Rochester, NY
12:05 PM
It might be the best day of the summer here in Rochester. It’s supposed to get up to 82. I can’t see a cloud from where I sit, which is on the deck of my parent’s place. The beach is in front of me and there are some kids on both sides of the house, in the water and playing in the sand. I am getting back to reality after a longer than planned on weekend.
Yesterday was a memorable one. It was a day like this one, except it was quite breezy. It was a perfect night for a concert and that is where we went. I had driven home on Friday because O.A.R. was playing last night. I had seen them last year in Charlotte and actually hung out on their tour bus after the show. Ever since then I’ve been a major fan. I had actually talked a few times with their PR people about interviewing one or all of them. I made progress but she called me on Saturday and said it was a no go. “They have a lot on their plate.” I was bummed about that. She then called again yesterday and said she couldn’t do anything for me ticket wise. That was OK since I had already bought them. There were four of us going. Caytie, Bryan, Becky and myself. Everyone came over to the house at about 3. Bryan and I got reunited with the Captain. We sat on the beach, listened to the 3 OAR cd’s I have and got prepared for dinner and the show. My mom had some pork chops and I marinated them with a bottle of Caribbean jerk stuff C&B brought back from their cruise. They turned out quite well. We also had well done sweet potatoes that were awesome. We headed out to the show.
After stopping at C&B’s so they could feed Conway and we could have another Captain, we arrived at about 7:15. The first act was wrapping up. We walked down, picked up our tickets from will call, and were in front of Jillian’s when Bryan saw a guy he knew. He pulled us inside a special section and handed us free beers. It’s nice when things like that happen. We had a couple and headed into the show. It was a different type setup as it was on what I think was a parking lot. The stage was up high but the view was a bit tough because it was flat all the way back. We made our way through and were in front of the stage on the left, maybe 40 people back. Not a bad place to be. There were no seats. That was great for me because I had my space to dance and jam all over. You should’ve seen me rocking and screaming. I can dance like no other and all eyes were on me. I was really breaking it down, especially for their first 3 songs. OK, maybe not.
We got settled in and they came on. The crowd went wild as did I. I was the biggest fan of the 4 of us. I turned C&B onto them after my night in Charlotte. It was kind of funny to be in there and be one of the oldest people in the crowd. This was definitely a college based group. I didn’t and don’t care. If I like it, I like it and will go to see it.
The concert was pretty good. They sounded great but I think all of us had hoped they would play more of the songs we knew. I guess that is the case at any concert. I had a great time regardless and recommend going to get a CD. And for the record, it is O, then A, then R, not oar.
Off to the beach. Oh yeah, I will interview one of them at some point.