First Concerts - Redux - Posted by Lisa

In August of '05, I recorded for posterity the details of our oldest son Christopher's first concert experience. That concert was of the Wiggles at the Palace of Auburn Hills, and he was 20 months old. Though he seemed to enjoy it at the time, I'm sure he has no recollection of it now.

Today, on a much, MUCH colder day in February (our car's thermometer showed 3 degrees F), 21 month old Ian had his first concert experience. This time, the show was Sesame Street Live: Elmo Makes Music and the venue was the beautiful Fox Theater in Detroit.

After breakfast at McDonald's (not enough time for a "real" restaurant, but we needed to go inside since the boys ate pancakes), we drove down to the Fox, parked in their garage (I wanted to take a thermos of hot chocolate to the parking garage employees today...bless them!), and rushed across the street into the theater. As a former volunteer usher at the Fox, I already knew this to be true, but everyone there was SO very kind and helpful. From the paid ushers at the door, to the volunteers, to the woman behind the snack counter, and the guy whose job I don't know...there were smiles everywhere. I remember thoroughly enjoying when I ushered the Sesame Street shows, so that could be the reason, but either way, we were impressed.

We sat in the mezzanine (ahem, though our tickets read Gallery C, i.e. "nosebleed"). We got to our seats just as the house lights went down, and had a perfect view of everyone onstage.

Ian took a little while to warm up to the idea of what was going on (though not as long as Christopher took with the Wiggles a couple years back). Once he did, he clapped his hands above his head, bopped his head to the music, and jumped up and down. He was mesmerized the entire time!

Christopher was slightly more reserved. He wouldn't sing, though I did catch him singing a little phrase here and there. He did, however, clap, slap his hands on his lap, stomp his feet, and pretty much any thing "required" during the show. He tried to fight it, but I did see him crack a smile a few times. :)

After the show, we wanted to have lunch at Johnny Rockets, which is located next to the Fox. However, we got there about 2 minutes too late, as any usable seat in the restaurant had already been filled by other families leaving the theater at the same time. There were 2 person booths along the perimeter, and seats at the counter, but with our family of four (one of whom is a young toddler), none of those options worked for us. On a warmer day, we would have driven around the city for other options, but today there was no prying us out of our warm car again until we arrived home.

All in all, I'd have to say today could be considered another successful "first concert" experience.