Sunday, May 22, 2011

Another concert in the books.

I can't remember if I ever told you all I was going to the Death Cab for Cutie concert last night? I know some Facebook people knew and then others I told in passing.. but yeah. I went. It was amazing. None of the plans before hand worked out so it was all winging it. And did you know you can't sell a "will call" ticket to scalpers on the street? Yeah. I figured you couldn't but now I know for sure.

Now, while we saw Akon and Usher get out of their buses across the street at the Target Center... Chris Walla from Death Cab walked right past us. He was carrying food right past everyone in line and only me and this completely drunk guy next to us recognized him. So that was kind of cool.

The opening band was The Lonely Forest. Honestly- I can't say I had ever heard them before but I really liked what I did hear. Chris Walla produced their new album, Arrows, and you can hear some Death Cab for Cutie influence, but they certainly have their own sound. The singer is kind of nutty? And I mean that in a really good, socially awkward, hipster kind of way. The only thing that was kind of distracting is that he sticks his tongue out a LOT when he performs. But I liked them enough to put that album on my iTunes buy list. So we'll see.
 You'll notice we were super closet to the stage. Usually at First Avenue I stand right behind the sound board. Usually you don't have a million people touching you, you can sometimes see the set list, and you're directly in front of the stage so you can get good pictures. This time since we ended up being like fourth in line we decided to sit on the ledge really close to the stage. So I got great pictures.
 I also underestimated how painful sitting on a concrete ledge for four hours would be. Needless to say, my ass, hips, and knees were in a lot of pain by the time we hobbled out of there. But it was totally worth it because I got to see everything perfectly and it was a great concert.

Admittedly, I'm a late comer to the Death Cab for Cutie fan train, so I don't know all of the lyrics to all of their songs. Thankfully, they played all of my favorites (with the exception of "Summer Skin") and even the ones I didn't know totally were still great to hear.
 Probably one of the best moments of the concert was Ben Gibbards solo acoustic version of "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" which ended up being a crowd sing-a-long that at times drowned out Ben's voice.
 Another moment that I will admit to having a total geek moment was when they played, what is most likely my favorite song ever, "What Sarah Said". That, too, became a total crowd sing-a-long and I can't even tell you how amazing that was for me.
Several times during the concert the band stopped to say how impressed they were with the crowd, how amazing the venue is (if you are ever in Minneapolis/St. Paul I highly recommend seeing something at First Avenue), and how overall it was one of their favorite performances. Which.. was pretty cool to hear, but it was true. The crowd was really excited for them to play and that's always a great experience for everyone there.

What was also nice was that First Avenue *finally* has air conditioning. Seriously. It's about time. But even with the air conditioning it was obviously warm on the stage because Ben Gibbard started out with black jeans and ended the show with his pants looking like shiny leather. Also you'd see just massive amounts of sweat fly off his head when he was jamming out. But it's that kind of thing where they play through it that kind of make the concert for me. They played pretty much every hit and all of my favorites off the albums I have, plus a bunch of new ones of the album that comes out in eight days. And to be honest? I listened to the new single the other day and I was just "meh" by it but it's really great live. As is the other stuff so I'm going to still say I'm excited for this album to come out.

So. Tomorrow is weight loss check in. Stay tuned for that. Tuesday-Thursday I'm in Milwaukee for a book signing with Amy so I don't know if I'll have posts for you or not. So don't panic if you don't see anything. :)

7 comments:

Julie H said...

Sounds like fun! You've been quite the concert girl lately!

Jo-Anne's Ramblings said...

Damn you go to a lot of bloody concerts lucky you and thank you so much for sharing as I do enjoy coming here and seeing clips of bands I have not heard of before as well as some I have heard of.

Unknown said...

Concert = great calorie burning, Standing, dancing, shouting, all great ways to lose weight.

So, the fact you did this right before a weigh in... I'm getting good vibes.

And yeah, glad your weekend was better than mine. By the end of Sunday, it wasn't so bad after all. :)

Ruth said...

Your ass will recover. You got a great spot! That's what's important.

AmberLaShell said...

I still wished I lived closer to you, I would totally go w/you to tons of stuff.. Sounds like you had a great night! Can't wait to see how your weigh-in goes...

AmberLaShell Rants

Jandy xx said...

hey gorgeous, i havent cmmented for a bit... but i have been keeping up to date! I miss you! I hope youre well, getting organised for all your holiday comeing up xx

Dana said...

Glad you had fun at the show. In case you're interested, DCFC is coming back in August...I think to Roy Wilkins.