On a beautiful summer evening, I entered the Hollywood Bowl after being sick during the afternoon from some type of allergic reaction. I'm not sure these days what they can be, turning 30 meant hitting a brick wall and being sick at any moment's notice. My immune system is failing on me at my old age.
I got to the Hollywood Bowl right as Kelly Clarkson took the stage. I'm pretty good at knowing when the opening act tends to finish so I don't have to deal with them. I was racing to my seat because I really wanted to make sure I was around when she did "Breakaway." I love that song. Not because it's a particularly great song, but that song always brings me to a wonderful memory of my teammates and I during pre-season in college. Stephen, Marc, Sean, and I were driving up Montauk Highway heading back to the house from a visit to King Kullen to buy groceries or ice cream. I can't remember what it was, but that's not the point. A grocery store was involved. We just had a really awful practice because well, the coach was a little crazy at that moment of his life. As we were driving up, "Breakaway" came on and before you knew it, we were all belting out the song as loud as we could. I think the best part was that neither of us had any clue that any of us knew all the words to the song. We just looked at each other after and laughed. It felt great, it felt comforting, it felt like brotherhood. I always said the best memories from playing on a team aren't usually the games itself, it's everything outside of that.
Kelly Clarkson also brings back another fun memory at the Jones Beach Ampitheater. Sam and I went to see Kelly that year, it was most likely 2006 and we met up with Stephen and his then girlfriend Jenna. This was during Kelly's really famous "Since You've Been Gone" phase. We met up at the parking lot and just started drinking beers. For one reason or another, Sam decided that she was gonna get all agro and started smashing beer bottles. Then her and Stephen started taking turn throwing and smashing beer bottles. I'm not really sure how we didn't get escorted out of the venue, but that ended up being a kick-ass concert.
Kelly was great Sunday night, she sang great, she looked great, I mean, she's getting married. You know who looked better though? Adam Levine! Maroon 5 just stood out there and performed all their song to the crowds amazement. I looked around and noticed a good amount of parents and their tweenage kids. That would make sense, I guess if you were a mom at 25 and was a KC or Maroon 5 fan, you and your kid can enjoy a concert going experience together. What was funnier was that I think the mom behind me was screaming and crying more than her daughter when Adam came out. That must have been embarrassing as all hell for the child.
So I know the goal was to stalk Adam Levine, but I was at his concert and a couple hundred feet away from him. That's as good as it's gonna get as far as stalking is concerned for me. I don't really have time or the energy to stalk. I feel like that's like something only unemployed people can pull off...
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