The Verizon Wireless American Music Festival

Virginia Beach, VA
August 30, 2008

A fortunate chain of events led to me winning free Passport Pins for the American Music Festival in Virginia Beach over the Labor Day weekend. I check up on local news almost everyday with Pilotonline through HamptonRoads.com and followed a link that said “enter to win.” I rarely win anything but figured the worse that could happen would be a new stream of spam, but threw caution to the wind and clicked the little button. The very next day a very nice lady called me at work and told me I won 4 passes which were good for all the paid events all weekend. How cool is that? Even more amazing was my husband agreeing to go to the Billy Idol concert on August 30. Not because my husband dislikes the rocker, but because we had spent Saturday at Busch Gardens with our kids and niece.

By the time we dropped the kids off with my sister and shuffled over to the Beach the warm up act was long gone and the stage was set for the main event. The Verizon Wireless American Music Festival in Virginia Beach is held outdoors right on the beach at 5th street and it's a great venue as long as the weather cooperates. The night was warm and a bit muggy, but overall a good night for a concert.

My Hubby went in search of festival food while I searched for the best place to set up the camp chairs that was upwind of the Port-o-John village and far enough away from the beer tents that we wouldn't have drunks stumbling over us. If we had been creative like the couple in front of us and carved out our own sand sofa we could have saved schlepping our chairs the 8 or so blocks from where we parked. I would like to give a special thank you to Janis at the Mail Depot for giving me her resident parking pass which made life soooooo much easier. Many folks brought blankets, beach towels and cardboard while the rest chose to stand. Neither my husband nor I wanted to be in the thick of the crowd, so we ended up about 2 blocks away from the stage with a great view of the jumbo-tron stage screen, but could see nothing of stage except the superstructure. I said I had come to hear the music and didn't really care if I could see him(early on that is.)

DH navigates through the crowd with warm Diet Coke and brats. Not good – but edible and the show begins. I was a little confused at first. Who was this man with the dark hair and all the clothes? What's with the button down shirt, vest and coat? The Idol I remember had bleached white hair and wore little other than tight leather pants. Here's the only clear photo I got of him during the whole evening. Still looks damn good, don't he? He sounded exactly the same and there's something to be said for updating your look (see guitarist comments below.) He starts of the show with 4 of his better known hits: Cradle of Love, Dancing with Myself, Hot in the City and Flesh for Fantasy. Idol sounded in good voice and the band was in rhythm and in tune but I couldn't help but feel that the intensity level was somewhere around 4. It was like rock on Prozac. I remarked to my husband that I remembered Billy being a much more fierce performer and my husband remarked that “we're all getting old.” Gee thanks, honey!

Observations made of the crowd during the first four tunes:

To my right there is a group of folks standing and talking and dancing a little bit. Within the group there is a 40-something year old guy that looks like he would be more suited to a Buffet concert than the current offering going by the loud Hawaiian shirt and baggy shorts. He gets inspired to do a bit of punk slam dancing which left his date uncomfortably looking around to see if anyone was watching while she continued to do the white-woman shuffle – you know the move where you bounce from one foot to the other because you don't know how to dance. Yep, that one. He stopped once he realized he was entertaining the crowd in a way other than the way he intended. Yeah, I was laughing – dude, you were ridiculous.

There were a lot more kids at this concert than I expected but none of them were obnoxious and for that I am grateful. A girl most likely 8 to 10 years old was paying attention to the act rather than playing in the sand like most of the other kids her age and got into the chant at the end of Flesh for Fantasy with the adults around her. I have to say it is a little unsettling to watch a pre-pubescent girl shouting “Flesh!-Flesh!-Flesh!” while pumping her fist in the air. I'm just going to console myself with the notion that the girl had no idea what she was talking about – I soooooo hope that is true.

After the set of well known music Billy introduces a song from his most recent CD, The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself, (couldn't think of a longer title? sheesh) called John Wayne. It was an okay tune – but I wasn't familiar with it so it didn't do anything for me.

During this rather slow period it strikes me odd that Billy Idol is the headliner for the American Music Festival. Billy Idol aka William Broad is from Middlesex, UK, and was a part of the 2nd British Invasion of the 1980s. Although I find it strange he is here to epitomize American Music there is certainly no disdain for the performer on my part. My fellow graduates of the MHS Class of 1985 all loved Idol and did our best to copy his lip snarl that made him oh-so-sexy back in the day.

He followed that with another of his songs that seemed to be better known by the crowd around me called New Future Weapon. He gave a shout out to a female pilot with an NAS Oceana connection, I presume, that sounded like he read it directly off a card, but I bet the gal got a real kick out of it. I know I would.

We're about 50 minutes into the show and Billy gives us another old favorite, Eyes Without a Face. The Sand Sofa couple decide to get up and give us a bit of dirty dancing. Thanks folks, I really could have done without that bit of magic under the stars, but whatcha gonna do?

I should mention that by this time Billy has shed the coat (that came off after song number 2 ) and the vest and has changed into a t-shirt. He had my sympathy, it has to be unbearably hot with the humidity and stage lights. Shortly after Eyes Idol takes about a 15 minute break while the lead guitarist demonstrates his skills. It starts out rockin' but ends up being a classical guitar solo. The guitarist is a top notch player, but really needs to find a stylist to pull him kicking and screaming out of the late 80's hair-band style. He didn't look cool – he looked comical. But, he is up there performing with Billy Idol and I'm not, so what the hell do I know?

After his break Idol comes back hitting it a little harder. White Wedding gets the crowd rockin' and he gives us some more new stuff while building the anticipation for his signature song, Rebel Yell. I can't stand it anymore and tell my husband that I am heading closer to the stage to try and get a good photo to post on my reunion website. I must have taken 2 dozen shots but not a one of them came out clear. This photo is the best of the worst shots - but I know what it is! Billy stayed true to his roots and by the end of Rebel Yell he was shirtless and sweaty with his fist high in the air. At 50+ Billy is looking awesome! Everyone was on their feet and having a great time. I'd seen what I wanted to see and figured it was time to find the husband and head out before the crowd.

I get back to our site just in time to see a woman staggering by me with two giant Big Gulp refillable cups. I'm sure there was nothing in there but a Slurpee, (and a fifth of something.) She is obviously feeling no pain and lucky me, I just happen to be looking her way when she bends over to put them on the ground and get a half moon. That was nearly enough to make the nasty brat come back for a visit. She fell/sat on the sand and swayed gently to the music. DH and I were debating whether to stick it out and stay for the fireworks until Big Gulp's date showed up and started grinding his pelvis into the back of her head. Neither of us had to say a word to the other, we just started packing up the chairs.

Just as we got to the stairs leading up to the boardwalk we heard the beginning strains of “Mony, Mony” We remained there until the song finished and started our trek back to the car. We were almost at Atlantic Ave, but could still hear the music. It must have been clear to everyone that the concert was over when Billy started to introduce the band. So and so on drums, Whatshisface on bass guitar, Big Hair on lead guitar and me - I'm Billy F*ckin' Idol! Then the fireworks went off.

I don't think anyone told Mr. Idol we have an ordinance here at the beach regarding profanity. I snickered about that last bit all the way back to the car.