Epic Road Trip 2009, Part III

I've been away from here for the better part of a week, but I doubt anyone has been let down by my lack of recent blogging. To be fair, I had a good excuse for not posting anything this weekend - it was Epic Road Trip 2009, Part III.

The stated purpose of Part III in this series was the All Points West music festival in Jersey City, but the date and location also coincided with the 3rd anniversary of the start of my relationship with Megan.

Personal details aside, here is my advise to you:

If you ever get a chance to see Coldplay perform live, and cost of the ticket does not include your first born, take it!

Yes, it was that good. Even if we had to stand in roughly two feet of mud (ok, maybe like two inches) to see them, Chris Martin and Company know how to put on one hell of a show. You know how awesome the crescendo in "Fix You" sounds when you're playing it in your car? This was like that, except it lasted for more than an hour.

While trench foot was definently a concern for a little while, it seems that I'll make a full recovery. Now I know how those guys fighting in WWI must have felt (opps, I just Hoekstra'd myself!)

Seriously though, it was a great concert. Martin really knows how to play to the crowd and that makes the whole thing even more enjoyable. He's not just playing music with his buddies and singing, but you get the feeling that the entire band really LOVES being there with you. Even if its a act, they really sell it.

I never thought of Coldplay as a band that would crack onto the list of my favorites, but I'm pretty sure they have. On Sunday night they played just about every song you could possibly want to hear (except for Glass of Water, and I did want to hear that one), and even a few that you never expected to - such as Chris Martin's piano acoustic cover of The Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right (To Party)".

It might not go down as my favorite concert ever, but that's mostly because when I saw Third Eye Blind it was in a smaller venue, I was closer to the stage, and I didn't have to throw my shoes out afterwards. Even considering all that, this show is a close second.

Sadly, the other band I was really looking forward to seeing - The Gaslight Anthem - did not get to play because of a massive thunderstorm that rolled through and forced the cancellation of a number of acts. But was the 12 hour round trip and the $90 ticket still worth it? Absolutely.

And don't worry, I'll make sure to be more consistent with my blogging this week.