There's nothing that the road cannot heal
Ok I have finally finished my Newport Folk Festival Recap. It's 21 pages single spaced in word, so I'm going to break it up into 3 entries (1 for each day of music basically) because there's also photos and videos included. I know it's a lot, but so much happened and I'm excited to share it all.
I am now going to attempt to put this experience in words. It was seriously one of the best weekends of my life and many of the events and emotions are hard to describe, but I will do my best to hopefully make you feel like you were there.
So the trip started with me traveling to New York to meet up with Kelly. My layover was in Washington DC. I attempted to sleep on the flight there, but a crying child kind of interfered with that. As we got close to DC I could see some landmarks including what I think was the capitol building and the Washington Monument. Once I was at the gate for my flight to NY I could even see the monument right out the window there. It was neat and reminded me how much I’d like to actually visit DC someday. So as I went to lineup to board I saw this man go on through who was in first class and I thought haha that man looks like Reverend Al Sharpton. Well we get on and as we’re walking through the plane I got stuck for a second at the end of first class and that man was sitting there. I tried not to stare, but he super looked like him! Well then I get back to my seat and the girl across the aisle is talking to her mom on her cell about how Al Sharpton’s on the plane and how people were sneaking photos of him on their phones. So I guess it was him! Crazy. My first “celeb” sighting on a plane. Oh also when we got on all this steam or whatever was coming out of the sides of the plane inside the cabin. I thought it was weird, but was like whatever. Well they finally come on and say it’s just the air conditioning working hard and not to be concerned. Haha Then because of bad weather in NY earlier that caused air traffic backups we had to sit on the runway for a bit. This became a theme of my flights this trip actually. Finally I got to LaGuardia. Flying into NYC is really magical because the plane went over the whole city and I got an aerial tour of sorts. So that was fun. Then Kelly came to pick me up and I tried to cross the little street in front of the airport over to her car without getting hit by a bus, which became a sort of joke with us over the rest of the trip- the buses (and other vehicles) were always after us!
Washington Monument out the window of the DC airport
So we drove to Kelly’s house, which is about 2 hours from the airport. I got to see some sights along the way. Once I was settled at her place we got pizza for dinner because clearly I needed to experience NY (or rather Long Island) pizza. It was tasty and I even ate one piece folded up like a real New Yorker. Her mom then came home and brought us ice cream and we all sat around and talked. Then it was off to bed.
The next morning we headed out on our road trip, which included a ferry ride to New London, CT. I went out on the ferry deck and took some photos and then came inside and fell asleep at the table we were sitting at.
Waves from the ferry
After we got off the ferry we stopped at our favorite food place Panera (we seem to always go there) and then were back on the road. Our hotel was in Massachusetts right outside RI, so we drove right on through the little state we’d be in for the next few days. We checked in and then got ready for a bit and I Yelp’d (yes I’m making that a verb) a restaurant for us to eat at before the Conor Oberst show. It had started raining before we left the hotel and this was foreboding for the rest of the weekend. But Kelly had umbrellas and we headed out. We ate at this great Italian restaurant, Lucia, where I found a new favorite food after tasting Kelly’s gnocchi. We then walked around for a few minutes and then headed over to the theatre. We’d seen a small group of folks lined up as we were looking for parking before dinner but we were not that worried about lining up hours and hours before. The rain had stopped so I grabbed us a spot in line and Kelly went to return the umbrellas to the car. While she was doing this I saw Griffin and their merch guy, Gerry outside for a min. Also because the theatre had no air conditiong they had the door open on the side of the stage upstairs, so we could hear Conor and First Aid Kit sound checking at times. I saw one of the First Aid Kit girls outside, but I forget if this was before Kelly returned from putting the umbrellas away. But after she had returned we saw Wylie go across the street on his cell. A little bit after this I believe Kelly alerted me that Taylor was coming by. So as he walked by us in line I gave him a wave and said hi and he broke out his huge grin and goes, Oh hey! He continued on and after he left and Kelly and I were just like oh man, so that just happened!! Haha He’s the sweetest boy and I’ll never get over him always remembering me. So then people came by to hand out wristbands for drinking but Kelly and I declined and the lady was all good for you! lol So then doors finally opened and we headed in and straight for the theatre. There were maybe 20 or so people in front of us in line, but a lot of people went for the center seats, so we scored a second row seat towards the right (facing stage). We were psyched! Then it was time for the wait and we amused ourselves with some of our usual silly jokes (what would you do if…) and even spotted Tay on the side of the theatre as I got up to make a restroom run.
Baby seagull that was running around the street we were walking down to the theatre. He kept calling out- I hope he found his flock!
The marquee. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but the lighting sucked anyway, so it didn't really matter.
Finally it was time for the first band, First Aid Kit. They’re sisters from Sweden and they were pretty good. Oh so for their first couple songs it was just them by themselves and so a little quieter and right during their first song I had to sneeze and I tried to stop it, but no such luck. It sounded very loud and I was kind of embarrassed. But hey, not my fault! We joked later if they made a live recording of that show I’d be on it. So they then brought out their drummer, Mattias, for the rest of the set. He was entertaining and had a little kids xylophone (or glockenspiel I guess according to Kelly’s report and I trust her musical expertise more than mine. Also Wikipedia informed me xylophones always have wooden bars) that he played too. He also had a star shaped tambourine that we saw when Griffin came on to set up and picked it up and gave it a hilarious look. But anyway the other funny thing was despite playing kind of folky tunes they liked to rock out like they were in a metal band. They both had long hair and would head bang basically between singing. It was… interesting. The last song they did was “King of the World”, which Conor sings on. I’d told Kelly I bet he comes out for it and sure enough after the first verse or something here he came! I wasn’t sure from earlier photos if I was a fan of his longer hair, but it was looking good that night and he was also wearing a dapper little vest.
Next up was Dawes. They were awesome as always, but the crowd was kind of lukewarm on them. Kelly and I sat up like on the edge of our seats and were cheering the loudest like the huge fans we are. At one point after a guitar solo we cheered and we swear Taylor looked right over at us. Haha But people around us were like slouching down in their seats and not paying attention. Boo. It was hot in there thanks to the no AC thing, but still! Also I’m not sure if this was before or after Dawes, but this annoying drunk lady who kept talking during Dawes’ set (before the bad ass guy next to us shushed her) felt the need to come down our aisle to talk to someone and promptly stepped on my feet (in flip flops) hard and because she was so drunk couldn’t get off of me right away until I basically pushed her off. Ugh, she was the worst.
But anyway, Dawes. So the first song they did was “That Western Skyline”, which I haven’t heard them do live in awhile. I don’t think they did it on any of the other dates I saw them at this summer. Well Taylor starts the song and promptly forgets the words. He did the Birmingham line too early. He stops and is like wait, then re-sings it and then goes, nope that’s not it. The entire time the rest of the guys just kept playing. Taylor was like turning to Griffin for help, but he didn’t seem to know either. He then goes if anyone knows, help me out. Kelly and I were racking our brains for it and finally Kelly shouted it out, but he didn’t really hear. He got back on track though and just re-started the song. This time he kinda changed up the lyrics to reflect his mess up- I think he was like “Oh Lou I’d like to let you know, again, that I do not feel welcome.” It was funny and the rest of the song and their set went smoothly. After he finished TWS he joked that he’d forgotten the words on purpose to keep us listening and wondering if he’d get the whole song right. Immediately after he says that he goes, No, no I didn’t. I just couldn’t admit I messed up. Lol And then during “A Little Bit of Everything” Taylor did the “stupid fucking ring” thing he sometimes ad libs live and we were like wooo. haha They did “When My Time Comes”, but the crowd sing along was probably the quietest one I’ve heard. And when it came time for the second go round of singing it, Kelly and I and maybe a few other people were the only ones who kept it up. However, after their set bad ass guy next to us asked Kelly their name and to spell it, so perhaps at least one new fan was born!
"From a Window Seat"
So then it was time for Conor! I’ve liked Bright Eyes’ music for awhile, but I wouldn’t claim to be a super fan or anything, but this gig made me an even bigger fan for sure! He did some stuff solo at first sitting down and playing guitar and then brought out this guy to play vibraphone, who was super awesome at it. He did a few what I believe are new songs including this one about a child growing up that had a chorus about “you are your mother’s child” It was gorgeous and I’m kind of in love with it now. He also brought out First Aid Kit do to “Lua” with him, which was awesome. So then he goes I want to bring out some more friends, the strapping young lads in Dawes! He then proceeded to hit each of them on the butt with his towel as they passed. He also goes, ladies, they’ll be here all weekend! So they did a bunch of “rocking” songs with him including “To All the Lights in the Windows” which I’d heard Dawes sound checking in Cleveland (when the venue guy took me through to show me the set up and I was all oh hello Dawes on stage). That’s one of my faves, so I really enjoyed that. He also brought out Jonathan Wilson (Dawes’ producer and also a singer/guitar player of his own tunes) and then let him do like two of his own songs. He said Jonathan is his sometimes roommate when he’s in LA. So because of where we were sitting we could see one of the doors to backstage. There was a bright light from it and usually Conor’s tour manager or whoever (who we joked looked like if Chris Thile and Ian O’Neil of Deer Tick had a baby) would be standing there, but at some point during Conor’s set and Dawes being on stage with him I suddenly spied Jackson Browne back there! I alerted Kelly and we were like OMG. So after a few more songs Conor’s like I have a special guest here and this is such an honor for me and then he introduces Jackson! Conor himself left the stage and Jackson came out and did, as he called it, a song about the road, “Take it Easy” and “Our Lady of the Well” with Dawes and Jonathan. At one point he pointed at his mic a couple times to get the sound guy to turn it up and that created another inside joke between me and Kelly about if Jackson Browne tells you to turn his mic up, you turn his mic up. Once is too many times. Haha We’re a little ridiculous, but I love it. So that was crazy awesome and then Conor came back and gave Jackson a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then he did a few more songs. The show ended promptly at 1:00 am, so there was no encore despite fans milling about wondering if there would be one.
"At the Bottom of Everything"
"Take it Easy"/"Our Lady of the Well"
I love how you can see Taylor singing along to himself at times, especially at the beginning of OLOTW. And around 5:50 you can see where our when Jackson Browne tells you to turn up his mic joke came from.
This is the new song I was talking about- it's being called "You Are Your Mom's" according to YT. Not from our show; this was taken when he did the song again in the kid's tent at the festival.
Kelly and I headed out into the lobby and decided to wait around and see if we could meet/chat with anyone. Dawes’ merch was on the upper “balcony” and after debating for a second about buying a new shirt design (I made the responsible decision and opted out- 1. It was tanish colored which doesn’t look that great on me and 2. I already have 4 Dawes shirts. Haha) we went back down to the lower lobby and waited for a little bit more. We then saw Taylor come out near their merch table and so we booked it back up the stairs. Kelly’s never gotten a super great photo with Taylor, so it was our mission to get her one. Taylor chatted for a second with some other people and then came over to chat with Gerry and Kevin Hayes, who was also hanging out there. We went up and said hi and then Kelly asked for a photo. Gerry hearing this goes you have to buy a CD to take a photo. Taylor kind of looked at him like what, and Kelly goes I have them! And I was like yeah, I have them both on CD and vinyl. Taylor then gives him this like see I could’ve told you that, duh Gerry, these guys are super fans look/like shoulder and hand motion. It’s hard to describe, but it was funny. So then Gerry asks if I want him to take the photo and for some reason my brain wasn’t working and I’m like oh, it’s ok. Like I know how to take a photo. But obviously he meant do we want one together. lol I knew Kelly really wanted one of her own though. We did kick ourselves later for not doing one together too since Dawes is the reason we became friends, but oh well- someday! So I tell Taylor she needs a good photo with you, but I won’t bother you for another one and then Taylor goes, no it’s fine! Oh man, he’s the nicest. Like when I asked if we could take another one in Cincinnati in June and he went of course, always. But I digress. So as I get ready to take it Taylor suddenly goes do you have the tattoo on your arm!? I think he might have spotted my other tattoo on my wrist as I was holding the camera up and it jogged his memory. So I’m like yeah I do! And I hold it out to show him again. Taylor then gets super excited and is like Kevin, this is the tattoo or like the tattoo I was telling you about. He definitely seemed to imply that he’d discussed it with him before. He’s like she has our lyrics in my handwriting! That part always excites him the most, which is just precious. So Kevin and Gerry both are like oh my gosh let me look at that. And then they both wanted to take photos of it on their phones. So first Gerry comes up and he like can’t work his camera phone and he’s like hold your arm still, are you moving it or is that me moving my cell. I was like I’m trying! Haha And then Kevin’s like that’s you dude. So he asks Kevin to come help him. Finally he gets it and then Kevin comes over to take one on his iPhone, except his screen is super cracked because he’s obviously dropped it or something and so he was having a hard time for a second too. Kelly was kind enough to wait on her photo during this and have a small chat with Taylor who was amusedly watching his friends. Kevin was also asking me about when I got it done and stuff and I told him last summer. He was like that’s so cool! So despite the fact that I was still freaking out inside over this exchange it was time for Kelly’s shot. Taylor spotted some girl he knew from like Bonnaroo, but then he was like wait- I have to take a photo with her! And came back. Then I was like ok, can I take another one with you? And he was like sure! So we did and I suddenly remembered that I’d been wanting to thank him for playing “Love is All I Am” for me at the Indy show in June. It was such an awesome thing for him to remember me asking the night before and to actually do it, so I was determined to finally not forget and thank him. So I was like I need to tell you something after this. We joked later he was probably like oh no, what now. Haha No, he’s the sweetest. So I thanked him and he was like of course and then he said that song has to get requested for us to play it or something like that. So then as we start to walk away Kelly goes, see you tomorrow! And Taylor smiles and goes oh yeah, see you then! And oh did he see us. But that story’s coming. Kelly and I then headed out into the night falling all over ourselves about what had just happened. We stopped at 7-11 real quick for drinks and I didn’t even realize until later that I’d bought a gross fake sugar juice. It was all Taylor’s fault! XD (BTW I said that when I was telling my parents about the weekend and my dad was like in the next room and he came back and was like what? Why was it his fault? He thought I was serious and it was pretty funny.)
Me and Taylor!! :D
I am now going to attempt to put this experience in words. It was seriously one of the best weekends of my life and many of the events and emotions are hard to describe, but I will do my best to hopefully make you feel like you were there.
So the trip started with me traveling to New York to meet up with Kelly. My layover was in Washington DC. I attempted to sleep on the flight there, but a crying child kind of interfered with that. As we got close to DC I could see some landmarks including what I think was the capitol building and the Washington Monument. Once I was at the gate for my flight to NY I could even see the monument right out the window there. It was neat and reminded me how much I’d like to actually visit DC someday. So as I went to lineup to board I saw this man go on through who was in first class and I thought haha that man looks like Reverend Al Sharpton. Well we get on and as we’re walking through the plane I got stuck for a second at the end of first class and that man was sitting there. I tried not to stare, but he super looked like him! Well then I get back to my seat and the girl across the aisle is talking to her mom on her cell about how Al Sharpton’s on the plane and how people were sneaking photos of him on their phones. So I guess it was him! Crazy. My first “celeb” sighting on a plane. Oh also when we got on all this steam or whatever was coming out of the sides of the plane inside the cabin. I thought it was weird, but was like whatever. Well they finally come on and say it’s just the air conditioning working hard and not to be concerned. Haha Then because of bad weather in NY earlier that caused air traffic backups we had to sit on the runway for a bit. This became a theme of my flights this trip actually. Finally I got to LaGuardia. Flying into NYC is really magical because the plane went over the whole city and I got an aerial tour of sorts. So that was fun. Then Kelly came to pick me up and I tried to cross the little street in front of the airport over to her car without getting hit by a bus, which became a sort of joke with us over the rest of the trip- the buses (and other vehicles) were always after us!
Washington Monument out the window of the DC airport
So we drove to Kelly’s house, which is about 2 hours from the airport. I got to see some sights along the way. Once I was settled at her place we got pizza for dinner because clearly I needed to experience NY (or rather Long Island) pizza. It was tasty and I even ate one piece folded up like a real New Yorker. Her mom then came home and brought us ice cream and we all sat around and talked. Then it was off to bed.
The next morning we headed out on our road trip, which included a ferry ride to New London, CT. I went out on the ferry deck and took some photos and then came inside and fell asleep at the table we were sitting at.
Waves from the ferry
After we got off the ferry we stopped at our favorite food place Panera (we seem to always go there) and then were back on the road. Our hotel was in Massachusetts right outside RI, so we drove right on through the little state we’d be in for the next few days. We checked in and then got ready for a bit and I Yelp’d (yes I’m making that a verb) a restaurant for us to eat at before the Conor Oberst show. It had started raining before we left the hotel and this was foreboding for the rest of the weekend. But Kelly had umbrellas and we headed out. We ate at this great Italian restaurant, Lucia, where I found a new favorite food after tasting Kelly’s gnocchi. We then walked around for a few minutes and then headed over to the theatre. We’d seen a small group of folks lined up as we were looking for parking before dinner but we were not that worried about lining up hours and hours before. The rain had stopped so I grabbed us a spot in line and Kelly went to return the umbrellas to the car. While she was doing this I saw Griffin and their merch guy, Gerry outside for a min. Also because the theatre had no air conditiong they had the door open on the side of the stage upstairs, so we could hear Conor and First Aid Kit sound checking at times. I saw one of the First Aid Kit girls outside, but I forget if this was before Kelly returned from putting the umbrellas away. But after she had returned we saw Wylie go across the street on his cell. A little bit after this I believe Kelly alerted me that Taylor was coming by. So as he walked by us in line I gave him a wave and said hi and he broke out his huge grin and goes, Oh hey! He continued on and after he left and Kelly and I were just like oh man, so that just happened!! Haha He’s the sweetest boy and I’ll never get over him always remembering me. So then people came by to hand out wristbands for drinking but Kelly and I declined and the lady was all good for you! lol So then doors finally opened and we headed in and straight for the theatre. There were maybe 20 or so people in front of us in line, but a lot of people went for the center seats, so we scored a second row seat towards the right (facing stage). We were psyched! Then it was time for the wait and we amused ourselves with some of our usual silly jokes (what would you do if…) and even spotted Tay on the side of the theatre as I got up to make a restroom run.
Baby seagull that was running around the street we were walking down to the theatre. He kept calling out- I hope he found his flock!
The marquee. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but the lighting sucked anyway, so it didn't really matter.
Finally it was time for the first band, First Aid Kit. They’re sisters from Sweden and they were pretty good. Oh so for their first couple songs it was just them by themselves and so a little quieter and right during their first song I had to sneeze and I tried to stop it, but no such luck. It sounded very loud and I was kind of embarrassed. But hey, not my fault! We joked later if they made a live recording of that show I’d be on it. So they then brought out their drummer, Mattias, for the rest of the set. He was entertaining and had a little kids xylophone (or glockenspiel I guess according to Kelly’s report and I trust her musical expertise more than mine. Also Wikipedia informed me xylophones always have wooden bars) that he played too. He also had a star shaped tambourine that we saw when Griffin came on to set up and picked it up and gave it a hilarious look. But anyway the other funny thing was despite playing kind of folky tunes they liked to rock out like they were in a metal band. They both had long hair and would head bang basically between singing. It was… interesting. The last song they did was “King of the World”, which Conor sings on. I’d told Kelly I bet he comes out for it and sure enough after the first verse or something here he came! I wasn’t sure from earlier photos if I was a fan of his longer hair, but it was looking good that night and he was also wearing a dapper little vest.
Next up was Dawes. They were awesome as always, but the crowd was kind of lukewarm on them. Kelly and I sat up like on the edge of our seats and were cheering the loudest like the huge fans we are. At one point after a guitar solo we cheered and we swear Taylor looked right over at us. Haha But people around us were like slouching down in their seats and not paying attention. Boo. It was hot in there thanks to the no AC thing, but still! Also I’m not sure if this was before or after Dawes, but this annoying drunk lady who kept talking during Dawes’ set (before the bad ass guy next to us shushed her) felt the need to come down our aisle to talk to someone and promptly stepped on my feet (in flip flops) hard and because she was so drunk couldn’t get off of me right away until I basically pushed her off. Ugh, she was the worst.
But anyway, Dawes. So the first song they did was “That Western Skyline”, which I haven’t heard them do live in awhile. I don’t think they did it on any of the other dates I saw them at this summer. Well Taylor starts the song and promptly forgets the words. He did the Birmingham line too early. He stops and is like wait, then re-sings it and then goes, nope that’s not it. The entire time the rest of the guys just kept playing. Taylor was like turning to Griffin for help, but he didn’t seem to know either. He then goes if anyone knows, help me out. Kelly and I were racking our brains for it and finally Kelly shouted it out, but he didn’t really hear. He got back on track though and just re-started the song. This time he kinda changed up the lyrics to reflect his mess up- I think he was like “Oh Lou I’d like to let you know, again, that I do not feel welcome.” It was funny and the rest of the song and their set went smoothly. After he finished TWS he joked that he’d forgotten the words on purpose to keep us listening and wondering if he’d get the whole song right. Immediately after he says that he goes, No, no I didn’t. I just couldn’t admit I messed up. Lol And then during “A Little Bit of Everything” Taylor did the “stupid fucking ring” thing he sometimes ad libs live and we were like wooo. haha They did “When My Time Comes”, but the crowd sing along was probably the quietest one I’ve heard. And when it came time for the second go round of singing it, Kelly and I and maybe a few other people were the only ones who kept it up. However, after their set bad ass guy next to us asked Kelly their name and to spell it, so perhaps at least one new fan was born!
Click to view"From a Window Seat"
So then it was time for Conor! I’ve liked Bright Eyes’ music for awhile, but I wouldn’t claim to be a super fan or anything, but this gig made me an even bigger fan for sure! He did some stuff solo at first sitting down and playing guitar and then brought out this guy to play vibraphone, who was super awesome at it. He did a few what I believe are new songs including this one about a child growing up that had a chorus about “you are your mother’s child” It was gorgeous and I’m kind of in love with it now. He also brought out First Aid Kit do to “Lua” with him, which was awesome. So then he goes I want to bring out some more friends, the strapping young lads in Dawes! He then proceeded to hit each of them on the butt with his towel as they passed. He also goes, ladies, they’ll be here all weekend! So they did a bunch of “rocking” songs with him including “To All the Lights in the Windows” which I’d heard Dawes sound checking in Cleveland (when the venue guy took me through to show me the set up and I was all oh hello Dawes on stage). That’s one of my faves, so I really enjoyed that. He also brought out Jonathan Wilson (Dawes’ producer and also a singer/guitar player of his own tunes) and then let him do like two of his own songs. He said Jonathan is his sometimes roommate when he’s in LA. So because of where we were sitting we could see one of the doors to backstage. There was a bright light from it and usually Conor’s tour manager or whoever (who we joked looked like if Chris Thile and Ian O’Neil of Deer Tick had a baby) would be standing there, but at some point during Conor’s set and Dawes being on stage with him I suddenly spied Jackson Browne back there! I alerted Kelly and we were like OMG. So after a few more songs Conor’s like I have a special guest here and this is such an honor for me and then he introduces Jackson! Conor himself left the stage and Jackson came out and did, as he called it, a song about the road, “Take it Easy” and “Our Lady of the Well” with Dawes and Jonathan. At one point he pointed at his mic a couple times to get the sound guy to turn it up and that created another inside joke between me and Kelly about if Jackson Browne tells you to turn his mic up, you turn his mic up. Once is too many times. Haha We’re a little ridiculous, but I love it. So that was crazy awesome and then Conor came back and gave Jackson a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then he did a few more songs. The show ended promptly at 1:00 am, so there was no encore despite fans milling about wondering if there would be one.
"At the Bottom of Everything"
"Take it Easy"/"Our Lady of the Well"
I love how you can see Taylor singing along to himself at times, especially at the beginning of OLOTW. And around 5:50 you can see where our when Jackson Browne tells you to turn up his mic joke came from.
This is the new song I was talking about- it's being called "You Are Your Mom's" according to YT. Not from our show; this was taken when he did the song again in the kid's tent at the festival.
Kelly and I headed out into the lobby and decided to wait around and see if we could meet/chat with anyone. Dawes’ merch was on the upper “balcony” and after debating for a second about buying a new shirt design (I made the responsible decision and opted out- 1. It was tanish colored which doesn’t look that great on me and 2. I already have 4 Dawes shirts. Haha) we went back down to the lower lobby and waited for a little bit more. We then saw Taylor come out near their merch table and so we booked it back up the stairs. Kelly’s never gotten a super great photo with Taylor, so it was our mission to get her one. Taylor chatted for a second with some other people and then came over to chat with Gerry and Kevin Hayes, who was also hanging out there. We went up and said hi and then Kelly asked for a photo. Gerry hearing this goes you have to buy a CD to take a photo. Taylor kind of looked at him like what, and Kelly goes I have them! And I was like yeah, I have them both on CD and vinyl. Taylor then gives him this like see I could’ve told you that, duh Gerry, these guys are super fans look/like shoulder and hand motion. It’s hard to describe, but it was funny. So then Gerry asks if I want him to take the photo and for some reason my brain wasn’t working and I’m like oh, it’s ok. Like I know how to take a photo. But obviously he meant do we want one together. lol I knew Kelly really wanted one of her own though. We did kick ourselves later for not doing one together too since Dawes is the reason we became friends, but oh well- someday! So I tell Taylor she needs a good photo with you, but I won’t bother you for another one and then Taylor goes, no it’s fine! Oh man, he’s the nicest. Like when I asked if we could take another one in Cincinnati in June and he went of course, always. But I digress. So as I get ready to take it Taylor suddenly goes do you have the tattoo on your arm!? I think he might have spotted my other tattoo on my wrist as I was holding the camera up and it jogged his memory. So I’m like yeah I do! And I hold it out to show him again. Taylor then gets super excited and is like Kevin, this is the tattoo or like the tattoo I was telling you about. He definitely seemed to imply that he’d discussed it with him before. He’s like she has our lyrics in my handwriting! That part always excites him the most, which is just precious. So Kevin and Gerry both are like oh my gosh let me look at that. And then they both wanted to take photos of it on their phones. So first Gerry comes up and he like can’t work his camera phone and he’s like hold your arm still, are you moving it or is that me moving my cell. I was like I’m trying! Haha And then Kevin’s like that’s you dude. So he asks Kevin to come help him. Finally he gets it and then Kevin comes over to take one on his iPhone, except his screen is super cracked because he’s obviously dropped it or something and so he was having a hard time for a second too. Kelly was kind enough to wait on her photo during this and have a small chat with Taylor who was amusedly watching his friends. Kevin was also asking me about when I got it done and stuff and I told him last summer. He was like that’s so cool! So despite the fact that I was still freaking out inside over this exchange it was time for Kelly’s shot. Taylor spotted some girl he knew from like Bonnaroo, but then he was like wait- I have to take a photo with her! And came back. Then I was like ok, can I take another one with you? And he was like sure! So we did and I suddenly remembered that I’d been wanting to thank him for playing “Love is All I Am” for me at the Indy show in June. It was such an awesome thing for him to remember me asking the night before and to actually do it, so I was determined to finally not forget and thank him. So I was like I need to tell you something after this. We joked later he was probably like oh no, what now. Haha No, he’s the sweetest. So I thanked him and he was like of course and then he said that song has to get requested for us to play it or something like that. So then as we start to walk away Kelly goes, see you tomorrow! And Taylor smiles and goes oh yeah, see you then! And oh did he see us. But that story’s coming. Kelly and I then headed out into the night falling all over ourselves about what had just happened. We stopped at 7-11 real quick for drinks and I didn’t even realize until later that I’d bought a gross fake sugar juice. It was all Taylor’s fault! XD (BTW I said that when I was telling my parents about the weekend and my dad was like in the next room and he came back and was like what? Why was it his fault? He thought I was serious and it was pretty funny.)
Me and Taylor!! :D