This month I turn 30. To mark such a remarkable event, I’m spending every day of October drenched in awesome-sauce.
There are times I feel that concerts are really just an excuse to see a large group of awesome people. That seems to be exactly what happened last night. Marta took my extra ticket, and while I’ve known that cute Polish doctor for probably 5 or 6 years now, we’ve never actually met in person. It was nice to finally meet her, and she brought along her sister Joanna (who I actually hang out with in person frequently), Jon (Jo’s man), and a friend of Jo I had never met before. Seeing as we’re a group of five, we somehow found a chain of seven seats together in the eighth row. We held onto those extra two seats, as I knew many others were going to be there. Eventually we saw Mari and Phil looking for a pair of seats, so I waved them over, and it was an awesome sevensome.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWNAFe1n_Ws&w=450&h=259]During the first opening act, I got a text from my friend Julie who was also there, a few rows behind me. Between acts I squeezed out and chatted with her in the lobby. Then we noticed the second opener was playing, and I squeezed back through to my seat. I realized at this point, I probably planned poorly by sitting so far in… should’ve taken the aisle seat.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9wQV-Pl1Ag&w=450&h=259]The first opening act was members of Mangan’s band led by his drummer. They played some good songs, but nothing thrilled me. I also noticed at this point that it really hurt to clap my hands and pondered that maybe I should go get an x-ray. It’s been a week.
The second openers were okay. I liked their harmonies, the rest didn’t really thrill me, but it was then I started getting texts from Caity who apparently was also there. Much like Julie, she was able to spot me in the crowd. I know I’m giant, but am I really that easy to spot in a large and somewhat full theatre? I couldn’t find that tiny blonde girl, but between acts she came over and we chatted. She seems to like her new job next door to my current (and her former) place of employment. We made plans for a lunch date or three.
After that I saw Frank of Chromewaves fame. We didn’t have much time left to chat, as the band was just about starting to perform, but I will see him tomorrow at the Blogger Brunch! WOOT!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtmvelyIZ9A&w=450&h=259]Dan Mangan played music. His set was comprised mostly of material from his latest album Oh, Fortune and his previous album Nice Nice, Very Nice. While I’ve been liking the new album, it hasn’t really jumped at me like Nice Nice, Very Nice did. The songs work extremely well live and the band were tight.
I was surprised that he leaned so heavily on songs from Nice Nice, Very Nice, but I’m also happy about that, as the songs were so good. The audience was singing along to songs new and old, and at a few points, someone in the audience got ahead of Dan, bring laughs to everyone. Specifically during “Basket.” Mangan seems to be a born entertainer, his charming ways are a perfect frontman’s persona. There really are very few shows as entertaining as a Dan Mangan shows.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZfP8yIYy1U&w=450&h=259]