...as the rain buckets down

There's another Madonna concert in Oslo tonight. GLAD I am not going to
that one! It is POURING rain out there.

Though, honestly, I could have not gone to the first one and been happy,
on hind sight. I mean, that ticket cost me over 800 kroners and it got
me the entry to a giant parking lot with stage and big screens WAY at
the other end. Couldn't really see the stage as it was also very far
away and I am NOT the sort of person who pushes to the front. Not that I
even could have gotten to the front, as the VIP section (for which
tickets cost an additional 400nok) was there. So the closest I could
have gotten was maybe 150 feet or so? I don't know. Not worth the
pushing and shoving for that. The best I can say is that I was in the
same city with Madonna for a few hours. I can't really say that I have
seen her live as I never really saw HER, just her image on a screen.

So we stood at the back, where drunk people bumped into us as they
meandered between beer stands and toilets and then back again. We waited
an hour an a half between opening act and the main show, with no music
or anything. I think Madge was waiting for it to get dark. Hello? Summer
in Norway! It doesn't GET dark!

People have asked me what the concert was like. My response?

Like standing for 5 hours in a giant concrete parking lot, getting
knocked into by drunk people and watching videos on a screen a block
away. Valle Hovin is a crap venue.

I could have watched it on my sofa at home, with a nice glass of wine,
and saved myself 850 nok. I could have had Rich sideswipe me and dump a
little beer on me every time he walked by for the added atmosphere of
drunken louts crashing into me.

Sigh.

Madonna is in awesome shape, I do give her credit for that. That woman
was jumping rope on stage while singing. I can hardly WALK while
singing. She's superhuman.

I just wish I could have seen it up close.

I have higher hopes for Massive Attack later in fall, as well as
possibly seeing Dinosaur Jr end of August. Neither of those are at Valle
Hovin, which I will never see another show at.