#174 - spontaneity

Last Friday I was invited and then uninvited to a regularly occurring "movie night" (it was abruptly cancelled for that week). Since my night was all of a sudden free, I decided to cruise online to see what happenings there were downtown. Through a series of link-clicking, I came to Matt Pond PA's tour dates. Portland on the 12th! Seattle on the 13th! I sent out a "let's do this!" text to a friend, who actually took me up on my sham of a proposal. I hadn't actually comprehended the details of if we actually go... it was more like a, "hehe... yah right, but cool" text (I'm not, by nature, a spontaneous person). With two aboard the spontaneous-road-trip-train, I tried to gather a few more. Within 30 minutes of the news, the four of us were all hodgepodge-packed and on the road. Friday we left Boise around 6:00 PM and arrived in Seattle at 1:00 AM.

(Concert was in Portland on the 12th you thought? ... WRONG. I misread the website too. Apparently Saturday was the Seattle show, but by the time we figured that out, our excited concert anticipatory wheels were spinning out of control and no mix-up would stop us)

We slept at my wonderfully hospitable brother's house and then all day Saturday (up at 8:00 AM) we cruised around Seattle. This was my first attempt of driving a stick-shift in such a hilly place, but I'm proud to announce that I was successful with no stalls and only one accidental. peel-out (smelt like burnt rubber for about 5 minutes...). We walked from Pikes Place to the Space Needle. Back to Pikes Place. Back to the Space Needle. Back to Pikes Place. Mixed in with that relay was a stop at the Experience Music Project, Holy Cow Records, a good friend's house, and the Pier.

Now for the meat: After our day's excursion, we drove to the High Dive venue. We were one of the first people waiting in line so therefore, got the best seats in the house while we waited an hour and a half for the show to start. Once the concert started though, we were up front and center against the stage. Smoosh opened. They were phenomenal! Three sisters: one 18 years, one 16 years, and one 13 years old. They were all very attractive, and had more talent that than anyone expected. The drummer was easily the best drummer of the night. Wintersleep followed: loud noise with 30 seconds of understandable lyrics that ended up making me extremely dizzy, black out, almost fall over, and have to leave the floor.

MATT POND PA! While they were setting up for the set, he jumped down on the floor to adjust one of his speakers. He said excuse me, with a smile, and was so close to me I could hardly breath. It was a perfect start! They played the most incredible set: I recognized every song but one and he played all my very favorites! I was dancing the entire time and singing for most of it. His stage presence, talent, humor and charisma was heart pounding. Easily one of the top three best concerts I've been to.

The concert ended at 2:00 AM when we hit the road and took shifts driving back home to boise. We arrived back in our beds at 10:00 AM where I proceeded to sleep until 4:00 PM. Much needed...

THE SUM UP: without hesitation, the concert was definitely worth the drive. The friend bonding and fun-having was worth the sleep deprivation. The memories and bragging rights were worth the money spent.