(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)
my sister in law is quite the concert go-er, and got matt pretty hooked last christmas as well. for his birthday (i think?), she bought the three of us front-row seats to see Mercy Me at the Puyallup Fair (that's "pew-allup" for you non-locals).
i've never been a *huge* concert fan - maybe because i don't care for crowds, and i never feel like i'm getting anything out of a concert that i couldn't get from the CD (scoff if you will), but this was a totally different experience. it helped that they are one of my favorite bands, and i'm sure that being so close i could see sweat dripping off the lead guitar player had something to do with it. oh, yes - and my camera. i'm very easy: tell me i can bring my camera and i'm do almost anything. (well, i suppose i do have some standards, but that's another story).
we sang along to nearly every song. the lead singer told us he had walking pneumonia, so "if i turn the mic out to the crowd alot, it's because i think you guys sound really amazing, and not because i'm choking." that's ok - he sounded awesome despite that (and the crowd actually did sound really amazing!)
i'm really pleased with the photos i took - my experiences shooting for the COTS concerts came in handy. i wish i'd brought my wider lens, so i could get some shots of the full band (who knew we'd be so close?) but i didn't want to geek out. at some point, i thought "you'd better put that camera away or you're going to miss the concert itself". i waited until the encore to pull it back out, when they did a few of my favorites, including One Trick Pony - my favorite from their latest album.
the best moment was during the encore, when they "asked" if they could try a few songs out on us. before starting Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down", Bart (lead singer) said something that i've thought before myself about that very song that's worth sharing. He said:"this is a song that, when i first heard it on the radio, i thought 'man, i wish i'd written that.'"
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