puts it, she kind of jumped in the pool at the deep end. The show was at the Birch Hill Nite Club in Old Bridge, NJ. It was an old venue that had a long history of hosting rock acts that were on their way up or down the musical popularity ladder. A friend of mine, and his girlfriend met us there before the doors opened, and we all stood in the line. We had gotten there early so we could claim a good spot on the floor. This proved to be both a good and a bad move. It was good because we got a great spot. It was bad because there turned out to be three opening acts. Once in a while an opening act is decent, but that’s not usually the case. We went 0 for 3 on this particular night. Since the Birch Hill was a club, there was no seating. We stood for three straight hours of musical punishment. First, was an all girl band. (not around anymore) Then came a bad band from Philly named Generic Angel, or Embarrassed Angel, or maybe Pitchy Angel,,,,,something like that. (not around anymore)   At this point, early twenties Marc and his friend were getting restless. We started to voice our unhappiness. The last opener was a local band that had been around since the mid eighties. (again, not around anymore) This was the last straw. My friend had discovered that he had some pennies in his pocket, and of course he was doing the logical thing and throwing them toward the stage while yelling something that could be described as impolite. This had no effect on the overweight lead singer of the band, who was wearing orange spandex with a jack-o-lantern on the rear. My lasting image of this guy was him cracking open a beverage on stage, taking a huge sloppy swig, and then handing it to someone in the audience. The guy who was on the receiving end of this gift, stood there looking at it, and then slowly reached out and put it back on the stage. If only we could have given the music back.

It took three hours, but eventually Sebastian came out and put on a great show. We all had an awesome time. The thing that makes me laugh the most about that night is my wife’s description of it. When asked about it, she usually says something like, “Do you know who the biggest troublemakers at that show were? Not the biker guys, not the guy with a swastika tattoo on his neck, not the guys who got into a fight down by the stage, no,,,,, it was the guy in the Hawaiian shirt (me) and his friend.”

I’ve aged a little since then, and the Birch Hill has been torn down to make way for a retirement community. I still love the energy of live music though, even if it probably won’t be me and my buddy winging pennies at the stage anymore……. We’ve classed it up, we use quarters or half dollars now.