Воскресенье 24 Сен 2006, 18:53

Okay…so I have to share the best concert ever with all of you.

I have seen some great shows like Tori Amos at the Bismarck Theater in Chicago, IL (I was pretty close to the stage)…any Halcyon concert (they put on awesome shows!) and Toad the Wet Sprocket at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, MO (my friends and I were 10 ft from Glenn Philips). Yet, none of these concerts compares to the first (and to this point only) time I saw Dar Williams in concert.

My late friend Falynn and I traveled to Columbia, MO to see this singer that she loved. I had heard Dar's music and liked it but was not as fanatical about it as I became after that December night.

We got in line early as it was open seating, waited in the cold and finally got in and snagged seats right in front of the stage. We were about 5 feet from where Dar would be playing. Needless to say she knew how to work a crowd and put on a great performance. I came to love her music from that experience alone.

Yet…it would have been just a good concert if not for what happened after the show.

Falynn wanted to meet her after the show and get her autograph. So we hung around with a handful of others with the same idea until she was making her way out. The hall's manager though was a putz and told Dar and her fans that she had to take the meeting outside.

Well…as I mentioned earlier it was a cold December night. Not wanting to be out in the cold, Falynn suggested we all go to the coffee shop next door. Dar thought that was a good idea. So there we were with Dar and about 6 other people, talking, having coffee and relaxing after the show.

I have to say Dar is one of the most down to earth, friendly and sweet people I have ever met. She treated us all like we were friends!

After about a half hour Dar had to get moving. She had a concert the next night in Iowa to get to. Falynn and I offered to help her with her equipment and she accepted. When we got to her car she gave us both copies of her CD Out There Live. On top of that she offered to get us into the show the next night in Iowa. While I had other commitments that night, Falynn drove up there and got to see and hand out with Dar another night.

I still have the autographed ticket stub inside the CD case here at home. I am not sure I will ever see another show that will match up to that whole experience but this is one of those things that, even if never matched or exceeded, stands on its own as a moment in time that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I saw a show with a good friend and met the artist herself. How can one not call that the best concert ever?