P.C.D (Post Concert Depression)

P.C.D.  Post Concert Depression. It is a thing, people! Pink and Taylor Swift have left the country and I have been wallowing about in my over-priced and somewhat ugly concert t-shirts with a little dose of the blues. They were both so good and I made core memories with my daughter as we wore a sea of sequins.

My rule of 2024 is to buy the shirt at the gig. My first concert was Boom Crash Opera in 1990. I do not think they even sold merchandise back then on the dodgy pub tour. When I went to KISS I was a cheap skate and bought my band t-shirt at Big W because it was about a quarter of the price. Then for many years I justified not buying a shirt with the premise my gift was the experience of the extravaganza… I didn’t need a shirt to remember the night.

I am a passionate gig pig and my taste in music is diverse and I love Disney musicals right though to hard rock. But Taylor Swift was something extra special.  It lived up to the hype. 

This billionaire business woman lived up to the hype. My daughter and I spent months making friendship bracelets and counting down the days.  Taylor left us better than when she found us and we a full body and brain flood of all the good feelings. It was the the slickest concert I have seen in my life. For 3 and a half hours the Grammy award winner sang in perfect pitch and danced in perfect time on a stage of glitter, fireworks, moving platforms and all while performing lightning-fast costume changes and looking a million bucks. But the true highlight was watching my 13-year-old react to seeing her hero on the stage. My daughter burst out crying when she first set eyes on Swift. I burst out crying watching Avalon crying. And that is how we spent the night: my girl in awe of Taylor and me awestruck by my girl. The reaction to Taylor is unprecedented. It is how I imagine Elvis fever and Beatle mania to be: people so overcome with emotion they simply cry or fall to the ground in hysteria. I felt the same way when I saw the Queen when I was a little girl. You never forget the first person you are awe-struck by. And that is the main reason I will always remember the concert. 

After it was all done and dusted, it was a three-hour line up to buy that ugly and over-priced t-shirt from the pop singer’s gig. The concert finished at eleven pm so it meant we would get back to our hotel at two am if we joined the masses. So , did we do it? You bet we did. We slept in our merchandise and woke up feeling very smug planning what concert would be next. Pearl Jam is coming at the end of the year. Just saying!