Music to soothe the soul

If it's not obvious from my earworm posts, I am a huge music lover and I do love going to see live shows when I get a chance but I don't like attending them by myself.  Well, lo and behold it turns out that another friend also shares quite a few of the same musical tastes that I do AND goes to concerts as much as possible!!!  There also happens to be something of a surge of great bands playing in some of our smaller venues, for example, last week Awolnation, Hank III, Toadies, Cavo, and Lacuna Coil all performed in Little Rock.  Wow, what a tough choice to choose which ones to attend, eh?

Initially we settled on the Wednesday night Toadies show at Juanita's because I had a race on Saturday morning, unfortunately Awolnation played the same night at the same time in a different place so that ended up being a no-go (boooooo).  Absolutely no regrets about seeing the Toadies however, what a great band to see live and the opening act, Bobgoblin was amazing as well.

There is nothing quite like the feeling of a live show, the crowds milling about, vibration of the floors and walls, the music so alive that it shakes and moves through and off your body, mind, and soul--so incredibly primal.  I NEED that, can't believe it's been so long so since I've been able to slake that particular craving.  Yes, I crave music, I think I can live without most other things but music is not of one.  Although if I attend any more shows without ear plugs I may have to, lol.

It definitely helped the ambience that both bands acted like they were having a great time playing for us as much as we were enjoying being there.  Nothing worse than a group hitting the stage and acting like they are bored to distraction.  The crowds were smaller than I expected but it was a Wednesday night, aka a work night so I think a lot of people stayed home because of having to get up early.

Remember when I said initially earlier in the post about only attending the Toadies gig?  My friend and I were talking about Lacuna Coil not only appearing in Little Rock but HEADLINING the show and he said that he was going to attend after all because who knew when they would be here ever again and that if I wanted to ride along then he would pick up the tickets early in case it sold out.  A half a day of deliberation and I decided he made a very good point and we certainly have no shortage of 10k races in the area, lol.  

So yeah, at 9pm on Friday night I was again standing up near the stage waiting on the opening act Candlelight Red to start and making snarky tweets about the "fashion".  Again another stellar group that I hadn't heard of but I liked what they played  (even if 2 of 'em had faux hawks).  Their cover of Roxette's "The Look" killed! Unfortunately the only vid I could find to share has crap sound.  

Lacuna Coil was well worth the 0145 bedtime, hey I'm old, that time is a killer, lol.  Such amazing voices and energy........much, much, much, better live than on the studio albums and their albums are gorgeous.  They played a solid 2 hours with an acoustic set in the middle which was the only "low" point in the show.  It went on for 2-3 songs too long, most everyone was getting restless.  Probably would have been ok if there had been more seating in order to kick back and just chill but with most people standing it was a bit much.  It was also definitely nice not to have the ubiquitous groupie standing at the side of the stage who was alternately texting then throwing up her arm while making the duck face like there was at the Toadies show (did I mention I was feeling snarky, lol).  

After over 3 hours of headbanging (in heels, no less) and going to bed in the wee hours of the morning only to get up at 0545 for the Toad Suck 10k, let's just say that my time was less than stellar but I will save that for another blogpost--oh the anticipation! or not ;-).  

A pic for the obsessive Marshall fan TWBrit, personally I think the Texas flag is the best bit