I’m a rock ‘n roll girl at heart. Soft, hard, metal, Christian, 1970’s through today, it’s the only music I listen to. So when I heard two of my current favorite bands, Skillet and Seether, were going to be playing at Halfway Jam in Royalton, I was ready to go. Tickets were purchased and a camper was borrowed from a friend.

 

I’ve gone to a number of indoor rock concerts and have been to Rock Fest in Cadott, WI a couple of times, but I hadn’t been to Halfway Jam before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was also wondering if I’d gotten too old to go to rock concerts. Were my husband and I going to be the old couple in a sea of youngsters?

 

Right after we pulled in to Halfway Jam we noticed everything was smaller and more relaxed than Rock Fest. After showing our tickets and getting our wristbands we were waved in and told we could camp anywhere in the campground.

 

I was gratified to see that at least half the people there were around our age and older. Maybe I wasn’t too old to rock n’ roll!

 

Friends had saved us a spot by them and we set up camp, if you can call it that. We definitely weren’t roughing it. A camper, not a tent, because neither of our backs can take sleeping on the ground anymore, a bathroom so we wouldn’t have to run to the port-a-potties first thing in the morning, and a generator to keep us cool and our food cold.

 

The music the first night, Thursday, was great. Even though it was outdoors it was loud; you could feel the beat through the soles of your feet and inside your chest. There was a sense of exhilaration in the air. I loved it.

 

I have to admit however, that I wished we’d brought our lawn chairs down to the stage; my back started hurting before the first band was done.

 

Unfortunately once I got to bed that night I couldn’t sleep. 

 

My joints decided it was a good time to start aching, and because the bed was so small I couldn’t thrash around which was what they were demanding I do. 

 

Not only that, but my husband is like a heat seeking missile when he sleeps, and throughout the night he crowds in on me closer and closer until I’m hanging off the edge of the mattress. There was no edge of the mattress in the camper. I ended up on my side, my face squished into the wall.

 

Needless to say I was exhausted the next morning, so I didn’t have much energy throughout the day. I took a nap in the afternoon, which I never do, just so I could make it through the night. Seether was headlining and I was going to be ready.

 

By the time the music started for the day I had gotten my second wind and was ready to go. Seether was amazing, and that night I actually slept pretty well.

 

Saturday night Skillet was headlining. I’d seen them in concert before and they had put on a great show, so I was excited. They didn’t disappoint. The show was spectacular, loud and head banging with lots of special effects.

 

There’s just something about being in a crowd of people, at night, outdoors, listening to live music. There’s nothing like it to feel young again.

 

Studies have shown that music can improve moods and give a person an emotional high. It moves people and brings people together. Music just feels good, and I think live music does it even better.

 

Even though my legs and back hurt from standing so long, I was moving to the music and singing along at the top of my lungs, having the time of my life. Listening to the music that weekend I actually felt like a teenager again.

 

I think that’s one of the reasons I love rock music so much. It reminds me of when I was young and just starting out. No fears, no worries, the world at my feet. 

 

That weekend I discovered you’re never too old to rock ‘n roll, you just might have to do it a little bit differently.