Reid's First Concert

Despite my long and colorful history of attending (and even reviewing) rock shows, I was completely unprepared for the Wiggles. Fortunately, my only 'purpose' there, if I in fact had one at all, was to keep my son from disappearing into the wild tangle of toddlerhood that was surrounding us at all times. Seriously, thousands and thousands of screaming children.

Reid took in all in stride. For the first 40 minutes of the 75 minute concert, he looked like this first picture, shocked and amazed. He was dazzled, clearly, and didn't take his eyes off the stage.

After this strange sustained period of calm, Reid said a single word. It is important to note that we were both (yes, we both went) unnecessarily exhorting Reid to enjoy the show, pointing out to him that there was Anthony, Jeff, Greg and Murray, the Wiggles, and their friend Dorothy the Dinosaur, and there went Captain Feathersword, etc. We wanted to believe, and to be sure, that Reid was enjoying his first live musical spectacle, and that we weren't fools for bringing him to a gigantic basketball arena for a concert when he was barely in 2T.

Well, with a single breathless exclamation ("Jeff!") Reid arose from one of our laps and started dancing wildly. He shimmied, wiggled, even, and had a ball.

Hysterically, I took seriously the admonition on our tickets that no cameras would be admitted. (I recall a Radiohead concert in the early camera-phone era when thousands -- seriously thousands -- of phones were confiscated and left in a gigantic pile outside of Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.) So we bought a crappy CVS disposable camera and that is what yielded these even shakier-than-normal images. Reid's cousin Samantha also took in the show, and her mom snapped this outstanding shot of the Wiggles in action. Enjoy.