Dogs, drugs, and some danged good music

I have to start on Thursday, when I had a appointment with my doctor because the wasp sting marks had gotten worse, and my right arm was swollen on Wednesday (though it had gone down on Thursday because I took a Tylenol PM which had Benadryl in it). My regular doc was on vacation, but I saw another one in the practice, and she told me to take Benadryl, and if that wasn’t effective, gave me a prescription for steroids.

After work on Friday, I headed home, actually beating Jill there. She had decided she wanted to go see the Pietasters that night, so I packed a quick picnic of chicken wraps and we headed over. My mom had been considering going to one of the free Fairfax concerts, and decided to join us. We got there right before the band started, with just enough time to meet the new member of the family, 9 month old Tatyana:

I took more pics of the dog and the band here (including one of Jill in the dust pit). Interesting trivia: Jill was really into the band in the ’90s, but didn’t know that not only were they from around here, but that they formed with four members from my high school (only one, Carlos Linares on the trumpet, remains). Good show, then we headed over to Mom’s to chat more and play with Tati (she plays fetch at blazing speeds).

Saturday I dragged. I’d fought off the sleeping power of the Benadryl Friday with caffeine, but didn’t want to Saturday, so I gave in and napped on the couch for a couple hours. Jill went and picked up the steroids, and I started taking them instead (but I don’t think I’ll be breaking any home run records soon). I had picked Dave Matthews Band tix on Friday (the fan club had let me down for once and only given me lawn seats), and we headed over to Manassas around 5:30, stopping at Baja Fresh for Jill (fish tacos) and Panera for me (turkey artichoke sandwich). We left earlier than last year, but it was just as bad as ever, taking almost an hour and half slogging up the road to Nissan Pavilion. At least we had some time to tailgate by skipping the opening act. Good show with a heavy emphasis on new material, made great by my finally seeing a full band performance of The Maker. After the hassle of getting in we got out early, missing the last song of the set. I skimmed the Redskins game when we got back (1-0 Woo!).

Sunday I was feeling pretty good, caught up on newspapers and watched some TV. One more show, this time eddie from ohio. We headed over right after gates opened. We had the VIP seating, but we also needed to save space for the Jewells. We got some decent food, flautas and pizza from vendors. The last time we were there, the opening bands weren’t that good, but this time we got the Brindley Brothers, who we haven’t seen in a while. We even got a chance to speak to their dad – we run into him often at their club.

The crowd liked them, but efo was who the crowd was there to see (including the drunk wine fans behind us). One of the funniest parts of the show was Robbie going on about how the fried oreos that were for sale would taste mighty good. So Stuart and Olivia go running off to the vendor, and then after “This My Town”, Olivia presented them to Robbie.

Of course he had to share, so Julie brought some to Mike…

And Eddie…

Then the band enjoyed them together.

Jill and the Jewells were very amused.

During “Three Fine Daughters of Farmer Brown”, there’s an a cappella section where everyone pumps their hands in the air, called “The Joe” because Joe Murphy, Julie’s dad, invented it when they were playing Bad Habits, an Arlington club, every Tuesday. Whenever he goes to a show, he comes down front during that part to lead everyone, but this show was a little different, as he led his grandkids out in a conga line to do it.

The show was a blast, with the band managing to crack each other up almost as often as they did us (Robbie banned Julie and Mike from doing the Robot during “Carp In The Tub” because he was laughing so hard). It ended on a high note with “Operator”, then we left right after, as Jill’s got another grueling week ahead of her (more photos here).