those wailers sure know how to wail.

last year the wailers (as in bob marley and the wailers minus bob marley because he's dead) came to visit.  and i was very excited because this was the closest i'd ever get to seeing bob marley in concert.  i guess the same logic would apply to going to a paul mccartney show, but i don't think i could ever see paul mccartney in concert because:



so my friend, miss owl, came with me to the show which started at 9:00 pm on a school night and she got real tired and wanted to go home at 11:00, which is the exact time the wailers came out to play.  and i was so sad i didn't get to see them (and also pretty angry, if we're being honest here.)

BUT THEN!

they came again this year!  and i asked my bestie, shelley, to go this time and i gave her plenty of warning that it was a late show on a school night and that she should drive herself if she planned to leave at 11:00 because there was nothing that would keep me from the wailers this time around.  she was all in.  and then, a few days before the show, she canceled...and was surprised when i said of COURSE i'm still going.  (she was also surprised that they were the wailers, not the whalers, which i think is just so funny.)

but look, if i'll sleep on the streets of milan in order to see cake, i think i can handle driving up to park city by myself to see the wailers.  i waited in line for over an hour, despite already having a ticket, but i wasn't really bothered too much because the guy right in front of me looked just like john of cake in his beard and trucker hat. so i talked to him, pretending he was john.  don't worry though, my misplaced giddiness was only on the inside.

the concert was so amazing. nothing beats hearing live the songs that speak to my soul.  sometimes i took my glasses off so i could fool myself into thinking the singer was bob himself.  then i got a headache so i put them back on.  the wailers played the entire legends album and i danced my heart out to every song (and by danced, i mean swayed, of course, because it's reggae).  i hung out at the bar so i would have a nice place to lean, because i'm lazy like that.  i must have been looking longingly at all the drinks people ordered because after a while the bartender gave me an overpriced bottle of water for free because she could tell i was "trying to be good."  ha ha!

and do you know what's the best part of going to a concert by yourself?  you don't have to worry if the others in your party are ready to go home or having a good time or if they are convinced you are a pot-smoking weirdo because you listen to reggae.  you just go and enjoy watching all the other pot-smoking weirdos to whom you feel strong kinship because bob marley's music is love.