Saturday was a great day. I spent many, many hours outside, both coaching and biking. T took me to brunch at First Watch, where I destroyed a Far West omelet, along with the potatoes and English muffin that came with it. Oh, and half of T's whole grain pancake (so is it a half-grain pancake?).
Not 5 hours later (no joke), I was back to the table, this time at dinner with L at Jimmy's for her birthday! It was an early dinner because she had to be at work at an ungodly early hour on Sunday, so we were pretty much the first seating they had for the night. The man himself greeted us at the door and took us to our table; the place was empty when we arrived, but by the time we left about 90 minutes later just about every table was full. All the food was delicious: flash fried spinach (mostly me), pasta crunchers (mostly L), flatiron steak salad (me), spinach salad (L), and bread pudding (me - surprise, surprise!). Some crazy old dudes outside the restaurant were kind enough to snap a pic of us:
It had (as usual) been too long since we had seen each other, so we talked a lot, getting caught up on work, friends, life, etc. And I found out that L got another pup! I have yet to meet him, but soon!
In the meantime...
T, having recently discovered that I would have the later part of the evening free, set about making plans. I didn't even know Tim McGraw was playing on Saturday night (that's how out of the loop I am - I really should start listening to the radio a little more). But T scored tickets, and we had amazing seats! Probably about the 8th row (row M, but they didn't start at A), center section. It was incredible. (More pictures to come here as well; I have T's pictures on my other computer.)
The whole outfit thing was a bit of a challenge, because I needed to find something that would be acceptable at Jimmy's, and also acceptable at a country concert. I did a red knit minidress with black heels, black leggings, and a black leather jacket for dinner, then kept the dress but switched to cowboy boots and a denim jacket for the concert. It was a successful transition under odd circumstances if I do say so myself (and I do), although it did necessitate an unplanned trip to K's house.
The dire warnings in the parking lot...
...and the contents of the garbage can not five feet away. (The ground didn't look much better.)
Really, why even bother with the signs?
We missed the opening acts, who were The Band Perry and Luke Bryan, although we did hear some of Luke's songs on the walk in from the parking lot, including two real winners: "Rain is a Good Thing" and "All My Friends Say." Luke returned to the stage to do a hilarious rendition of "I Miss Back When" with Tim, and The Band Perry came back out to sing "Can't Be Really Gone." The lead singer of Perry (the three of them are siblings) is cute as a button on stage, despite her crazy hair (which was less crazy at our show).
Look at how close we were - that's Tim McGraw!
Here are a couple videos. Apologies for the sound quality, but there was a lot of ambient noise, and the cell phone camcorder is only so good at filtering sound and light.
"When the Stars Go Blue"
"Live Like You Were Dying"
The set list for the show is available here. The reviewer's comment is that the first half of the show lacked energy, and the second half really picked it up. She's right about the second half at least, although there were a few songs in the first half that I thought were really great: "When the Stars Go Blue," "For a Little While," and "Red Ragtop" come to mind.
Photo credits for this one to the lady in the row behind us.
Me, having fun
A lot of the difference in energy level between the first and second halves of the show, I think, was with the audience. The second half had more of his older, classic stuff, which of course more people know and are excited to hear. This is his Emotional Traffic tour, but the album isn't actually out yet; he's trying to break away from his record label, and they're (not surprisingly) unhappy about that. Let the legal battles begin. Point being: the few songs he played off his new album? Nobody knows them. So the crowd's energy is going to be with the old stuff, which the second half of the set list was heavy with. The single from Emotional Traffic called "It Felt Good on My Lips" was buried in the second half, though, and it fit right in with his earlier songs - fun, upbeat, a little Caribbean flair in the tune.
After the show
Even though there were a few numbers I didn't know, I forget how much of his stuff I actually do know. I got to sing and dance and scream and generally act a fool, and I had an awesome time doing it! And the stuff I didn't know was still great. That's the thing about live music, which I've talked about before (also here and here) - it's just so fun to see it performed and be in that crazy environment and get lost in it, that it doesn't hardly matter if you don't know it.
Thanks to T for putting together an awesome adventure on such short notice!
Even though there were a few numbers I didn't know, I forget how much of his stuff I actually do know. I got to sing and dance and scream and generally act a fool, and I had an awesome time doing it! And the stuff I didn't know was still great. That's the thing about live music, which I've talked about before (also here and here) - it's just so fun to see it performed and be in that crazy environment and get lost in it, that it doesn't hardly matter if you don't know it.
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