Allison's Wonderland

My July concert was a last minute kind of a pick. I kept looking at all the venues remotely close to me and they had squat. All the good concerts I want to go to, are the first week in August when I will be in Texas. I'm excited for Texas, but I'm a little disappointed I can't see the concerts I want to see. After researching for what seemed like centuries I ran across The National Venue in Richmond. I got to see Legwarmers at the National back in January which was one of my favorite concerts through my whole Year of the Concert Series. July 8th they were having Jack's Mannequin in concert and I was so excited to find one that I really wanted to see and was somewhat close! The problem was finding someone to go with me that liked them just as much as me. So I asked around and most of my friends hadn't even heard of the band. Most people who don't know the band you're seeing are not fun to go to concerts with. I remembered thought that Tyler really liked these guys and was actually the person who first introduced me to them. So I call him up, well text him up I guess you would say, and he was totally on board. We drive to Richmond after work on Friday and stop at Chik-fil-A for dinner. Today was cow appreciation day, so if you dressed like a cow you would get free chicken. Unfortunately Tyler and I left our cow costumes at home, so we had to pay full price. Bummer.

On our way there, a rainbow was practically following us. It was extremely weird. I totally saw the end of the rainbow and there was not a pot of gold. It was the most beautiful I've seen. Better than Ireland. We arrived at The National a little late which wasn’t too awful because the two opening acts were not anything to write home about. The first band was called Steel Train and the second was called Lady Danville. The first band I felt really bad for because they left half of their band in Pennsylvania (Not sure why) so all they had were three guitarists. I think they would’ve been a lot better if they had their whole band. The second band, Lady Danville, I liked a lot better. They had some pretty catchy songs. The one song I loved was where they sang just acoustic around a mic about a girl who they were in love with who hated their guts. So funny! Tyler and I sat in the balcony for the openers and then moved to the floor to listen to Jack. He was so flipping good! Way better live than on the CD I think.

The only sucky part is #1 I’m short so standing behind a bunch of people was a problem. #2 These drunk guys in front of me would NOT stop talking. I wanted to hit them in their face and say, “If you want to talk, Go outside!” Why pay 40 bucks to go to a concert and talk when you can do that for free at a coffee shop. Ugh! Last but not least #3 The girl standing behind us was tone deaf but loved to sing. Seriously woman SHUTUP! That is my only complaint(s). I think my favorite song that he did was “Bruised”. He didn’t sing “Miss California” which made me sad, but he did play “Dark Blue” in his Encore. His piano skills were mad out of this world. I liked it when he also climbed up on the piano and started singing and going crazy. There was this one point and time in the middle of the concert where he just started dancing CRAZY. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. It seriously was mesmerizing. So fun! After the concert I took the weird scary way home that comes out by Appomattox Court House but we had a blast. We put on Mumford & Sons and screamed till our lungs hurt. I kept feeling like the rain was coming through the car come to find out it was Tyler’s spit that was ricocheting off the windshield onto me. I started laughing and gagging at the same time. It was a pretty stinkin good concert. Probably will go down in the top five for this year for sure. Till the next concert!