Review Of Cream Concert At MSG 10-25-05 Part I

"Is that cream on your pants, or are you just happy to see me?" "Um...it's both."

THE BUILD UP...

So, yesterday afternoon around 3:00 PM, my girlfriend, M, IM's me, "My boss just sent around an email about two tickets to see Cream tonight, they're like $185 each." This was simply conversation on a dull and rainy Tuesday.

So I wrote back, "Where are they playing?" Reply, "At Madison Square Garden."

Me, "Wow, thats awesome, I wish I had that money, I'd offer to buy them." Her reply, "Um, duh, they're free." So I said, "What? They're free? Are you kidding me?" Cream, at MSG, for free?" I type frantically, "Get the tickets! Get the tickets!"

She's like, "wait, what? Who is Cream? You want to go see them?" She had no idea I'd react like this, she was just chatting. I'm flipping out. I type, "Cream? You know, with Eric Clapton? 'White Room?'" So she says, "Hold on, let me check."

She goes into her boss's office, and tells her that she's interested in the two tickets. Not just one, either two or none. Boss says she'll get back to her.

Meanwhile, I'm insta-hyper. I suddenly envision myself seeing Cream, and that mere hint of a possible taste set my blood to racing. I tell M, my girlfriend, "Ok, either we get those tickets, or your boss's dog dies...."

M's reply, "She has a hamster." Okayyy, I can work with that. "Well, then she better give us those tickets if she ever wants to see hammy the hamster again"....but it was really out of M's control.

So, I make conversation. "Are the seats good?" M, "Um, their record label seats? Of course they're good." I don't believe her. But again, there's nothing to do but wait, so we continue to chat. She doesn't really want to go even if we do get the tickets.

Why? "Because", says, M, "Cream may not have toured for 35 years, but the White Sox haven't won the world series since 1917." (She's from Chicago.)

So I'm like, "Fine, just get the tickets, and if you don't want to go, I can take someone else." I mean, I would've been ok with one ticket and going by myself. But it was apparent that she would go, even if she just wanted to watch the World Series, because it'd be fun. Though, it was also cool to envision inviting a friend, Like H, R, J, or E, to go see cream, that night, for FREE.

So, after an hour or two, I can't really focus or concentrate. All I can think of is, "Cream or no Cream? Cream or no Cream?" I was originally just going to visit my new married friends E and A, but this would obviously take precedence. And of course tomorrow night M was going to cook me dinner at her place.

Finally, close to 5:00, M IM's me "I have good news and bad news." I'm like, I have no idea if she's playing me or not.

So she says, "I won't be cooking you dinner tomorrow night, because instead, I guess we can go see Cream." Cha Ching! "I asked my boss if the seats were good, for you because you don't believe me, and she looked at me like I was nuts. Boss said, 'These are Label seats...'"

She also types, "I can't believe how much these tickets are. They're like $356 A PIECE!" Then she adds, "Oh, and there some kind of cocktail hour at the Club Room as well."

Cocktail hour? Club Room? Tell me more! We don't know if its free, or if there will be food there, or what, but M calls the place, and finds out its 7-8, inside the Private MSG Club Room bar, but no food.

So, at this point I'm flying on a cloud. I can't believe we got the tickets! We discuss details. We try decide if we want to go to the Club Room or not. My basic thought is, how can we miss it? We're not going to have a chance like this again. So we agree to meet at 7:20 outside MSG to try the cocktail hour, whether its free or not. I'll go home, chill out, drop off stuff, grab a bite, and then meet her in front of MSG.

I leave work early, race home, tell my room mate who I'm going to see, and he's like, "NO SHIT!" I make a frozen dinner, watch an intriguing guy show how different technologies are connected on the Science channel, then run out the door, sans everything except my jacket. It's raining, but I won't need an umbrella, and I don't want to drag it around.

I meet up with M, and we go to the glass side entrance to the VIP Club Room. We show our tickets, and then M gets on the escalator going up. I move to follow her, when the security guard puts a beefy hand on my chest and says, "YOU enter out there through the main entrance."

I'm like, what? Meanwhile M is on the escalator just starting to go up. I'm like, "M! Wait!"

Luckily she wasn't far up the escalator at all, so she got back off. She said, "He's with me, and THEN shows both of the blue stickers that are our tickets to the cocktail hour. Guard says, "well, you shoulda showed those to me BEFORE he tried to go in." We laugh, breath a sigh of relief, and get on the escalator. We're going in....To Be Continued In Part II