CONCERT!

Saturday was the night for my birthday present to myself – tickets to the Maroon 5 / Counting Crows / Sara Bareilles concert. Actually, a few weeks ago, I was telling Amy that I wanted to go to the concert, but didn’t want to pay the $40 a ticket to sit on the lawn of an amphitheater. Just a few days later she sent me an advertisement for a super sale on tickets at that venue - $10 for lawn seats! So, as a present to myself, I bought 2 tickets (together, they were still less than the regular cost of a single ticket!). Anyways, the day is finally here!

Amy said that she would go with me, which is good since I don’t have any means of transportation. We headed out to Bristow – about forty minutes outside of DC. We got there just after they opened the gates and were able to get some great seats on the lawn. There was a bit of time before the show was supposed to start, so I pulled out my secret time-killing weapon: Travel Scrabble. Amy is a Scrabble fan like I am, so I was excited to play a match with her. We took a few pauses during Sara Bareilles’ set and the performance by Maroon 5, and in the end I beat Amy by a very slim 12-point margin.

The concert was great! It’s not often that you get to see three good sets (two of whom are fairly big names). Sara Bareilles is still gaining popularity… most of her music is just her and her piano, and I listen to her CD (Little Voice) almost everyday on the Metro. And she did not disappoint in her concert. I LOVE HER! Maroon 5, too, had a great concert - love them! I was less interested in Counting Crows, but they were good, and a lot of fun to watch. They even had Sara join them for one of their last numbers.

After the concert, there was a long wait to exit the parking lot, so Amy and I started another round of Scrabble and waited for the traffic to die down. After about half an hour, we headed out. I hadn’t eaten dinner, so Amy suggested we go to a local diner for a quick bite to eat. The Barnside diner was a small, family-run place and I had a great time as we sat at the counter, ate, and I gushed over how much I enjoyed the concert. All in all, it was a great birthday present!