Life Through Photography: Last Weekend & Wisp

Last weekend was epic. I left work early on Friday and drove to Pittsburgh to meet up with people and from there we drove to Cleveland. That night we ate at this sports bar called Panini's which wasn't that great. We later played billiards in the hotel with our friend Miller High Life.

Saturday morning we woke up at 8 and caught the tail end of our included continental breakfast, which was amazing, build your own croissant breakfast sandwiches. And, what do you know, our hotel only had one building between it and the House of Blues. We are walking out to walk to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame and I look to my right and I see a tour bus backing to the HOB. I shit, yelled, and ran for it. I ran over and by that time the bus driver was out looking for the space to back into and I'm like, "Yo! Is that the Avett Brothers!?" and he's like, "Yep!" I peed a little. And so I'm like, "Well can I get a picture real quick?" and he says, "Come back in a little bit." So I didn't want to bother and accepted the offer. We continued on our way to the Hall of Fame and it was really cool.

After we got back I immediately drug the people I was with back with me to the "Hot Spot" which is what I will call it. The bus was parked and no one was to be found. I waited for a half hour and what do you know! Bobby Crawford, the bassist for that oh-so-cool band comes walking from the back alley with a fresh cup of Starbucks. I jumped three feet in the air. He was very kind and got a picture with us and boarded the bus. At this point I was determined to meet the brothers themselves! After an hour and a half later of standing in the cold, lake effect windy city of Cleveland, that indeed sits on the side of Lake Erie, and many sessions of interrogations of people who weren't in the band but were boarding and exiting the bus, out walks Scott fucking Avett. Yes, I did feel the need to add "fucking". He came waltzin' right over in his cowoy hat and boots adequately attired with a red flannel shirt under his jacket, which I was also wearing. He shook our hands and started bullshitting with us in that cold Cleveland alley. Anywho we got pictures and, to my surprise he stood there and talked to us for 10 minutes. The whole time I stood there in awe and wanting to burst into tears. He said, "See ya guys tonight" and he was on his way. I felt complete. I felt I had lived. We wanted to push our luck more and see if we could meet Seth, the other brotha, but he was already inside for sound check. We then went up to the hotel room and ate an amazing pizza which was delivered directly to our room, which did I mention, was AMAZING.

After a much needed nap we woke up at 6:30 pm with exactly an hour and a half to spare before they opened the doors. I ventured down to the entrance to the HOB and jumped into line while my colleagues got ready. I was pretty far up in line but there were a good many people in front of me as well. At 8:05 pm they finally opened up and we poured in to the stand-only area about six or seven rows back... It was a tight squeeze.

The opening band came out called Low Anthem and I was quite impressed as it was very apparent that they were all stoned out of their minds.

Then it was time, curtains closed, people screaming, I had to urinate but I didn't care. Then they opened and I screamed. To my surprise Scott still had on his Cowboy hat, Bob was all decked out in a full tux. This was the best concert I have ever experienced.