The tickets for the concert went on sale the day Jackie and I left for Midtown Music; so, before we hit the road, I stopped by the box office and bought our tickets. The third seat was originally meant for my brother who had actually never heard of The Avett Brothers. I burned some CDs for him and after listening to them he decided he wasn't too keen on going to the show with us and so I asked Alexandra to go in his place and she agreed.
Since Jackie and Alexandra live less than a mile from each other, they rode together and stopped by and picked me up. We left my house about 7:20ish for the 8:00 show - that's the joy of living close to downtown and also to seeing a show in your hometown as opposed to some other city. We had really great seats for this show - we were in the lower bowl in the section closest to the stage. I'm sure I've mentioned before that Jackie and I feel we are now too old for general admission and aren't big fans of the floor seats like we were when we were in our 20s.
We found mingled about found our seats a few minutes before the show was supposed to start. On our way to our seats, we saw lots of folks in Halloween costumes - there was a Peter Pan, a Spiderman, and a Man in the Moon, who we originally thought was a banana. There were others dressed up as well, but these three I remember the most. I don't know if the band arrived to the VBC late or what, but the roadies were still setting up instruments and whatnot when it was time for the show to start. So, we chatted with each other and the folks around us while waiting on the band to come out. The couple sitting beside me were also 35 and he liked to high five, which cracked me up because I like to high five as well and so, we high fived for being 35 - why not?! They were married (for how long I'm not sure) with four children and Jackie commented that they probably needed a night out on the town. There was a lady in front of us that let me pile my coat, purse, etc. in the seat next to her because she was there by herself as her friend was a no show. She was probably in her 50s and I think she was more excited about the show than we were. She told us in advance that she would be dancing and she was not lying. I took a photo of her in all her dancing glory. I don't even think she noticed the flash going off.
The show finally started about 8:15 or so and they played for a solid two and half hours. It was a phenomenal show. As I said, I think this one was the best one I've seen; Jackie thinks the show she saw in Tuscaloosa last year was her favorite to date. The set list was great, they played pretty much all of my favorites, including "If It's the Beaches", and a lot of stuff off the new album. There was a guy on the floor in front of us who really got into every song that was played. He sang along (I imagine at the top of his lungs) and made a lot of emotional arm gestures while singing each song. I think he may have even pleaded on his knees at one point. It was rather interesting to say the least. There were also two girls in their 20s on the row in front of us (we were on the second row) who sang along to every song and squealed like teenagers quite often. I just love people watching.
For the encore, they sang "Forever and Ever Amen" (I'm assuming that's the name of the song) by Randy Travis, which was a real shocker to us and also to that guy who I mentioned was getting into every song. When they started with the Randy Travis song, he just kind of put his head in his hands and shook his head back and forth. I guess he was wanting a different song. They also played "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" and then ended on "Buffalo Gals" but changed the words to Alabama Gals, which worked really well and was quite hilarious. When it was announced the show would be in the arena, I was a little skeptical as I felt like the Concert Hall would have been a better venue for this band, but I it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and the sound was really great I thought. Huntsville was the last stop on the tour as The Avett Brothers are taking a break until they play again on December 31 in Greensboro, NC, so if you live in that area or are headed that way for New Year's Eve, check them out.
Alexandra ran into a friend of hers on her way out and I saw one of my customers from a distance. You just never know who you will run into at a concert. There were a lot of people from our class at church who also went to the show. We walked back to the car and I was safely dropped off around 11:00 p.m. It was such a fun girls' night out and I'm thankful we had the opportunity to spend some time together and listen to a great band!
Alexandra took this photo with my camera -
It turned out really well!
At the end of the show
3 comments:
I'm glad you had fun! I can't handle being around that many people anymore, so we don't really go to concerts. Maybe I need to get seats off the floor! A couple of rows higher since I'm older than you. :)
Glad you had fun!
It is so nice living close to downtown :)
It was a great show!! I will go see them anytime they play near us. Their music is AWESOME!!!
Post a Comment