The challenge is arm-wheeling. No, wait… the challenge is OVER!
See the blog Expatriatism for a list of the other worthy participants, including my artist niece, and links to their daily drawings.
Day 30: Our FINAL assignment was to draw a Concert Moment.
So I drew: The Night I Lost My Hearing.
Somewhere in the early 70s, my friends and I saw The Who at the San Diego Sports Arena. We were in the “cheap seats,” but rushed the stage and wound up in front (I think this would be called a mosh pit in more modern times). We were packed in like sardines with everyone else, waiting for the music to begin.
We saw dark forms milling on the stage, stage hands setting up guitars and gear, walking back and forth in front of the little red amp lights.
Then nothing.
Then more milling forms. Band members took their positions on the stage. Well, most of them did. Then three things happened at the same time:
- The lights came on.
- The music started.
- Peter Townshend was arm-windmilling a chord on his guitar, mid-air… having jumped off the top of a stack of amps and speakers.
All night long, Townshend kept giving his engineers the thumbs up, meaning “louder, louder.” When each song ended, all of us sardines would scream at the top of our lungs, clapping and whistling, our faces only inches from each others’ ears.
Our applause must have been insanely loud. And we would hear…
…rinnnngggggggggg. Nothing. We would hear nothing but the ringing of our ears. I literally heard no sound from the wide-open, screaming mouths of those beside me. Yikes.
Trying to find the car that night, my friends and I were like a Cheech and Chong routine, shouting into each others’ ears with cupped hands, “Where’s the CAR?!”
“What?!”
“Where’s the CARRRrrr?!!!?”
And so on.
Bill Davis' Words 