[Letter to the Editor, Palm Beach Post]
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/ne...n-check/njZw6/
Boomers don’t leave until very last note
South Florida audiences have a well-deserved reputation for rude early exits from concerts. This fact made the sold-out crowd enjoying Fleetwood Mac’s Dec. 19 concert at the BB&T Center in Sunrise all the more remarkable.
As I turned to look up into a packed-to-the-rafters baby boomer crowd waiting for the group’s first encore — after two nonstop hours of hit songs — I literally got tears in my eyes from what could have passed for a planetarium show.
Back in “the day,” we used to “flick our Bics” in appreciation. But that night, the 15,000-plus fans were lighting up their iPhones and creating a galaxy of lights. Then it struck me: I had not seen a single person leave early.
What I did see were men and women — who were several decades too old to be wearing “skinny jeans” or miniskirts — magically transported back to our 20s for a couple of hours, and all sharing the time of our lives.
We rockers still knew how to party like we did during the Summer of Love, in 1967. That was back when no road-tripper worth his or her bellbottoms ever walked out early on Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream — or scores of other stadium acts — until the last note had been played.
The next morning, my aching 67-year-old knees reminded me that it probably wasn’t a good idea for me to have spent more than two hours dancing in the aisle. But it was nothing that a couple of extra Motrin or Aleve couldn’t cure.
Mick Jagger probably said it best: “I know it’s only rock ‘n’ roll, but I like it, like it, yes I do!”
BOB MICHALS, WEST PALM BEACH