Since I met him, Casey has played about four artists nonstop: Jimmy Buffet, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, and Michael Buble. When we were dating, our soundtrack for our at-home date nights would progress from one to the next with seamless transitions.
In April, we got to see two of these perform live.
For Valentine's Day, I surprised Casey with tickets to Bruce Springsteen in Kansas City. I tried to capture his reaction on video, but, if you know my husband, you can imagine the look he gave me as I pulled my phone out to record. His not amused expression quickly changed when he saw what was in the card. The rest of the night, and next two months, we eagerly anticipate the concert.
Another factor to our anticipation (and my anxiety) was this would be our first night away from Mila. Logically, I knew she would be fine. She was in the ever capable hands that raised me. Emotionally, I wanted to snuggle and rock her to sleep. Thankfully, like most things I'm realizing about parenting, the anticipation is the worst part. When we got there, we had a blast. It was exactly how we needed to reconnect as a couple, not just as a mom and dad.
We set the tone on the drive down with my fave Bruce album.
We bar hopped and happy-houred our way from the Plaza to the Power and Light District.
And we danced for three and a half hours with Bruce. He didn't take a break all night. Literally. No intermission, no relief singer, nothing. After three hours, he finally took a drink of water. His energy was unreal.
Seriously, this sixty-six year old man even crowd surfed.
The second to last song he played "Shout." After standing for three and a half hours, I just couldn't. I tried, Bruce, I really did, but I just couldn't.
By the end of the concert, I had developed a crush on Bruce.
And we thought THAT was going to be the best concert. Little did we know, Garth at the end of the month would be the concert that could not be topped. He set the standard for all future concerts.
As soon as we heard Garth Brooks was coming to Des Moines, I knew we were going. I sent Casey a message the minute I saw the announcement knowing it would be top of his list. I knew this was going to be another night Mila would get to have a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's.
Casey got on the minute tickets went on sale to order the max. Little did we know, Garth was going to open up six additional shows for the same weekend in Des Moines. It really didn't matter as long we got ours, which we did. In second 303. Row H. The nosebleeds.
Apparently, these tickets weren't nearly appealing to our friends as we ended up having to sell two to a friend's co-worker and random date. We tried about every other option we had, but with seven shows in Des Moines, everyone was already going.
In the end, we got to go with the Lundbergs and Grays for our adult night out. We did happy hour at Eatery A with delicious pizza and cocktails before making our way down to Wells Fargo Arena.
Somehow, we all got separate once we got to Wells Fargo. Casey and I had gone up to look at where we were sitting, realized no one was there yet, and turned around and came back down to the upper level concourse. Eventually, all six of us met up there not excited about going up to our seat. Lummy swore he was going to end up with vertigo.
Then, two people approach our group huddle from nowhere. This girl asks how many are in your party?
We all are quickly trying to size her up and her intentions. Is she trying to sell us something? What does she want from us? Then I see the other guy with her and his official looking Garth Brooks lanyard. I'm starting to get an inkling about what this could be.
After the skeptical looks on are face, she asks, "Are there six in your group?"
I say, "Yes."
Lundberg says, "No, there are eight."
I have figured out by now she is going to offer us something, maybe Meet and Greet passes, and I have to find a way to get Lummy to realize this. "No," I firmly assert. "There are only six" giving Lummy a get-the-hint-look. I could care less about his co-worker and date.
She tells us that Garth saves tickets in the front row for fans who get stuck in the nosebleeds and she happens to have tickets for the third row if we would like to upgrade. But, she only has six tickets which is why she needed to know how many are in our group.
We danced all the way down. Our great night out just became epic.
Where our seats were supposed to be
We'll never know if it was the seats or the concert or both that made that night so great. Either way, I can't imagine any other concert living up to this one. I literally would have gone back the next night.
My favorite part about going to concerts with my husband is this look he gives at every single one. His true happy place.
Now, to fit Buffet in this year...
