One half of the Queerty editorial team saw Madonna perform at Madison Square Garden recently and got to feel all smug when she sang "I Love New York" and imagine she was singing it to him, and then Mollygood put up those great videos of the performance.

Well the other half of the editorial team went to see Madonna as well, in Boston. I drove nine hours just to see her, and you're probably wondering why I would go at all since I diss on her all the time. Well, I have been a Madonna fan since I was six (a big one, thanks to my Mom's cassettes in the car). I used to watch and rewatch the Blonde Ambition Tour footage my grandma taped for me off cable.

I've been disappointed by her music in recent years, and basically even now, I wish I could have seen the Blonde Ambition Tour. The Confessions Tour seemed like a bit of a throwback though, in a good way. Having never seen Madonna in concert, I bought my ticket hoping that there would be a glimmer of Madonna's old raunchiness, and knowing that this could maybe be my last chance to see a performer who has been a huge influence in my life since I was little. But in the days leading up to the show, I worried that I would end up being disappointed, maybe even wishing I hadn't gone at all. I thought it might just be too late; that I had been born too late and should just forget about it.

Rebecca Traister at Salon is older than I am and probably could have gone to see one of Madonna's classic tours, but just didn't. She has written a wonderful piece about going to see Madonna and her anxieties leading up to the show that were similar to mine: how it made her feel old, how she worried it was too late to see Madonna:

But I somehow felt bad about the perception that Madonna is a creaky act. Maybe because it makes me feel old. Maybe because my radar was so off that I thought it was cool I was going to a Madonna concert when really it was fogyish. Maybe, because seeing Madonna was something I'd wanted to do since I was 9, I got momentarily tricked into thinking I was 9 again.

While I sometimes disagree with Rebecca on account of her occasional prissiness, she and I are in agreement on this: it was not too late, Madonna is still a great performer, and her material is still fresh. Rebecca's experience was a bit more transcendant than mine, but maybe I'll have that if I go see Madonna on her geriatric tour.

Touched for the very first time [Salon]