A Sacrafice of Life

A Simple Sacrifice"

Some people go to great lengths to attend the musical performance of their choice. Middle aged washed-up hippies donning Hawaiian shirts, parrot hats, and Caribbean-style beads, flock in a sea of bright and blinding colors to the obnoxious sounds of the man they call Jimmy Buffet. Thousands of screaming teenage girls swarm like the Black Plague and pay hundreds of dollars for a one-way ticket to hell to catch a glimpse of such mindless pop-cultures whores as N’ Sync and Britney Spears. For my friends and I, it was just a simple trip to Penn State’s main campus in the sweltering heat of a mid-July day in 2000 to see a band we followed religiously.

The idea for this trip started as most concert-bound road trips do, with a group of ten indecisive teenagers who all gave their word they would be there when they heard the heaven-sent phrase, “Less Than Jake is coming.” The number of explorers on this expedition quickly dwindled to a final courageous group of four. The only four misfit youths to stick with our love for this band were Chris, Jay, Matt, and me. Chris, whose gelled hair fell forward like wet palm leaves in such a manner that I have never seen duplicated, was the fearless driver. Then there was Jay, who wore baggy clothes and had curly red hair that brought him to resemble a pumpkin as it sat on top of his stubby head, who was the youngest and had just recently convinced his parents to let out some slack on their leash of authority. Next was Matt, who stood at least six feet tall and had the super-human ability to put a smile on anyone’s face and pull him out of the deepest slums of depression with one of his dumb jokes or trite pick up lines. Finally, there was me, with a messy crop of short hair that had been dyed the glowing color called “wild fire”; I was just happy to be with my friends who I loved like brothers.

As we arrived at State College’s main campus and realized that we had no tickets to this sold-out show, we all...