One Republic Concert!

My husband got me tickets for the One Republic concert in Park City on August 31. I was completely jazzed to go!! He got them at the King’s English Bookshop and he totally tricked me because I was sure he had gotten me a book. Anyway.  We hung around downtown Park City and found some cool bookstores and one that was very, very bizarre.  We ordered some awesome pizza and then went to the Deer Valley Amphitheater to wait in line since we got the only ones we could afford cheapo general admission tickets and we wanted to be able to at least see the stage.  So my husband dropped me off with the food and chairs while he went to park the car.  I’m outside, excitedly standing in line since I’m kind of near the front.

And then this happened.

I live in Utah okay. It’s a desert and it rains like 30 minutes tops for the whole summer. I should have learned my lesson in London, but nooooo I had no jacket and not even an umbrella.  I figure it will pass over pretty fast and I can just wait it out. Gosh I hope our food doesn’t get too wet.

And then it started to hail. WHAT THE HAIL.

Some nice (and much smarter than me) people let me stand under their umbrella.  They even lent me a rain jacket probably because I looked pathetic.  I was soaked from the knees down like most of the other people standing in line.  The rain came down hard. I was freezing. I don’t care if the band hoodies are $100 I’m buying one.  I totally earned it.  My husband got stranded under a pavilion after parking the car and ate our now cold pizza while my sneakers filled with water.  I’m not bitter.

The rain let up enough for us to switch places. So Husband stood in line and I bought a band hoodie (yay! Only $60!).  I went to the bathroom and was going to use the air dryer for my sneakers, but they only had paper towels that did nothing.  I thought Park City was all green and stuff! Don’t they know that paper towels kill trees! Air dryers are more sanitary, too!!

*storms out of bathroom*

*sneakers: squish, squish, squish*

We got a good spot on the lawn when they let us in. We ate the rest of our cold pizza and lots of peanut butter M&M’s.

Sara Bareilles opened for the concert.  How cool is that!  She had a “moment” as she called it where she totally forgot the lyrics to “Hercules.” She may have said the f-bomb  when that happened.  Even without some of the lyrics, it was such a good song.  I won’t buy the studio version because it didn’t come close to how awesome it was live.  She also said she couldn’t hold her notes as long way up in our mountains :)

After Sara left, it started getting dark and my head was feeling pretty miserable.  The band could take the stage at any second, but my husband runs to the gift shop to get me some over-priced Tylenol.  It was the cutest thing when he raced off to my rescue and I was really grateful.

I love One Republic.  I have never seen such an upbeat and happy rock star.  They’re usually broody and stuff.  He has broody songs, don’t get me wrong, but he writes incredibly inspiring songs like this one that he said was written for his son. (I Lived by One Republic)

And you guys. His piano glowed.

This is also one of the few rock bands that use a cello and piano.  I very much approve of that :). The lead singer went through water like crazy because of the altitude.  We had so much fun jumping up and down mostly because we were having fun, but I’m not gonna lie – it kept us warm, too.  Neither of us are wearing shoes or socks since they were soaked and it was oddly warmer without them. And no shoes or socks at an outdoor concert = more fun.

I loved the story behind Good Life.  Ryan Tedder, the lead singer, was recording a song on Abbey Road and he is a crazy Beatles fan.  This song is just one of those things that came to him and became bigger than he could imagine.

Deer Valley was a gorgeous place to see my favorite band.  This was the best concert ever!!!!  The rain (and hail) made for a good story that I’ll never forget.