Last night I attended what I imagine will be the unlikeliest Fargo event I am going to be here for: a Bone Thugs N Harmony concert. Now, when I booked my tickets, I was anticipating there being a lot of black people at this concert, and I was looking forward to that. To be clear, I'm not trying to essentialize anybody, I don't consider black people to be a novelty or something, I just think it's important to have a little diversity in your life, be it racial or otherwise. I just miss seeing black people. Well, so anyway, I got to the concert and was immediately disappointed: there were white people everywhere. Inside the venue, I saw that there was, how shall I say, a bit more diversity, but I'm going to have to scale back my expectations about anything I go to in the future.
Now, the concert itself: I don't know how many of you have been to hip hop concerts. I had been to none, I think, before last night, and even though I knew close to none of the music, it made me think I would go to almost any hip hop concert in the future. To begin with, the music is as much a physical experience as an aural one -- I could actually feel the bass, which was awesome. And then the musicians themselves are performers in a way that you can't be or don't have to be when you're a singer/songwriter or whatnot. I mean, these guys were literally running around on stage, taking their clothes off (but not in a Har Mar Superstar way), jumping all over the place, throwing things to the crowd, and just energetic in a way I don't think I've seen with any other performer. I don't know who the first two groups were, but A$AP Ferg was great (even though there's a better than even chance that he thinks the name of the state I live in is "Dakota"), and Bone Thugs were pretty amazing too.
As I mentioned, the crowd was more diverse than Fargo as a whole, but there were still a lot of white people. I ended up standing behind this young guy wearing a North Face fleece and a Biggie Smalls t-shirt who knew all the words and kept turning around to, I don't know, sing them with me, or see if I thought whatever Bone Thugs were doing was as incredible as he did. I had brought a too big purse and was wearing a coat (because I'm not completely insane), but this was an all ages show, and standing around this kid and a lot of other people wearing too few clothes and jumping around, I felt like someone's mom. And guys, there were people smoking marijuana. It was not exactly my scene. That being said, I was certainly in the thick of things. As far as I can tell, there are two ways to get to the front of a crowd: you can be a jerk and push your way through, or you can just stand there, and whenever two drunk people get into a fight and are pulled away by security, you just move up a little with the rest of the group. Last night, I started out toward the back, and as fights broke out and people decided to go to the bar, I moved toward the stage, ending up about five rows back. That was about as close as I wanted to get, so it worked out great. At the end of the night, Bone Thugs N Harmony invited "all the ladies" to come onstage for a dance party, but, as I was tired and did not think I was quite what they were looking for, I left at that point.
On a totally unrelated note, I'd just like to mention a few other things that are going on in my life that I'm, well, not exactly excited about, but feeling good about. After, what, six months? living here, I finally feel like I'm getting myself integrated into the community. A couple of weeks ago I saw a sign for a farm share program, and, because I'll be here over the summer, I decided to sign up. Then last weekend I went into a cute clothing store downtown and bought a dress on sale, and ended up having a chat with the ladies who worked there, one of whom told me to come to this wine and shopping event they're having later next week which I think I'm going to go to. I also discovered I could listen to the radio on the iPod I got for Christmas, and I have finally found a radio station I like, and have been listening to that on my way to and from campus everyday. There's one great/weird show where the DJ reads obituaries from last year and plays a bunch of songs by any musicians who died. Then earlier this week I went to a panel about homelessness in Fargo-Moorhead and think I'd like to get involved in at least one of the organizations from that event. Finally, and this is might be a long shot, I'm going to try to go to church again tomorrow, and not the one that put up all the flags for the aborted babies (I mean, it's cool with me if you're pro-life, but yikes). I know I'm not going to find another Holy Trinity here, but it would be nice to be able to go to mass again, and my mom told our priest that I'm going to church and I don't want her to have to keep lying to him. I know Fargo probably won't ever feel like home in the way DC did, but feeling like part of the community has continued to change my attitude about this place.
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