If you rewind a couple blog posts to my Sugarland Reunion post, you might recall that I was the winner of a VIP pass to Jennifer Nettles concert in Aurora, IL on August 29th. That Friday, Mom and I played hooky from work and headed North in search of River Edge Park, our final destination for the VIP Experience.
As always, my nerves were running high on concert day, so we arrived a couple hours before official check-in to acquire our tickets. I still wasn't convinced the VIP thing was real, so when all was said and done, Mom and I had 4 tickets to the show. Our hostess got the show rolling around 2:30 and signed us all in!
It was a sunny day with almost no shade in sight. As we were given our last set of instructions for the afternoon event, we could hear Jennifer's band tuning their instruments. They released the 24 of us to go watch from the very foot of the stage. Mom and I hung back in the shade of the sound tower for a bit and then I boogied to the stage front when Jennifer joined in.
It was kindly requested that we not take any photos/video during the soundcheck. Kind of a bummer, but totally makes sense when her son also took to the stage to bang on the drums a bit. In the most relaxed way, Jennifer belted out 3 full songs for us and chatted a smidge in between each.
My favorite was her take on the song Demons by Imagine Dragons. Gotta love when they break it down with an accordion and step out from behind a full drum set. Below is a portion of the song I nabbed during the evening concert.
Post soundcheck we were treated to drinks and snacks in what would turn out to be the Sponsor area during the concert. Thankfully they had unlimited water for us and reprieve from the sun. We had a couple hours to burn before the gates opened and were allowed to take our seats, but considering it took us over a half hour to drive 7 miles to the hotel earlier... well, we decided we might as well pass the time at the venue.
As we waited with the rest of our VIP friends for the goahead to claim our seats before the gates opened to the rest of the crowd, I finally came up with a plan to rid myself of the 2 extra tickets. Two EMTs were hanging out near the side of the stage, so I asked them if they knew anyone that might want the tickets. I had a taker! Hope their friends enjoyed the free show.
We claimed our territory with a couple throwback 90's lawn chairs right in front of the sound tower. The plan was to avoid having drunken idiots behind us (that didn't work) and limit anything Mother Nature might throw at us. Below is what the sky looked like after the lightning (note: lightning alarms are loud and startling) and storms came through the area prior to the show starting. The keyword in that sentence is PRIOR... thank goodness!
Brandy Clark was the first artist up. I was not familiar with her music, so I took a quick listen of her album on Spotify a few weeks before the show. She had a nice voice, but the topics weren't necessarily up my alley. Little did I know she's not only a singer, but a talented songwriter! Below is a clip of Brandy singing Better Dig Two which The Band Perry recorded.
It was nice to hear her quick stories behind the songs she shared with us, and it never ceases to amaze me when an artist sounds better in person, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to support her with an album purchase and tell her how much I enjoyed the show. Pretty awesome to get that one-on-one exchange.
Next up was the Indigo Girls. I was first introduced to them during college and was actually familiar with their songs, so I was pretty excited when I found out they would be joining Jennifer on tour.
I was most looking forward to hearing them sing Galileo, and thank goodness they didn't disappoint. Ya never know what songs will make it to the set list. They also sang Closer to Fine and got Jennifer to join them.
During the whole evening they all were less chit-chatty with the audience than what I'm used to, but I believe it was simply due to the fact that each artist wanted to make sure they could get the entire show in for us. There were rain clouds looming throughout the area, but they thankfully stayed away.
As I expected, Jennifer put on quite the show. From experience, I know she sounds wonderful live, but she really brought her new album to life. I hate to say it, but I don't think the studio recording of the album does the songs justice. I can't wait to see her live yet again, whether it be solo or back with Sugarland.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the great recap! It sure was a fun trip. Momma
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