Alrighty then...
The evening of May 6th Katie and I left Dallas and began our 3-1/2 hour drive to Austin. We got there around 10:30pm or so and my Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Patrick were so kind to give us a place to stay.
Anyway, Sunday morning we got up, played with Tristan, my cousin who I found out was named after Brad Pitt's character in the movie Legend's of the Fall. Then, we were treated to dim sum (chinese resturant where the servers walk around pushing carts with some yummy food). It was lots of fun.
What we did after that was not too much fun really....NOT!
We headed down to The Backyard in Austin. i was already excited because it was an outdoor venue. I just knew the atmosphere would be different outdoors versus indoor. We got there about 1-1/2 hours before gates opened. When it did open, Katie and I were center left of the stage right in front! I mean smashed up against the stage. Talk about excitment! So we hung around, met a few really nice people and then the concert started.
Toby Lightman opened for him and she was FANTASTIC. I managed to get her setlist, but didn't have a chance to get it signed.
Then it was the main event. It was awesome to be outside, listening to great music and just having fun! The eletric gutarist winked at me, the piano guy shook my hand and James grabbed both my hands as he reached into the crowd. I managed to get James's set list too! It was awesome!
So then, at 10:30pm we got on the road and headed home...why you ask??
We had a date with the man himself the next morning. Seriously!
Katie and I did anything to stay awake. We sang JB songs, church songs, 80's stuff...anything...we chatted and then we took the wrong exit off I35! Anway, we made it back to the correct highway after a couple of curse words out of my mouth...hey, it was late and I was tired...give me a break!
We made it home, slept for 1-1/2 hours and we were up again and headed to KISS FM.
We hung out outside for a bit, then into the Texas Bar & Grill. They had a mini-stage setup.
They gave us an opportunity to ask questions and I quickly raised my hand. I said "Good morning James, first thank you for what you do, second, I saw you in Chicago, last night in Austin and drove home to be here this morning. I had 1-1/2 hours sleep, I wonder how you feel this morning?" James said and I paraphrase here..."did you see me turning around to the band and telling them the stalkers were in the front row?" I said "those must have been the teenagers behind us" Then he said something like "I had no sleep the night before, but I got some rest last night so I probably feel better then you do."
He answered a couple of other questions, then sang High and You're Beautiful. Afterwards, they took photos and James signed his promo photo for us all. I asked him if he would sign my setlist from last night and his security guy said no, but James snuck (sp?) his hand between his bodyguard and a radio staion worker and I handed him my setlist, he signed it and handed it back and smiled at me. After he had taken the photo with us he spoke to us and asked me my name and then he leaned into Katie and asked her what her name was. Holy cow we were in James Blunt overload by then I think.
I'm on the right side of the photo next to JB, Katie is next to me
After that, it was home and to bed...well sort of. I didn't really sleep! We headed to Nokia Theater around 5 for round 3 of JB. I won't go into too much details as it was about the same as all the other concerts we went to, except Katie and I sat for this one. It was a nice perspective from being in the PIT.
There you have it, the James Blunt chapter has come to an end...until next time!
