I'll Stop Soon, Promise

I have to - this takes a toll on my body...

Last night, through some old channels, I was able to acquire tickets to see Mat Kearney & Ingrid Michaelson at the Music Farm here in Charleston. It wasn't a planned outing, but rather something that sort of came together at the last minute and worked out well.

Staci and I grabbed early dinner at Taste of India west of the Ashley. I haven't been there in a long time, but it was about as good as I remembered. Our usual Indian restaurant, Nirlep, isn't open on Mondays. Coincidentally, we usually want Indian food on Mondays.

Anyway, after that, we killed some time downtown at Kudu coffee. We kind of disrupted the illegal music sharing session of two people sitting in the same little nook we decided to occupy for a bit. The girl of this pair left and the guy was left to awkwardly listen in on our conversations. Every now and then, I caught him barely smiling out of the corner of my eye. Staci complimented his shoes - Vans slip-ons with dinosaurs on them, actually kind of fun - in an attempt to make conversation and take him out of the awkward listener stage, but he seemed very shy and was not into keeping up long-term conversation with us.

After an hour or so, we headed to the venue. We didn't get there ridiculously early, but somehow still ended up in the front row. Somebody is looking out for my short little self.

The concert was co-billed between Ingrid and Mat, and the opener was Cara Salimando. I've never heard of her before. She has a good voice but came off as being very young to me. Maybe she's not - but her material just seemed very young. It was a bit naive, but I didn't hate it.

Mat Kearney was up after that. He put on a good show, full of energy and interesting sidebars. Staci and I got chastised for making an inside joke while he had the audience clapping along - our joke disrupted the clapping and he stared us down and showed us how to do it right. I felt like I'd been slapped on the knuckles by a nun. He kept making very long eye contact with me and I thought it was kind of awkward, but figured it was just something he does. However, after his set, two girls approached me and started grilling me with questions. It went something like this: "Do you know Mat Kearney? - No. - Well I think you do now! - Why? - He kept staring at you. - Yes, I noticed. - We thought you were friends with him or his sister or something. - No..no. - Well, you are lucky!" I don't know why that makes me lucky. I guess it's the groupie thing - some girls want the attention of stars and want to be adored by them. I don't really care. Yes, it's kind of a fun little anecdote, but I'm not going to be like "OooHHhh he thinks I'm pretty!" or whatever. I figured I'd be bored on stage and find one person to fixate on too. At the end of the day, stars are people, and I still judge them on whether or not they're assholes - just like normal folks.

Ingrid Michaelson wrapped up the night. I knew most of her material going in, but I'm more of a casual listener, so it was interesting to hear her playing songs I wasn't SO overly familiar with. I like her attitude - she says things similar to things I say and seems to have the same sense of humor. That could be a stage thing, but it made me smile. I have a constant paranoia of people not getting me at all, so even if someone fake understands, that's cool. Her show involved lots of fun little bits. At the end of one song, all of the band members switched to a different instrument, and the bassist resumed singing the song. There was also some choreography and the encore boasted a cover of Death Cab for Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", beginning with only Mat and Ingrid on stage, but then bringing in all the members from all the bands.

Anyway, it was an interesting show. I didn't intend upon going, but I knew that by the end of the week, I'd be bored and dying to get out of the apartment with nowhere to go. So I figured I should seize the opportunity while I had it.