Coldplay and Mongolian Food?

Lauren (my wife): My patient told me about this great restaurant where you eat with your hands. Would you want to go?

Me: Well, I eat with my hands anyway, so if there’s a place where that’s socially acceptable, of course.

Lauren: I think it’s Mongolian food.

Me: Mongolian food?

Lauren: Something like that.

———————

Moments. That’s what I seek out. Music can create those moments more than anything else, which is why I told my wife that I wanted her to get Coldplay tickets for my birthday.

Me: I want you to get Coldplay tickets for my birthday.

Lauren: But we’re not getting along.

Me: Well, you have to be nice to me on my birthday, so just pretend you like me and buy Coldplay tickets.

My birthday came and went. She bought me a pair of slacks. No tickets, no mention of tickets. Admittedly things haven’t been great between us, so it was a big ask.

Then it was time this past Saturday to go for Mongolian food. The kids were dropped off at my in-laws’ house for the night, making this night incredible before it started. Man, I love my kids, but a night on our own is desperately needed sometimes, even if we spend that time eating Mongolian food.

We left at 6:30. I drove. Lauren put the address in Waze and we were off. We hopped on the Jersey Turnpike and that’s when we hit terrible traffic.

Me: This Mongolian food better be good for us to sit in this traffic. We could have just had sushi locally.

Lauren: My patient says it’s one of the best restaurants she’s ever been to.

Me: Is your patient Mongolian?

The traffic got worse as we got closer to MetLife Stadium, and that’s when it hit me. We were actually going to see Coldplay! I knew this, but I didn’t want to tell Lauren I knew, so I decided to have a little fun with her.

Me: What’s your patient’s name?

Lauren (stuttering): Mary Smithson.

Me: What’s the address of the restaurant?

Lauren: I don’t know. It’s in the GPS.

Me: Did she say what dishes we should order once we get there?

Lauren (getting uncomfortable) No. Let’s see what they recommend.  We’re going to be late for our reservation. Let me text her.

Me: Call her. I want to speak with her.

Lauren: She prefers texting.

Me: At least ask her what we should order.

Lauren: She says we need to park in the Stadium by MetLife. The restaurant is near there.

Me: Wow, that’s weird. I didn’t know there’s a Mongolian restaurant near the stadium.

We pull up to the stadium and there’s a giant sign up for Coldplay.

Lauren: What does that sign say?

Me: Coldplay?

A big smile comes across my face and I take Lauren’s hand.

Me: So no Mongolian food?

We park and walk through the entrance. The only problem is that I am very hungry since I thought we were going for Mongolian food.  The opening band is performing so we have some time to get food. We wait on line and order chicken fingers and three White Claws.

Woman behind counter: ID please.

Me: I’m old enough to have a child who can drink, but thank you. Gladly.

I show her my ID, we get our drinks and food and head to the seats. H.E.R. is the opening band and it’s incredibly loud. Uncomfortably loud. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I am not enjoying listening to music blasting from the speakers, especially music that I wasn’t excited to hear in the first place.

Me: Why Mongolian food?

Lauren: It was the first thing that came to my mind.

Me: You figured if it was obscure enough, I wouldn’t suspect anything because why would you make up Mongolian food. Well done.

We settle in our seats and I bust open a White Claw and drink to drown out the sound that is slowly making me deaf. Please be done soon.

Thirty minutes later, H.E.R. is finally, mercifully finished. After a brief wait, the lights go down and Coldplay comes to the stage. The crowd goes crazy. Lauren and I are buzzed and excited. They gave everyone bracelets when we entered, and the different colors start illuminating from everyone’s bracelets, making the stadium turn all these different colors.

Coldplay starts its first song and fireworks shoot above the stadium as Chris Martin begins to sing.

Besides their music being incredible, Chris Martin has a way about him that is eminently likeable. He’s exactly what you would hope you would be if you got famous. Humble, appreciative, but still incredibly awesome and gifted.

Lauren and I are dancing. I’m never comfortable dancing, but I do loosen up when it’s dark and everyone is paying attention to the band and not me.

Thirty minutes in, Chris sits at the piano and starts the intro for The Scientist, my favorite Coldplay song. I take Lauren’s hand and she turns to me and kisses me. We’ve been struggling. There’s no other way to say it. Earlier today we saw our marriage counselor. Lauren told me, while we were trying to drown out the sound of H.E.R., that she contemplated giving the tickets away when we were fighting last week.

But we’re a family. We made a life together with two amazing children and we are not about to abandon that unless we have no other choice.

I’m sure people are here to see Coldplay for many different reasons, some as simple as they just love their music. For us, a concert like this, a chance to be moved by music together while holding hands, is everything to us. We need moments like these to keep us going. I know tomorrow we will likely be fighting over who is doing the food shopping, but for these few hours, we can just be together.

Come up to meet you tell you I’m sorry

You don’t know how lovely you are

I had to find you, tell you I need you

Tell you I set you apart

The rest of the concert was great. There was a brief cameo on stage by Kylie Minogue, who I didn’t even know was still alive. She sang her song Can’t Get You Out of My Head. Fortunately, it was one and done for her. (The next night Springsteen was the special guest. Man did we get the short end of the stick.)

Coldplay soon began a run of some of my favorite songs: Clocks, Yellow, Viva la Vida. As soon as the songs began, I got chills. I recently played each of these songs for my kids. I asked our 9yo Liv if she ever got goose bumps while listening to music. She said No.  “You will,” I told her.

Lauren and I danced the whole time. Being at a concert is loud and sometimes annoying, and if you don’t let yourself get lost in the music, it can really drag on. This one was not like those. The visual effects and the incredible music itself just took us to another place.

One of the last songs they played was Fix You, just an amazing song that the crowd sang along with Chris. It’s funny they closed with it as it’s the song that our 7yo son Max is currently learning on the piano.

Moments. That’s what I seek. Max is going to play and sing Fix You. I can’t wait to experience it.

—————

When the night was over, we were quickly sent back to reality as we waited like sheep to exit the stadium among tens of thousands of people. Then we got in the car and sat in traffic getting out of the stadium. Lauren did her customary passing out in the car within minutes of us leaving.

So I pulled up Coldplay on my phone and drove home, listening:

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be this hard

Oh take me back to the start