I’m going to see Air Supply! This is a bucket list item for me (#26 to be exact!), so imagine my excitement when I found out they are playing at the Cape Cod Melody Tent on August 8. A casual mention of their upcoming show elicited equal excitement from my friend Deb, and so I was on a mission to get tickets. Accessible tickets cannot be purchased through the Melody Tent’s website. However, there is a note that says to call for accessible tickets and so I did. I talked to a lovely woman who secured four tickets in Section C, row 7 for us, and I am over the moon about it!
I have eclectic taste in music to be sure. I love everything from country to hair bands. I can listen to classical, big band, pop, grunge. I love a little bit of most genres. My first concert was Frank Sinatra, my favorite was Imagine Dragons because it was my son Jack’s favorite, and my most swoon-worthy, heart-stopping, and memorable was New Kids on the Block two summers ago with my cousins (click here to find out why). I’ve seen Garth Brooks, Elton John, Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, Aerosmith, Skid Row, Train, Phil Collins. I’ve loved them all.
But Air Supply holds a special place in my heart. Their greatest hits album, which came out in 1983, was the first cassette I ever owned. It was given to me by a dear friend of my family, Dan Barber, who was a local musician that my parents used to take me to see almost every weekend. A year later, Dan’s album, Embers, with Wendy Ann Cahoon, came out, and I spent hours and hours alternating between playing Embers on my turntable and Air Supply on my Walkman.
Many days I held my breath as I used my trusty pencil to fix the cassette after my Walkman tried to eat the tape and give me a heart attack! But the pencil always worked and I would happily rewind the cassette manually and play it again…and again.
These days I have all my Air Supply music on my phone and I can, of course, easily download anything I want to hear from iTunes. But I still have my old cassette (though I’m not sure if I still have an actual working cassette player). I take it out from time to time when I’m feeling particularly nostalgic, and I remember the joy of being 11 years old and discovering my love of this band when Dan handed me the cassette and told me that it was one of his favorite bands. Sadly, I long ago lost touch with Dan, but he gave me a beautiful gift that day and it’s one that lives on in my heart even now. And I am so looking forward to bring that gift full circle as I go see Air Supply with my husband and our friends next month.
Rise Against ALS! 