K, Big 'D', & the 2 Adams

I went out of town (again, I know!) this past weekend to meet K (Kala) in Dallas for a Counting Crows concert. I left on Friday afternoon and picked her up at the airport in Dallas around 5pm. We stayed with my Aunt Charlotte, which is always nice. It seems like I rarely get to see Charlotte, Melanie, Scott, Mark, and that whole crew, so visits are always lovely.

When we got in on Friday, we had been sitting in 5 o'clock traffic coming back from the airport for a while and didn't really feel like don't anything crazy. So, we all just went out to eat some Mexican food and went back to the casa to watch some television. (There should be accents, yes, I get it.) Pretty uneventful. Still nice to see everyone and chat at dinner.

Saturday was a MUCH busier day, with Kala and I going shopping, finding some GREAT deals, catching an afternoon movie, eating, then heading back to Char's to get ready for the concert that evening.

The concert started at 7:30, and was kicked off by Augustana. I have their first CD, but honestly hadn't listened to anything other than Boston ("she said, I think I'll go to Boston, I think I'll start a new life ...") at great length, so I wasn't too frenzied to watch them. We did catch their last couple of songs, and they are honestly pretty good. I have since checked out their MySpace and discovered that they have a new album out. Upon listening to a few of those songs, I now wish I would have caught the entire set. Sweet and Low (to be found on their M.S. page) is FANTASTIC!

(Quick Confession: For a while before I moved, I would sing Boston, only replace it with Austin. It was somewhat of my own, personal theme song for a few months. I'm totally lame.)

So, we missed most of the opener, but did get to see all of Maroon 5 and, of course, all of Counting Crows. I also have both of Maroon 5's CD's, and have listened to the first, Songs About Jane, about a thousand times. I hadn't given much notice to their second (I forget the title), but as they played, I realized that I was super-uh-lot enjoying their show.

Now, I'll first admit that this could be attributed to 2 things outside of their actual musical abilities and talents. The first is that I had guzzled a HUGE beer in the break between them and Augustana (remember the aforementioned LOW tolerance). The second is that the singer, Adam Levine, is crazy-boiling-holy-cow-you-have-to-be-kidding-me HOT! I have heard of how big of a playboy he is, which honestly grosses me out quite a bit. I have also sworn off musicians (for personal reasons of my own ... ha!) of all kinds, entirely. Furthermore, whatever the phenomenon of "celebrity envy" happens to be has been completely lost on me since I was about 20.

However, for whatever reason, I found myself dancing, singing, laughing, and (yes) staring. I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, but the boy is oozing charisma. I mean, I ogled him for almost an hour and a half, so I'll at least give him that much. Also, he actually sounds better live than on his album. This has always been a big test for me. If you can match, or even trump, your CD vocally while playing a live concert, you're typically pretty golden in my book. This guy could. So, yeah, it was good. The highlight was Secret for me. If you've ever listened to the lyrics, you'll know just what I'm talking about. (Naughty!)

After Maroon 5 was another HUGE beer, then Counting Crows took the stage. Before I start talking about their performance, I have a confession to make that troubles me quite tremendously. The confession is this: I do not like their new album, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings, very much at all. I can stomach 3, maybe 4, songs on the entire album ... but that's it. I'm a very large fan of the Crows, so it was rough on me to listen, listen, and listen some more to their newest addition ... and find nothing in it that reached me at all. So ... I honestly wasn't too sure how I was going to respond to their show this go 'round.

I am pleased to say that, as an old fan, I enjoyed their set a lot. I do think, though, that you would have HAD to been an OLD fan to appreciate it at all. Here's why ... they did EVERYTHING acoustically. Everything. Anna Begins, Miami, Rain King, Mercury, and so on. It was far from "upbeat," but it was really pretty music. It did fit the evening. (We got lucky, and were granted a reprieve from the heat. Beautiful weather!)

Kala didn't like it too much because it was quite a big adrenaline cut-off from Maroon 5's totally loud and fast and all-over-the-place set. I do have to say that I think it might have been better for Counting Crows to play first if they were going to play so mellow. It's easier to go from mellow to wild, than from wild to mellow.

Even still, I liked it. They played very, very, very few of their newer songs (surely they have to know they fall short!), so that was actually good for me. I got my Anna Begins fix, which is always nice, and I had never heard Miami done acoustically. It's very pretty that way. I also heard some songs I'd never heard live, like Mercury. All in all, it was an exceptionally different set than I've ever seen from them. Very VH1 (old-school) Storytellers.

(Quick Sidenote: Adam (of CC) has lost tons of weight and looks very good, happy even. So, mock if you must, but no "fat boy" jokes. They just don't pertain anymore. Besides, shitty new album or not, he'll always be one of the most talented musicians (writers) I've ever heard.)

In the end, the concert and shopping with Kala on Saturday, as well as seeing Melanie's ever-growing belly (she's 7 months pregnant!) on Friday were the high points of the weekend. Sunday was pretty much waking up, watching a little TV, packing up, taking Kala to the airport, and driving home. A very nice weekend overall!

I will say that I believe I-35 to be Hell's Highway, but (thankfully!) this trip back and forth wasn't too, too bad. Somehow I managed to avert the horrible traffic that tends to clog up the way too small 2-lanes each way. I made super-good time back, and hung out with Alex for what was left of the evening on Sunday. It's usually nice to come home from a bit of time away and have the person you are coming home to really happy to see you. Sometimes it's just good to be missed.

Although I've GREATLY, GREATLY enjoyed my past 2 weekends out of town, I will say that I am happy to be staying in Austin this weekend. No long-distance driving, no dodging crazy idiot people who think they are in Nascar, no multiple stops at gas stations, and no setting alarms. The only potential oddity of this particular weekend is the ever-brewing Ike. He's proving to be a tricky little dude, so we'll see how much he affects us here in A-town. I hope not too much ...

And ... scene!