John Mayer & Phillip Phillips

Just about as soon as Jennifer was offered a job in Raleigh, I got busy trying to find ways to make her want to come north and stay. John Mayer and Phillip Phillips were doubling up for a concert on September 5 - just 3 days after her 24th birthday - so a birthday present of two concert tickets made perfect sense. Ideally, she would have found a hot date for the event, but short on acquaintances in the Raleigh area, she took yours truly along for the fun. The concert was at the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre (aka Time Warner Cable Music Pavillion), just a few miles away. Somehow, in spite of both rush hour and concert traffic, we managed to get there smoothly and quickly without any holdups. We had lawn tickets, so we brought our chairs and parked it in the grass with all of the other cheap folks to enjoy the show.

:: Waiting for the concert to start ::

:: Carolina barbecue and cole slaw for dinner ::

:: Phillip Phillips ::

:: John Mayer ::

Both shows were great, largely because Phillip Phillips and John Mayer are authentically talented; they sound just as good live as they do in a recording studio - something that isn't a universal trait for musicians these days. I really loved John Mayer's sets, too, which reminded me of our days in the red deserts, under the open skies of Utah. The CD player in our car had to be replaced just a few weeks before Drew and I embarked on our moving road trip across the country, and most of our favorite CDs were lost in that process. Jenn had recently given me the John Mayer Born and Raised CD, and as one of the few remaining music selections that Drew and I agreed on, we played one song from that disc on repeat through most of Arizona and Colorado. It was neat to hear that song performed live against the backdrop of a western landscape at night, since that's exactly how we listened to the song over and over and over again. It was so neat, in fact, that I called Drew from the concert and let him listen, too. Here's a live recording of the song Age of Worry, although it doesn't sound nearly as good in this video as it does in the setting sun leaving the Grand Canyon or in the dark on the grass at the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre:

Close your eyes and clone yourself

Build your heart an army

To defend your innocence

While you do everything wrong

Don't be scared to walk alone 

Don't be scared to like it 

There's no time that you must be home 

So sleep where darkness falls 

Alive in the age of worry 

Smile in the age of worry

Go wild in the age of worry

And say Worry, why should I care? 

No, your fight is not within 

Yours is with your timing 

Dream your dreams but don't pretend 

Make friends with what you are 

Give your heart then change your mind 

You're allowed to do it 

Cause God knows it's been done to you 

And somehow you got through it 

Alive in the age of worry 

Rage in the age of worry 

Sing out in the age of worry 

And say Worry, why should I care? 

Rage in the age of worry 

Act your age in the age of worry 

And say Worry, get out of here!

Listening to a record performed live changes how you hear it in the car, and it's been fun to have Phillip Phillips and John Mayer singing and dancing in my head while I listen to their songs. In spite of coming home from the concert with a hoarse throat and a runny nose - a mild allergic reaction to being around so much cigarette (and marijuana) smoke on the lawn - the concert was a blast, and, although I'm sure Jennifer would love to find some concert-going friends in Raleigh, I'm glad she and I got to do this one together.