City of Black and White
It had been a while since I had slept in or slept for at least eight hours, so I decided to sleep in today. I had made plans to go to lunch with Granny and Pop so I could spend a little more time with them before heading west. At noon on the button we left for lunch at Perkins. I think I was the only person in the restaurant that was under 80 but thoroughly enjoyed myself nonetheless. Our conversation was nice and the food was pretty darn good. The fair is like a much nicer Shari’s for my readers on the west coast.
After lunch I tried to meet Beck at the mall to help her return something, but the timing didn’t work out well for the kid’s naps. I did, however, run into Nordstrom’s because it was having its half-yearly sale. I bought a BCBG shirt that I think would make both Bailey and Joyce proud. I made a quick stop at Costco on the way back to Granny and Pop’s. I then freshened up quickly and was out the door to pick up Ben and Leah for dinner and the concert.
I picked the kids up around five at Ben’s house. Ben’s present was dinner and the show, so he got to pick where we ate. The problem is Ben isn’t always super opinionated or super decisive. I thought we would eat somewhere in downtown Philly and then head to Upper Darby. Ben couldn’t come up with a place he really wanted to go, so we decided to head to the concert venue and just find a near by place.
GPS systems are one of the best inventions since ever, but sometimes the “fastest routes” take you through interesting and sketchy places. It turns out Upper Darby is a sort of ghetto place. It is also happens to be surrounded by A LOT of ghettoness. We found the Tower Theater pretty easily and got a great parking place since we were two hours early for the show. We then set out by foot to find a place to eat.
I have never been to a concert venue where there were not myriad nice dining options in the immediate vicinity. I guess there is a first time for everything. We walked a lot of blocks through this suburban Philly neighborhood and couldn’t find a dining option better than Wendy’s and Wendy’s was a solid 10 blocks away. This was kind of unfortunate because I wanted to take Ben to a nice dinner but what can you do?
We made it back to the Tower Theater just in time to hear the opener, Helio Sequence, play its first song. The venue was pretty amazing. It was built in 1927 as a movie theater and still retains much of its original charm ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Theater_(Upper_Darby,_Pennsylvania) ). The acoustics were surprisingly good as well. Our seats were in row DD of the left center orchestra (roughly seven rows from the stage and slightly left of center).
I was hoping to make this night extra special for Ben by arranging a meet and greet with Mat. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to work my connections well enough to make that happen before the show. However, towards the end of his EXCELLENT set, he announced to the crowd that he would be signing his newly released (it came out yesterday) CD, City of Black and White, at the merchandise table for those who purchased it. I had given Ben a copy of the CD yesterday when I told him about the surprise, however, I decided to get him another copy, so he could get it signed. I think that Leah, who also bought a CD, may have been even more excited about this than Ben… but I was still pretty pumped that I would be able to introduce them to Mat.
We were a little slow getting to the merchandise area and the line to meet Mat was quite long. It didn’t really matter though because the stage had to be changed for Keane and we had nothing better to do. I could see the anticipation building in Ben and Leah as we got closer and closer to Mat. Finally when our turn came around we stepped up to the table and I said, “Hey Mat! Katy Polansky, how are you?” He looked up did a double take and said “HEY! What the heck are you doing here?” We then proceed to have a nice chat where he wished Ben a happy birthday. He also signed their CD liner notes. However, he signed the second one to me, when it was actually Leah’s. It was pretty funny. The cover ended up saying, “To Katie… It’s really to Leah. Mat Kearney.” I think Leah actually got a pretty big kick out of this and may even like it better that way. As our conversation wore on a bit the tour coordinator with Mat told him he needed to move on to the next people in line. We wanted to take a picture with Mat too but the tour guy wouldn’t let him. Evidently he had to complete his signings before the crew completed the set change for Keane. Mat seemed to think this sucked, so he just told us to wait until he was done and that he would take it then. True to his word, he did. We talked for a few more minutes and then returned to our seats to watch Keane.
The Keane part of the show was surprisingly good. I wasn’t super familiar with them as a band but enjoyed the show nonetheless. The lead singer has a very good voice and is quite the performer. Ben and I especially enjoyed how he said “THANKYOU” (I meant that to be loud and look like one word) with an emphatic thumbs up after most of the songs. That, of course, is now how we greet each other.
The show ended around 11:30 pm. I then took Leah and Ben home and arrived back to Granny and Pop’s around 1:30 am. My flight the next morning left at 6 am, so my intention was to stay up all night. That being said, after I got all of my stuff packed I was REALLY tired. I decided to take a nap from 2 to 3:15 am. I got up, took a quick shower, and was on the way to the airport by 3:45. Which leads us to day 12…
Mat is pretty popular. Maybe when he gets really, really popular people will start spelling his name right.
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