Shut Yout Eyes and Sing to Me!

So Friday, I was just getting ready for the day, listening to my favorite radio station, and they said to text them to win Snow Patrol tickets and passes to the meet and greet.  I thought, oh, I never win stuff like that, and got in the shower.  Then when I got out of the shower, they said, we're still taking your texts!  I said, why not?  I texted into the show, and five minutes later, I got a phone call telling me I'd won Snow Patrol tickets!  Not only that (which is awesome enough!), I would get to meet the band!  Whoot!  Whoot!  Yay me!  So awesome!
The show was on Saturday night, and I have to admit, Snow Patrol isn't like my most favoritest band ever.  But I do like them a lot.  I just don't have any of their albums.  I don't know about where you live, but here, when we go to a concert, we want to rock out, dance, and par-tay!  Snow Patrol isn't exactly fast, dance and go crazy music, though, so I was wondering what would happen.
Kurtis and I arrived at around 6:30 and got in line.  It was surprisingly cold.  The sun was shining, but since it was going down, and the breezes were blowing, I was shivering.  Luckily, Mr. Jones is good for something.  He kept me warm(er).  When we got in, we went looking for our seats, which since they were on the fifth row, I thought would be totally awesome!  But no.  They were in the fifth row of the 8th section, which would have been awesome if they had put the stage on the other side of the room.  Oh well, I didn't care too much.  They were free!  I was told to meet Grant from the radio station at 7:50 to go meet the band, so at around 7:30, I decided we should go wander around a bit.  Low and behold there was my friend, Tiffany, who played my maid in "The Women" waiting for Grant too!  It was awesome!  We got to catch up with each other, and I met her friend who won tickets too, and brought her along.  Grant met us a bit later and we went downstairs to the backstage area.  We met the band who has cool accents (they are from Ireland and Scottland), but said they hate their accents.  Well, I hate mine too.  People are funny.  They sat down and we all got in line (there were about 10 of us who won tickets to the meet and greet, and our guests, so about 20 in all (maybe less, I wasn't counting), and they signed a picture for us.  Then we got to take pictures with the band, too.  It was so much fun.  But kind of akward, too because they didn't know what to say to us, and we didn't really know what to say to them.  After the picture taking was done, we went back up to our seats and sat down.
The Plain White T's came on just as we were finding our seats again.  Poor Tom.  He's the lead singer.  He was sick, so rather than cancel their show, they only played three songs.  My sister, was in the front row, dying to see them (they are her favorite), and was so sad that she didn't get to hear a full set from them.  The did a really good job, and from way back where I was, you couldn't really tell he was sick.  Sometimes his voice would get a little scratchy, but he sounded good.  I hoped he would play one more when the third was over, but Emily said he looked like he was in pain, so I guess it's better he didn't.
After that, we waited for Snow Patrol to come on.  One of the event guys came over to our section and told us he was moving our entire section down to the pit.  Which was way cool!  We were on the floor, about a section closer.  Which is awesome, except that because I am only 5' 4", I probably would have been able to see them better from the section I was in.  I loved it though.  It was a really awesome concert.  Snow Patrol's energy was just amazing.  We danced and sang along to their songs.  We even had a sing along during "Shut Your Eyes" (one of my favorite songs by them - it's on the blog playlist that will come back when Halloween is over).  He said, "This is the part where you guys sing along with us.  I'll start."  Then we sang "Shut your eyes!"  And he said, "Now well, that was good, but let me explain myself.  And I know I wasn't very clear, so I apologize for that.  But I want you to sing like your shoes are on fire, but you know - in tune."  Ha ha!  It was so much fun.  Then he split the room in half and we had a sing off.  Of course, my side won. ;)  So my conclusion is this:  If you like Snow Patrol, you will love them in concert.  When they come to a town near you, go!

After the concert, we went to IHOP, and we took Emily with us so she could get a ride home.  I made her order some food for her teeny tiny body, but she only ordered fruit.  She was lucky.  Apparently she got the last of the fruit.  Kurtis's meal came with either pancakes or fruit, but Emily took it all, so they brought him pancakes.  Then our waiter told me my meal came with pancakes or a salad.  I ordered from the light menu because I've gained ten pounds (yeah, I know...).  Kurtis said, "Get the salad!"  I gave him the evil eye and said, "But I don't want salad."  Then he said, "No, but I do, so you can have my pancakes."  Well, after we got all that cleared up.  Dinner was great, but I learned something while I was there.  I do not like egg substitute.  The pancakes were yummy though. :)

Left to Right:  Kurtis, Johnny Quinn (Drums), Nathan Connolly (Guitar), Paul Wilson (Bass), Gary Lightbody (Lead Vocals), Tom Simpson (Keyboard), and Me!

These pictures were taken by Tiffany's friend Josh with his awesome cell phone.  Thanks, Josh!  I'll be putting up the professional ones later.  They aren't up on the radio station's website yet. :)