I love live music. I don’t go to many concerts because for a while, (the entire decade of my thirties), it seemed all concerts cost $120+ per ticket. Because of this, I’ve missed listening to live music.

As a kid I always went to Kingswood Music Theatre at Canada’s Wonderland. I used to see Honeymoon Suite, Kim Mitchell and Gowan almost every summer. One year I saw Henry Lee Summer open for somebody else, and he was so fun, we went to see him later in the year when he headlined. In fact, I believe it was on my actual birthday and my brother took me, along with his friend EW. I think it was the year I turned 15.

Another year my brother got me front row tickets to see The Bangles at Kingswood. I feel like that was a birthday present too… but I don’t remember the concert being in September. It doesn’t matter. It was just great to get these amazing seats to one of my favourite bands. After the show one of the road crew ripped the handwritten playlist off the monitor and gave it to me. What a thrill that way…I still have it. Come to think of it, I still have my Henry Lee Summer concert t-shirt too. I wear it for gardening now.

I saw Debbie Gibson play Kingswood as well. My brother got those tickets too, but I don’t think they were meant as a gift for me until he realized his friends would never let him live it down if he went to a Debbie Gibson concert. His loss was my gain as she put on a fun show.

I used to go to concerts with my best friend at the Forum at Ontario Place. It was the concert venue the pre-dated the Amphitheatre. It was ‘in the round’ so the stage turned, giving many more people a front row seat. The best part was first-come, first-choice seating so we’d be in line at Ontario Place when it opened, then run through the park to the Forum (along with a bunch of other concert goers), then listen to our Sony Walkmans, read magazines, and take turns wandering off to pee or buy food while ‘holding’ our first row seats for the whole day. That meant ten hours of sitting in our seats, before the shows even started!

I also saw Ricky Nelson at the Forum, with my friend’s family. It was something, as he was a big, big name in his day and he died not too long after the Toronto concert.

Much more recently, I saw Elton John play one of his ‘me and a piano’ concerts at the GM Centre in Oshawa. He came on stage right at 8 p.m., as advertised, even though about 1/3 of attendees weren’t yet in the building. We all arrived late. Luckily, I didn’t see his entrance but I heard it as we were rushing around the arena to our section. Elton John is amazing. He played all his hits, and that is a huge number of songs, and his piano playing sounds exactly like the original recordings. I was thrilled and would go see him again in a heartbeat.

This year, for my Top 40, we wanted to go see Mumford & Sons. They have a great reputation for being completely awesome live. Unfortunately, we didn’t sign up for a ‘password’ on their website so we never got the opportunity to buy tickets. We’ll have to pay more attention and not miss out next time.

Instead, to fulfill my list, we headed into our small town to see a free ‘Concert in the Park.’ It was New Orleans swingy jazz, which I thought would be a great way to spend an evening. Too bad it rained, and when we arrived there was a family eating a picnic in the local gazebo that doubles as a stage. No sign of a band or a concert.

Just like the super-hot curry, seeing a concert didn’t work out as planned. But on the bright side, I did book my Cyndi Lauper tickets during my 40 days so I’ll just have to count that.