Members of the Gipsy Kings performed Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at the El Paso County Coliseum. (Rubén R. Ramirez / El Paso Times)
The Gipsy Kings are by far one of my favorite groups. I had seen them before during their first visit to El Paso, missed their second concert, so I could not miss this one. I'm glad I didn't. Although I did not appreciate the venue, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I was dead tired that particular day. You know, one of those days when everything at work goes awry. However, I pushed myself to get to the coliseum a little early to buy my ticket. I hadn't been to the coliseum in a long time, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to get a good parking space. After driving in a circle around the place, I finally found the entrance to the parking lot. As I walk up to the ticket windows, I notice that there is a big sign that says "Cash Only!" Of course, I expected to pay with my credit card. The lady at the ticket booth said that I could go inside and get cash from the ATM machine, and after paying the required $2.00 fee, I got my cash and purchased a $ 42.00 ticket. The lady graciously reminded me that the ticket price included my parking fee; I felt so much better knowing I had gotten such a bargain.
I made my way into the coliseum and was scouting around for my seat and already I regretted not bringing my binoculars. Just as I was climbing the stairs to look for my spot, I heard someone yell my name and motion for me to come over. It was one of my acquaintances, Paco, a guy I met at school. We had actually talked about going to this concert together, but never got in touch with each other. Coincidentally, we had gotten seats across the aisle from each other. The seats were too far away from the stage, but it was great knowing I had a buddy to enjoy the concert with.
The concert started at exactly 8:00 p.m. I couldn't believe that a concert could start on time. When the lights dimmed, the crowd started changing seats and moving to the front to occupy those seats which had not been sold. Paco had gone off somewhere and I found myself surrounded by empty seats. When he finally showed up, he said, "Follow me, I know where we can get good seats!" I quickly followed not knowing what to expect. Paco walked quickly and we settled on some box seats that were stage left. As soon as we got comfortable, however, a man came up to me and said I was sitting in his seat. I apologized, and found plenty of empty seats right above us. We settled into those seats for the first part of the concert. Paco was really hyper that night and started clapping his hands flamenco style and dancing right where we were sitting.
Unfortunately, the crowd that night was rather subdued. The first concert I had been to was much more exciting with women and girls rushing to the stage to dance. I saw one person in the third row center dancing, but other than that it seemed that only Paco was the life of the party.
To be continued...
