Very Mundane and Pointless, and quite long…
For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to organize a group going to Riverfest - a free concert put on by local radio station 92.5 The River, on the Esplanade in Boston. The acts for this particular show were They Might Be Giants, Suzanne Vega, and Patti (sp?) Smith. The act of most interest to my friends was TMBG, of course. I told a friend from Maine, who also got a mutual friend from Vermont interested. They in turn got their friends interested. In the case of my friend Molly from Maine, one of these friends is actually local - Carter is from Hingham. I got my local friends interested, and that’s where the planning came in.
Now, planning this thing was hell. The people I knew were going at first were my friend Molly in Maine, along with some of her local friends, this Carter guy, and my local pals Stacey (who is a guy), Oscar, and Andy. These three are hereafter referred to as the Demons, since their band is the Demons of Stupidity. I later found out that Stacey’s girlfriend Jackie was coming. So, we planned to meet at the Alewife Bertucci’s at 3:30 that day (the concert started at 5:00). A number of things happened in quick succession: first, I found out that another friend, Mikah from New Hampshire, and another, Eric who happens to be living in NH as well, were also interested in going. And my friends wanted to bump the meeting time up to 2:30, to give time for eating. The result was a flurry of phone calls Friday, during which I learned the lovely tidbit of information that Maria was bringing a group as well - a number of her friends. I also had to figure out transportation for Mikah and Jackie, and let everyone know when and where to meet. It was all very confusing, but we got things mostly organized.
So, at 1:00 Mikah arrived at my house, and about 15-20 minutes later we headed off to Alewife. We arrived at 2:30 to find… no one. Our friends were late. We checked both the platform and Bertucci’s a couple times… nothing. We went into Bertucci’s and waited for a while, checked the platform again… nothing. We eventually decided to just order food and hope our friends showed up.
While we waited, Mikah went off to check again. In the interim, Carter came in. Now, I didn’t know Carter, at all. Molly just described him as “this guy… he has long dirty-blond hair.” Naturally, I was a bit perturbed; how was I going to find this guy? Fortunately, this guy comes into Bertucci’s, looking mildly purposeful, with long hair of a shade made difficult to determine by back lighting. I asked him, tentatively, if he was Carter. Thank goodness, my hunch was correct. How else was I to pick him out? Being wrong would have been annoying.
Mikah had made a loop and was just coming back from her fruitless search, when she intercepted the Demons and Jackie in front of Bertucci’s, they just having come from the other direction. Our food arrived. The others ordered pizza, we scarfed food down. Carter went to check for Molly as we were figuring out the bill. He found her and came back, and so we packed up and headed down to the trains.
At this point, we had me, the Demons, Jackie, Molly, Carter, and Molly’s other friends (Matt, Christy and Jason), along with her parents. Now, where were Eric, Maria, and whoever else they were bringing? Fortunately, as we were getting tokens, we spotted Maria, and headed up to get them. So, the total group was me, the Demons, Jackie, Carter, Molly, Matt, Jason, Christy, Maria, Eric, Cat, Cat’s boyfriend (who’s name escapes me, annoyingly; David, perhaps?) Ian, and… um, the guy in the Army shirt whose name also escapes me. And Molly’s parents. This was just about exactly 20 people - definitely a larger group than I had expected.
There was a brief humorous (albeit stressful) moment when we realized I had left Mikah’s watch up in Bertucci’s. Cue a segment with me sprinting all the way up to street level to get the watch back before sprinting back down to join everyone. Hilarity.
So, we finally squeezed everyone onto a train and headed out to the Charles/MGH Red Line stop. We then got everyone else and headed off to the Esplanade, finding a sizable grassy area on the side to get settled and spread our two blankets. Molly’s parents left us to our own devices.
Things were a bit tough, at first; there were a lot of unfamiliar faces. Fortunately, we had somehow managed to assemble the most incredibly awesome people in the world into one place; introductions were made, and things eventually got off pretty well. Everyone got along great. It’s hard to describe, but certain people just seem to have good chemistry, and a compatible outlook. I guess we were almost hippie-like in our instant community formation… it was pretty amazing how well we all came together.
At long last, They Might Be Giants took the stage, and we got treated to an awesome half-hour of great entertainment. Selections included “Cyclops Rock,” “Dr. Worm,” “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” and more - plus a couple tracks off their new album No. We all had a great time, jumping around and dancing, grabbing at bubbles blown by Cat. It was kinda weird though when this guy started taking pictures of us… the dancing and bubble stuff and just in general. It was a bit sketchy, but was just ignored him. No harm done, I guess.
Eric offered some massages, and Mikah took the offer, as well as offering Jackie one. I later got one from both Mikah and Eric. Yay! After Suzanne Vega started, the Demons had wandered off. They came back with autographs from TMBG. The rest of us were very jealous.
A bunch of people wanted to go exploring, so a bunch of us took off to cross another footbridge and go for a walk up Beacon Street. I was a bit apprehensive since literally no one in our group was at all familiar with the area, except for me - and I was pretty sketchy on it since I’m not often in that area. Fortunately, things worked out; we just avoided turning any corners. After awhile we crossed over to the Common, near the Frog Pond. We did a lot of pouncing on one another, rolling around, and generally having a good time. It was fun to be close to all these wonderful people. I’m not usually able to let go that much, and being physically (in a platonic way) close to people is something that I really treasure.
After awhile it became apparent that we had to go on a quest for bathrooms; we searched, but couldn’t find a single one on the Common! We eventually had to admit defeat and head back to the Esplanade, but our little adventure was great fun nonetheless.
There was this guy with signs around his neck at the base of the footbridge as we headed back over to the Esplanade. It was covered with stuff about the fires of Hell, and Jesus, and that sort of stuff. As we passed him he proffered us some pamphlets and said “Save your souls?” The way he said it was much the same way someone might casually offer their hotdog and ask “Want a bite?” It was too much; I pretty much automatically said “No, thanks,” adding as an afterthought “Not today.” Molly practically fell down laughing for a moment as she wrapped her arms around me affectionately. It was rather a funny moment, as I was pretty much on autopilot when I spoke.
When we got back, Christy and I decided to investigate the possibilty of the bathroom line. It didn’t take long to decide it was pretty much a hopeless cause. The line seemed endless; it stretched almost into infinity. As we turned to head back, a guy near us remarked “I don’t think I have to pee quite that badly.” I had to agree; it would just have to wait until we returned to Alewife later that night.
When we rejoined the group, the Demons were heading out, so we said our goodbyes, then settled down for Patti Smith’s act. I spent much of the time with my arm around Mikah or Molly or Eric, along with some others.
Some people came along and offered us some extra food; we took it, for some reason. Apparently noticing their success, someone else came along with some chips, salsa, and bread of their own and offered it; we took this as well. It was a chain reaction! Really, we should have given away some of our food. We had plenty.
About ten minutes before the set ended, Maria and Eric and Mikah and I formed a clump of our own, kind of lying about with each other. We got joined by Cat and her boyfriend… for unclear reasons we started passing a pen around with our teeth.
Finally the concert ended and it was time to head out. There was much procrastinating and sn exchanging and discussion about how we HAD to do something together as a group again. We finally got our stuff packed up and headed back to the Charles/MGH station. We missed the first train there, which was too packed to even consider boarding, and got on the next one, which was almost as bad. We were mostly holding onto each other, since we couldn’t really reach poles, most of us. I held onto Molly for a while before a pole opened up for her.
We started talking to this guy named Alex on the train; he was out kind of guy - a sort of live-life-to-enjoy it, just nice guy, like we were. A compatible sort. It wasn’t long before we’d basically adopted him. He was linking arms with the rest of us in a circle in the middle of the subway car, just talking and relaxing. It was kind of odd, but nice, talking and enjoying time with a total stranger on the subway.
All too soon we arrived at Alewife, first saying our goodbyes to Alex, then heading up to rectify the by-now desperate bathroom situation. There was more talking, and then goodbyes and hugs as we all agreed again that we had to see each other again sometime.
Jackie and Mikah had a ride with my dad and I to be dropped off at Jackie’s where Mikah would spend the night. I spent about half the ride home with my head on Mikah’s shoulder, trying to sleep. It was a nice mellow ride back. I was just completely content, from having seen my friends Molly and Maria and Eric again, and having met and hung out with so many awesome people. It was simply an incredible evening, and it’s kind of hard to communicate just how much it meant. This post is very much Mundane and Pointless, but I felt like I had to talk about what was seriously just about the Best Night of My Life. I’m in a happy glow right now. Have a good night/day everyone.
~Grelby
