Combs and Camaros

I’ve seen the rock band, Boston, in concert more than any other act. I love Boston. They are my favorite band of all time. I’ve seen them now four times live. The first time was in 1987 after the release of their third album, “Third Stage” and then I saw them again…in the city of Boston at the Boston Gardens (I’d call that a Boston trifecta). Then I saw them again in the early 90s after the release of their horrible fourth album. And most recently, I saw them last week at, of all places, the Flint Center at De Anza College.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Flint Center, it’s a 2,500 seat theater…but it’s the kinda place where you’d hear David Sedaris do a book reading, or hear Al Gore give his “An Inconvenient Truth” dissertation, or listen to George Winston play the piano. It’s NOT where you’d go to see Boston. But alas, it was.

The place was packed. The crowd was old. There were more 50-yr old men in Hawaiian shirts tucked into pleated tan shorts and leather Birks…how funny to think these were the same rock-heads with long, feathery hair, comb in back pocket, black concert T-shirt, tight jeans hanging out by their Camaro waiting to hear Boston play “Rock n Roll Band’ live in their first concert tour in 1977.

The curtain opens. That signature logo on the backdrop. The band comes out. Everyone in the crowd is seated. They play their first song (which was not familiar and not one of their legend hits)…Everyone is still seated. Song ends. We clap.

And here it is. Song number 2 in the set. “Rock n Roll Band.” It kicks off and everyone is still seated. I see some heads nodding from left to right. No one is standing. I look over to my friend Heather and I shrug my shoulders and say “What’s going on? Why are we all sitting down?” She shakes her head and looks around with a scrunched nose, bewildered.

They are now 1/3 into the song. Everyone is still seated. I’m looking around and thinking to myself, “This is one of their best songs. Why are we all sitting down? I FEEL LIKE I’M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!”

Now, as a sidebar, my friend Matt (Chant) is silly and irreverent and often responds to social rules and obligatory public behavior with a quick exclamation of “Fuck that shit!” and then he does what most would be too embarrassed to do - but secretly want to. So, in that moment, I put on my “What Would Matt Do” bracelet and said to myself “Fuck that shit!”

I stood up, looked around the people sitting near me and shouted “DON’T YOU PEOPLE REMEMBER CONCERTS?!?! Right then my friends stood up. The people around me stood up. Then quickly, like the ripple from a pebble dropped in a pond, the whole theater was standing, clapping their hands, and dancing.

It was a weird moment. Exhilarating, but weird. These people…die hard Boston fans just like me… had gotten old. I think in their minds they wanted to be back in time…that time of Combs and Camaros. A time when no one gave a shit. But we were all in our 40s and 50s. We now give a shit. We worry about what others think. How we’ll be perceived. But once we all stood up… and started dancing and clapping… that all went away. We made it back to the seventies… when seeing your favorite rock n roll band was way more than a feeling.