During the fall the two brothers and I learned that the band Chicago was coming to Las Vegas to do a New Years Eve concert. This was a band that we really liked.
I asked my mom if she could get us tickets. She said that she would make some calls. I was very hopeful that with her connections she could get them. And she did.
When I told the two brothers that my mom was able to get us tickets for the concert, they became very excited. We were going to a New Years Eve show, just the three of us. It would be their first major concert, and we knew it would be party time. And I would be driving us to the convention center.
For me, this was not my first time going to a rock concert where a major band was performing on stage in the Las Vegas Convention Center Arena.
Earlier in the year I was invited to go to a rock concert that featured a major band. And this experience would give me some insight into the world of concert goers and what goes on during the show.
And the first live rock concert that I went to featured “The Guess Who”, a popular band that I had never heard of. The concert was in February 1971. I was 15 years old and still struggling but doing better now that I was in culinary school.
So, I was hanging out at the bowling alley one Saturday night when I was approached by some of the friendlies who were also hanging out at the bowling alley. I was asked if I would like to go to a concert with them. They said that they had an extra ticket and saw me hanging out by myself.
I thought about it for a few minutes and then agreed. Since I had never been to a live rock concert, I didn’t know what to expect but I was all in for it. And honestly, I didn’t know who the band was but imagined that it could be fun.
This is also the moment in time when I experienced my first smoke of a hand rolled nature stick, if you know what I mean. I was in their car sitting in the back seat and this special smoke was being passed around. In the time it took us to get to the Las Vegas Convention Center, my mind had moved away from my body. What a feeling.
Once inside, I was introduced to a new world. I never knew what it was like to experience hearing live music being performed in an arena with thousands of other kids having an out-of-body experience. This was so engaging and moving that I just floated higher in my thoughts with each song being performed.
And I will note that I began to recognize many of the songs from the radio. I knew this band.
Yes, I was high, but nothing like what I had experienced a few months earlier. This was a mellow, out-of-body experience that I really enjoyed.
At one point during the concert, we roamed the arena. I did get separated from our group, but we did get reconnected. During the time I was alone I became focused on the sounds of the instruments, separating them into specific sounds from what I heard. On one song I singled out the drums and felt the thundering beat penetrate my body.
The music was so powerful it moved me to allow my body to bend, sway and swivel as every note entered my brain through my ears. This was an incredible experience that I have never forgotten.
And this experience lasted well into the night.
After the concert was over, they drove me home to drop me off. Of course, we smoked another nature stick. Once again, I was feeling very happy and very, very hungry.
When I got inside my trailer, I went straight to the kitchen. I think that I ate half a box of Cheerios in less than five minutes. I was starving and cereal was the easiest food to grab and much out with.
After stuffing myself with food, I then went straight to bed.
As I lay in bed, I kept recalling the songs that I had heard, and the images that were burned into my mind of the stage where the band performed. I was also impressed with the stage lighting and how it moved with each song. I never knew that a concert was this big of a production.
I now wanted to go to more concerts.
As December grew nearer, the two brothers and I were trying to listen to every Chicago song we could. We wanted to be prepared.
And the older brother was working to secure a bag of nature. Back then it was called a nickel bag because it cost five dollars. I pitched in to help cover the cost. The older brother called me a shareholder.
On New Years Eve we were all set. The older brother was successful in getting the nickel bag and had multiple nature sticks prepared for our journey to the Las Vegas Convention Center and for the after-concert ride back home. And the nature sticks were carefully rolled in a beautiful American flag paper.
Ok, we are teenagers in the early 1970’s. I was sixteen and driving. We never thought that anything we were doing was not normal because everyone did it. It wasn’t a big deal.
I walked over to the two brothers trailer and knocked on the door. The younger brother answered and I announced, “Time to go.”
The two brothers and I climbed into my stick shift Toyota and headed out to the concert. By the time we got to the convention center we had smoked two nature sticks.
What can I say. I was very much out of body and so were they as we entered the convention center arena. Yes, we were very high.
When Chicago took to the stage the convention center arena was full.
There were various groups of adults dressed up to the max, so we had to be somewhat respectful, which we were. And they were drinking Champagne in glasses.
Who were they, I thought to myself.
When the concert began, the arena erupted with cheers.
This concert became the next most memorable live concert I attended. This concert was even more engaging than The Guess Who concert.
Seeing Chicago performing on New Years Eve at the Las Vegas Convention Center on the last day of 1971 was an incredible experience for me. Again, I was feeling the out of body experience, but I do think that the music and the stage performance contributed to my new mind numbing high.
At midnight, the arena was filled with ballons that were dropped from the ceiling above the center arena section. There were ballons everywhere. I admit that this was the best New Year’s Eve I have ever experienced from how I remembered it.
When the last encore song finished it was time to go home. And during the drive home we finished the last nature stick.
I dropped the two brothers off at their trailer and then drove to my trailer. After going inside, I ate another half box of cereal before going to bed.
While laying down in bed I decided that I wanted to experience more concerts.
And I would…
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