Gentlemen of the Road – Guthrie Stopover

Nate treated me to an amazing weekend of music in Guthrie the first weekend in September. Generally I would say I’m not a music festival person, but this was a different story. I was pretty unsure of how it would go because one, it was a music festival and two, the information available, other than the long list of things not to bring, wasn’t very plentiful.

A pretty close, but sunny and hot spot for the first evening.

Traffic
We headed up to Guthrie around 2 p.m. on Friday and were pleasantly surprised that traffic wasn’t an issue at all. We’d worked out a plan with our friend Traci to stay, along with some friends, at her house for the weekend because of the convenient location of her house a mile from the festival grounds. Even with 35,000+ people in town for the weekend I didn’t hear of many people having traffic issues which is impressive.

Further back, but shade hit us sooner for the second day.

Security and the Crowd
Despite the list of forbidden items the bag search before entering the venue was near nonexistent. Had we known we would have carried in much more water, snacks, and I might have even tried to get my fancy camera in. Oh well. The crowd was super mellow and friendly, and I didn’t witness any problems or fights. One of the main reasons I don’t care for festivals is because usually there are lots of really drunk and really high people who have no respect for your personal space. While it was frustrating when people would chose a walking path across the middle of our blankets there were a lot of people to navigate through and I just couldn’t hate too much.

The Food
They had an awesome set up of local and out of town food vendors with a wide range of choices from corn dogs and pizza to pad Thai and portobello wraps. Not surprisingly it was quite expensive. I purchased a really delicious black bean and spinach quesadilla on Friday, but after not much of a bag search, Saturday I carried in my own food.

 

The Music
Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros were awesome and did a bit of crowd participation which is always entertaining. I picked a couple new bands to like in the bands Phosphorescent and The Vaccines. The Alabama shakes were great performers and people went crazy for Brittany. And Mumford and Sons capped everything off with a fantastic set. One of the best parts of their show was the very last song. They brought everyone back out on stage (which was a ton of people), and sang a cover of With a Little Help from My Friends.

Guthrie
I think one of the goals of GOTR was for people to discover a new town that they’d hopefully return to. Guthrie really rolled out the red carpet for everyone. A few of us went into town on Saturday to get some GOTR merchandise, and I regret not having more time to check out everything they had going in addition to the actual festival. Despite living less than 30 minutes from Guthrie I’ve never been up to check the town out. So my interest was successfully peaked, and I’m looking forward to a return trip to check the town out.

So many people!

The Venue
Cottonwood Flats was a great set up. Big enough to accommodate everyone, close to the space they had people camping in, super close to downtown where even more stuff was happening, and close to the huge field where they were parking everyone (and to some city streets where residents were parking people in their yards).

Crazy strong man sculpture they had set up that lit up at night.

The Weather
It was a hot, dry weekend. While it was hot and really dusty I was thankful it wasn’t raining and muddy. We used sunscreen and drank lots of water (they provided a free water filling station which was nice, but they could’ve used 2 or 3 on Saturday when the lines got long), and our group came away not too worse for the wear. We had a pretty close to the stage spot Friday, but opted for something further back that would be in the shade sooner for Saturday.

I could go on and on about how organized everything seemed, how awesome the music and lineup were, and what a great crowd it was. The weekend changed my mind on festivals, and given the right bands they can bring out a really cool crowd and make for a really fantastic and fun weekend of music. So good job Mumford and Sons!

2013 Season Tickets to the Lyric Theater

Back in February I participated in the OKC Public Library’s adult reading program. They do it every year, and for every three books you read you get a ticket to put into the bowl to win prizes. I was incredibly lucky and won a pair of season tickets to the Lyric Theater at the Civic Center shows.

So for the past month (and we still have Big River to go) Nate and I have been taking in some shows. We’ve seen Tarzan, The King and I, and Will Rogers Follies. I didn’t realize the productions would be so large and professional, but to my untrained eye they might as well be Broadway! I’ve been especially impressed with the costumes and dancing. Here are a couple of photos off of Lyric’s Facebook from last week’s Will Rogers Follies.

Photo by Keith Rinearson

Photo by Keith Rinearson

The take away; if you get a chance to attend a Lyric production I’d definitely recommend it!

Norman Saturday

Last Saturday there was a free Iron and Wine show in Norman we wanted to go to. It was also the day of the OU Spring Game. So we made an afternoon and evening of it all in Norman! We picked up lunch at Pickleman’s, attended the Spring Game, made a quick stop in at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, took a break for a drink at the Library Bar & Grill, picked up dessert for later at Crimson & Whipped Cream, grabbed dinner to go from Pad Thai, and enjoyed the Iron and Wine concert.

I don’t have any pictures of Pickleman’s, but the former OU player Kenny Stills was in line in front of us!

The spring game was interesting. The offense plays the defense, so they have the scoring set up differently. Offense of course gets points for scoring, but the defense got points for things that it’s important for defense to do. I have enough trouble following a regular football game, so I was a bit lost! But it was still fun to cheer for the big catches, and I brought my new camera along to try out.

After the game we considered going in to the Fred Jones Jr. Art Museum, but it was less than an hour till closing and I assumed I’d have to pay. Then we walked by a big sign they had out front that said “The museum is always free.” We turned right around and went in. Since we only had about 40 minutes we probably didn’t even see a quarter of what they had, but I was impressed with what I saw and I’m looking forward to going back!

I’ve been wanting to try Crimson & Whipped Cream for a while. They’re a member of Keep it Local, so I always see them on the list and am curious. I expected it to be similar to Cuppies & Joe with lots of cupcakes, but instead it was a mix of all sorts of treats and what looked like a pretty big drink menu. We picked out several things to try and they packed them to-go for us. We got: a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting, a strawberry granola bar, a Nutella cinnamon roll, and an oatmeal cream pie. All of them were quite tasty, and I’ll definitely stop by again and trying some other things.

Our choice for dinner was Pad Thai. It had been recommended as the best Thai food in Norman. We were running a little short on time so we each ordered a pad Thai to-go. After an unfortunate 40 minute wait (their kitchen exhaust fan stopped working and they had to turn away people who they’d already seated!) we got our food. They were very apologetic about the wait and offered us free drinks, so I won’t hold the wait against them. The portions were huge, and the pad Thai was a little sweet and I thought tasted a bit tomatoey. Nate ordered a 4 star which I tasted and it wasn’t very hot, so if you go order a 5 star if you like spice! I’d go again, but probably try curry or something different next time.

The Iron and Wine show had a bit of a rocky start – everyone at the front stood up to listen, and everyone at the back, where we were, started talking really loudly. About half way through we got a little fed up, picked up our bits, and moved into the standing crowd. All in all it was a really great show, and we should’ve just moved forward sooner!

Since they weren’t checking cameras or anything I carried in my new zoom lens, and we had some fun testing it out.

I Love Local Radio – The Spy

A couple of years ago an OKC radio station came back on the air. While I enjoy NPR during my drive to and from work; I hadn’t really found a solid station in the area for nights and weekends. I tended to flip between oldies, top 40, and classic rock, and when I’d get completely fed up with the selection I’d put in a CD.

Then The Spy came on. They played lots of alternative which I liked. They also played just about everything else, but best of all they played tons and tons of local groups. Unfortunately due to money or some other issue, not too long after they came back on, they went off the air.

Since then they’ve existed as internet radio which is cool, but not something I’ve gotten into. But here’s the exciting part. August 20th The Spy came back thanks to one of the local public radio stations KOSU! So if you’re in the car some evening driving around OKC flip over to 91.7 and check out The Spy!

The Spy
fm 91.7 OKC, OK
Nightly 7 p.m. – 5 a.m.
Sundays 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

I Love Local Music

The secret about Sunday evenings in downtown OKC in June, July and August is quickly getting out. Since they finished re-doing the Myriad Gardens last year the Arts Council has held Sunday Twilight Concerts on the grand lawn. The concerts are free and go from 7:30-9 p.m. Just bring chairs or blankets to sit on! We like to take a picnic dinner (BLTs last night!) to eat while we enjoy the music.  Last night we joined a group of friends to enjoy music by 411 Band with Cara Black (motown/soul), and the park was PACKED. It’s definitely good clean family fun, the weather last night was perfect, and the crowd was loving it. So if you need something to do on a Sunday evening there are still six more weeks of music to check out!

Coldplay Concert – Dallas 6/22/12

This past Friday Nate treated me to a Coldplay concert in Dallas, and it didn’t disappoint!

I’d been wanting to try out the DART, Dallas’ light rail, for a year or two now, so we decided to park a bit into downtown (found a $5 lot near St. Paul and Bryan) and take the train to the American Airlines Center. We met up with Annie and Ryan, got dinner at the Press Box Grill and then caught the green train to the Victory station which drops you off right across the street from the arena (we were in section 109 which was right by the door we went in too!). Tickets were $1.75 a ride (or $4 for a day), so we might have saved a few bucks vs parking near the arena and walking, and it was really great not to have to sit in traffic to get out of downtown since we were the only ones parked where we did. The trains were clean and easy to figure out. After the show we were worried a bit about how full they would be, but they were just comfortably full. There were even attendants on the platform after the show to help direct you to a train if you weren’t sure what was going on.

Upon entering the doors everyone was given a wristband to put on, and we decided they must light up during the show. Wolf-gang and Robyn were the two openers, and we got to our seats in time to see most of Robyn’s set. While we were waiting for Coldplay to come on I started looking around for where their little stage out in the audience might be. There was a little section five rows in front of us that was covered and I pointed it out. Annie noticed that there were a few cameras set up near us too!

Everyone’s wristband lit up

Once Coldplay took the stage it was non-stop music and color, we didn’t sit down once. The wristbands were awesome, as expected, 20,000 (?) of them lighting up to the music, pulsing, or solid. They played a lot of their new album, and a ton of their other songs too.

1. Mylo Xyloto
2. Hurts Like Heaven
3. In My Place
4. Major Minus
5. Lovers In Japan
6. The Scientist
7. Yellow
8. Violet Hill
9. God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
10. Princess of China
11.  Up in Flames
12.  Warning Sign
13.  Don’t Let It Break Your Heart
14.  Viva La Vida
15.  Charlie Brown
16.  Paradise
17.  Us Against the World
18.  Speed Of Sound
19.  Clocks
20.  Fix You
21.  M.M.I.X.
22.  Every Teardrop is a Waterfall
    (setlist via)

The highlight of the night though was the band coming to their little stage five rows from us. Last time I saw them play we were decently close to their little stage, but when everyone stood up and stretched out their arms to take pics and videos I couldn’t see a thing. This time though, best view I’ve ever had! We were so lucky!

The band just 5 rows from us!

Coldplay always puts on a great high energy show, and this one was no different!