Matchbox and a big Mac attack

Yesterday Jill picked me up at work, and we drove over to Alexandria to buy tickets. It was a last minute thing, and I checked with my buddy Craig for them. We parked at the nearby Van Dorn Metro, and headed into DC. I’ve wanted to eat at Matchbox for a while, and since we had tix and the time, decided to brave the crowds. They told us it would be a 30 minute wait – it was more like 40, but we both brought something to read. It was a shared meal – we split everything, starting with the sliders. We had an order of 3, very nice with the onion straws and really good buns. The apple/pear salad we had next was one of Jill’s favorite salads ever – the honey-balsamic vinaigrette was a perfect match. Jill had made pizzas the night before, so we tried the chicken pesto pizza, which used a housemade pesto sauce as a base, but it was very salty – next time we’ll try the traditional. Went well with the Chimay on draft, though. We were on the verge of getting dessert, but decided against it.

The Mac

The tix were in a suite at Verizon Center. It was an ok side view of the stage, but the biggest perk was a private bathroom, nice not to have to go too far when you have to go. Jill and I both like Fleetwood Mac, I’ve seen them three times now, six years apart each time – we had tix to see them in 2004 as well, but they canceled ’cause Stevie was having throat problems and never rescheduled (it was part of a 6 pack of tix at Nissan, and they gave me Poison tix instead of a refund – yuck, once was enough). The show was advertised as a greatest hits tour and it certainly was, they played six songs off Fleetwood Mac, eight songs off Rumours, and four songs off Tusk. That made the crowd pretty pleased, but I was hoping for a couple songs more recent than 1987. I would have preferred to hear “Seven Wonders” instead of “Big Love” from Tango in the Night, and “Say You Will”, “Peacekeeper”, “Steal Your Heart Away” or “Bleed to Love Her” from Say You Will, although hearing “I Know I’m Not Wrong”, “Storms” and “Oh Well” for the first time was a treat. I was particularly surprised that Lindsey with two solo albums since the Mac’s last tour chose to keep doing “Go Insane” as his solo song – I would have loved to hear “Did You Miss Me” or “The Right Place to Fade” off Gift Of Screws. Still, even a predictable setlist was a good night of music, and we headed home happy.