No, WAIT!

That's right. Me. I scampered back into the concert hall and played the giddy and sweet girl with camera. The sound guy who looks like a mini John took the picture of ME WITH JOHN FLANSBURG! It's Istanbul, you know.

Dearest husband was hesitant to go where the people are not allowed.... so he did not get to be in the picture! Me, I figured they would haul me out by the elbows if I wasn't supposed to be there. That did not happen and I got the above picture.

They locked the doors after that.

She's a Jumping Bean with neat concert pictures

Ok, I AM the jumping bean. This show was awesome. I now really have camera envy, but these are pictures that my little 2 Mega Pixel camera took sans flash:

This is not a test.....

Opening band? Oppenheimer, a group (two cool guys) from Northern Ireland. I LOVE this band. I've been listening on the ITunes radio for months now. I was thrilled when they started the set. After, I excused myself the "restroom" and found them:


That's right! That's me with cool robot voice guy. I'm one cool mommy blogger, let me tell you. Not, however, as cool as these guys: Rocky O'Reilly (Guitar, keys, percussion, mac) Shaun Robinson (Vocals, drums, keys, guitars). Rocky is the one with the cool hair and the robot voice in the music. Shaun plays drums and does vocals. That in itself is pretty impressive, but Dear Husband says it also means he has to drink and do drugs and girls enough for both a lead singer and a drummer and that's the impressive part. Hmph. These two guys play this incredibly complex beautiful music live and on stage and they are really nice.

The Lion's on the Phone

We arrived early. No mere law of inertia or geography or meteorology would keep my husband from arriving on time. He drove like a nut, no big deal since that's how he always drives. I teased him at one point about possibly missing an exit and he flushed red. Heh. :)

Did I mention we arrived early? Parked really close and went in. Concert starts at 8pm, doors open at 7pm, we arrive at 5:44pm. Dear Husband wants to argue that point but our parking stub gives him away. :) Anyway, he doesn't want to leave the building to get food someplace where the food is actually edible because he doesn't want to miss sound check or be at the end of a line. Some guy directs us to a "line at the bottom of the stairs." Oh, those stairs, we say as we return from the basement food court (at the IMU). The line is more like a pile of three (3) people. Two of which are actual stalker groupies.

We go eat at previously mentioned food court. Yuck. Then we return to the pile of people. Soon we are joined by a doctor from Dubuque and his wife who have never seen TMBG live but are big fans. Dr. guy has a vintage T-shirt and discussion blooms about albums, radio play, songs, live shows (groupies chime in)...and the line grows to 15 people. At 7 we are let upstairs. Gen Admis. in a place with no seats means that the only benefit from waiting in the lobby and eating crap food is....well, we got to buy T-shirts early? :)

Here is my view before the show (note how low the stage is, how close up people are allowed, and remember that I am the size of a malnourished twelve year old....):