Tonight.  :)

 

This one's been a long time coming.

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A glimpse at last week:

The Easton Corbin concert last night was a blast.

I left a bigger fan then I came. My highlight of the show was definitely when he sang "Run." He's adorable, and he sounds just like George.  Of course I was thrilled.  I also got to enjoy the show with 5 wonderful friends.

We asked him if he'd do a human pyramid with us for our photo. Well, I asked him, because we figured it gave us better odds than if Erik or Allan did it. As you can see, he was a bit confused and thrown off guard by it... : /  So were Meg & T.

It's a nice picture and all... but he missed the opportunity to be part of this. 

Awesome is a shape.

So many fun moments to the night, I woke up laughing (inside).

So.... what I'm trying to say is, thank you guys for helping us all get there.

Signed, "Katrina Hope" ;)  

Tonight - it's Easton Corbin. 

Next weekend, Steady Skies release party. 

Two days later, Julia Fisher.

March 31, The Lumineers.

April 25th, Coldplay. 

That's about as diverse a concert series as you can get.  Especially when you consider the last concerts I went to were Death Cab & TH&TH, The Civil Wars and Future for Forestry.  Oh yes, and somewhere before that, U2.  :)

Last weekend was the weekend of concerts.

This weekend was the weekend of birthday celebrations.

Happy Birthday To Kristin Faith & Elsa Juliet!

It was Elsa's Birthday... I need to get a photo of her for this post lol. 

ahem.

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From The Civil Wars's Tour Diary.

Look closely :)

Happy Day!!

TONIGHT!!!

This weekend was unbelievable.  I'm exhausted, but I mostly blame my dad for that, whe decided to get me out of bed last night to come see "one picture" of him in a fighter plane in Vietnam.  One picture turned into Kim's well-documented childhood and much more.  But for the rest of the weekend:

Saturday's concert was unbelievable.  I love The Head and The Heart.  So when Death Cab's concert was announced and that TH&TH were opening for them, I got a prompt text from Theresa, "Should I buy tickets?"  My answer was, "of course," of course.  It blew my mind.  I've never been to a concert where I was going more for the opener than the headliner, it was a bit odd.  (Granted, I was also really excited about Death Cab.)  And they both lived up to everything I could have hoped for and a dozen times more.  The Head & The Heart were all that we love about folk, they poured out EVERYTHING into their music before our eyes.  I love the power of folk music, how it's stripped down and yet overcoming.  You could understand every word as it tore through the air at you, and then ripped you apart.  Each song was my favorite, until the last. 

Charity Rose (who'd already made me pledge to start practicing my violin better), absolutely stole the night as screamed out "rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers 'til I meet you" in something I could only call desperation and hope. Truly, if hope had a sound, it would have been that. It was rough and cutting and lovely all at the same time. I watched them and I think began to grasp why musicians are so in love with what they do and how they could become addicted to performing. For an hour, two hours, or a 15 minute set musicians get to live life with everything in them, spending themselves on a stage of passion, dedication, talent and the culmination of hundreds of unseen hours of practice. It's dedication. It's a clearer example than we usually see, and a simpler one. The question I walked away with was, how could I live my life like that? And I don't really know, but there is certainly a greater passion we could all be living with, a way to spend ourselves that we rarely consider. 

Death Cab for Cutie was next up, and they were UNBELIEVABLE.  You could see why they'd brought on TH&TH, their personalities on stage and their strong lyrical work melded nicely, but then, it was rock, it was amps and thrown guitars and drum duos and long sweaty hair, light shows and smoke.  It was brilliant.  Ben Gibbard showed off unbelievable talent, ranging from one instrument to another.  When he finally unleashed on the drums, the arena was in awe.  And of course for his versatility to be displayed, other band members had to move from instrument to instrument as well, the other guitarist often swinging over to piano and back. The four band members put on a high-energy 2+ hour set, making sure we all got more than a good return on our ticket price.  

It was an unbelievable evening, and if we weren't both so tired, we'd probably have kept it going. Instead, we sat in the traffic and talked about "next time" and how we'd live it up. Love you T, thank you so much for thinking of me, for grabbing the tickets, and for sharing the evening with me. Oh, yes, and for always putting up with my shananigans and photo-taking. ;)

I know what I've got to do.

I came here to do it, but when I went to pull up my blog, I typed in "www.u2" into the url window. That's right. :) I'm going to add photos this evening from my laptop, but I'll give you some text right now. U2 was amazing. My expectations were so high. I've been waiting for 18 months for this. As the sound system began to boom "Ground control to major tom" and the screens flared up with the four men strolling confidently and cooly down the back hallways of the stadium, I actually teared up. I was worried - "Oh no, I can't be that girl!" I looked at Kristin and told her "If I cry, you're not allowed to tell anyone." To which she responded, "If you cry, I'm telling everyone." You should know- I'm not a cryer. I mean, I'm a "tearer" but not a cryer.

I held it together and kept my cool. If you can consider singing along to every song and swaying like a crazy girl, cool. (which I totALLY do.) And I saw more evidence that U2 is a Christian band. No, I'm not referring to some amazing things that were said, sung or requested. I'm not referring to when he admonished the stadium to rejoice over the recent release of a woman who'd been a political prisoner in her own country for 25 years. Or when he started singing "I dance before you Lord." No, I'm only referring to the observance I made that people dance to U2 the exact same way they do in worship. (Okay, maybe that actually sounds heretical... but it's not.)

One of my highlights was when Bono sang "Will you still love me tomorrow." A, I love the song, I love the era of music, and B, I love that it was one of those songs and moments you will never get on an album. It was just that moment.

Seeing them in concert was remarkably exciting. What a show!!! I think they played for nearly two and a half hours! Every time they returned to the stage it was bigger and better! The end affect of it though: I want to go to Ireland... all the more. I want to see them perform in Dublin. :)

Thank you Dad for one of the greatest gifts- as always. :) We had such a wonderful time!!

disclaimer: I don't really think U2 is a "Christian band" -- I do think Bono is a remarkable man who loves Jesus Christ and sets an example of a man who loves his neighbor. And I do think U2 writes incredible music that makes people come alive and hold on to hope. And I do think The Edge has superpowers.