This summer was a summer I dreamed about when I was changing diapers at 25 years old. When my friends were out doing whatever the hell they wanted, and I was home watching JoJo’s Circus and Dora The Explorer. While I was fighting with Amy about every little thing happening in our house. Sleeping with two kids between us before I was smart enough to just let them have my side of the bed while I slept in a pink or purple painted room on a tiny bed all by myself. This summer is what I dreamed about.
To be young enough to hang with the kids. To be young enough to get to ask my kids “do you have your fake id to get a drink”. Look, if that makes me a bad parent, I don’t know what to tell you. All those years I just wanted to live long enough to get to have a beer with the kids. Now, if you are doing math and thinking, I think his kids aren’t quite yet 21, our house lives under Canada rules. See, I’m like 10% French Canadian so it only makes sense.
If you know me at all you know I am always trying to find ways to be involved in my daughters’ lives. I invest in what they like. Selfishly, I want to be able to talk to them. So, if I know about a dancer on tik tok or a small junior college who wins a ton of cheer competitions it may steal me a few conversations with my girls. I’ve done this with music for as long as I can remember. I try to get them to like what I like; I listen to what they like and we are always finding new music we can share.
The summer in my area is awesome for concerts. I’m lucky to live in a place where lots and lots of musical acts travel to. There is also a festival near us where my wife’s company gets a VIP box every year. This year my favorite band was playing Friday night and a band we all loved was playing Saturday. My wife got our family all tickets to both days. I was a little nervous if I am being honest. This festival is a PARTY. I get to party at this festival. I told the kids that there is no judging Dad on this weekend. I wasn’t Dad, I was just an old guy pretending he is young and drinking and smoking. Kids were free to do whatever they wanted too. Mom was driving home Friday night. I wish you could have seen what I got to see with them walking into this festival on the first day. They were completely in awe. I think they secretly are 70s kids. They loved the outfits and the vendors selling art and jewelry and all the different stages with musicians. We each had a couple drinks and really enjoyed the night. We went back on the Saturday with new excitement of what that day would bring. We bought our concert gear and bounced from stage to stage. And I told my wife I would drive home. I was way way too happy with the whole experience and really didn’t need my typically music show booze and weed. I was just in awe of getting to be with my kids as they got to see all this and got to see their parents not being parents. It was such a surreal experience and one I look back on now and will never forget. The last band on Saturday was incredible. We were singing and dancing and had our jaws on the floor at this woman’s voice. It was such a great night, such a great experience.
My youngest, my wife and I got to see Zach Bryan a few weeks later on in the summer. It was another awesome awesome night. My daughter found Zach Bryan’s music a couple years ago and brought it to us knowing we would love his music. She was so happy that we loved his show. A really incredible show. It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen, maybe even the best. That was a short-lived title for Zach Bryan though.
The next night was my favorite concert I’ve ever seen. It was to a guy named Noah Kahan. A New Englander playing at Fenway Park for the first time. My oldest had gotten tickets with her friends but I didn’t get lucky enough to buy them. I was bummed and my youngest was super bummed. They had both seen him in concert but knew that I wanted to him bad. I loved this guy. Then, my oldest had a friend who was able to get 2 tickets and she thought of me and my youngest and offered me the tickets. I was super excited I was even thought of.
We have had these tickets for a bit. Just my youngest daughter and I at Fenway. Every couple of weeks I would give my daughter the option “if you have a friend you want to go with, I won’t mind” and she would answer “Dad, I want to go with you”. I truly did mean it. Who wants to go to a concert with their Dad? But, she stuck to that response each time I mentioned it. And I truly believed her.
We went into the concert to see the opening band. I’ve loved the opening band, seen them three times this year even. They were great, but I was super excited for the headliner. As we exchanged texts with my oldest daughter to show each our seats,we all sat and anxiously waited for the show to start.
The weather was perfect for a July night. It was picture perfect with a little orange and pink painting the skyline. I bought us a couple truly’s to have at our seats. I’m not a big drinker and I knew I was driving but I bought us each one to have for the show. We sang every word to every song with like 30,000 other people. It was such a great night we never even touched our drinks. We laughed, we definitely cried a little. We watched as a man and his band lived out a childhood dream. We watched as he sang songs on top of the green monster.
As the concert ended, I looked down at our seats to make sure we had everything we brought with us, and I grabbed our two full drinks we never touched and tossed them in the trash. We floated to the car and met my oldest daughter and her friend to drive them home. I can’t describe fully what that night was like for everyone there. But, for this Dad to be there, watching dreams come true with his two young adult daughters I would never come close to being able to find the right words.
Letting my kids see me and see my wife not as Mom and Dad but just people has been such a fun experience. Come watch Dad cry at Fenway, not for a World Series win, but for a folk artist who helped find one more way for him to connect to his kids.
As we plan tattoos together and whatever our next concert will be I can’t help but remember back to the times where I thought I would never get to be me again. I remember all the times where while I loved my two little girls, I thought they would break my wife and I into a million pieces. I can’t believe we made it out alive and did it all together. The joys we will feel now sitting next to our kids at a concert or an event and seeing them becoming these really really cool humans is amplified because I get to share it with my Amy.
Completely in awe of this life I get to live. Forever and always the luckiest guy in any room…
Weird Beard Blog 
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