AMAZING

I am thoroughly exhausted after a day of travel followed by getting to see Caroline and the kiddos and then the best concert I have been to in years. Certainly the last one to compare would be seeing James Taylor in 2002 in Shreveport, but Great Big Sea is such a different experience, it is basically useless to compare.

They were brilliant tonight. They opened with a stirring rendition of Captain Kidd from their newest album. The show lasted nearly three hours. They played 80 minutes, then took an intermission, then played an hour, and then had three encores - probably nine songs in the encores - for another half hour. They played roughly half of the songs from the new album - Polina, Charlie Horse, and the Mermaid song in the first half. Come and I will sing you was one of the encores and well done. They did not play as much of Something Beautiful as I would have liked; I think that is their best album; they opened the second half with a stirring rendition of If I were King that had the place jumping. But I would have loved to hear the title track and Let It Go. But Sean's very emotional version of John Barbour may have been the high point of the show for me. And if it wasn't John Barbour, then it had to be the very mellow version of Sea of No Cares, which is a very meaningful song to me anyway.

All of their old songs - Merry Mac, the Day that Patty Murphy Died, Rant and Roar, Consequence Free, Jack Hinks, I'm a rover, and on and on - they played. I would have loved to hear Boston and St. John, and I would have loved to hear She's Going Up. I am trying to think though of what I would take out to fit them in, and the only song I can think of is Helmethead, which I just have never really liked. But it did get a ton of audience participation, so what would I know.

Early on, Sean sang Forget-Me-Not, a beautiful ballad. And it was then that the show was emotional for me. I had such a good time at this show watching this band that Becky loved so much. I so wish she could have been there with me. Of course, I never would have met Caroline except for the ywbb, and so at the same time I never would have been at this show if she hadn't died. And that is so confusing and weird. It is something so true of my whole life. Except for my family, almost none of the people I interact with even knew Becky. Nobody at work and church. None of my widowed friends. None of the women that I have remained friends with through dating. When I think of how few of the people in my life actually knew her, it saddens me because they would all have loved her so. They know her through me, and the proof that they would love her is that they loved me, and what am I but what Becky's love transformed me to be? Which is a weird train of thought to have during a concert. But such is a widow's life, I guess.

This place was the perfect venue for the concert, too. I think it was called High Point or something like that. It used to be a movie theater evidently. There were no chairs, so we were standing, and dancing, and hopping, the whole time. I don't know how many it held, but the whole place was small and so every spot was an amazing one. And the crowd as a whole was well-versed in the music, and we sang and sang and sang, but none so much as me.

And now as the adrenaline rushes out of my bloodstream, the day of travel and standing for five hours and the lack of sleep last night are all catching up with me in spades. So I am off to bed. If you ever have the chance to see Great Big Sea in concert, do it. The music is catchier, more enthusiastic, more fun in person than on CD. It was an amazing event tonight. Not only did I get to see that, but now I have three days to spend with one of my best friends in the world, too. Lucky Me.