This afternoon Trixie and I joined the great clicheed masses in Prospect Park to see a Dan Zanes concert.
For those of you without children, Dan Zanes used to be the front man for the Del Fuegos until the late 90s when he had kids and started specializing in music for kids. Rocking music for kids. In a world dominated by the juggernaut of Raffi, this was a good thing. I happen to think They Might Be Giants have better hooks in their kid-oriented songs, but they hadn't gotten started with their kids albums yet.
Like TMBG, Mr. Zanes lives in Brooklyn and does an annual free concert in the park. if you are under 8, being at a Dan Zanes concert in Prospect Park is like being a Grateful Dead fan and saying you saw them play the Winterland. (Many thanks to Josh for the correct analogous venue.)
I have avoided these concerts, mostly because I didn't have kids but even when I did I avoided them because of the enormous crowds. I don't like crowds. But when a good mama-friend told me that they were going, and would picnic on the grass, and basically do the heavy lifting of getting there early for a spot, my reserve crumbled.
Trixie wasn't the fan driving this, as her friends were -- though she has been exposed to Dan Zanes' music at friends' birthday parties and playdates, we don't own any of the CDs, so her love of Dan Zanes has always been a peer pressure thing.
It was a beautiful afternoon, the concert started at 5pm (SO SMART) and one friend got there early enough to get seats for all the kids in very nearly the first row -- first after the "special friends" section. It was a good show -- fun music, easy to sing along even if you didn't know the words. There was even the requisite loud drunk fan screaming the Dan Zanes equivalent of "FREEBIRD!!!!" in our ears one row back during every quiet moment when the man was trying to talk to the crowd, so Trixie could get the real concert experience.
Afterwards we regrouped to eat the picnic dinner there hadn't been room for during the concert, the kids chased a ball around and even the mosquitoes held off. It was a lovely evening.
And as a reward for being a total cliche, in the crowd before the concert I saw two former co-workers, three friends, and a celebrity and her toddler.
Everybody comes to see Dan Zanes. Everybody. Even me.