I woke up this morning thinking that the highlight of my day would be my favorite summer TV show, So You Think You Can Dance. The night turned out quite differently, however. Cody's awesome sister Cadence called around 2:30 or so to let us know the Decemberists (one of our favorite bands) were going to play a free, secret, acoustic concert downtown TONIGHT! I said "free?!??" and Cody said "concert?!?!??" and we knew that we would do whatever it would take to go to this show!!! Cadence, the selfless do-gooder that she is, volunteered to drive downtown to see what the crowd looked like, since the venue only holds 200 people. She then proceeded to stand in line in the heat and humidity for the next 4 hours to guarantee seats for the three of us. Thank you Cadence!!! All she wanted in return was some sunscreen, a bottle of water, and half a burrito. Cody made a mad dash home from work, we both jumped in the car and after a quick drive through taco bell, we were off!
Cadence called in a panic about twenty minutes later to say that they were stamping hands! We were in grid-lock traffic on good old I-35. After weaving in and out of traffic, exiting the freeway to take our chances navigating side roads, and cutting through a number of parking lots, we made it to the venue. We looked and looked for a parking place and then we noticed a homeless guy standing in an empty spot waving us over. He helped us get into the tiny parking spot and introduced himself as "Tony, old school Tony." Then he asked us for money. I don't know if this is just an Austin thing, but there are homeless guys all over downtown "saving" parking spots for people. We figured since the parking and the show were free, we could give this guy a dollar to guarantee that he wouldn't vandalize our car while we were in the show! We found Cadence in line and she took us to the front where the stamp guy was. She asked him to stamp our hands because we had just gone to get food. He didn't seem like he was interested in helping us out, so Cody offered him a taco from the bag of tacos he was holding. That really interested him and he stamped our hands! I guess in Texas tacos can be used as currency. Cody has decided to always take a bag of tacos with him to use as bribes.
(The Golden Ticket)
We had to wait only one more hour in the hot hot sun and then we were let into the tiniest room I have ever seen! I don't think that even 200 people could fit, they must have turned hundreds people away! For those of you who don't know The Decemberists (check Cody's blog tomorrow for a better introduction) they are becoming quite the popular band. They are not the type of band that plays rooms of 200 people, they are usually 5,000-10,000 person rooms, sometimes they play festivals of 80,000+. I just thought it was important to get across how rare a concert like this is. They are a regular 5 piece rock band featuring the following instruments at any given time: an acordian, a violin, a stand up bass, a guitar, a banjo, a mandolin, a snare drum and a kick drum. They mostly sing about folklore. All the pictures I posted on this blog are from the back of the room! That gives you an example of how tiny it actually was!
(Madelyn and Cadence were getting excited)
The show was amazing, incredible, spectacular and unforgettable. It was so exciting that we are staying up late just to write this blog. The Decemberists played all of our favorites, they took suggestions from the small intimate crowd (some people out the window got their requests played), and played a couple of cover tunes.
(Awesome show!)
(Video from the show for the Decemberists fans out there)
After the encore the lead singer came out on the stage and said "It's hot in here.... let's go outside". The entire band jumped off stage and guided the crowd outside for a SUPER acoustic show. Everyone stood around the band and sang with them. It was awesome, and Cody was the happiest boy on the planet.
(Lead singer rocking out acoustic style 3 feet away!)
(More of the special outside performance)
Sometimes living in the "Live music Capital of the World" has its perks! Secret Decemberists Acoustic shows!
Enjoy the pics!
3 comments:
Awesome!!
So much fun! What a once in a lifetime experience!!
Good that Madelyn gave me a lot of credit in this! But it was totally worth the wait and the heat, it was so good!!
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