Teressa and I grew up together in Louisiana the 6 years I lived there. She was my best friend. We didn't get to spend as much time together once my family moved to Washington, but we wrote many letters and talked on the phone when we'd save enough money for a long-distance call and saw each other about once a year when my family would go back to Louisiana for a visit.
We grew up. She had a girl and a year or so later, I had a baby girl, therefore our girls are friends by best-friend-moms fiat -- a.k.a. they spend time together because Teressa and I spend time together. It's fun to watch their relationship develop over these years we've lived in the south and have been able to go to Louisiana so often.
Well this time they came to see us!
We'd been trying to work out a way for the girls to go to a concert. Teressa found a group that the girls knew and would be close by (in Austin). Teressa and Jayda both have beautiful voices and love music and singing. Elizabeth is much more into music than I've ever been; I mostly listen to whatever other people put on or suggest to me and do not have a hankering for going to concerts. However, for the girls' sake (they couldn't go by themselves) and to spend time with my friend, I would attend a concert.
Since they've never been to San Antonio, we took them to the River Walk and to see the Alamo. We went to Oak Hills Church Sunday morning (Max Lucado preached ~ yay! I was hoping they'd get to hear him).
After church and lunch, we went to the Pearl. Teressa was in love! She loves the antique industrial look, and Hotel Emma, which was renovated from the Pearl Brewery, is full of that love.
We went to the
Cow Lick ice cream parlor to try out new ice cream flavors. Teressa's pick was the favorite: Goat Cheese, Thyme and Honey.
The top-off of the weekend was
Echosmith in concert.
So I've been to several free-will offering Christian concerts (Carmen, anyone?). I saw a band (cannot remember which!) play after the San Antonio Rodeo one year. But I can't say I've been to a concert such as the one we attended last night. Teressa and Jayda have never been to any kind of concert and Elizabeth has seen one band in concert after the SA Rodeo. This was new for all of us.
We arrived at Emo's in Austin to stand in line. We made three trips back to the van as they kept finding things in our possession that were not allowed in (finger nail file, water, camera, knife). It was very dark inside. Standing only. There were these sort of side box benches that the not-wanting-to-stand-for-4-hours could sit on. That's where T and I planted ourselves.
When they say the concert starts at 7, they don't actually mean it starts at 7. They mean the doors open at 7. And someone will finally sing in 45 minutes. And that someone is not the person you came to see. That person is an opener. I did not know this opener. She shall rename nameless because the drummer was the best part of her act and I think a better band should snatch him up. These poor girls who think they need to be something that they aren't in order to "make it." She actually sang well accidentally at one point. She has a good voice. She was altering it to make a certain sound that was..... more entertaining? I'm not sure. I wasn't entertained.
Once the opener is done, you must wait for that band to take down their equipment and the next band to set up their equipment. In this case, it also was not Echosmith. It was another opener. This was a guy band and they were actually really good. Just about all the songs of the night were bubble gum songs. There wasn't a lot of substance to any of them, but they were catchy and fun. Speaking of bubble gum, a lot of the people on stage were chewing gum. Can you sing while chewing gum? Does it help you stay hyped up? Are you nervous?
So this band was
The Score. Very talented. The lead had some trouble with language when he spoke, but his singing was very good. I noticed a pattern in the sets of each band. There's the opening song: fun and upbeat. There's the song with a costume change (a jacket comes off as in each of the two openers, or an actual change of clothing for the lead band). There's the slow song that connects with the crowd ("If any of you have ever felt lonely.... This song is for you....." Actual spoken words from last night). And there's the song that involves the crowd ("We're going to have a little friendly competition! You all on the right are going to shout out the words ___......!"). Finally, there's the real exciting finisher song that gets everyone wound up and involves direction to put your arms in the air, etc. Since it was so loud I couldn't really understand the lyrics of anyone, I had a lot of time to observe and think about these things.
Echosmith was a lot of fun. The girls really enjoyed it. I knew one of their songs ("I wish that I could be like the cool kids...."). I looked up lyrics to several others while they sang. They are a family band from California: a sister and two brothers; their dad manages them. Someone said they were homeschooled. (Those weird homeschoolers.) It was pretty late by the time it was all over, but it was fun. Liz wants to go to more concerts.
Teressa and Jayda left earlier today. It was a joy to have them here. Teressa always keeps us when we go to Louisiana to see my family, so I was so happy to be able to have her over to our place. So thankful for her friendship!
