Well, this weekend was certainly exciting! I was treated to an early birthday present by my dear friend, Beth. Two months early to be exact, but this event has been on the calendar for two months now, and it was well worth the wait!
Friday, September 9, I headed north to meet up with her at her condo. Upon arrival, I was let in on the secret of my early birthday surprise: TICKETS TO SEE EDDIE FROM OHIO IN CONCERT!!! Now, this is one of my favorite folk bands, and the only time I've seen them live was once in Fredericksburg during my last year of college when I was still fairly unfamiliar with the majority of their music. Beth on the other hand was introduced to Eddie From Ohio 15 years ago but never really followed them until recently when I discovered this travesty and began to remedy it!! She liked them 15 years ago, and she likes them even more now that she's becoming more aware of their music! So, we had a blast that night!
First, though we headed to Chef Geoff, a great little restaurant in Vienna. I had the most scrumptious dinner of Big Shrimp & Grits. Now, don't ask me why I've never thought of combining shrimp and grits, but it was the most delighfully flavorful meal! The grits were perfect, and we all know how much I love shrimp. My grandmother would have loved this meal, for sure!! Beth enjoyed her meal of Chicken Lemoncello, and we both basked in the glow of great dinner conversation.
After dinner we picked up some cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, whose cheesecake I had never tasted before, and then headed over to the Wolf Trap Filene Center to set ourselves up on the lawn for the show. We set up our seats and pulled out the cheesecake and accompanying beverage and began to feast and enjoy the wonderful evening air as the show began!
(left) My Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake. Beth dared me to eat the whole thing. Piece of "cake"....I ate all but like 3 bites! (right) Beth's Dulce de Leche Cheesecake!
Chillin' in our lawn seats in the beautiful night air!
The opener act was Martin Sexton. I have never heard of him before now, but I am SO glad that I've heard of him now. He is at the top of my list of albums to purchase. His music was a rich mix of blues, folk, John Meyer, and Louisianna. It just made my soul sway! If you've never heard his music before, make sure you find him online and introduce yourself to his sound because it is truly heavenly, not to mention the creative and striking lyrics! Go ahead and hit play on this song. It's so great
Martin Sexton - 13 Step Boogie
Then, after a short intermission, Robbie Schaeffer (accoustic guitar, vocals), Michael Clem (bass, vocals), Julie Murphey Wells (vocals), and Eddie Hartness (drums, vocals) made their way onto the stage and began doing what they do best: having fun and making great music! I was surprised, however, to see a sixth man on stage....and he was playing a mandolin!! And then in the next song he switched to the fiddle!!! This was new to me, but WOW what a difference the mandolin and fiddle made to the classic EFO sound. It was so much richer and more blue-grass-ey, but it added a new level of sophistication to the music too! Amazing!
I took this pic from our lawn seats. Of course, my camera was all the way zoomed in.
This video is a portion of their song "Number 6 Driver", one of their songs that features Virginia. You can really hear the fiddle in this, though, and it sounds great!
This new addition to the band joined them about three years ago, and his name is Jake Armerding. He is also a solo singer/songwriter, and Beth and I really enjoyed the one song of his that he played during the show. It's from his new album Her, and it's called "Harry/Sally". It's break-up song written from the perspective of the dump-er. It was great! Check it out!
This year EFO celebrates 20 years of making music together, and they've been doing a darn good job of it! One of my favorite songs of theirs is "Old Dominion" written for their home state of VIRGINIA! Of course, I truly believe should be our state anthem! They did this song as the encore at the end of the show, and it was STELLAR! Check it this video from a show they did earlier this year!
About three songs into the EFO portion of the night a couple passed us on the lawn on their way out of the arena. The wife came over and handed us tickets and said, "Hey, would you two like our tickets? We're leaving early. They're fifth row!" We looked at each other and took all of 2 seconds to say, "YES, THANK YOU!" We decided to grab our stuff and make a dump-run to the car (since you can't take food and such into the main seating area), and on our way out the seat rental guy said, "Hey, why don't you two just leave your stuff here. We'll watch it for you and that way you don't miss any of the show." Again, we responded enthusiastically and booked it down to our new fifth row seats. So amazing!!!
Our new fifth row view!!! So amazing!!!
EFO shows are so much fun, and there is always great audience participation. We had a blast, that's for sure! It was truly a night for the memory books! What a great way to kick off my birthday, even if it is two months early! I can't wait for the rest of it to commence in two months!
Thank you, Beth! You truly are the best!
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