shupe.

One of my favorite bands is Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband.  They are a little Utah band that is trying to make it big.  I first saw them at an EFY in Georgia in 1999.  I have loved them ever since.  I loved going to their shows in Utah and it is one of the things that I miss most about living there (besides being near family of course.)  I nearly peed my pants when I got a message from them saying they were coming to Ohio!  And only half an hour away from me!  Dream come true.  We showed up as early as we could because we had no idea what the crowd would be like.  It was open seating and I wanted to be front row.  

The concert was held in the Happy Days Lodge which is in the middle of a National Park here in Ohio.  It was this little lodge that seated maybe 200 people.  We were the third couple there.  Dream come true.

We practically had the place to ourselves... I couldn't believe it!

 Seeing all of the instruments on the stage made me giddy with excitement.  It was seriously too good to be true.  We did notice that there was no drumset and that made us curious.  Turns out they decided to do a few shows without the drummer just to spice things up a bit.  We missed them on some of the songs but it was like hearing them for the first time on the majority of them because it was such an acoustic sound.  I loved it.

 Ryan's famous fiddle.

 We were front and center and nearly all of these pictures have no zoom.  We were by far the youngest in the crowd and probably one of the few that even knew who they were.  Talk about feeling like total groupies!  It was awesome!  I totally started to cry when they came out on stage and continued to cry through the first few songs.  It was rather embarrassing... yet awesome at the same time.  It may sound funny... but I felt like a piece of home had come to me in Ohio.  It was so amazing.

 They put on such a good show.  I loved every single second of it.  The only thing that could have been better is if we had gotten our friends to come with us.  It would have been fun to introduce them to a group that means so much to me.  Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll come back again someday.

 They let me keep the set list.  G-R-O-U-P-I-E   C-E-N-T-R-A-L.  It is going in my treasure box.  I was so excited.

 We stayed for about an hour afterwards chatting up with each member of the band.  It was the best night ever.  (Way better than Muse... but don't tell Jeremy.)

P.S.  Today is my birthday.  32 big ones!  I don't feel a day over 20.  :)