Current mood: nostalgic

If anyone knows me well, I’ve always been a concert junkie. Ever since I first saw New Kids On The Block at the Memorial Coloseum in Portland in 1991, I was hooked. As a teenager, I always wanted to go to concerts, especially pop-alternative groups. In fact, once I had a #2 wristband for Duran Duran, but my parents wouldn’t take me and I couldn’t find anyone to go with (this was about a month after I moved to Utah.) Those seats would have been awesome!

The next concert I went to was in 1997 for U2’s Popmart Tour. It was at the old Rice Stadium at the UofU. That concert was great! I went with so many cool people, and the showmanship and music was incredible! I thought that show could never been beaten in excitement, and to date it’s still one of my favorite concerts.

Sometimes people ask me all the concerts I’ve been to, so here’s a list off the top of my head. I’ve excluded the opening acts and local/LDS performers because the list would be infinitely longer, unless their show was terribly awesome or influential:

NKOTB 1991

U2 1997, 2005

Savage Garden 1997

Lilith Fair 1998 (Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole, Cowboy Junkies, Lisa Loeb, etc)

Weird Al Yankovich 1999

Chicago 2000

They Might Be Giants 2000

Sarah McLachlan 1998, 2004 (the night Taylor decided he wanted to marry me)

Barenaked Ladies 2002, 2004

Sugar Ray 2003

Matchbox Twenty 2003

Dixie Chicks 2003?

Butterfly Boucher 2004 (twice)

Sting 2005

Depeche Mode 2005

Howard Jones 2005

Howie Day 2004, 2005

Michelle Branch 2004

Maroon5 2004

Kelly Clarkson 2004, 2006 (Rosie’s first concert)

John Mayer 2004, 2006, 2007

Keane 2006, 2007

Rob Thomas 2005

Anna Nalick 2005

Missy Higgins 2005 (an Aussie, one of the best undiscovered talents EVER)

I know there are more that I am missing, but this is just the big name concerts I’ve been to. I’m sure I’ve been to at least 50 smaller-name concerts and local-type shows. I’m always up for a show, so if you get extra tickets or want someone to go with, give me a holla!

But the reason I wrote this blog was to write about my adventure with Lizzie last weekend for the John Mayer/Ben Folds/Rocco DeLuca concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I purchased the tickets in March to go with Taylor, but it didn’t work out for him to go since he’s neck-deep in training at Jet U. So Lizzie and I went, and by the advice of a coworker, we went to Pasadena to the stop for the BowlBus Shuttle. I was told about the madness of the Bowl traffic and parking, so we thought we’d be responsible and economical and take the shuttle. Unfortunately, I read the website wrong and we missed the last shuttle. We had to drive to Hollywood anyway. We drove for almost two hours looking for a parking spot, and the cheapest one was $30 almost 2 miles away. We didn’t have anough cash on us to park at most places. So we drove around and around and got hit on by this Haitian Rapper in his funky van, waved to a Raider in a limo (I can’t remember his him right off), had a few near-death experiences on Cahuenga, and minute by minute missed more of the show. We finally got in touch with Lizzie’s cousin Patrick who lives in Hollywood. He saved the day by letting us park at his place, and then dropping us off at the show. By the time we got seated, it was 9:45, and John Mayer was 2/3 through his set. We’d missed Rocco and Ben Folds entirely

But the songs we did catch were awesome (Dreaming with a Broken Heart, Why Georgia, Waiting on the World, Stop this Train, Vultures,Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, Gravity, and I’m Gonna Find Another You) I wasn’t too broken up about missing the rest of John’s show since I saw him less than a year ago when Continuum came out. I was however, very very bummed to miss Ben Folds. He doesn’t tour very much, so that was my only downside to the night.

I have to say, though…Lizzie makes every situation enjoyable. Even though we missed so much of the concert, we jammed to some good tunes, laughed at the hillarity of the other people madly trying to find parking, and we had fun grabbing hot chocolate with Patrick after the show. I was so tired after it all, that Lizzie drove home and I crashed on her couch.

It’s nights like this I’ll never forget!

Currently listening : More Than You Think You Are By Matchbox Twenty Release date: 19 November, 2002