sir paul mccartney

On Tuesday around noon I received a text message from my dad:

"You busy tonight?" 

Nope! Why?

"Father daughter date, just us two!"

Oh ok! Sure! 

My dad is a rather fabulous fellow, fun and exuberant and loving. He has brought a lot of joy to my life, including a large portion of my taste in music. He also loves surprises. Probably at the top of his list is "surprising" my mom with some extravagant gift from Santa every year, though she has always disliked the idea of Santa. Which might be why he does it. Despite her decades-long protest, Santa has never missed a Christmas at the O'Neil house.

I've mentioned before that I love the Beatles. That's all dad's fault. I stole his British Invasion CDs at a young age, twisted and shouted probably before I could walk. 

Dad and I left for our dinner date around 530. He told me it was a new restaurant opening up, something he called "Sororise", that had groovy ambience music that he thought I would love. It was a private opening that apparently required tickets. As we began our drive he handed me a piece of paper and said, "I printed the address here, can you look it up?"

Unfolding the paper I discovered a ticketmaster ticket.

To PAUL MCCARTNEY.

Liar liar pants on fire! I had been tricked, swindled, kidnapped, surprised.

He of course began dancing like a maniac and we blasted Paul McCartney music all the way there.

He was so excited he exclaimed, grinning, 

"We gotta take a picture in our seats with the stage behind us. Selffiiieee!!"

It was one of the most surreal (and wonderful and exhilarating and life-changing) moments of my life. I kept crying because I felt like I had always dreamed of being in the same room with Paul McCartney. With my dad. Of course this room was actually a gargantuan stadium with thousands of other humans, but the dream was still being realized.

This was the incredible set list of the evening:

Eight Days a Week 

Save Us

All My Loving 

Listen to What the Man Said 

Let Me Roll It

Paperback Writer 

My Valentine

My Love

The Long and Winding Road

Baby I'm Amazed 

I've Just Seen a Face 

We Can Work It Out

It's Just Another Day 

And I Love Her

Blackbird

Here Today 

New

Queenie Eye

Lady Madonna

All Together Now

Lovely Rita 

Everybody Out There

Eleanor Rigby

For the Benefit of Mr. Kite 

Something

Ob La Di Ob La Da

If We Ever Get Out Of Here 

Band On The Run

Back in the USSR

Let it Be

Live and Let Die 

Hey Jude

Day Tripper 

High on Life

Get Back! 

Yesterday 

Helter Skelter

Golden Slumber/The End

As you can see, it was a pretty extensive list. It was three hours of musical history, rock and roll and beyond.

The giant screens were active the entire time, showing photos and videos of the young Beatles (also made me cry) and other artistic displays. I find it fascinating to imagine myself in the 60's when they first arrived. What must that have been like? What were they like? What was life like for them in those days, writing music and finding love and stumbling around as the headmasters of Beatlemania.
It's amazing to be here now, to see how it all turned out for those young strapping British boys that the whole world fell in love with. It's an honor to hold the knowledge of their story, in all it's bittersweet glory.

The band was phenomenal and watching Paul perform was so fun. He's so full of life and talent, and we were just seeing a glimpse of the music he has written in his lifetime. It's absolutely astounding.

Some of my favorite moments included, obviously, the earlier Beatles music. He performed "Paperback Writer" on the original guitar he recorded it on! 

He also performed a ukulele version of "Something", which was a beautiful and sentimental tribute to a fabulous song written by the late George Harrison. 

I think my heart would have exploded if he had sang "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", but even so, it was fit to burst. 

Needless to say I've been listening to Paul McCartney all week long!

I will remember that night forever. What a wonderful gift to spend a night with my dad and his favorite Beatle, honoring the musical legacy he has cherished and passed on to me.

needtobreathe

This weekend we took a trip to Richmond to see one of my all-time favorite bands. 

A couple weeks ago, Needtobreathe put on a contest through Tunespeak. And I won. 

I got 2 free tickets to the show of my choice on their Stomping Grounds Tour, as well as a signed CD and a meet & greet with the band.

I was kind of ecstatic. Lots of squeals, excitement, anticipation.

Saturday was the day. We had already been to 4 concerts, so we knew how great they were. They're unbelievable live, and their new record is due sometime at the end of this year/beginning of next year. 

The best part about this tour is that they decided to play really small venues in the south, sort of to pay homage to some of their favorite clubs that helped them get started, and also because the experience of live music in an intimate setting is hard to beat. 

Enter: the Canal Club in Richmond, VA.

It's tucked away in this really cool, industrial-type cove in downtown Richmond.
We got there really early to get in the VIP line, and the place was pretty much deserted, save for the handful of other souls on the other side of the building waiting to get in.
We took a few minutes to take these photos and to just kind of breathe in the coolness of it all.

Tee (shop!): Needtobreathe, Purse (shop!): Target, Boots (shop!): Urbanog

My outfit is a hodgepodge of gifts and hand me downs.
The dress is one I got from my best friend's closet years ago (with her permission), the leather jacket and the boots are amazing gifts from my mom, and the tank top is actually a Needtobreathe souvenir from the last concert we went to in Charlotte.
I wanted to wear something of the band, while still staying true to the spirit of Frocktober.
It's a pretty funky outfit, but I kind of loved it.

The concert itself was indescribable.
Definitely a high point of my year. Like I said, we've seen them before -- this was our fifth Needtobreathe concert. We have been able to see them every tour since I first fell in love with their music in college -- the first concert we went to was when they were on tour with Train, and Dusty surprised me with tickets for my birthday.
This time was so powerful though, so close (as in, we couldn't hear once we left), so amazing.

The opening band was called Ivan and Alyosha, and I highly recommend giving them a listen! Their albums are on Spotify. Their drummer was at another show that night, so they did the entire set acoustically, and it was pretty incredible. (Have a listen here, here and here!)
We got to talk to them after the show, and they're definitely some of our new favorites! Hopefully we'll get to see them in concert again soon.
And obviously, if you don't know of Needtobreathe...listen to them asap! Start with their new album and work your way backwards.

They wouldn't allow us to bring our camera in (even though everyone else just had smaller cameras hidden in their purse), so the only pictures I have are from my phone, except for the last one of us with Needtobreathe at the meet & greet before the show!
I will never forget it!