Better Late than Never... Guster!

Two Sundays ago, my concert husband Phil and I experienced a very cool thing at Merriweather Post Pavilion: Guster, performing with 110 students who are members of the Howard County Youth Orchestra.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Guster, you should look them up because they're really quite fun. You may know (because I may have said it before) that I have an affinity for bands from Massachusetts. Dispatch... The Mighty Mighty Bosstones... Dropkick Murphies... Bella's Bartok... Guster... It just seems that good music comes out of Massachusetts. Maybe this has to do with the Berklee College of Music? I don't know. But what I do know is this: Guster is fun and the guy who plays bongos, Brian, is INCREDIBLE.

The show at Merriweather was on a Sunday night and tickets were only $25. Therefore, Phil and I would have been stupid to pass up the opportunity. And from the perspective of an educator, I just thought it would be beyond cool to watch as 110 students had an experience of a lifetime. And it was.

The story, as I read it on Instagram, went like this: Some kids reached out to Guster and asked if the band would be interested in headlining a show with them on May 21 at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Guster, being the good sports that they are, were like, "Sure! How many kids are we talking about? Ten? Twelve?" And the kids answered, "One hundred ten." They spent the following weeks learning the music, and then had ONE rehearsal with Guster the day before the show.

I've seen a lot of shows at Merriweather -- it's one of my favorite venues -- but the place was EMPTY when Phil and I got there. It was super cool! Like, here's an example of how empty it was: I went into a bathroom that was being cleaned by three women and no one else was in there. A bathroom being cleaned during a concert?! Unheard of! I was the only other person in the room!

And here's another example, this one with video proof: Phil and I discovered an area of the park that we'd been to on several previous occasions, but had never noticed the artwork on the walls because we were usually being shuffled through that narrow area with about three hundred other people. I sent this footage to Annie because I knew she'd enjoy it:

As for the actual concert... It was great! The band's lead singer, Ryan, is HILARIOUS. He always has phenomenal fashion sense and that Sunday was no exception. He was dressed to the nines, wearing pants printed with roses and a nice jacket. He also had a new pair of boots on his feet (which Phil found very intriguing because Ryan actually brought a back-up pair of shoes on stage in case the new ones resulted in blisters). The story behind the new boots went something like this: He explored Columbia, Maryland, earlier that day and stumbled upon a thrift shop. In this thrift shop, there was ONE pair of shoes... and wouldn't you know the shoes were his size?! Hotdog! He obviously had to get 'em. They had a neat little gold plate on the front that looked like it might be tasseled. At one point during the show, said boot came untied and Ryan asked the orchestra to improvise while he made up a song about tying his boot. It was excellent. Not quite as catchy as "Fa Fa" or "Happy Frappy" or "Amsterdam" or "Barrel of a Gun," but still catchy nevertheless.

Speaking of "Happy Frappy"... I had completely forgotten about that song, but Guster reminded me how much I love it and now it's (currently) the final song on my playlist for the book I'm writing right now, Dog-Eared Life. (I'm almost done; I think I'll be finished in another week or two.)

Another great part of the concert was when Ryan went into the crowd and continued to sing (and swear) while weaving among the fans. His mic had a cord and I am still amazed by the length of this cord. I wish I had a video of him walking absolutely EVERYWHERE with it. I know it doesn't come across as funny in this recap, but trust me: the audience was in tears.

Sometimes Phil brings me to tears with the clever ideas he comes up with. For example, he decided that since we are concert husband and wife, we should have a concert child (since nearly everyone at this particular performance was there to support the kids in the orchestra). Phil wanted our daughter's name to be Gertrude, but I suggested Birdie, and he liked that so that's what we went with. And when other parents were cheering for their children, Phil also cheered for ours! Sometimes, when the camera zoomed in on a particular girl, he'd whoop, "Yeah, Birdie! You go, girl! We're so proud!" So that was fun. Phil really makes me laugh. If you don't know Phil, you should try to catch him at a show too -- he's worth it. ❤️