A year and a half ago, Jason and I had tickets for a Foo Fighters show in Camden, NJ. I didn’t know when I got the tickets that Camden was practically a suburb of Philadelphia, but we made the best of it. We drove from Manhattan to Philadelphia, sat at Morimoto’s sushi bar and had an amazing dinner served up by the Iron Chef himself.
Nearly out of gas, we crossed the bridge and parked at the Tweeter Center in Camden. Dave Grohl was entertaining, making fun of Bon Jovi and even working in a little bit of his Wanted Dead Or Alive into the Foo Fighters’ Learn To Fly.
After the show we joined the herd of cars and slowly crawled out of the parking lot, keeping an eye on the fuel gauge. The town was dark and there wasn’t a gas station in sight — just some run-down apartment buildings, a police station and some kind of prison complex. Somehow we made it to the next town without running out of gas, filled the tank and got on the highway home.
It was no surprise when I read yesterday that Camden, NJ was named the most-dangerous city in the U.S. It had my vote. Camden bumped Detroit into second place, but the list is based on year-old data. No doubt Pistons fans will put their city back in first place on next year’s list.
Brian Alvey 