Reliving the dream

This morning I'm listening to the Re-Invention Tour live from Paris. (If I were a true glutton for punishment, I'd be listening to Blond Ambition live from Barcelona where I think a chorus of cattle might have had a better chance of hitting the right notes than Madge did, but I digress.) Actually, I remember being so impressed with her voice on Re-Invention. And the set list. And the whole experience.

It was the first time I'd jetted cross-country to see Madonna perform, and at the time, it seemed just this side of insane. We'd gone to Drowned World in Chicago, which wasn't so crazy because it was only a 4 hour car ride and we'd been to Chicago a million times so it was no big deal. But this was something entirely different. Flying all the way to Washington, D.C. to see a concert! How obsessed were we? Well, no more obsessed than most of the other people at the concert.

We managed to get there in time to do a bit of sightseeing - I'd been to D.C. a few years prior, so I'd seen a lot of the stuff there, but the World War II Memorial was not even started when I was there in 2000.

I remember there being a big fuss over its construction, like it would be a blight upon the National Mall. In actuality, it's gorgeous and somber and appropriate to the event it's memorializing. (is that even a word?) Plus it's a great place to just hang out on the Mall.

The concert was wonderful - as I've detailed before, it was the first Madonna concert I'd been to where her classic hits were given a fair chance. It was so thrilling to be in an arena full of people shouting out "Get up on the dance floor!" The set list was such a welcome relief after what (I feel) was the self-indulgence of Drowned World. And the crowd was electric. Although people got up to go get refreshments and go to the restroom during "Deeper & Deeper" to which Jeff and I were all like "You paid how much to get in here and you're not going to watch every minute of it!?!"

It was a better concert experience than Confessions - which was marred by an unfortunately unpleasant red-eye flight out of Vegas to Dallas and Jeff having a kidney stone that he was afraid was going to flare up and then we'd end up in an ER in Vegas rather than the MGM Grand Garden Arena (and he didn't even say anything the whole time we were there!!!) The Confessions concert probably edges out Re-Invention almost entirely due to Madge's interaction with the audience and sheer joy that you could tell she had from playing the Confessions songs.

But the trip to D.C. to see Madonna - hard to top it. Probably will only be topped when we all go to New York the next time Madonna tours.

And so, since I can listen to these shitty (for the most part) audience recorded bootlegs of Madge concerts, I'm not so upset with the recording of the Casey Stratton concert I went to. These audio souvenirs, no matter the quality, just serve to help you relive the experience. Because inevitably, it starts to fade from your brain. Most concerts I've been to end up feeling like a dream when you look back at them. And for me, the audio is the best way to relive the dream.