ntb & gro.

disclaimer: this post is super long, so if you don't know (or care) about needtobreathe and/or green river ordinance, then don't waste your time. if you do, then you'll enjoy my stories.

let me just start with some background info: needtobreathe announced their "young and far from home" tour, including a boston (house of blues) show, a few months ago and i (naturally) felt the need to get tickets. ..on the day they went on presale. i'm one of those fans. are you surprised? i like to be online, purchasing my tickets within the hour that they go on sale, otherwise i'll lose sleep over the fact that it might sell out or i might not get a good seat. anyway, money's been pretty tight lately because, you know, weddings have the tendency to drain your bank account and, even though it had been a few months by the time tickets went on sale, i wasn't really in a position to be spending any money on concert tickets. so i had a problem. technically, i could afford to buy a ticket, but should i? i'm pretty sure i made a pro/con list because i really felt like i needed to go. but was that only because i'm a borderline concert addict? i wasn't sure. so i talked it over with my mom, who is always super skeptical about the amount of money i have and how much i spend on concerts, and she said that if i felt like i needed to go, then i should go.

so, after a lot of consideration, i bought a ticket.

and then green river ordinance announced their tour dates and, since they were scheduled to play in boston on the same night as ntb, it worked out that they would also play at the house of blues.

ntb and gro? i knew there was a reason i needed to be at this show.

well, last saturday was the big day, so arielle, leah, and i made our way up to boston. we got there a little early, so we got an appetizer and waited for the box office to open. this turned out to be a not so great idea, considering the fact that we didn't have that much time to kill and leah and i kept worrying about our spot in line and what happens if we don't get to stand as close to the stage as we would like. it ended up working out fine, just as rel said it would. she was completely calm about the whole thing. she doesn't obsess over things like that like leah and i do. but what we didn't plan for was what happens if one of our names isn't on the meet & greet list. more specifically, what if my name isn't on the meet & greet list? because it wasn't, even though i paid for it. and the girl at the window was no help because all she said was, "well i got this list directly from the band." as if she works for "the band" and not just the house of blues. i doubt she even knows their names.

anyway, fortunately, seth and tyler (their tour manager?) got off the bus right as we were discussing what we should do. now, i say that casually like it was no big deal, but honestly? i gasped a little bit (or a lot) when i saw seth get off the bus. because that's just what happens. he's that beautiful. but anyway, back to the story. i went over to them and asked tyler (not knowing who he was at this point) if he'd be able to help me out. and he did. i got my meet & greet wristband and all was right in the world again. plus i got to see seth.

the meet & greet went fantastically, which is to be expected. (and we got our spots right in front on seth's side of the stage.) we mostly talked to bo and seth, but we did say hi to joe too. they pretty much told us about their tour in europe and the things they bought there. seth got this sweet leather jacket, which he was wearing, and we got to touch it because he wanted us to see how thin it is. (i think we all died a little bit inside at that moment.) bo talked about the european fans and how excited they were that ntb toured over there. seth talked in his wonderful accented voice about how he's not really a big fan of scarves. i guess this girl made them all scarves and he wore his when she gave it to him and in their pictures and stuff, but he took it off when he was talking to us. he also told us he has a secret he can't tell anyone and it's the hardest secret he's ever had to keep, all while flashing that brilliant smile of his. probably because he was so excited about it and because he knew we were dying to know what it was. we tried to get him to tell us what it was, but he wouldn't. (because why would he? but we thought we'd try anyway.) we took quick pictures with him and then he went to go talk to the girls standing next to us.

so we were looking at the pictures we took with him and we noticed that he alternated showing his teeth in them and we wondered why he would do that because he has such great teeth, like really amazingly beautiful teeth, and he needs to show them off. and, in the mean time, he was supposed to be talking to those girls next to us, but apparently he was still listening to our conversation about his teeth and so he looks over at us and laughs and asks what's wrong with the pictures. so we try to explain why we love when he shows his teeth in pictures without making it seem like we don't like his non-teeth pictures. it was pretty hilarious, but also slightly embarrassing at the same time because he was not supposed to be listening to that conversation.

now, by this time, it's almost time for them to go, so we take group pictures and on their way out, the girls next to us pull seth aside and ask him to take a quick picture with them (because they ran out of time before thanks to our obnoxious teeth conversation) and as they do that, i remind him to make sure he shows his teeth when he smiles. and then he laughs and whips me with his scarf and then goes backstage. (best moment of the night. i almost died.)

the daylights played first, then gro (who i got super excited for as if they're my real-life friends and not just a band i see on tour), and then ntb played. they are all amazing. it was such a great show.

gro sang "this little light of mine" and i realized it was possible to love them more than i already had. and, with the position of the drums and where we were standing, we actually got to see denton's face this time! normally, he's hidden behind the drums and everyone else on stage.

so, like i said before, we got our spots in front on seth's side of the stage. but we (meaning leah and i, of course) always get worried that seth and bo will change sides of the stage randomly. but they never do and we're always on seth's side, which means that i always end up with an embarrassing number of photos of him. but mostly because he's right in front of us and pictures always come out dark if you're too far away. it might also have something to do with the fact that seth is gorgeous and i just want to capture it so i can take it home and never forget how attractive he looks when he sings or moves his hips during girl named tennessee, but you know. you can think what you want.

anyway. moving on. ntb played two new songs, which i've posted here and here. and the second one is my new favorite and has been playing on repeat in my head since last saturday night when i first heard it.

the show got over earlier than usual and gro tweeted about a secret show on the sidewalk outside the green monster. (because fenway is right across the street from the house of blues.) so we made our way through the merch line, talked to a couple of the guys from the daylights, and then we went outside to find denton and the rest of gro to say hi.

(side note: leah and i have been to four gro shows in the past year and we've talked to denton, their drummer, every time. we've pretty much reached bff status at this point. ..except like, seriously.)

once he saw us, he came right over and gave us hugs and we chatted until he had to go play their mini sidewalk after show, which was wonderful. i recorded "where the west wind blows," but i won't be posting it because one) it's dark and although you can hear it, you can't really see anything, and two) some guy yells the f-word at the beginning and i don't know how (or if i can) edit it out. after they played, we talked to denton some more and we got on the subject of my future plans in nashville and he told me that their manager is in nashville and he does internships and programs and stuff like that so i should let him know when i go down there because he'll hook me up.

i'm sorry. how amazing is that? like, seriously. the night just kept getting better and better. arielle, leah, and i basically spent the rest of the night having the following conversation, over and over:

rel: "wow. that was so amazing."
leah: "yeah, i can't even believe it. like..."
me: "like, seriously. best night ever. i can't even..."

i just kept thinking about nashville and how i have a legit connection there. and that's when i realized that that is the reason i needed to be at that show.