Talking of rain, the wet weather played a major part in shaping one of our more enjoyable and remarkable experiences recently.
Some time after Christmas, amidst a sudden wave of nostalgia for the old days of buying records from new bands, I found myself wandering round BestBuy with some Christmas tokens in my hand and a few half-remembered names in my head. On impulse I bought albums by The Libertines, Fountains of Wayne, and a band called Keane who I had never heard but had apparently been making waves in England. Linda and I fell in love with the Hopes and Fears album, and to cut a long story short we couldn't miss the opportunity to see them when they appeared at the Festival Pier in Philly.
We should have had a premonition of what was to come when the tickets said 'Rain or Shine' on them, and friends who were going with us asked about a rain date (In America, outdoor events are usually organised with a alternative 'rain date' in case of bad weather). Festival Pier is an open-air arena right next to the Delaware River - on any other occasion it would have been idyllic, but tonight it was just wet. Throughout Friday, the rain fell, sometimes heavy, occasionally lighter, bringing false hope of it clearing up. By the time Ryan and Amy had dropped out due to work committments, Linda and I had reconciled ourselves to a stoic evening of kagoules and hot chocolate.
I'm amazed that Keane actually managed to stage a show in the constant rain. But the rain couldn't dampen the spirits of a lot of fans who obviously loved the songs as much as we did. The band are clearly nice polite English boys from a small town in Sussex, but, well all the better for it. A couple of drunken Americans were taking the piss by shouting 'hurray' in mock-English accents after every song (Linda corrected them halfway through, at which 'hurray' changed to 'hurrah') but most of the crowd were actually teenage girls, swooning over the singer's pretty boy looks and making us feel particularly old. Anyway we loved it, and we're beginning to rediscover a taste for concert going which seemed to be long past.
