the avett brothers + some other neat stuff

She knows which birds are singing, and names of the trees where they're performing in the morning. (from January Wedding)

I am perfectly and exactly happy right now, for the following five reasons:

1.  Bob and I went and saw The Avett Brothers at the Nokia last night.

2.  They were absolutely, incredibly good. It's the best concert I have ever seen, anywhere. Seriously. Scott and Seth get out there on the stage, reminding you for all the world of what they must have been like when they were little boys, thin as rails and bouncing (up and down, across, around -- bouncing everywhere) with energy, and then they have these VOICES and these SONGS with this MUSIC and these LYRICS.  And they can DANCE.

You could honestly feel a kind of ripple of astonishment in the theater, even from old fans, over how good they were.  Everyone was completely into it, dancing and singing and whispering, "Oh, they're so good. Oh, I can't believe how good they are."

There was a famous guy sitting on my right, who got there when the Avett Brothers had already been playing for about twenty-five minutes. 

I don't know who he was.  So he's not famous to me.  

"How long have they been playing?" he whispered.  

"About twenty-five minutes," I whispered.  

I also wanted to whisper, "Hey, you're famous, who are you?" but I didn't.

Then later he asked me, "Did they play 'Murder in the City' yet?" and I said "No, not yet," and then a few seconds later they played those beginning guitar chords of "Murder in the City," so I whispered "Well, there you go" to him.  

So that was the extent of our conversation.  Who was he? If I figure out, I'll let you know.  

Then there were some famous people two rows up, with whom people were getting their photos taken after the concert, and I recognized the twenty-something guy in a plaid shirt, but I can't remember where I've seen him.  Actors, but from which show?

So I'll try to do some detective work and get back to you about the famous-but-not-famous-to-me people surrounding us.  

(This is all because I decided to live my life blissfully free from the crushing responsibility of being a pop-culture elite.  If I hadn't done that, I would probably have to know who they are.)

I was so happy for the Avett Brothers, because Nokia Theatre holds just over seven thousand people (it's where the Grammys are held), and the orchestra level was packed out, and everyone adored them.  They have worked long and hard for that.

3.  They played November Blue, which is my favorite song. I didn't think they'd play it.  It was almost five minutes long. I was so happy.  I got the hiccups, I was so happy.  

They also played Tin Man, Pretty Girl from Cedar Lane, Colorshow, Slight Figure of Speech, Salina, Paranoia in B-Flat Major, Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise, Talk on Indolence, I And Love And You ... I can't remember what else.  (Sara, what else? They did Kick Drum Heart, right?)   

If you want to see a couple videos from this tour, you can go to the Avett Brothers' Amazon artist page. Then look on the right where it says "videos."  Then click on each box and listen/watch. :)  (If you go to their website to see videos of this tour, it will send you to the Amazon artist page, too.)

Live, Volume 3, comes out in three (3) days (days).  Yay!

4. Brandi Carlile came on first for awhile. She is great! If I were going to be a singer, I would want to have a voice exactly like hers.  (Unless I got to be a boy singer, and then I'd be one of the Avett Brothers.)

Her voice is quite astounding ... maybe if Roy Orbison were younger and a girl, he'd sound something like Brandi Carlile. That doesn't quite describe it, but you can hear his influence.  And Patsy Cline's influence, too.  And Johnny Cash's.  Yep.

She has very pretty brown eyes and a neat space between her two front teeth and swirly tattoos, one on each bicep, and she wore a black tank and black jeans and some neat silver necklaces, and Bob and I both loved, loved her music.  

We can't figure out why she kind of has a southern accent, because she is from Seattle. I love that.

And I really like a girl who can cover Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues and do right by it. :)

While we were driving to the Nokia before the concert, Bob and I were thinking the name "Brandi Carlile" was familiar, and then both at the same time we said "No, we're thinking of Belinda." So then when Brandi came on and people started shouting song requests, Bob leaned over and whispered "Vacation!" to me, and we both giggled.

But then we shut right up with the lame jokes as soon as she started to sing, because she blew our socks right off. I don't even want to say "The Go-Gos" in the same post. No. 

She said that she was a big Avett Brothers fan, and they were like the cool kids, and she was excited to eat at their lunch table. :)  She just met them yesterday.  

But I have to say, she is one of the cool kids.  She and her band did the neatest thing. They played one song (Dying Day, which I am now obsessed with) completely unplugged.  No mikes, no nothin'.  

We had to lean forward and hold our breath to hear them in that big old venue, but it was so beautiful. We're going to stock up on her music when I get my iPod fixed.

I didn't get a good photo of her on stage with The Twins, but I got an okay one of her on one of the big screens on either side of the stage.  Here she is:

5.  Okay.  Here is the best thing of all. Even better than the Avett Brothers.  Are you ready? If you are an older suziebeezieland girl (I don't mean older by age, I mean you've been here for the past five years or so), you are going to like this.

Yesterday our Sara P. sent me a message on Facebook about something.  She's never done that before (we've never communicated in that way before, and we communicate very rarely), but in this message, she mentioned that she and her husband were headed to the Avett Brothers concert last night.

"Hey!" I said. "So are we!" I said.  So she told me where they'd be sitting, and I told her where we'd be sitting, and we got to the concert and WE MET EACH OTHER.  

She and her husband were sitting just a few rows in front of us.  I could see the back of Sara's head.  Did we plan that? No, we did not!

She came and sat next to me between sets (because thankfully the famous guy who isn't famous to me hadn't shown up, so the seat was empty) and we chatted and it was very, very nice.  We've been talking on the Internet for so long, and it was so nice to meet in person.  She is dear and I would like to spend time with her.  We are going to get together for coffee some time. Hooray! :D

I'm pretty sure my head is going to explode from all this happiness.

ps  Okay, I just checked Twitter to see if any celebrities had Tweeted about the Avetts. Then I looked at their pictures.  One of the two guys who people were wanting their photo taken with and who was sitting ahead of us is named Brandon Barash. It looks like he's on General Hospital.  Sara, he was standing right in front of you while you were waiting to walk.  But he's not the actor I recognized, so I'll still have to figure him out. And who was sitting next to me? I do not know.