Last Friday David and I headed to Hartford to go see the DeGraw boys in concert. It's not often that Joey opens for Gavin, so the double feature was a special treat for me. Since Hartford is about a two hour drive, we decided to book a hotel room because I knew I wouldn't feel like driving home if we were out late, which I planned to be. The rates were good at most of the hotels, so we just grabbed a room at a Days Inn that was about a mile away from the venue. Y'all - now I know why the rates were so cheap. David and I spent most of the night saying to each other, "We're going to die in Hartford tonight."
For those who have never been to Connecticut, it is generally a really pretty and nice state. Hartford, however, is disgusting. There's really no other way to put it. It's nasty. The last time I was in Hartford, I ended up having to get a tetanus shot a few days later. Seriously. (I had cut my foot somewhere on the filthy streets of Hartford.) Anyway, Connecticut traffic can get a little clogged in the late afternoon, so David and I decided to both take the afternoon off from work and head down to the city early to avoid any of that mess. Surely we could find all kinds of things to do in the city, right? Eh, not so much. Sure, we could have gone shopping for CAT BOOTS:
WTF??? Can you get tabby boots? I am intrigued by the dingo boots, but cat boots????
Creeps.
Anyway, in lieu of cat boot shopping, we decided to just drive around the city and see where that took us. It...was scary. We almost ran over the same rabid-looking chihuahua TWICE, and the rest of the time we bemoaned the fact that our wills weren't ready yet, which was a shame because we were pretty sure we were going to die. Then we went to McDonald's for dinner and I was about to use the restroom until I saw a sketchy-looking woman wandering around the whole restaurant openly scratching her hoo-ha through her filthy sweatpants. She was just scratching that thing for days. Then she headed into the bathroom, so that was enough for me in terms of any need to use that bathroom EVER. Instead, we headed next door to the only other happening place around, VIP. VIP, of course, stands for Very Intimate Pleasures. I assumed it was a sex shop, while David thought it was a strip club, which led to both of us wondering what we would do if it were a strip club.
DAVID: How do titty bars work? Do they just come up to you?
PAM: I don't know, I've never been to one! What happens in the movies?
Because clearly, everything you see in the movies is totally true to life. Anyway, lucky for us I was right and VIP ended up being a sex shop, and it was gigantic. We wandered around for a while and then headed back to the hotel, where I noticed an odd looking stain on the rug in our room:
Is that a face? And is it made out of blood? What is that? Does he know Bedface? And still, and most importantly, IS THAT BLOOD??
Instead of pondering the horrors that could have taken place in our room, we busied ourselves getting ready and, doing things like taking a time out in the random chair in the corner:
Reading The Bible:
Wrapping a towel on your head and singing into the hair dryer:
And building pillow forts:
You know, the usual things you do to get ready. We then headed out to the show, and all of the thoughts of impending death drifted away as soon as I the first of the DeGraws hit the stage. Joey opened the show, sounding terrific yet sporting a new Freddie Mercury-inspired mustache. He had the mustache when I saw him at the bar a couple of weeks ago, but I just figured it was a fluke. Apparently, not. So now Joey looks a little like a child molester:
Okay, maybe he looks more than a little like one.
Eh, no matter, because he put on a great show. Here's a clip from my favorite Joey song:
After Joey's set, there was the little matter during intermission of some drunk girls who wandered off trying to reclaim their spots in the crowd near me, but people had taken them. This prompted one drunk girl to start pushing up against the new people that were standing there, trying to get them to move. It ended with drunk girl being removed by security and having to stand in the back for the concert, but there was a brief moment in the middle where I turned into a completely different person when one of her drunken pushes sent two people flying into me and led to me knocking into other people. I may have shoved the girl hard and yelled something along the lines of, "STOP IT, YOU STUPID BITCH!!!" That may have happened and David may have loved every minute of it. Moral of the story: don't mess with me while I am waiting for Gavin to take the stage. Speaking of which, shortly thereafter, he did take the stage, and all was right in the world again:
By the way, this was my first night using my new fancy camera and I love it to death. Especially when it captures Gavin shooting at me:
I love that.
The sound is also better in the videos - here's a clip from a non-album track that I have a live version of and love, but have never seen Gavin perform, so I was quite excited when he did. I mean, how can you not love a good ol' fashioned drinking song?
Here's a couple more of my favorite shots from that night:
And a montage of clips from a bunch of songs, including my favorite clip at about the 1:53 mark when Gavin is singing Proud Mary and shaking his ass. When he starts doing the train-rolling arm motions at 2:35? Pure bliss for me:
Oh, Gavin - how I have missed your shows. Now I'm going to be in withdrawal since there aren't any coming up anytime soon. But hey, at least I have lived to see the next one since David and I weren't so sure about that when we returned to the hotel to crash and were met with the soothing and dulcet tones of people drag racing outside.
PAM: What is going on right now?
DAVID: Are we going to die?
PAM: Who drag races anymore?
DAVID: People in Hartford since there's nothing else to do besides go to VIP and shop for cat boots.
PAM: What is this, Tokyo Drift? Are they Days Inn Drifting?
DAVID: Help!
Ah, but we made it and were quite happy to make our way into the nicer parts of Connecticut the next day, where there were homemade chocolate shops and such. Plus, I'd still go to Hartford any day to see a great concert like that. Double DeGraws makes everything better, even Days Inn Drifting.
For those who have never been to Connecticut, it is generally a really pretty and nice state. Hartford, however, is disgusting. There's really no other way to put it. It's nasty. The last time I was in Hartford, I ended up having to get a tetanus shot a few days later. Seriously. (I had cut my foot somewhere on the filthy streets of Hartford.) Anyway, Connecticut traffic can get a little clogged in the late afternoon, so David and I decided to both take the afternoon off from work and head down to the city early to avoid any of that mess. Surely we could find all kinds of things to do in the city, right? Eh, not so much. Sure, we could have gone shopping for CAT BOOTS:
WTF??? Can you get tabby boots? I am intrigued by the dingo boots, but cat boots????
Creeps.
Anyway, in lieu of cat boot shopping, we decided to just drive around the city and see where that took us. It...was scary. We almost ran over the same rabid-looking chihuahua TWICE, and the rest of the time we bemoaned the fact that our wills weren't ready yet, which was a shame because we were pretty sure we were going to die. Then we went to McDonald's for dinner and I was about to use the restroom until I saw a sketchy-looking woman wandering around the whole restaurant openly scratching her hoo-ha through her filthy sweatpants. She was just scratching that thing for days. Then she headed into the bathroom, so that was enough for me in terms of any need to use that bathroom EVER. Instead, we headed next door to the only other happening place around, VIP. VIP, of course, stands for Very Intimate Pleasures. I assumed it was a sex shop, while David thought it was a strip club, which led to both of us wondering what we would do if it were a strip club.
DAVID: How do titty bars work? Do they just come up to you?
PAM: I don't know, I've never been to one! What happens in the movies?
Because clearly, everything you see in the movies is totally true to life. Anyway, lucky for us I was right and VIP ended up being a sex shop, and it was gigantic. We wandered around for a while and then headed back to the hotel, where I noticed an odd looking stain on the rug in our room:
Is that a face? And is it made out of blood? What is that? Does he know Bedface? And still, and most importantly, IS THAT BLOOD??
Instead of pondering the horrors that could have taken place in our room, we busied ourselves getting ready and, doing things like taking a time out in the random chair in the corner:
Reading The Bible:
Wrapping a towel on your head and singing into the hair dryer:
And building pillow forts:
You know, the usual things you do to get ready. We then headed out to the show, and all of the thoughts of impending death drifted away as soon as I the first of the DeGraws hit the stage. Joey opened the show, sounding terrific yet sporting a new Freddie Mercury-inspired mustache. He had the mustache when I saw him at the bar a couple of weeks ago, but I just figured it was a fluke. Apparently, not. So now Joey looks a little like a child molester:
Okay, maybe he looks more than a little like one.
Eh, no matter, because he put on a great show. Here's a clip from my favorite Joey song:
After Joey's set, there was the little matter during intermission of some drunk girls who wandered off trying to reclaim their spots in the crowd near me, but people had taken them. This prompted one drunk girl to start pushing up against the new people that were standing there, trying to get them to move. It ended with drunk girl being removed by security and having to stand in the back for the concert, but there was a brief moment in the middle where I turned into a completely different person when one of her drunken pushes sent two people flying into me and led to me knocking into other people. I may have shoved the girl hard and yelled something along the lines of, "STOP IT, YOU STUPID BITCH!!!" That may have happened and David may have loved every minute of it. Moral of the story: don't mess with me while I am waiting for Gavin to take the stage. Speaking of which, shortly thereafter, he did take the stage, and all was right in the world again:
By the way, this was my first night using my new fancy camera and I love it to death. Especially when it captures Gavin shooting at me:
I love that.
The sound is also better in the videos - here's a clip from a non-album track that I have a live version of and love, but have never seen Gavin perform, so I was quite excited when he did. I mean, how can you not love a good ol' fashioned drinking song?
Here's a couple more of my favorite shots from that night:
And a montage of clips from a bunch of songs, including my favorite clip at about the 1:53 mark when Gavin is singing Proud Mary and shaking his ass. When he starts doing the train-rolling arm motions at 2:35? Pure bliss for me:
Oh, Gavin - how I have missed your shows. Now I'm going to be in withdrawal since there aren't any coming up anytime soon. But hey, at least I have lived to see the next one since David and I weren't so sure about that when we returned to the hotel to crash and were met with the soothing and dulcet tones of people drag racing outside.
PAM: What is going on right now?
DAVID: Are we going to die?
PAM: Who drag races anymore?
DAVID: People in Hartford since there's nothing else to do besides go to VIP and shop for cat boots.
PAM: What is this, Tokyo Drift? Are they Days Inn Drifting?
DAVID: Help!
Ah, but we made it and were quite happy to make our way into the nicer parts of Connecticut the next day, where there were homemade chocolate shops and such. Plus, I'd still go to Hartford any day to see a great concert like that. Double DeGraws makes everything better, even Days Inn Drifting.
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