Sweaty nostalgia on a Monday night.

To the wonderfully ‘eardrum bursting’ soundtrack of Pixie’s song Debaser, I faced yet another first in my fight with MS and mobility. I SAT for an entire gig where I whooped, cheered and tapped my knees furiously!!! I screamed the words I knew and thoroughly enjoyed sitting throughout an hour and a half long Pixies set.

Once those opening notes were played, the crowd went crazy. Me included, all from my seat! It felt wrong at first I’ll admit, but I got used to it. When your choice is taken away from you, you’d be amazed at how quickly you adapt. Monday night’s Pixies gig in Cork’s Live at the Marquee venue was an eclectic mix of aging rockers and grungy types convincing themselves they were still hip and even more important – YOUNG!

I put myself in the second category, minus the grunge and certainly minus the hipness nowadays. There should have been an enormous banner as you entered the marquee reading – abandon any middle-aged urges all ye who enter here.

One of my longest, greatest friends from college days was with me on the night. He was the perfect companion for my maiden wheelchair voyage to a concert. We had seen the Pixies together in a huge outdoor venue in Dublin 10 years ago. My main memories from that day include the joy of discovering antiseptic handwash beside the portaloos (alas the slippery slope to middle-age began then…) and the fact that our phones didn’t work, so as a result sat in our pockets redundant for the day – all before camera phones and social media updates. I also remember (what felt like) a 5 mile walk in and out of the venue, added with a day of jumping around a field with 100,000 people, followed by wandering through the streets of Dublin for a few drinks.

What a massive contrast to Monday night’s concert. Where we went out for dinner beforehand, were careful not to arrive with full bladders and did so by car and wheelchair. We had a wonderful night filled with fantastic music, memories and recognising old faces from our college days. We laughed as an extremely large character with no rhythm whatsoever repeatedly meandered his way into our line of vision towards the end of the concert, full of the joys of life and odd jerky movements. Life was good!

Everything was very well organised for wheelchair users. Our only hitch was in the carpark afterwards when we spent a hilarious few minutes trying to dismantle the chair and close the boot without an arm rest smashing the back window. Our euphoric happy mood helped to avoid any embarrassment at the fact that our mishaps were fully illuminated by the lights of the cars queuing to leave.

We queued patiently to exit the disabled parking area, and retreated to the quiet comfort of my kitchen and enjoyed a few glasses of prosecco. A bit different to olden days of squeezing yourself through throngs of sweaty bodies to the bar and spilling the contents of your pint on the way back to the tiniest corner by the toilets where your friends stood roaring to hear each other.

My only gripe was that Pixies didn’t play my favourite song Gigantic! They didn’t play an encore either.  So even though they played almost 30 songs to the crowd of 5,000 happy fans, I felt slightly cheated by the ending, and no Joe Santiago’s self indulgent solo of playing 3 guitars simultaneously didn’t make up for it in my opinion. What a great night overall, a triumph of noise triggering happy memories. My ears are still ringing, my toes are still tapping and my face is still smiling.

Go on, treat your ears…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx_SKiSmvdc