Earlier in the week, Josh asked Ben and I if we wanted to go to a concert on Saturday. Heather got some ticket for free and only had to pay the taxes on them. At first, I thought she got tickets for the concert I wanted to go to but then realized that concert was on Friday night, not Saturday night. I asked what concert and where was it. Ben said Stone Temple Pilots and The Smashing Pumpkins at the White River Ampitheater.
One, I am not s super huge fan of either band, two, I've never been to the White River Ampitheater and three, they were free tickets. Hmm. I told Ben, sure why not, it would be nice to experience the White River Amphitheater. He told Josh that we would go with them and will make plans for transportation and whatnot. Ben was surprised that I haven't been to a concert at White River. He and his dad used to go to concerts all the time since that venue was less than a half hour away from their house in Bonney Lake.
Doug and Sonya went to the Snoop Dog concert earlier in July and one of my providers I talk to a lot at work also went to a concert at the White River Ampitheater mid-July and a bullet went through her pants and hit another guy. They found out the bullet came from outside the venue, they were upgraded to a box seat and drinks and food were on the house. How crazy is that?! I told Ben that if we go to this concert with Josh and Heather, we might get shot. I knew it was unlikely, but I had to say it.
Ben kept in contact with Josh about when we were going to leave. Heather worked until 4 that day so probably sometime around 4:30-5. Ben told them to meet us at our house and Ben would drive us up to Auburn. Everyone knew the plan.
I spent some time looking up songs that each band sang because I really had no clue what songs they sang. My brother grew up listening to Stone Temple Pilots and I recognized one of the songs, but I had no clue about The Smashing Pumpkins except their name was big back in the mid 1990's. I really wasn't into that genre of music.
That morning, we slept in because we were up late on a date night to the movies. Ben and I ate dinner at Eagans and went to the mall to watch the new ninja turtle movie, Mutant Mayhem. We got up, ate a light breakfast and did some chores such as cleaning the microwave and vacuuming around the house. Rhonda and Brad were out of town for the weekend, so I had to go over to their house and feed the pets and let out Murphy while they were gone. I got that taken care of before Josh and Heather arrived at our house.
We hopped into Ben's Edge and off to Auburn we went. We decided that we would eat at the venue because we didn't have a whole lot of time for extra stops due to when Heather got off work. We got off of 167 and merged onto Hwy 18 and off at the main Auburn exit. We were glad Ben knew where he was going because I sure didn't. I knew it was in Auburn somewhere but had no idea where, exactly. We went up the hill and past the casino (where his grandma used to live) and after the casino, I really didn't know what was beyond that. I knew eventually that road would lead to Enumclaw somehow. It didn't take us very long to get up there. It did get slower as we approached the gate.
Once inside the gate, we followed the parking lot attendee's directions to where we eventually parked the Edge. I was told that getting out of the venue would be a challenge because everyone at the concert is leaving at the same time and to bring some snacks and leave them in your vehicle. I brought some chewy bars and my Nalgene with water in it just in case. We grabbed what we needed and started making the walk towards the entrance. Heather had out tickets on her phone.
We notice this concert is attracting more of the Gen-X crowd. A lot of them were in their late 40's/early 50's and were wearing old black concert T-shirts. The younger crowd were either their children attending it with them or kids trying to impress their dates by taking them to a concert near their home. There were probably a bunch of people there who truly loved the bands who were playing. I was there because it was free.
We went through security; they scanned our tickets, and we were in. I asked Ben if we could wander around, since this was my first time there, and he said yes. Josh and Heather went to go wander about themselves. I asked Ben what he felt like eating and he replied with let's go see what kind of places are around. There were a lot of options to check out. We did narrow it down to a food truck that served BBQ food. Ben stood in line while I quickly used the restroom. He hadn't moved very much in line when I got back. We decided on a pulled pork sandwich and mac n cheese with pulled pork mixed in. Ben paid for dinner.
I wanted one of the jars of alcohol I've been seeing people walking around with. We found a place that sold them. They had three different kinds, and they were $28 just for one. The silver lining is that some of the proceeds go towards a charity. We ordered the strawberry lemonade one and I paid for that. We figured since we didn't pay for our tickets, we really weren't worried about paying for food and drinks. We found a place to sit down and ate our food. We shared a table with two older gentlemen and one of them invited the other one because he won the tickets off the radio. Then there was some general small talk. Ben talked to them, and I just listened and ate my food.
Rival Sons finished up their set, thanked the crowd for their support and we were at our first intermission. The seats started to fill up as STP got ready for their show. We continued sitting in our seats, sipping on our drinks and people watching. The transition from band to band was almost complete. People started to make their way back to their seats with more beer and food. The lights went low and STP started playing their set list.
The only ones I recognized that they played were Interstate Love Song, Plush, Vasoline and Creep. The others just sounded like generic grunge-like songs from the early 1990's. At one point, someone had blown up a beach ball and it was being hit around. It actually made it to Ben and I and we got to punch it away from our section. It never returned to our area, but it was cool to be able to do that. During the intermission between STP and The Smashing Pumpkins, I got up to use the bathroom and to maybe possibly get in line to get some popcorn if it wasn't too long.
When I got out of the restroom and found the place that served popcorn, the lines were too long, so I returned to our seats, popcorn-less. It also started sprinkling. I was so glad we were under the roof in a seat instead of "on the lawn" where it is exposed to the elements. The Smashing Pumpkins were about to start, and the lights went dim. I did not recognize any of their songs. I did not grow up in the 90's listening to this genre of music. The lead singer looked just like Uncle Fester and their guitarist looked like an Asian Elvis impersonator from Vegas. I was entertained mostly for those two reasons because I just couldn't get into a genre of music, I didn't care too much for.
The concert got over, we left our seats and followed the crowd out to the concourse. Both Ben and Heather had to use the restroom, so Josh and I stood out in front and waited for them. Some strange girl came out of the bathroom and came up to us to ask if Josh was John, Jason or something that started with a J. He wasn't sure if he knew her or not. She might have known who he was, but he didn't recognize her. We asked who she was, and she said her drunk name was Zuul. In my head, I was like, the Ghostbusters gatekeeper?
She continued talking to us while Ben and I just kinda started walking back to the Edge. Josh and Heather humored her for a little bit longer until she asked if they could walk her back to her car. They promptly said no and caught up with us. That's exactly how people go missing...asking strangers to help you or strangers convincing you to help them. Nope!
Getting out of the venue took a while, but we managed to finally get out. Then we found out they were doing road construction, and we were detoured away from the main road, down a couple back roads and then back onto the main road, past the casino and back into Auburn. We got onto Hwy 18, onto 167 and 512. From 512, we merged onto I-5 and got off at the College Street exit and back to our house. We arrived just after 11:30. Josh and Heather thanked us for driving and we thanked them for treating us to a concert. They headed back to Tenino.
I got in a quick shower and then got ready for bed. My ears are going to be buzzing for a few days.
Next Adventure: A Tacoma Rainier's Game with Tammy
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