It’s not often one of your favorite musicians comes to town, so when I saw that Chris Carraba and Dashboard Confessional would be stopping by Seattle, I had to go.
I’d been a fan of Dashboard Confessional for a long time – since they were a one-man band, which I still prefer, actually – so the only debate was whether or not to pony up for a VIP ticket, which was more than twice the price of regular admission. Given that the VIP option provided access to a pre-show, solo acoustic performance, I pulled the trigger on it. My only hope was that he’d play more than three songs, so I could justify the $125 buy.
On my way home from Prague in 2008, I ran into Chris while waiting to clear through TSA and had a good 10-minute talk with him. He was very laid back and revealed that he loved the band, but acoustic shows were the itch he could never scratch, which is why he’d been overseas for a bit.
So, while VIP got me a photo op with Chris, I was far more excited about seeing him play the hell out of his acoustic guitar and hit some insane notes in an intimate setting.
In the end, it was a fantastic experience and money well-spent.
He played about 10 songs – although none that he’d be playing later that night with the band – and I was about three feet away from it all, which is plenty close to really appreciate how good a guitarist and vocalist he is. And that he does not look anywhere near 40.
After that, I got to enjoy a good Space Dust IPA, listen to Ex-Cops play (they were pretty good), then see Dashboard Confessional play a damn good show on a beautiful Seattle summer evening. From three rows back!
I sang at the top of my lungs with wanton disregard often and without a care…until my voice started cracking. The experience definitely took me back to my long-gone hopeless romantic days and some heartache and good times in the 702.
I really went to Marymoor for DC, and only knew a few Third Eye Blind songs, so when they didn’t play any of them in the first 25 minutes, I made my way towards the exit. I wanted to see them play Semi-Charmed, but not at the expense of sitting in insane egress traffic with a 5 a.m alarm awaiting the next day, so I bailed…and listened a scratched up Dashboard CD on the ride home.
Yes, I still have a big black binder full of CDs in my car.