Pass the Binoculars and the Kleenex!
By Emily Matejcek
We look over and there he is…it’s Rachael Guffan’s dad. He peers up, we try to hide, he spots us, he smiles, he waves. He had been following us since the hotdog stand. Being the expected baby boomer he was faithfully there bonding with the many teens and young people.
The show began with the Jayhawks who played their regular set. We could only see them with Adrian’s binoculars, which helped but did not prevent the bloody noses. After a half hour breather the lights went out, the crowd cheered, and the announcer said “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Bob Dylan!” A purple silk jacket and shiny patent leather fifties style shoes came waltzing on stage with Bob Dylan inside.
Most of the music left the crowd untouched until the cello sang through the air playing “Mr. Tambourine Man”. From then on the people in front especially got involved. Some psycho lady started throwing her legs and wild hair seemingly everywhere. The crowd got rowdier as the night went on.
Laurel and Hardy played the part of the average drunk at every concert in front of us, with the typical college drunks in back of us. Obviously they were hitting on us because of our charming personalities and good looks. We were surrounded by definitely interesting people.
Meanwhile Bob was playing some Grateful Dead songs in tribute to Jerry Garcia and was exciting the crowd with his harmonica playing. After brief introductions before his last song he exited the stage only to be cheered back on by lit lighters and a screaming crowd. After a second encore and third song a woman jumped on stage to dance with Bob only to be followed by the psycho lady who seemed to be having spastic seizures in the air while instructing the crowd to “Sweating with Bob.” Rachael followed suit in the skyway after the concert when she with flailing legs plowed into an innocent bystander and collapsed on the floor. Taking it all in stride, we continued on pretending not to recognize her. Unfortunately, she made it quite obvious she was with us. We did let her in the car though, only because we wanted it to be obvious that we needed to use the express lane.