*If you're too lazy to do the math, I wrote this three years ago on the old blog. Like clockwork when I noticed the date, I paused for a moment of silence and paid my respect to what is still one of the most epic day/night/mornings I've ever experienced.
This is part one...
On this day in history, ten years to be exact, some shenanigans went down that will forever make this day a very monumental one in the world of Todd. No, it didn't involve the losing of my virginity. That happened a few years earlier and the select few who know that tale know it as the kind of thing that would only happen to a guy like me. I'm not really at liberty to discuss that landmark day but I will fluff you a bit and tell you it involved Steve Martin and a self inflicted nosebleed.
But please, don't feel gypped. The story that is set to unfold is every bit as good and it even involves more blood- a lot more.
You see, ten years ago on this very day I saw KISS live in concert for the very first time.
It was the summer of '96, otherwise known as the magical time between my first and second sophomore years of college. The only productive thing I did was sign up for a summer course to help negate the effects of getting a non-passing grade in Art History. Couldn't find Remedial English taught by a gym teacher named Shoop so I settled on the next best thing- The History of Rock Music.
I don't remember how I discovered it but the summer of '96 was the first time a course in rock music history was offered at the University of Nebraska (where the 'N' on the football helmets stands of knowledge!) and you really had to be a dumb ass not to sign up for it.
Really, could there be an easier class to take over the summer?
My roommate Aaron signed on too and for six weeks, our education consisted of in class showings of VH-1's "Behind the Music" and all six hours of PBS' documentary on Rock and Roll- the best part of which was the segment on Satan rock where Ozzy talked a ton of shit in the general direction of KISS about them being commercialized sellouts- "What kind of rock band has lunch boxes and little dolls of themselves?"
Last I checked, Ozzy bendy dolls were still available in the junky toy aisle down at Ralphs.
The only hard part of the entire course was one particular question of one particular midterm that happened to count for a lot of our overall grade. I think it was the professor's way of seeing if we were actually paying attention in class but regardless, it took a lot of cruelty to have one question count for half the grade of one exam. The question: Put all of the Beatles album and single releases (UK and US) in chronological order.
That question wouldn't be so bad if mixing and matching or multiple choice were an option but nope. All we had was a blank page and failing hopes about pulling down an "A" in the History of Rock. Holy shit was that a cruel question. The professor really wasn't into the whole partial credit for a partially right answer thing so everyone in the class headed towards the 4th of July break with a cumulative "D" hanging over our cumulative heads.
Oh man, what were we going to do? Aaron had aspirations of going to law school. I had aspirations of graduating before I turned 30. Over mooched iced coffees at The Mill, our favorite spot to mooch beverages and bask like leeches in the glory the of air conditioning, we tried to formulate a plan.
But what?
The only thing that could dig us out of such a deep hole was extra credit. In the syllabus, the proffessor stated that extra credit would be awarded for concert going. The bigger the concert the more bonus points you'd get. The only problem was we lived in Nebraska. A concert comes along about as often as Jesus rising from the dead. Still, we remained undeterred and I put applied everything I'd learned in Journalism School so far and rummaged around in the newspaper basket until I found the classified ads and looked for the section marked "Concert Tickets."
There was only one listing but we hit the jackpot- "KISS in KC two tix $40 ea."
Some of you kids might not know this but back then the internet really wasn't all that popular. There was no Craigslist or Ebay to help you find whatever it was your little heart desired. You had to do things the old fashioned way. That that meant finding a week old classified ad about two tickets to the KISS show in Kansas City and sliding quarter into a pay phone to find out if they were still available.
...to be continued...
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