I had a better time without you.

Samuel Beam aka "Iron and Wine" at the 9:30 club

I have had tickets to see Iron and Wine at the 9:30 Club last Friday since some time in January. On Thursday the people I planned to go with told me that they had sold their tickets weeks earlier. I was pissed, I couldn't believe how inconsiderate it was, especially because I don't think they would have told me at all if I hadn't asked them about meeting up. I don't know how people get away with being so inconsiderate and still have friends. (It wasn't that they canceled but that they didn't offer the tickets to me to see if I could find someone to use them, or tell me early enough that I could sell mine.)

I tried to sell my ticket and, predictably, was unable to find a buyer. So rather than let the ticket go to waste I went to the show alone. My mom wasn't happy about it. (I think she expects me to run into Sid Vicious and end up dead in the Hotel Chelsea anytime I go to a concert. This means that I often wait to tell her about them until after the fact.

It avoids conversations like this:

Mom: but why do you want to go?

Me: Because they are awesome and the lead singer is cute. [Or I listened to them every day for a month when I was hating being abroad. Or because all my friends are going. (But that just brings up the bridge conversation.)] 

Mom: But it is expensive.

Me: How would wasting the tickets saving me money?

Mom: I just don't want you to get hurt. 

Me: Mom it just Outside Lands [or the Catalyst, or the Greek, or the 9:30 club]  and I have the cheap tickets, I am not going to meet some ne'er do well musician who tempts me with his words and move into his bus.

Mom: Well things happen. (She finishes in such a way that I can see her eye brows raise and her head tilt through the phone so she may as well be screaming "YOU SHOULDN'T GO.") Okay so that isn't exactly fair, but my Mom's distaste for heat, crowded spaces, and loud noise come out any time going to a show comes up.)

I disregarded her advice and went and I was really glad. In part because there is something really empowering about doing a "couple-y" thing on your own. I would have been upset if I had let the ticket go to waste, and while I could have blamed it on my friends ultimately I had control over the use of my ticket. While I was an anomaly, most people don't go to concerts alone, people were friendly, the beer was good and the music was better.  I generally have a head on most of the waifish hipster girls so I was ten feet back from the stage and could see everything perfectly. The whole set was amazing, and because I was alone I could sing along and enjoy the music without idol chit-chat. As an encore he did an a cappella version of "Flightless Bird American Mouth" that brought tears to my eyes. While it would have been nice to share it with someone who appreciated the music, obviously the people who bailed on me were not those people.