“Well, my mind keeps going through dem changes, I think I’m going out of my mind…”
You know how your tastes change over time, from not liking something to really liking it or vice versa? I hated spaghetti until I was about 12, then loved it almost overnight! Hormones? Insanity? Teenage confusion?
Don’t know. I’ve never liked KISS and I was done with the Rolling Stones in the late 70′s. Bruce Springsteen never floated my barge, for some reason, and I’d rather pan fry my hands and eat them than listen to Billy Joel or hip-hop in almost any form.
So, it came as one of life’s changes recently when friends who own the city’s alternative weekly newspaper remembered that I was once a big fan of Joe Bonamassa. He’s coming back to Salt Lake City mid-March to play Symphony Hall and it’s sold out at $75 for nosebleed seats. No small feat and I give him huge props for selling out a hall that size in this town.
When I was trying to be Street Team dude for JB in Utah, no one had heard of him here save a tiny handful of people. I spent weeks telling people to get to Deer Valley Resort to see him open for BB King in the mid-00′s and I was the sober dude in the audience yelling to people all around me to “Watch this guy! He’s going to be huge! Listen to what he’s doing up there! He’s making magic!” A few strange looks from the wine-and-cheese-in-a-$200-designer-picnik-basket crowd, but exhilirating to see Joe in Utah and being warmly welcomed.
And thus comes dem curious changes: I used to love to watch JB in a 3 piece just kill it on a small stage in an obscure setting. That was fun. That was exciting. Tix were $10.
Now, lo and behold, he’s selling out symphony halls with a bigger band at $75 for the cheap seats. Don’t even know this guy.
So, when my friends at the paper offered me two free tickets to JB’s show next month, I politley turned them down and said,”I’ve so been there and done that! You need to share those with a new fan, someone who doesn’t remember him from 10 years ago. Someone who doesn’t like spaghetti, but isn’t sure why.”
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