Never being mistaken for the World’s Most Enthusiastic Concertgoer, I’m naturally skeptical over the feelings that fans and musicians have been known to express when a landmark concert venue is being closed down – and even knocked down.

“I don’t want to say goodbye to this place. I don’t even want to think about it yet. I just want to keep . . . rocking.” – Eddie Vedder, kicking off the last concert ever at the Spectrum

I’m not immune to these feelings on a grassroots level, having joined in with Townspeople who expressed disappointment over Philadelphia’s old TLA (Theater of the Living Arts) getting a phony, new name and bemoaning the long-ago demise of intimate local clubs like JC Dobbs and Bacchanal, but the sense that a building is somehow sacred and should be saved is foreign to me.

On Friday, Vedder expressed similar regrets. “Why don’t they just save the f- place?” he asked. “Forty-two years is not that old. I’m 44,” he said, showing off his biceps.

Maybe we’ve never had that historic a rock venue in Philly, or maybe I never appreciated the soon-to-be demolished Spectrum, the basketball/hockey/concert arena that has stood since the late ’60s. I like my share of hoops – and lord knows I love my Flyboys – but the Spectrum as some legendary concert venue? Eh…

Have you ever lost a rock venue that really mattered to you, the way the loss of the Spectrum obviously meant to Eddie Vedder?

Tell me about it…

Sting: Obama best person to handle world’s ‘mess’

NEW YORK (AP) – Sting isn’t a religious man, but he says President Barack Obama might be a divine answer to the world’s problems. “In many ways, he’s sent from God,” he joked in an interview, “because the world’s a mess.”

But Sting is serious in his belief that Obama is the best leader to navigate the world’s problems. In an interview on Wednesday, the former Police frontman said that he spent some time with Obama and “found him to be very genuine, very present, clearly super-smart, and exactly what we need in the world.”

“I can’t think of any be better qualified because of his background, his education, particularly in regard to Islam,” he said.

Still, Sting, who released the seasonal album “On A Winter’s Night” this week, acknowledged the president had a “difficult job” ahead of him.