Photo Time!

Fuzzy and I have been seeing a lot of really great shows lately. Last week, we trekked to Indianapolis to see Andrew Bird at the Murat Theatre. Some of you might know that I am a HUGE Andrew Bird fan--he's my favorite musician of all time ever, and I've seen him live at least 30 times in the 9 1/2 years I've lived in Chicago. Fuzzy surprised me with tickets, so off we went.

We had some delays on the way down there, but we were hungry so we had to stop and get something to eat. What was I craving? Chicken Wings. What was around? Hooters. Now, I must say that I enjoy Hooters--the food is good and the girls are cute. I was a little too excited to be there, apparently, cause I kept hurting myself and I was really happy whenever our adorable waitress came over. When we were leaving, she asked if we wanted our iced teas to go, we said no, and then she got all coy and flirty and said "Innn a styyyrofoaam cuuuuppp???" and it was hilarious. Ah, Hooters.

When we got back on the road, we remembered the time change--we were going to lose an hour, and we hadn't planned for that--we were cutting it close as it was. I panicked and Fuzzy checked the website to see if anyone was opening for him--it didn't look like it. So we sped our way in, and made to the theatre only 5 minutes late.

We walked through the lobby and to the entrance, and see that there was in fact an opening band. A few steps into theatre, a few notes in my ear, and I realized that it was St. Vincent! I gasped and tears welled up in my eyes. We got to our seats--up close and center, and settled in for the show. I love St. Vincent--the lead singer/guitarist is Annie Clark, formerly of the Polyphonic Spree, and she is a masterful guitar player and has a hauntingly beautiful voice. I was happy that I was familiar with about half of the songs she played. I also love how she plays with beautiful wistful melodies and distorted hard tones and jarring lyrics at the same time. It was awesome.

This photo is blurry, but I think it is appropriate to the show.

When they finished, we went out to the lobby, where Annie was signing autographs. Now, I can talk to my fair share of celebrities, and I have, but lately I don't have much confidence, so I got all nervous and shaky, but I talked to her and told how thrilled I was that I got to see them. Here she is signing my ticket stub. She wrote "Dear Erica, Teared up?! Yay! xo, Annie Clark."

Back in the theatre we went. Oh, Andrew Bird, how I love his music. I was telling Fuzzy that I've seen him so many times in concert, that I don't even need the visuals anymore, it is just amazing to be surrounded with the music--I can really lose myself in it and I kept zoning out at this show. One day, I will make a list of all the venues I've seen him in. Maybe next week.

More to come soon!