Name That Tune

One night last week Brenden asked me to sing him a song that he had heard in the car. "The Take Me Home song!" he squealed, bouncing on his knees. I was at a complete loss and sat there with my mouth hanging open, totally stumped as to which song he meant. I finally asked him to sing it for me, which went something like this:

"Nah nah, nah nah nah, TAKE ME HOME! Nah nah, nah nah nah, TAKE ME HOME! Nah nah, nah nah nah, TAKE ME HOME! TAKE ME HOME! TAKE ME HOME! TAKE ME HOME! TAKE ME HOME!"

He smiled, very proud of himself. "That one, mommy!"

It did have a tune, but not one that I recognized. He sang it for me a few more times, slightly frustrated that I couldn't guess the song. I finally called Tim into his room to see if he could figure it out, but he was just as lost. We finally convinced Brenden to listen for it in the car and let me know which one it was. He agreed, but not without a frown.

Fast forward to a few days later. We're driving home from school and I'm flipping through the radio when, out of nowhere, Brenden yells, "TURN IT BACK! THAT WAS MY SONG!"

I was shocked he had remembered, but even more shocked to find out which song he was talking about.

Not exactly appropriate lyrics, but I'm not correcting him anytime soon. We'll go with "take me home" for now.

Ben Folds! And Kenton Chen!

For Tim's Father's Day present, Mike and Connie helped me surprise him with tickets to see Ben Folds in concert. (He's one of the judges on The Sing Off.) I enjoy his music, but Tim loves it. He spent the last few weeks listening to every Ben Folds song on his computer so he could be ready. The concert was last night and we were not disappointed!

Connie met me at Brenden's t-ball practice to take over kid-watching duties, which I heard later was a crazy practice full of very little listening on the kids' part and a lot of tackling. Sorry, Connie! Tim and I headed to Hey Mambo for dinner (super yummy!) and then to The Cain's Ballroom. I was excited because I've never been in there.

The opening act was Kenton Chen, who was on The Sing Off with his group The Backbeats. He played a short set and did all of the music and vocals by himself, utilizing a recording device of some sort. (We weren't close to the stage so I'm not sure exactly how it all worked.) He was fantastic! I especially liked his song Believe In (I may be wrong about the title...sorry!) which he wrote about how popular music is so sexualized and young girls are interested in becoming famous at the cost of their childhood. So catchy and meaningful!

We were able to meet him during the break between his set and Ben Folds and he was just the nicest guy. I mentioned posting to his fan page on Facebook and he remembered that he had replied back to me! He's definitely worth a listen. Thanks again, Kenton!

Unlike most concerts, Ben Folds actually took the stage at 9 pm like they said he would. For the next two hours we were treated to an absolutely fabulous concert! Whether you were a hardcore fan that knew all the songs (Tim) or someone that only knew three songs (me) I can promise you would have enjoyed this. Tim and I had a list of songs that we wanted to hear him play and we got our wish! All four songs, "Still Fighting It", "Luckiest", "Hiroshima" and "In the Army" were all on his set list. I haven't seen Tim that excited in a long time. It was awesome.

It was a wonderful night and I cannot wait to see him in concert again. I better start listening to his cds now so I can know all the songs!

Jason Mraz rocked our socks off!

Ready for some Mraz!

Ok, I kept my socks on, and so did Tim, but WOW! We've seen Jason Mraz in concert before in Colorado Springs but I could go watch him every week and never get tired. He's funny, happy, upbeat and gets everyone in the crowd involved, even the people who just stand there most of the time. On top of that, he's an amazing live singer. I'm not sure if everyone has had the experience of watching a band or artist they love and realizing that they are absolutely terrible live. (One person told me Nickelback wasn't so hot.) Jason Mraz..not like that at all. He even throws in some opera, which is just crazy.

Our night started out with a short drive and a long wait. We sat in the turn lane to get into the Spirit Event Center for at least 30 minutes and by the time we got to a parking space it was 7:30, which is when the concert started. We weren't terribly worried since there was an opening act. Pulling into the parking structure prompted Tim to explain to me that they had not used Auto Turn, which is apparently like an engineering video game where you pick a vehicle and then try to turn it into a virtual building to see if the turn radius is wide enough. I'm so glad he loves his job. :)

We walked into darkness and with the help of one of the event staff found our seats, only 10 rows from the stage. The first act was Anya Marina, who was what Tim called "whiney" although I thought she was pretty good. Kind of folksy. She did her version of T.I.'s You Can Have Whatever You Like which I thought was awesome. After she was done there was about a 30 minute break until the Plain White T's came out. They were SO loud, but really fun. They played Hey There Delilah and I was happy. It wasn't a long set, only about 45 minutes, but they were energetic and fun.

The Plain White T's lead singer, Tom.

The funniest thing during the Plain White T's was the flash nazis...the event staff that ran back and forth screaming at people taking pictures. I was glad to have my camera put up at that moment because that woman looked livid. It would have been just as easy for someone to walk on stage in between performances and announce "no flash photography" instead of combing the crowd. By the end of the night they seemed to have given up, both on checking for flashes and checking people's hands to make sure they had stamps. Anyone could have walked in, and probably did.

We knew there would be a bit of a break before Jason Mraz came on so we headed to the bathrooms. Oh my gosh the women's line was looooong. I was lucky and made it in and out rather quickly and met up with Tim, who had found one of his fellow workers from Wallace. I've heard Jordan's name a lot but I've never had a face to put with it. We also got to meet his super sweet girlfriend, Audra, and passed a few minutes chatting away.

Finally we headed in for the main act and, like I already said, we weren't disappointed. He played several of our favorite songs, The Remedy, Live High, Lucky, and of course I'm Yours, which is his big hit right now. During one of the songs his brass trio went into the crowd, which was tons of fun, and during another he had us all dance along.It was fabulous.

He sings with his eyes half-closed most of the time. :)

Take a bow!

At the end of every show he takes pictures of the band members with a Polaroid and then throws them out into the crowd. At the last concert Tim caught a drumstick and this time he caught a picture of the trombone player. I'm not sure how he does it! I thought the tall blond lady in front of us was going to beat him up but she eventually just laughed and asked to look at the picture.

Way to catch that picture, Tim!

After the concert we decided not to fight our way out of the parking structure and instead headed to a bar and grill near the event center for something to eat. We snacked on nachos for about 45 minutes and were totally surprised to see that people were still battling their way out to drive home. The level we were on was almost empty so it was easy for us to get out, we just had to wait a bit to get out at the lower level. Someone got smart and had the police show up to direct traffic (maybe someone complained?) so it went much smoother than when we showed up.

We made it home around 12:15 am, which was almost exactly when I predicted. (I thought probably midnight) We were exhausted but probably not nearly as tired as Connie, who watched Brenden for us. She and Mike took him to the mall where he ate 15 tortillas at El Chicos and played. He feel asleep pretty easily so I'm glad that part was good for her.

All in all, amazing night and a wonderful birthday present. Thank you so much Tim!

For more pictures, please click HERE! :) (they are towards the end of the album)