I went to a MAN WITH A MISSION concert the other day—mainly tagging along because Antonio is a big fan.
The venue was at Hall 4 of the Ishikawa Industrial Exhibition Center. It was a long walk from the parking lot, and of course, it had to be raining.
Somehow, Antonio always seems to attract weird luck—especially on this day. He swapped out his large folding umbrella for a simple clear plastic one because, he claimed, the smaller one was better. Seemed fine at first.
Then came the harsh announcement at the entrance: “Non-folding umbrellas not allowed.” First time I’ve ever been told to hang my umbrella on a fence before a concert.
It was standing-room only inside. I thought it was already too full, but they kept cramming more people in until it felt like a rush-hour train.
As soon as we entered, a woman behind us tapped Antonio on the shoulder. At first we thought we were in her spot—but no. She kindly pointed out that Antonio still had the size sticker on the back of his shirt. We cracked up.
The concert was electric. The crowd was hyped and so was the band. At one point, the bassist came right up to the front row and started shaking hands, and the crowd surged forward.
I wasn’t even a fan, but I ended up shaking his hand—got shoved right into it. Then about 20 or 30 of us were crushed in the push. I thought, “This is it. This is how I die.”
*This image was generated by ChatGPT.*
I could see the newspaper headline flash before my eyes: “Death by concert crush.” Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, though I think even the bassist went down for a moment. But then, as if nothing happened, the encore kicked in and they powered through to the end. What a night.
We rushed back to the car, only to find that the lane we chose to exit from was the slowest. By the time we got moving, about 80% of the cars had already left. Somehow, I can’t help but think Antonio’s luck is to blame—it’s like he has a talent for picking the worst-case scenario every time.
Maybe it was my luck that balanced things out. At least the car didn’t break down and we didn’t get trampled.
The end.
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
— Helen Keller
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