Song: Before You Were Young
Album: Ode to J. Smith
Band: Travis
Having just seen these fellas live for the first time, more to come on that, I felt it only appropriate to tout a song from their latest release, Ode to J. Smith, as my commemorative first song of the week. Selecting one proved to be a more challenging feat than I anticipated. I surely have my favorite songs and remembering the live performance only enhances each song's appeal...
However, I did select one that being Before You Were Young. I am especially drawn to the sincerity in Fran's delivery and the unusually soft, melodic lyrics. I am always a fan of the piano and this song does not disappoint, as well as kickin' it up a notch with the use of a gong! Below is my favorite verse of the song,
"but i've only got two hands
and i'll never learn to dance
i'll never get a second chance
whatever
i'll take the breath away from your sighs
and wipe the tears away from your eyes
and hope the fire never dies
inside you"
Happy listening to a song I ALWAYS hit repeat on!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
3 Concerts in 1 week!
Friday, April 10th thru Friday, April 17 proved to be a week on one unbelievable concert after another. The saving grace to attending so many shows so close together was they were all in different venues and of different genes of music.
So much like Julie Andrews states in the Sound of Music, let's start at the very beginning.... well that could be a little time consuming and sticky, so let me re-phrase, let's start at the very beginning of the week. Which was the end of the work week, Friday, April 10th. Concert number one, Brandi Carlile.
Driving to Mankato to see Brandi Carlile at the Altell Center at first didn't seem to be like the best thing I should be doing on Good Friday night, but when I found out we had FRONT row seats I was especially pumped! So we piled into Court's pimp ride and cruised on down to Mankato. I should note the following story Court shared on the way which played a pivotal role in our evening's events.
To sum up the story she was annoyed with some ladies from her intramural volleyball game and tried to text F***** B****** describing them to her friend. However, the text ended up saying F****** Chubbies. Which become our "code" word all night in reference to the random annoying ladies we came across at the concert. Skip ahead a few hours to us sitting FRONT row patiently waiting for the opener to come on stage, snapping a few pictures of each other and generally chatting about how excited we were. Not to mention we were right in front of the speakers, even though it was an acoustic show, Court still requested the "security" guard fetch her some earplugs. Which he was quite obliged to do. ("Security" is in quotes because these people were more like ushers you'd find at the Guthrie than security guards! They weren't stopping anyone from doing anything!)
ANYWHO.... as we're sitting.... waiting... wishing.. hoping... and praying... (wait that's not a Brandi song...) two young drunk ladies decide it's too far to walk to the end of the row so they decide to hurdle the folding chairs set up on the floor to get to their seat. Due the the enclosed space and their blood alcohol content levels, they lost their balance and fall onto J and Court, who both take blows to the head from one chick's purse. The drunkards compose themselves... as much as can be expected and just move along. No bother to apologize or anything. HOW RUDE! Don't worry karma sure bit them in the ass! I should note J and Court suffered only minor trauma and thankfully no bruising!
But those Chubbies got what was coming to them, since they had stolen seats in the second row grandma "security" guard came and attempted to kicked them out during the opener's set. Grandma wasn't effective so an angry fan took matters into her own hands and verbally assaulted them enough until they finally left. Needless to say that was more memorable than the opening dude, who had three names and a fiddle player, which I quite appreciated the later!
Alright, onto the main event, what you've all been waiting for, Brandi, Brandi, Brandi.... yes I think there was some chanting! Who'd have thought in Mankato.... I will also quickly note the wide range of ages, me and company our mid 20's.... to our right we had mom, dad and young teens and our left we had grandma and grandpa, just fans, not those posing as "security".
Brandi and company came out and played a great variety of songs from both the first and second albums, a few Beatle's cover songs, the classic Johnny Cash hoedown medley, and much anticipated selections from her forthcoming album, tentatively released for the fall. Since we were lucky enough to be in the front row the highlight of the evening was when Brandi, Tim and Phil came center stage and did a song completely UNPLUGGED! No mic, no amps, nothing just their voices and guitars and it was unfreakin' real! I've seen less than a handful of artists attempt that. And never in an arena venue!
Okay onto the story involving Court and her precious ear plugs, completely unnecessary in my opinion but she benefited so good for her! As you're already aware we were in the FRONT row and I was sitting almost directly in front of Josh, the cellist, yes she has a C-H-E-L-L-O player, isn't that AWESOME! Anywho, so I was watching him through out the concert, we made eye contact and smiled on more than one occurrence during the set, ya know just what's expected if you're that close! At one point in the concert I noticed he has a huge smirk on his face and I wonder why.... so I look to my right, away from the stage, toward J and Court. To find Court pulling her ear plugs out of her bra and jamming them into her ears. Not usually a big deal but when the onstage C-H-E-L-L-O player is watching all the more hilarious! Even funnier come to find out Court had no idea he was even paying attention!!!
After playing for an hour and a half Brandi ends the show but of course comes back and does Hallelujah for an encore and I got a video of it. She does one of the best covers of that song! If you've never heard her version I'll send you the link! She then followed up with some the best news we heard all night.... she was going to do two things, one of which she had never done before. We were all on the edge of our seats dying to hear them, well actually I think we were standing, but just as excited. First she announced she would come sign autographs after the show. Sweet I was totally gonna buy a poster and have her sign it so I could add it to my office wall. Second she announced she and boys were gonna be packin' up the equipment and moving it down the road a mile or so to the Coffee Hag to play another set for FREE for whoever wanted to go!
Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do you get in line to meet Brandi or do you gamble on getting into the "after party show"? Well I'll give you one guess as to what we did.... we threw caution to the wind and hauled ass to the car to get to the coffee hag as fast as possible! I imagine that's what it feels like to be on the Amazing Race! We were lucky enough to get to the Coffee Hag relatively quickly and ended up being numbers 79, 80 and 81 out of the 130 people being let in. The only downfall to this set up was we had to wait on the street until the equipment was set up. But we had arrived and committed to waiting so we huddled together for warmth, being a lovely April night it was still quite brisk. IRREGARDLESS we were there for another show and after being served coffee and by my request cookies on the street and waiting about an hour the moment of truth arrived. They let us into to this hole in the wall coffee shop.
The guys filed in with their instruments, yes even Josh and the C-H-E-L-L-O, with Brandi in toe. However, she had a delayed entrance, being the diplomat and endearing fan of her fans, she stopped to play Late Morning Lullaby for those people waiting on the sidewalk, who were rejected once the Coffee Hag had reached capacity. She came into a cheering crowd, who were closer in age to us, and just as equally as excited to being seeing a second show in the same night!!! This experience was much more intimate, even though we were quite a bit further away from the "stage". People shouted out requests, questions, observations and Brandi and the fellas chatted along with the adoring audience. She played for another hour, a mix of songs she hadn't played earlier and a few staples such as The Story, which is SOOOO darn fun to sing along with in a crowded room of "true" fans.
We exited the Coffee Hag at about 12:30 AM, to my dismay Brandi did not stay there to sign additional autographs, but she had preformed twice so I should be happy with that right...? No we faced a wonderful hour and a half drive home, which flew by with all the discussion of the evenings events and just how truly unique it was and will most likely NEVER happen again.
I should also note through out the night as we were calling many people Chubbies, we were also very aware that a friend near and dear to us all was missing this excited adventure! She was however with us in spirit and we had ever intention of using her situation to get something for her signed or given to us if we met Brandi, atlas the opportunity never presented itself! Perhaps next time we'll work it out for your Shenana!
So much like Julie Andrews states in the Sound of Music, let's start at the very beginning.... well that could be a little time consuming and sticky, so let me re-phrase, let's start at the very beginning of the week. Which was the end of the work week, Friday, April 10th. Concert number one, Brandi Carlile.
Driving to Mankato to see Brandi Carlile at the Altell Center at first didn't seem to be like the best thing I should be doing on Good Friday night, but when I found out we had FRONT row seats I was especially pumped! So we piled into Court's pimp ride and cruised on down to Mankato. I should note the following story Court shared on the way which played a pivotal role in our evening's events.
To sum up the story she was annoyed with some ladies from her intramural volleyball game and tried to text F***** B****** describing them to her friend. However, the text ended up saying F****** Chubbies. Which become our "code" word all night in reference to the random annoying ladies we came across at the concert. Skip ahead a few hours to us sitting FRONT row patiently waiting for the opener to come on stage, snapping a few pictures of each other and generally chatting about how excited we were. Not to mention we were right in front of the speakers, even though it was an acoustic show, Court still requested the "security" guard fetch her some earplugs. Which he was quite obliged to do. ("Security" is in quotes because these people were more like ushers you'd find at the Guthrie than security guards! They weren't stopping anyone from doing anything!)
ANYWHO.... as we're sitting.... waiting... wishing.. hoping... and praying... (wait that's not a Brandi song...) two young drunk ladies decide it's too far to walk to the end of the row so they decide to hurdle the folding chairs set up on the floor to get to their seat. Due the the enclosed space and their blood alcohol content levels, they lost their balance and fall onto J and Court, who both take blows to the head from one chick's purse. The drunkards compose themselves... as much as can be expected and just move along. No bother to apologize or anything. HOW RUDE! Don't worry karma sure bit them in the ass! I should note J and Court suffered only minor trauma and thankfully no bruising!
But those Chubbies got what was coming to them, since they had stolen seats in the second row grandma "security" guard came and attempted to kicked them out during the opener's set. Grandma wasn't effective so an angry fan took matters into her own hands and verbally assaulted them enough until they finally left. Needless to say that was more memorable than the opening dude, who had three names and a fiddle player, which I quite appreciated the later!
Alright, onto the main event, what you've all been waiting for, Brandi, Brandi, Brandi.... yes I think there was some chanting! Who'd have thought in Mankato.... I will also quickly note the wide range of ages, me and company our mid 20's.... to our right we had mom, dad and young teens and our left we had grandma and grandpa, just fans, not those posing as "security".
Brandi and company came out and played a great variety of songs from both the first and second albums, a few Beatle's cover songs, the classic Johnny Cash hoedown medley, and much anticipated selections from her forthcoming album, tentatively released for the fall. Since we were lucky enough to be in the front row the highlight of the evening was when Brandi, Tim and Phil came center stage and did a song completely UNPLUGGED! No mic, no amps, nothing just their voices and guitars and it was unfreakin' real! I've seen less than a handful of artists attempt that. And never in an arena venue!
Okay onto the story involving Court and her precious ear plugs, completely unnecessary in my opinion but she benefited so good for her! As you're already aware we were in the FRONT row and I was sitting almost directly in front of Josh, the cellist, yes she has a C-H-E-L-L-O player, isn't that AWESOME! Anywho, so I was watching him through out the concert, we made eye contact and smiled on more than one occurrence during the set, ya know just what's expected if you're that close! At one point in the concert I noticed he has a huge smirk on his face and I wonder why.... so I look to my right, away from the stage, toward J and Court. To find Court pulling her ear plugs out of her bra and jamming them into her ears. Not usually a big deal but when the onstage C-H-E-L-L-O player is watching all the more hilarious! Even funnier come to find out Court had no idea he was even paying attention!!!
After playing for an hour and a half Brandi ends the show but of course comes back and does Hallelujah for an encore and I got a video of it. She does one of the best covers of that song! If you've never heard her version I'll send you the link! She then followed up with some the best news we heard all night.... she was going to do two things, one of which she had never done before. We were all on the edge of our seats dying to hear them, well actually I think we were standing, but just as excited. First she announced she would come sign autographs after the show. Sweet I was totally gonna buy a poster and have her sign it so I could add it to my office wall. Second she announced she and boys were gonna be packin' up the equipment and moving it down the road a mile or so to the Coffee Hag to play another set for FREE for whoever wanted to go!
Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do you get in line to meet Brandi or do you gamble on getting into the "after party show"? Well I'll give you one guess as to what we did.... we threw caution to the wind and hauled ass to the car to get to the coffee hag as fast as possible! I imagine that's what it feels like to be on the Amazing Race! We were lucky enough to get to the Coffee Hag relatively quickly and ended up being numbers 79, 80 and 81 out of the 130 people being let in. The only downfall to this set up was we had to wait on the street until the equipment was set up. But we had arrived and committed to waiting so we huddled together for warmth, being a lovely April night it was still quite brisk. IRREGARDLESS we were there for another show and after being served coffee and by my request cookies on the street and waiting about an hour the moment of truth arrived. They let us into to this hole in the wall coffee shop.
The guys filed in with their instruments, yes even Josh and the C-H-E-L-L-O, with Brandi in toe. However, she had a delayed entrance, being the diplomat and endearing fan of her fans, she stopped to play Late Morning Lullaby for those people waiting on the sidewalk, who were rejected once the Coffee Hag had reached capacity. She came into a cheering crowd, who were closer in age to us, and just as equally as excited to being seeing a second show in the same night!!! This experience was much more intimate, even though we were quite a bit further away from the "stage". People shouted out requests, questions, observations and Brandi and the fellas chatted along with the adoring audience. She played for another hour, a mix of songs she hadn't played earlier and a few staples such as The Story, which is SOOOO darn fun to sing along with in a crowded room of "true" fans.
We exited the Coffee Hag at about 12:30 AM, to my dismay Brandi did not stay there to sign additional autographs, but she had preformed twice so I should be happy with that right...? No we faced a wonderful hour and a half drive home, which flew by with all the discussion of the evenings events and just how truly unique it was and will most likely NEVER happen again.
I should also note through out the night as we were calling many people Chubbies, we were also very aware that a friend near and dear to us all was missing this excited adventure! She was however with us in spirit and we had ever intention of using her situation to get something for her signed or given to us if we met Brandi, atlas the opportunity never presented itself! Perhaps next time we'll work it out for your Shenana!
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