So about two months ago I ordered tickets to see Sufjan Stevens for Clint for his B-day.
Kelly calls me last week and says “Liz, I have a dilemma. I have two front row tickets to see Sufjan Stevens and nobody to go with me.” And I said, “Kelly, because I love you, I’m going to give up my ZZZ/basement row ticket with my husband and make good use of that front row ticket. It's a tough call, but I think I can do it.” Actually they weren’t that bad of seats, but I wasn’t about to pass up a front row opportunity so I told her we should get Brian to go as well and he could take my seat.
So Wednesday, I hopped in a blue Ford Windstar (yes folks that is a van) and drove to the ATL with 5 of the coolest people I know (Clint, Brian, Kelly, Josh, & Abby). I love going places with fun people, because then even the ride is part of the fun. I think we even turned the music off right outside of Birmingham because we were talking so much we weren’t paying it any attention. Gotta love trips like that.
So we get to the Fox Theater and are standing in line and Kelly looks at me with a stricken face, “Liz, did I hand you the tickets?” I thought I was going to throw up. So we ran back to the car, looked every where and finally found them in the bottom of her Wendy’s bag, underneath the trash. WHEW!
We finally get in, purchase our $6.50 shot glass of wine and made our way to our seats. The further and further we got to the front, the more stupid we got. We kept looking at each other and saying “Holy fucking cow”. I don’t think I’ve said “holy cow” since like the mid 90’s, but there it was, flying right out of my mouth. We got down to the pit, handed our tickets to the escort, and then. She. Walked. Us. To. The. Freakin. Middle. Of. The. Front. Row. We officially had the best seats in the entire house.
The show was incredible. I was surprised at how many instrumentalists he actually had, and how many times they rotated instruments. Even his drummer ended up playing the piano during the encore. I thought it might be a little more stripped down, but no. They all walked out in their wings, scrubs, weird military tops, and my favorite part: barefoot.
Highlights for me: The Wasp (which has a longer name but I always forget it), John Wayne Gacy, Casimir Pulaski Day, Chicago, Abraham, and of course Jacksonville. Transfiguration was also good. Sufjan seemed calm and collected, despite the fact that his sound system crapped out in the middle of a song and had to wait a couple minutes before starting again. He kind of does the Steve Malone thing with his hair between songs where he rakes his hands back and forth through it and by the end he had a pseudo-mohawk. You can tell he takes a lot of pride in and is meticulous about his music. He made a lot of eye contact with all of the band members, and everything flowed really well. At one point, Kelly nudged me and I noticed a violinist singing into his violin like it was a microphone. Weird.
I’m probably forgetting a lot of stuff, but that’s it for now. I’ll leave you with this.
Kelly calls me last week and says “Liz, I have a dilemma. I have two front row tickets to see Sufjan Stevens and nobody to go with me.” And I said, “Kelly, because I love you, I’m going to give up my ZZZ/basement row ticket with my husband and make good use of that front row ticket. It's a tough call, but I think I can do it.” Actually they weren’t that bad of seats, but I wasn’t about to pass up a front row opportunity so I told her we should get Brian to go as well and he could take my seat.
So Wednesday, I hopped in a blue Ford Windstar (yes folks that is a van) and drove to the ATL with 5 of the coolest people I know (Clint, Brian, Kelly, Josh, & Abby). I love going places with fun people, because then even the ride is part of the fun. I think we even turned the music off right outside of Birmingham because we were talking so much we weren’t paying it any attention. Gotta love trips like that.
So we get to the Fox Theater and are standing in line and Kelly looks at me with a stricken face, “Liz, did I hand you the tickets?” I thought I was going to throw up. So we ran back to the car, looked every where and finally found them in the bottom of her Wendy’s bag, underneath the trash. WHEW!
We finally get in, purchase our $6.50 shot glass of wine and made our way to our seats. The further and further we got to the front, the more stupid we got. We kept looking at each other and saying “Holy fucking cow”. I don’t think I’ve said “holy cow” since like the mid 90’s, but there it was, flying right out of my mouth. We got down to the pit, handed our tickets to the escort, and then. She. Walked. Us. To. The. Freakin. Middle. Of. The. Front. Row. We officially had the best seats in the entire house.
The show was incredible. I was surprised at how many instrumentalists he actually had, and how many times they rotated instruments. Even his drummer ended up playing the piano during the encore. I thought it might be a little more stripped down, but no. They all walked out in their wings, scrubs, weird military tops, and my favorite part: barefoot.
Highlights for me: The Wasp (which has a longer name but I always forget it), John Wayne Gacy, Casimir Pulaski Day, Chicago, Abraham, and of course Jacksonville. Transfiguration was also good. Sufjan seemed calm and collected, despite the fact that his sound system crapped out in the middle of a song and had to wait a couple minutes before starting again. He kind of does the Steve Malone thing with his hair between songs where he rakes his hands back and forth through it and by the end he had a pseudo-mohawk. You can tell he takes a lot of pride in and is meticulous about his music. He made a lot of eye contact with all of the band members, and everything flowed really well. At one point, Kelly nudged me and I noticed a violinist singing into his violin like it was a microphone. Weird.
I’m probably forgetting a lot of stuff, but that’s it for now. I’ll leave you with this.
What a beautiful man. Even my husband says so. If you want to see more pictures, click on 'My Pictures' on the left.
13 comments:
maybe the violinist was singing into their instrument-mounted microphone. but what do I know I was on row ZZZ.
actually our seats, from a listening perspective, were ideal. we were just to the left of the sound board, which is actually what I would prefer over the front row if I had the chance.
well I say that but front row, especially front.and.center, is very kick ass.
I hate you. Deep inside. I should have capitalized every letter of hate to make it more effective. Don't forget who had to get left behind for you to enjoy that concert.
that comment came of harsh. i really don't hate you, but i wish i had been able to accept that ticket. i guess i hate myself more.
Feel the beams of jealousy coming from me, Liz.
*JEALOUSY*
Feel em?!
holy freaking cow.
you are my new hero.
wow. he is beautiful- i think i'm even more in love with him now.
by the way, great pictures!
i got tears in my eyes just looking at them.
one day- one day- i will see him in concert.
I had some friends that went to that show! They said it was amazing. I'm pretty sure their seats weren't as good as yours.
Brian- you and clint with your 'ideal place for listening'. at the damnwells clint moved like 50 times before we found the 'optimal listening spot'. but what do i know about that. i'm just a woman with a small brane.
ersatz- i hate you!!!!!
j/k. i actually think you're pretty awesome, and you have an even more awesome girlfriend that i was honored to share the experience with.
and it's ok, sometimes i hate myself too. especially this past friday night. definitely hated myself then.
rae- actually i just felt amused and smiled at your comment. = )
bonita- it was like an out of body experience. wow, being a hero feels pretty awesome...
s.wells- we have the same last name. except you were born with yours. still cool though. definitley go see sufjan ASAP.
jen- AMAZING doesn't come close. orgasmic maybe?
Hey, here's another blog post about Sufjan! Sounds like yours!
http://www.corporate-casual.com/2006/06/29/hipster-erotica/
oops. try this link instead:
http://tinyurl.com/n9o6d
Man, I love reading about Sufjan concert experiences. I saw him a couple of days before you guys did. It was such an amazing show. But I was in the balcony. Being front row must have been insane.
e- that was incredible. and erotic in a very weird way. at first i totally thought it was a guy writing. how did you find that?
benj-where did you see him? i guess somewhere in texas i presume. and yes, front row was face-melting.
worker #3116 is one of my favorite blogs. i think it is actually a "he," impersonating a she, in that post. he's kind of ambiguously male. funny stuff.
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