Summer Kick-Off
This weekend, we kicked off Summer 2019 with an overnight trip to Los Angeles sans kiddo. Back in February I went a bit crazy buying myself a birthday gift. I snagged us 2nd row seats for the first night of the Summer Gods tour - Jimmy Eat World opening for Third Eye Blind. As you probably know by now, Jimmy Eat World is my favorite band, and I'd never seen 3EB live (H did when he was 16! And we don't feel old at all...)
H added a bonus to the bday gift and booked an Airbnb in Los Feliz, walking distance to the venue and a neighborhood we lived in when we first moved in together 10+ years ago.
As far as the actual show went, Jimmy Eat World were as good as they always are, rocked it out of the shed for 45 minutes. They didn't play many of my favorite sad songs (23, Polaris), but it was an awesome set and they seemed stoked to be playing (minus a short bought where Jim's guitar went out in Big Casino). Before that, Ra Ra Riot opened the show with a mellow vibe. Can't complain.
Third Eye Blind had a dramatic start to their set, with a big screen and lights, but something was off. I don't know if they botched the opening, chose the wrong opening song(s), if Stephen Jenkins wasn't prepared or was drunk or what, but it took Jenkins almost an hour to find his groove, and by then his voice was giving out. We were disappointed, especially since we paid so much money for our tickets. Live and learn though (and by learn I mean, in the future, it's expensive tickets only when Jimmy Eat World is headlining)
The rest of our quick overnight had us meeting friends for dinner, drinks during the show, sleeping in without a crying toddler waking us up. We ventured out to a hip coffee shop, ran into other friends on the street, met even more friends for lunch, and went shopping at the mall and Target (things we don't have in Ojai).
It felt really good to get away from home, to have time together, and to see so many of our friends, to walk our old neighborhood and to see live music that brought us together when we first met.
We worked so hard over the school year to earn this uninterrupted time off and time keeps flying by. July is a year that we changed everything and moved to Ojai, August is 5 years since we started trying to become parents, and September is 17 years since we met.
This little trip was a perfect way to reconnect and appreciate all we've done. To really kick off this summer together and I'm sinking into it deep.
If you're curious - Jimmy Eat World's setlist