it's 4:37 a.m., on 2001-08-19 - the Gorge amphitheater and heart-wrenching beauty.

~

Okay, really, I should be in bed, but what do you know -- I've been out and about since nine in the morning and I just got home at four.

See, there's this place in Washington, the Gorge Amphitheatre, and there's this band, the Barenaked Ladies, and the two came together in a splash and crash of magic today.

And we drove about six, seven hours to get there.

So it's two, three in the afternoon, and we're at this rest stop in godknowswhere, Washington, and there's wind whipping around this desert-esqe landscape, and the scrub and grass is brown but the wind smells good. And I'm driving this leg, so we're going about a hundred miles an hour, and there's music blaring and we're drinking orange juice and fuck, man, I'm so happy.

I was so *happy!*

And okay, the concert was AWSOME because the stage was on a backdrop of canyon and setting sun, right? And Sarah Harmer opened for them, and I LOVE her because her music is like praying. And she said, 'hey, I love singing this song because this is god's church, huh?' And it was cool because singing seems to be her way of praying.

So the sun's setting -- Sue and I get a big donut, covered in sweet sugar and cinnamon and crunchy and greasy and we lick our fingers. We're sitting in chairs just long enough for the Barenaked Ladies to come out... and then they do.

I think I've lost my voice.

I think I've gained my soul.

~*~

I think I posted a few months ago about whether I thought Radiohead or the Barenaked Ladies were going to be better -- it was BNL. But you know what? It was because of the venue. The Gorge is so gawd-awful beautful. I mean, weepy beautiful, tighten-your-chest and feel-something-real beautiful.

While BNL were playing there was this brushfire burning about fifty miles away or something, and getting closer a bit -- there was smoke blowing around the stage for a while because the wind was gusting a lot. They kept making burning jokes, and singing their hits and improving and giving us their energy, which seemed boundless.

They sang 'if I had a million dollars' and they sang 'brian wilson' and they sang 'shoebox' and they sang 'too little too late' and 'one week' and 'tonight is the night I feel asleep at the wheel'.

We were a little afraid we were going to do that, honestly, but we got by.

But the best, the absolute best part of the whole thing? Sums up the vibe of the whole beautiful sublime thing, really, and I'm so *full* of this, I really am. I can't put it into words.

While they were playing, the stars came out.

~

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what would sith be nostalgic about anyway - November 24, 2015
moving truck dilemma - October 28, 2015
- - July 19, 2015
- - July 01, 2015
bruise - June 29, 2015

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