The Shallow End of the Pool

Regular readers of this little corner of the web will remember a post not too long ago dealing with my daughter's obsession with The Click Five. Remember when you were a little kid and you first discovered music and decided that, whoever it was (KISS in my case), they were the greatest thing since sliced bread? Well, for her, it's The Click Five (SIDE NOTE: She still loves Avril Lavigne, but this Click Five thing is WAY beyond her devotion to Avril).

Well, last month she found out that they were coming to play by us at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, opening for Ryan Cabrera. I wasn't too keen on buying tickets to see an opening act, but they were only $25 each, so I got them. The show was Thursday night, and I've got to say, it was really a fantastic night, and one that will place me right in the running for Father of the Year Award whenever they give that out.

First of all, it was "GENERAL ADMISSION." So to ensure that my rather petite offspring had a decent chance at being able to see the stage, I wanted to get there early. We did, and I managed to get her right at the front, just slightly off to the left of center stage. After the lights went down and the curtain opened to reveal The Click Five standing barely five feet in front of her, only then did I realize how deep her love of these guys was. Because for the duration of their set (7 songs, roughly a half hour), she jumped up and down, screaming and singing along...with tears running down her little face the ENTIRE time. I didn't know until that moment just how much this meant to her (For the record, TC5 really put on a great show. The songs came across a bit more "rock" than their slickly-produced CD, and they've all got great hooks. I was impressed).

But it gets better. Emotionally drained, she decided she didn't need to stay up in front for Ryan Cabrera's set. She wanted to hang out in the back, away from the crowd, and just chill out. Besides, I still had to buy her a T-shirt. $40 later (T-shirt, poster, and 8x10 glossy color photo), I found out from the guy at the stand that the band was coming to do a meet and greet after the show...not backstage for the chosen few who had passes, but for EVERYBODY, right out on the floor.

About halfway through Cabrera's set, we saw a line starting to form over where the meet and greet was scheduled to be, so we joined the queue. After a much shorter wait than I anticipated (only about 5 minutes after Cabrera finished), TC5 came out to the table. The line moved along fairly quickly, and soon enough we were at the front. I can not stress enough just how nice they were to her; really, I'm sure they see thousands of people at these things every week, but all 5 guys took the time to smile and talk to her and just make her feel really special. Long story short, she went to school the next day with her brand new Click Five T-shirt, except this one said "To Heather" in black Sharpie on the top (yes, they asked her name), and was surrounded by their autographs (they also signed the 8x10, again "To Heather!", which I had framed Friday morning). So, thanks to Eric, Joe, Joey, Ethan, and Ben, for giving my daughter a night she will never forget, and a smile that's not going to come off her face for quite some time.