My Fourteen-Year-Old Brother's Best Birthday Present Ever

by Leah Barsanti Moon on may 16, 2012

Most Lollapolooza stories start the first weekend in August, but not mine. Mine starts in a suburban kitchen on June 21st. A newly fourteen year old boy was tearing into wrapping covered with turtles in party hats. Surrounding him on the kitchen table was his loot: a Dr. Dre poster, a Wu Tang Clan shirt, Skull Candy Headphones, and the standard $15 iTunes gift card that our parents get us for every gift-giving occasion. I gave Brock a sisterly smile as he opened my gift, which just-so-happened to be the number two item on his birthday list: Eminem's "The Slim Shady LP." I know the self-professed "biggest Eminem fan in the world" loved the gift but even so he only smiled back briefly and mumbled the half-hearted thanks only a brother knows how to give before looking around for more things to open. There weren't any. "Dad what about my tickets!" "What tickets?" "Saturday tickets to see Eminem at Lollapolooza! They were first on my list where are they" "Well your mother and I discussed it, and we think you're too young to go to a music festival." "But Dad!" My dad was bluffing of course, like he always did, pretending we weren't getting the biggest things on our lists for some reason or another so it would be more of a surprise when we finally did get them. I'm sure Brock knew this as well, but already I could see panic rising in his eyes at the suggestion that he might not be able to see his favorite rapper. Fortunately my Dad didn't make him wait long: "Alright alright, I'll tell you what. I made up a little quiz about Eminem, and if you can get 70% on the questions right, you'll win a Saturday ticket to Lollapolooza. That shouldn't be a problem for Eminem's number one fan, right?" My dad then produced a piece of paper and proceeded to quiz my brother game-show style on all things related to Eminem. The questions ranged from easy: "What's Marshall Mather's middle name?" "Duh Dad, Bruce, everyone knows that." To hard: "In which song does Eminem famously insult Insane Clown Posse." "Buisness." Brock replies with a cool-guy nod of his head indicating how easy this old guy's quiz on his favorite rapper is. Needless to say, Brock "won" his birthday present, which meant the job of taking him to the concert in a little over a month's time fell on his nineteen year old sister who had three day passes to the event. ---------------------- I didn't mind taking him, of course, but when my group of college-aged girl friends walked into Lollapalooza with a fourteen year old boy in a Biggie Smalls t-shirt in tow (apparently it's uncool to wear a rapper's shirt to his own concert), I began to wonder just how this day would play out. The daylight hours of that Saturday weren't all that memorable, for me -- a girl who had been at Lolla the day before and to countless other music festivals besides -- at least. I'd actually love to ask Brock what he thought of the day, his first music festival, first concert, for that matter. I can imagine it was deliciously overwhelming what with us dragging him from Perry's techno scene to the Budweiser stage to the food booths and back again past people dressed in everything from full face unitards to classic hippie wear. But even if I ask him, I'll never be able to get inside his head, to experience that strange almost taboo feeling of being at a music festival for the first time through his eyes. What I can tell you is what I remember and what I remember best is Eminem. First of all, i had never seen Brock so excited, which is saying a lot because to excite a boy who's life mission is (in his own words) to move to New York to sit on a stoop with a boom box and "head nod"... to excite a boy like that you have to be... well... Eminem. But from the moment the rapper took the stage to the moment he finished his encore, my five-foot-four fourteen year old brother -- who still to this day has yet to go through puberty -- stood on his tip toes watched with wide eyed wonder as his favorite rapper rhymed out song after song. Unfortunately due to the high volume of tall people surrounding us it was quite hard for him to see. But I guess that's where it pays to be the one pre-teen boy in a group of tall college girls because -- after a couple of songs of Brock jumping attempting to the the actual stage instead of just the screens -- one after another Alexa, Dana, Robyn, Erica, and I all took Brock onto our shoulders for as long as we possibly could until our arms were sore and our legs gave out. Unfortunately that happened to every one of us before Eminem played "Stan," which is Brock's all-time favorite song. As the first lyrics: "tea's gone cold I wonder why..." echoed across the fairground and Brock looked at me in amazement, I knew what I had to do. So, even though my shoulders were cramping something awful, I heaved the fourteen-year-old back on my shoulders for the duration of the song. And even though my body hurt for a week after, the smile on his face when I put him down was well worth it. I've been to a lot of music festivals in my life. Some good, some less good, and some unbearably muddy, but my favorite memory is not a venue or a band. It's simply the memory of me, holding my little brother on my aching shoulders, while he sang along to the lyrics of Eminem's "Stan" at Lollapalooza 2011.

Like 48 likes