Nickblr > You

So tonight I went to the Rachael Yamagata show at Slim’s in SF. I couldn’t find anyone who was interested in going, so I went alone yet again. That is the 3rd show this year where I had no takers. If you don’t know how I work, I always buy two tickets to every concert I go to whether it be a concert festival like Outside Lands or a random show at a dive bar. Most of the time, no one is interested in going, but I still buy tickets anyway; if no one goes, the tickets usually get trashed. I buy the extra ticket just in case someone might be interested in going, but don’t act fast enough to buy tickets. But enough about my ticket buying tendencies.

So what made tonight interesting what happened when I was standing in line. I was standing there and a homeless guy walked up to me and asked me if I had an extra ticket; I totally forgot I had one until he asked me. This guy didn’t appear too homeless, but his clothes were tattered but didn’t smell bad as some other homeless people I’ve run into. I told him yeah and gave him the extra ticket for free. Naturally, I thought that he was going to take the ticket and sell it off to someone. I started to walk in, and lo and behold he was following me in. This guy had no idea who was playing nor what type of music it was. Granted, he could have just been coming in because he wanted to get out of the cold, but he seemed pretty interested in the music too. I started to talk to him, to be nice, and he was telling me he was living out of his broken down car up the street and loves to come down to the venue to listen to the music from the outside. He said he’d never been inside, but he loves music no matter what type it is. But anyway, this guy was pretty cool, so I bought him some food and sodas. I guess he was pretty hungry because he pretty much inhaled it. He continued to tell me his story. He is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who drove out here from Memphis with his wife. They had no money and no plans on where to live. When they couldn’t find work or a home, they continued to live out of their car and in Golden Gate Park. The sad thing was about a year ago they were blessed with a child and didn’t have any money to take care of it, but they wanted to keep it, so his wife was forced to enter a program for homeless women who have drug additions and have newborn babies. The guy, and his wife and child are now forced to be separated for the next 8 months, so he’s out there on his own now. He showed me a picture of his baby, and it broke my heart. Then the concert started and he really seemed to enjoy the music.

Random note: I just found out from the performance tonight, Rachael Yamagata is a lesbian or at least bisexual. She said that she would love to live in SF one day because maybe she could find a girl for her, but her heart will always be in Chicago. This makes her music more interesting because all of her songs are about relationships, and it totally gives them a new meaning, but makes sense

But, back to the story. After the show, he thanked me for the tickets and for the dinner, and told me how I made his day. I gave him a few bucks and he thanked me again and we went our separate ways. This was really kind of a cool night because I went from not having anyone to go with me to the concert, to getting to know someone new and making their day. Why can’t more of my friends be more like this guy? Most of my friends are too snobby and won’t go to concerts of artists they’ve never heard of. This guy wanted to go to this show just for the love of music. I’ve never met anyone who loves music so much that he goes to concerts venues just to listen to a muted performance of the show from the outside; that’s someone who’s passionate about music. I think I need to reassess my friends because I thought that they loved music for the music and are always willing to give anything a shot. I guess this is not the case because no one ever wants to go to these free shows. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to go? A free ticket and free music. Hey, who knows? You could find your new favorite band, or at least discover an amazing opening act. What do you really have to lose? What the worst that can happen? The concert could suck and you waste, what, a few hours of your life? But hey, you at least gave the band a shot.

Well, that was my night, and it was pretty awesome. By the way, the show was amazing.