Randomness with Rachel: Beach Boys Concert!

I have said many times I was born in the wrong decade. Sometimes I think I'm a 60 year old trapped in a 29** year old body. I would rather watch reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show or Leave It To Beaver on Netflix than Modern Family or New Girl (no disrespect to either show. I've never seen them so I couldn't tell you if they are good or not). In most cases, on a movie night I would rather watch something that starred Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, or Audrey Hepburn. Or just about anything else that airs on the Turner Classic Movies channel. I would rather listen to a "Best of the 50s and 60s" Pandora station than "Today's Top Hits". I know, I'm just weird. Actually, I don't think I'm weird, I think I'm unique (which is just a fancy word for weird, but I'm going with it). I've been told MANY times I have an "old soul". I agree.

**Okay, I'm not 29, let's move on!**

If you have been following my blog for a while, you already know this. I went to see Davy Jones (may he rest in peace) and David Cassidy back in 2010. If you missed that, you can check that post out here. Then in 2013 I went to see the (remaining) Monkees in concert (you can check out that post here). Both times I went with my college roommate Mel (who also love oldies music and is always willing to check out a concert of an "oldies" group). Last night we were able to go to The Beach Boys concert (oddly enough, at the same venue where we saw the other concerts).

We got to the Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie just as the front doors had opened, so we debated if we wanted to buy anything from the merchandise table (we passed- that time) and then found a bench to sit on (the main doors weren't open yet because the band was doing a sound check). While waiting for the doors to open, we found out that the Verizon Theater has a Mazda VIP suite for Mazda drivers (and their guests). I am a Mazda driver, so we took advantage of that. It was a nice suite complete with a "refreshment" area and even had seating in the arena portion if you wanted to stay there during the concert. Our seats were a tad bit closer to the stage, so we opted not to stay.

I love going to these concerts because the age range of the fans usually varies. We saw a lot of older men walking around in Hawaiian shirts, which was cool. There were a few people who looked younger than us, or maybe some about our age, but a good amount of the crowd had obviously been Beach Boys fans since the beginning. The concert was great. There were only two members of the original Beach Boys there (Mike Love and Bruce Johnston). There is a long, messy story about a "disagreement" that has torn the surviving members apart, but I'm too lazy to type about it (and honestly, most of you probably don't care, so why waste my time). :) Mike and Bruce were two of my favorites, so I was okay that they were the only ones there (for you Full House fans, you may remember their appearance here). The rest of the "new" Beach Boys band did a fantastic job as well. For a lot of the concert, there was a beach ball being thrown around the crowd. It was just a fun atmosphere.

Before and during the concert

During intermission, I broke down and bought a tour shirt. After the concert Mel decided she wanted to buy a souvenir program so we went back to the merchandise table. I wasn't going to get one originally since I had already spent a good amount of money on a shirt, but I decided at the last second to buy one as well.

When Mel and I go to concerts at the Verizon Theater, we usually hang around the stage door to see if anyone is signing autographs. After the Monkees concert, there was a huge crowd by the stage door (sadly none of the group signed that night). We were kinda shocked that no one else was there after this concert. We stayed there a good 30-40 minutes, making small talk with the nice security guard. We eventually saw Bruce walk out and get on the bus. A few minutes later, the bus started backing up, so we figured we were out of luck. The bus had to drive by where we were standing and it stopped right in front of us. The security guard spoke to the bus driver and he said Bruce was willing to sign for us. **Thank you to the nice bus driver who had noticed us waiting and told Bruce, and he said he would stop.** Originally we were going to hand him our programs, but he was like, "it's cold out there and you aren't wearing jackets, come on in here." (Mom: Ignore that part about me not wearing a jacket. It was 80 degrees when we went inside the theater, I didn't realize it was going to cool off so much). Mike had left earlier, but we were able to meet Bruce. He was super nice and signed our programs and took pictures with us. He wanted to make sure he knew our names, and used them when he said bye. He thanked us for coming to the concert and we thanked him for stopping. Super cool moment.