Tonight Auburn's UPC brought in Ben Rector, Young the Giant, and NEEDTOBREATHE for a concert at the Auburn Arena. Yay free concerts!! I still don't know a word that Young the Giant said, but Ben Rector and needtobreathe were UH-MAZING.
I got to hang out with Macie (and a few other friends, too, who didn't make the picture) for a while. We got to the concert early enough to go down on the floor/ be really close to the band. But being the old ladies that we are, we opted for "real seats" where we could sit down far away from the pushing and shoving to get closer to the bands. Clearly, we are aging prematurely. And I'm okay with that.
This is Ben. Tonight was my 8th (yikes!) time to see Ben within 2 years. And I still love every time. You would think I would be extremely tired of him by now, which brought me to ponder exactly WHY I still want to see him (over and over and over again). Clearly, I love music. I have always loved music. Singing and/or listening to music always makes me feel better. Ben's music, as well as most other musicians of his type, is extremely accessible. First of all, he writes it, plays it, and sings it. And his performances are very much audience dependent -- he's constantly talking to the audience and asking for various feedback/ participation. Tonight, he seemed pretty tickled that most of Auburn already knew the words to his songs.
(Skipping any feedback on Young the Giant due to my distaste for their trippy performance and inaudible lyrics.)
This is needtobreathe. They're a pretty cool rock group with tasteful harmonies and a pretty intense light show that may or may not cause seizures. Consider yourself warned. During their encore, they did an acoustic version of "Slumber" that was really awesome. Any by acoustic, I mean no microphones, amps, nothing (and keep in mind this is in the Auburn Arena). Sweet.
Toward the end of the show, needtobreathe brought Ben back out (see pic above). Such a beautiful combo.
