Against my wishes on a September weekend I found myself, wife and daughter at a little soiree called “RiotFest 2014.” Seven stages, four inches of mud, and 120 dB of 30-plus punk rock bands for three days in Humboldt Park in Chicago. The crowd was huge, more than 20,000 people on Sunday. I had managed to get out of going on Friday and Saturday, but my attendance was mandatory for the Sunday Cheap Trick show. The attendees sported bizarre hairdos, lots and lots of tattoos, and apparently some people think that they can now self-medicate because Illinois recently passed a medical marijuana law.
As a former punk rocker I understood what I was getting into by going to the show. However, I haven’t been in such a large crowd in a long time. At one point my daughter and I had to move from one set of stages to another to see Cheap Trick. My daughter is quite brilliant but is also of compact stature, and I was afraid I would lose her as I bulled my way through the crowd. So I said, “grab my shirt” and I towed her through the black leather riptide to the relative safety of the “VIP viewing area.” Moving 120 yards through this sea of humanity took about 25 minutes.