Livin' the Dream

In a year oddly filled with dreams come true and goals fulfilled, yet another one of my long-imagined aspirations came to fruition last week. In the list of bands I have seen live in the last decade, my three long time favorite bands are sadly and conspicuously absent. Until March 22nd, 2008, I had never seen Dave Matthews Band, Better Than Ezra, or Collective Soul live. Who knows how long I'll have to wait for the two former, since Dave's concerts are infamously expensive, and BTE has stayed in their native New Orleans almost exclusively since Katrina. I'm still holding out hope for the opportunity to sit in the same room to witness these musical geniuses at work, but for now, I'm more than content to relive Ed Roland's near-perfect set list over and over. The only song missing was Needs, a ballad that takes the listener on a journey from "I don't need nobody, I don't need the weight of words to find a way to crash on through" to "I just need to learn the depth or doubt of faith to fall into" to "You're all I need when the water runs deep." The song is so moving it still chokes me up 9 years after first hearing it.



As I mentioned in a previous posting, I'm working on a more in-depth look into CS's plentiful religious metaphors, which only gains them more respect from someone like me. More on that later, but back to the concert. The opening acts, Green River Ordinance, and Josh Kelley, were stellar. Josh Kelley is much better known for his famous new wife (Grey's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl) than his music, but hopefully that will change, 'cause this kid's got more soul than any white boy I've seen in a long time, if ever. A pleasure to watch, and even better live than on CD. Here's a taste, although he doesn't have half the charisma in this video that he did live with his band:



Now I regret not going to meet Josh when he was signing CDs during the FORTY minute wait we had to endure before Ed, Will, Dean and the newest members of CS took the stage. When they finally did appear, however, the guys proved the wait worthwhile. New guitarist Joel Kosche was good enough to prevent me from feeling sad that I couldn't see the entire original lineup that graced the CD covers I owned as a teenager. I probably annoyed the crap out of those around me, especially my sister Heidi, because I simply could not help myself from headbanging, almost to the point of injury, especially during Gel, the quintessential 90s headbanging anthem. The concert was everything I could have hoped for (barring that performance of Needs with a full orchestra), and I have my sweet husband to thank for willingly hanging out at home with our daughters, even though he likes CS just as much as the next person, and also my sisters who accompanied me, especially Rachel, since she was lucky enough to be pregnant and therefore get us out the back way (accompanied by a chivalrous bouncer), straight past the Josh Kelley guitar players and the CS dressing room, and out through the lot where the fabled tour buses were parked. All in all, a truly memorable evening. Not surprising, since Ed and Elton John predicted it themselves when they sang "She'll just have another perfect day."