This was my perch for Sunday’s evening show with Bon Jovi. While watch both show and crowd, I managed to come to a conclusion. I’ve worked as an usher for a variety of different events as it is usually fairly easy supplemental bucks. Whenever a concert comes up, everybody hopes for an uneventful night of hopefully folks just enjoying the show.

While I’m not a huge Bon Jovi fan, I respect ‘em and for what they do, they do it well enough. They put on a good show and the masses were pretty happy. It’s a kick to see bands that have been around long enough that the generations share them. Mother and son sat in the aisle near me and it was a hoot to see the lad (all of 9 or 10) enjoy the tunes while his mom “enjoyed” Mr. Bon Jovi. I I did learn a few things last night. Apparently, when Jon mentions that he’d like do a song from album that is about to come out soon, that is apparently code for “It’s now time to run to concessions, get a couple of eight dollar beers and you won’t miss one of the hits.” Those were some getting up and wandering around fans. People were headed up the aisles so often it reminded me of the Sabres crowd the night before.

I guess I was just jealous of their well financed errands to the concession stands, a lot of damn money for Blue Light I tells ya. Things seem a little more tense than the sports events as the evening unfolds and then it dawned on me, concerts inside are like night football games at the stadium. It was pretty mellow. I had to laugh a bit, when a chemically serene customer stopped on her way out with just a few songs left to announce that “Sir, sir, there might be drunk people up there, just so you know, just a few feet in front of usssss!”

Good to know

For the unitiated, I do extra work at the First Niagara Center for events as an usher. All about not working terribly hard is me. For the Sabres/Stars game, I got the fuzzy end of the lollipop of assignments. It was nice to get the call as it had been a few weeks, but I was given a door to watch over, near restrooms in a little alcove. The door behaved itself. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was getting punished, but they were filling in the blanks. The usual doormeister was gone so I got the call. It is mostly boring, you can’t see the game very well, so you people watch and that is a festival as you might expect but you feel a little weird as half your sightline is folks entering the bathrooms. Had an awkward reunion with a guy I never really got along with in jr. high. That was weird and sort of set the tone for the night. He relayed to his date that he gave me a hard time and said he was surprised I never beat him up. I allowed how there was still time.

I was occasionally sneaking game glances but you did have to watch out for interlopers sneaking up the stairwell. The middle level of the place is restricted during the game to the folks who pay for the privilege, but that doesn’t stop some smoothies from taking a shot at getting in. I had a guy whose invisible wife was killing him to get a handcarved roast turkey sandwich (yeah, sure), a few other ner do wells, but my favorite was the guy who tried to talk his way up to see Sabres Broadcaster Kevin Sylvester, while Mr. Sylvester was speaking….on television. Something tells me that isn’t the best time for company to drop by, especially when they don’t seem to grasp the nature of your job. That same something told me that the gentleman in front of me knew Mr. Sylvester, from watching him on television like the rest of us.

The Sabres won in a shootout, so I’m thinking all the people who left early trying to “Beat the traffic” are feeling a little foolish, but I showed that door who was boss.