Buddy and Bo at Masters of Metal

After our awesome time a couple of weeks ago at the Rush concert, Bo and I had a great opportunity to go to yet another great concert last night. A friend at work had tickets to the “Metal Masters” concert which was headlined by Judas Priest and Heaven and Hell (Original members of Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio singing - Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Carmen Appice) with Motörhead and Testament opening up. Turns out he had to go out of town with family so he gave me the tickets! The seats were awesome, 8 rows up from the floor.

I went to a ton of concerts when I was young. That was back when you could get great seats for $18, lawn seats were only $10 (man I sound old) but those days are long gone. Even with all the concerts I went to there were plenty of all time greats that I never got to see. Rush was one [check] Black Sabbath was another [check] and Motörhead was another [check]… It’s been great to share these experiences with my son. These two concerts have really taken our relationship to a different place.

Motörhead (click to enlarge)

I was a bit worried about this one. I mean Rush was one thing, but Motörhead and Preist was going to be a different kind of crowd. I was pleasantly surprised. The people were awesome. Sure there was the occasional blurt of language and a frequent waft of “sweet Jamaican pipe dreams” (to quote Rush) but folks were just genuinely good people. Several people approached us and talked with Bo and I saying how great it was to see a father and son hanging out together.

But it got even better. Shortly after Judas Priest started, a security guard approached me. He had noticed that Bo was having a little difficulty seeing and asked if we’d like to come down to where he was and stand so he could see better. This was awesome, we were able to stand on the steps leading down to the floor level.

Heaven and Hell (click to enlarge)

About 30 seconds after we were there, this scruffy dude comes up the isle in a torn up Motörhead t-shirt and asks me if “that’s your kid”. After responding in the affirmative, he hands me 2 tickets and says “here, take take these, they’re row 6 center have a blast”. I couldn’t believe his generosity.

Well after the concert we were making our final ‘pit stop’ and there were a group of 20 somethings that had a few too many $10 beers. They were regaling with one another about the concert. Sharing in boisterous fashion the virtues of the show they had just shared… every other word started with F.  The only fowl language we had really heard came from either the stage or that group in the bathroom, but honestly I was sort of glad for it a a weird way. I mean that’s the world Bo is going to have to grow up in. Honestly, I’ve been at posh corporate events where the language was far worse than this “Metal Masters” concert.

Judas Priest from row 6 (click to enlarge)

In the car on the way home Bo and I talked about this. We talked about the language and that as nice as those folks may have been, it really give a very “trashy” impression. I asked him about those guys in the restroom and what impression their language portrayed about them. I asked how he’d feel if folks got that impression about him without getting to know him, just by how he talked…  It was all good.

The best part is that he got to see real people. He got to see that folks that may be a bit rough around the edges on the outside can be pretty great people. He learned about not judging folks, about seeing peoples hearts and not being turned off by exteriors…. me too….

I think a lot of churches could learn quite a bit from Motörhead fans…