A Blog for Brooke and Andy
Posts tagged music
“You were 2 ft away from Jon Foreman once, kiddo.”
Feb 16th
Brooke heard awhile back that loud music and subwoofers are good for helping “coax” your child out of your womb, so in looking into concerts coming to St. Louis, she found that Switchfoot was going to be putting on a show at The Pageant on February 15th. This is now the third time we’ve seen the band live – the first two were in outdoor settings, and we weren’t all that impressed (one concert was free), but this one was far and away the best of theirs we’ve seen, and amongst the best we’ve seen, period.
Interestingly, as the picture (from my cell phone…sorry about the poor quality…) above documents, their lead singer, Jon Foreman, came out into the crowd twice. On both occasions, he walked on the table directly in front of us while singing songs, so I think it’s safe to say this is the closest I’ve ever come to a famous person.
And, consequently, my baby girl already got close to a rock star. I’m not sure if I should be worried or not. 
Of Music and Middle-Age…
Jul 19th
So, I talked with a visitor at church last Sunday and she tipped me off to a coffee house (of sorts) at Kingshighway United Methodist Church. They apparently do it every third Saturday and bill it as a family evening, something to get some folks together for fellowship while also enjoying each other’s talents. There were a good 30-40 people down in this old fellowship hall about 10 min. south of us on I-55, in a neat area of south St. Louis City.
While I’m not sure I’d classify it as a “coffee house,” necessarily, it was still a good time. I mean, there was coffee there, and cookies and cheese puffs, but that was about it. And truthfully, it was more of a variety show than anything else. That’s not to say that it wasn’t entertaining, but again, I’m not sure “coffee house” was the correct moniker.
Either way, we had a surprisingly good time. There were a few kids that told jokes, one did some magic tricks, one guy sang “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” with a karaoke machine, a group of guys played some CCR and Elton John music…overall, it was a very entertaining evening!
The truly neat part about it is that many of these individuals that were getting up there performing were middle-aged, and this was probably their only outlet to share their musical talents. It’s difficult for me to imagine being in a similar situation, as I’ve been able to keep playing drums/guitar/etc. ever since leaving high school, but many of these folks graduated from high school and didn’t play with a group ever again. An opportunity like this allows them to get to practice their instrument and play it occasionally in front of a group, which is more than I can say for others out there with their instrument hidden in a closet.
Anyway, it was pretty neat. I can only hope I’m playing something in another 30 years!
Another list…
Jun 21st
…this time of musical acts (I wouldn’t say I’d call all of them bands…) I’ve seen live:
Amy Grant
Destiny’s Child (back when there were 4)
Audio Adrenaline x2
Dave Matthews Band x3
Relient K x2
Superchick
Switchfoot x2
Ludo
House of Heroes
The Urge
Hazard To Ya Booty
IndiaArie
The Calling
Lifehouse
Jimmy Eat World
Jessica Andrews
…again, I’m sure there are more that I’ll think of and add later, but that’s the list in my head right now!
Stoopid Verizon…
Jun 18th
Since we went to see “A Prairie Home Companion” for Brooke’s birthday, we went to see Dave Matthews Band for mine. The concert was held at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, and for the first time, we dropped the big bucks to actually sit in seats (as opposed to standing on the lawn).
The set included the following:
“Pantala Naga Pampa/Rapunzel”
“Shake Me Like a Monkey”
“Funny the Way It Is”
“Typical Situation”
“Anyone Seen the Bridge”
“Too Much/Lie in Our Graves”
“Seven”
“Corn Bread”
“Best of What’s Around”
“Crush”
“Why I Am”
“Dreaming Tree”
“Grey Street”
“Dive In”
“Shotgun/Squirm”
“Time Bomb”
Encore
“(#40)”
“You and Me”
“All Along the Watchtower/Stairway to Heaven”
The music was spectacular, as always, with a very good mix of some oldies and some stuff off their newest album, “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux” king. There were a few of my favorites missing, but that’s to be expected any time they have a new album out. It was certainly better than when we saw them back in 2005 (I think?) right after “Stand Up” was released, as they played almost everything from that album and very little of their old stuff.
So yeah, the music went on for a little over 2.5 hrs, so we got our money’s worth!
…BUT…then we tried leaving. We sat in that parking lot for over an hour without moving…and we weren’t even in our parking spot anymore, as we had moved out into one of the driving lanes. No cars were moving. I still don’t know why this was. Finally, one of the park workers rode by on a golf cart and directed us to another exit. This time, we made it out of the parking lot, but were directed south on Earth City Expressway, away from I-70 (where we needed to go). By the time we had turned around toward I-70, they had opened up that intersection so people could then head north on Earth City Expressway, but all the lights were backed up such that we had to wait through about 4 light cycles at each light (and there were two).
Long story short, we left our apartment around 6:45 pm Wednesday night. The concert started a little after 8:15 (DMB, that is…there was an opening band). We were out of the amphitheater by around 10:45. We didn’t get home until 1:00 am.
The concert was great, but I’m seriously considering never returning to that venue…
Guess where we’ll be tonight???
Jun 17th
“I do write about death a lot. I don’t like to over use that whole
‘seize the day’ thing, but I think, you know, the fact that we’re
going to die is a pretty good reason to stop complaining.”
– Dave Matthews; CBS Sunday Morning, 5/31/09
