Del Mar Racetrack
Bang Your Head
August 23, 2010 by Frank Hooks · 4 Comments
Went to a show last Saturday night. The band was doing its thing. The mosh pit started and then the crowd parted and there was Kiki Dee. Weezer
I did go to a show last Saturday night. I took four teenagers and a nine year old to the Weezer concert at the Del Mar Race Track. I think the evening left as much an impression on me as it did the kids. It all started when we arrived after race five and I was delighted to find out all the kids got in free. Money for the ponies! We didn’t win anything on that account, but oh well.
After the ninth race, we headed on over to the venue which was in the infield. If you haven’t been to the track, the infield is the center of the racetrack. We set up our blankets and lawn chairs and cooler. My sixteen year old son and his buddy wanted to get as close as possible, so they meandered their way up with my friend’s 11 year old son and friend. My fourteen year old daughter and her friend weaved their way up front also. I figured they’re fourteen and I need to let them roam around a little. Jacqueline and I hung out in the back.
The whole concert was enjoyable. Jacqueline sat on my shoulders most of the time and sang out loud to the songs she knew. I told my wife later on that she was a babe magnet. All the women wanted to come up and meet her and give her a high five because she is so cute.
When the teens returned I was regaled by their stories of being up front and close to the band. My son, his buddy and the 11 year olds entered the mosh pit and got punched in the face, kneed in the head and tossed all over. They helped crowd surf a guy into the hands of security. They watched a guy throw a turkey leg at Weezer and he dodged and then picked it up and took a bite out of it. The two teen girls had popcorn dumped on them. They were offered a joint repetitively and declined. Thank the Lord. They watched two chicks get into a cat fight and got to bop the giant beach balls that were bouncing around the crowd a couple of times. Quite an earful for a dad standing just a couple hundred feet away but separated by a throng of thousands.
If that wasn’t enough, getting out of that place was skechy. The only way out is an unlit underground tunnel about twenty feet wide for 10,000 people. I told the kids to just relax for awhile and wait for the crowd to die down. The crowd never seemed to die down. I asked a security guard about another exit and he said they had just opened a gate where we could walk across the racetrack. We headed that way but there was no open gate and hundreds of people just started jumping the fence and so did we. I lifted Jacqueline over and then the cooler. Jennifer hopped over and then came security yelling at us to back away from the fence. I wasn’t about to be separated from my daughters so I jumped the fence anyway and the rest of the kids followed. We ran across the turf and we ran across the track. It was during this that I noticed the rail the horses follow around the track was already toppled over in many sections and the bushes destroyed. I yelled to the kids, “Run fast because the cops are going to be coming!” The guy next to me said that was the funniest bit of parenting he had ever witnessed. As soon as we got into the parking lot the squad cars were pulling in.
I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun with my kids and I don’t think they’ll ever forget the night we went to see Weezer.

I'm a 41 year old happily married father of three great kids. We live and love in Southern California. My blog is an outlet for me to pontificate on all things great about being a dad.