Pat McGee & Vertical Horizon

Friday was our usual lazy night, quick pizza and a bit of reading, then out like a light. Saturday Jill was out running errands for a while, and after I walked Illa the weather wasn’t nice enough to go outside, so I stayed inside reading. I did grill some burgers for an early dinner, then we headed over to Belmont for our first Loudoun Summer Music Fest show of the season. They were a bit disorganized at first, but we got in ok and grabbed some seats in the third row. We saw our friend Linda and one of my coworkers before things started.

We saw some of opener Shane Gamble, but didn’t know him too well. Pat McGee came out with his hair newly shorn (lost a bet with his daughter) and most of his band (no keys? and playing 10 minutes away from the Todder?), but they rocked the place, including an epic “Can’t Miss What You Never Had” and a great “Rebecca”.

Pat

They folks running the show had a Twitter contest a couple days before, and I won, so we got a meet and greet. Initially it was before they went on, but they moved it to between the headliners so we could meet both. First up was Vertical Horizon, who I was psyched to talk to since legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart plays on three songs on their new album. We only got a few moments to talk, but he managed to convey what a thrill it was to play with Neil.

us & Matt

We had to wait for Pat McGee and the guys to finish packing their equipment away, so we got to feel completely out of place “backstage” (really just behind a low fence where everyone can see you, though the bands had trailers). We did finally get to see everyone, Pat seemed moderately impressed with my concert stats, and Brian slipped us some news that his next album would have vocals by a number of singers we like.

us & Pat

Vertical Horizon started almost as soon as we got back out front, but while they were quite good, the bass was cranked up at least twice as loud as before, driving us towards the back and eventually the car (they sounded great from there), leaving when they still had a couple songs to go.

Today I made French toast for us for breakfast, then Jill and I went to some open houses in Reston (it’s time). I had a bunch of computer stuff to do in the early afternoon while she was out, managed to finish most of what I wanted to do. I made a BLT and cracked a beer before the Redskins game, and read the paper while their offense just got steamrolled (some nice defense and special teams play, though).

I made a tomato chutney over baked chicken and steamed chard for dinner, then we watched the VMAs. Weird night, funny to think Katy Perry and Joe Perry are related, my favorite moment was Beyonce giving her spot to Taylor Swift because that a$$hat Kanye took Taylor’s.