Life with Zak and Rachel.: The Concert!

On Sunday we went up to Spokane to go see one of our favorite bands, Coheed & Cambria in concert. We decided to get there a few hours early and spend some time exploring Spokane. We both were curious to see what the Macy's & Harry Ritchie's Spokane branch stores looked like, so we checked them out. It was nice, I guess, to be in a mall with more than one level! Ours is one long mall, and the one in Idaho Falls is a small, one level mall. So we haven't been around a lot of stores in the same place in one time. Isn't that weird how nice that feels? I was thrilled to spend some time in Williams-Sonoma, just looking around. And Spokane has two malls, the one in the downtown area and one about 10 minutes away, in what appeared to be Immigrant Land (totally joking, but seriously, a Chinese/Indian/Mexican restaurant every block). That other mall looked awful on the outside, but was a lot nicer inside, and we found our favorite store ever.

It was this awesome reptile store that I was hesitant to enter, but it was totally awesome. There were all kinds of lizards, geckos, turtles, snakes, etc.! There was even a black-light room with fluorescent scorpions and frogs. The scorpions looked like they were about to battle, but nothing happened. There were some huge tortoises, just walking around; Zak loved them. It made me remember being in kindergarten; my teacher had-at least one that I can recall-an ancient tortoise, and she would let it wander around the classroom all day. It was awesome. There were two big ones in the store and a smaller one. But my absolute favorites were the huge, H U G E pythons/boas. There was a gorgeous yellow 16 foot long one that I could not stop staring at. I was just utterly amazed that that thing existed and I was half a foot away from it. I don't remember seeing a snake that big before in my life...maybe at a zoo, but there were several very long, very big snakes, huge thick snakes in one cage. And if we had, oh, at least $700, I would have bought it. Because a snake that big is just awesome. I don't know, I'm not scared of snakes (but those spiders...especially the ones that eat birds (they had some at that store!), ugh), I mostly find them fascinating. And if I encountered one in the wild, sure I'd be scared, but they don't freak me out to look at them. They are rad. And ones that are thrice the height of me are truly epic.

After we walked around the malls, we had dinner at a place called Cyrus O'Leary's in the downtown area. It was a fun, affordable dinner. I randomly decided on a guacamole burger (so worth it), Zak had great coconut chicken. We passed on dessert and hoofed it to the concert venue. It was at this place called the Knitting Factory, and I guess they have several locations all over the U.S. We had gotten our tickets online last month, and had to pick them up at will call. Unfortunately, we had to wait 30 minutes to do that, and had to watch lots and lots of people with tickets-in-hand pass us by. Right as we got to will call, one of the guys who worked there was shouting instructions and was all, 'You know you guys can print tickets from home, right?' I was mad because there wasn't even an option for me to do that, or else I would've! I hate waiting in line when people get to pass me; that's why the Fast Pass at Disneyland is the greatest invention, it makes you feel superior to all the dorks who wait there forever.

Well, we ended up getting in just fine, and since I did not (heavy on the 'not') want to be in the mosh pit area, Zak graciously suggested we go find a place on the balconies. We found a spot on the first tier, right next to the light board, in the center. We didn't have anywhere to sit (my poor feet), but at least the spot was great. And there was a schedule for the night next to the light board, so we knew when everything would start. The opening band was called 'The Wild Orchids', or the 'Wild Orchid Children', but either way they were...awful. The drummer and guitarist were both great, but there were 3 or 4 auxiliary percussionists. Oh, and the singer mostly scream/sang into the microphone, so everything he said was undecipherable. And there were too many bongos/congos...and a gourd? And there were American flags tied to the microphone stands, and I said to Zak, 'Um...didn't Aerosmith do that whole 'scarf tied to the stand' thing?'. Yeah. Their energy was good, the music was fine, but there was just too much going on. It seemed like they were trying way too hard to be hipster/scene/something. It was definitely not what I would've picked to be the opener, and about 97% of the crowd agreed with me, because there was no movement from anyone, and only applause when necessary. After 40 painful minutes, they exited the stage.

While we waited for COCA, I amused myself by watching the people in the mosh pit area below us. There was a trio that just made me laugh. There were two guys and a girl with pink short pigtails, who thought they could shove everyone in order to get near the front of the crowd. They tried it once and annoyed enough people that they moved to the other side of the room. Awhile later, I looked down to see them trying it again, and there was almost a fight, but someone in the crowd got a security guard's attention. Basically, the whole crowd, and most of the people in the balconies pointed at the obnoxious trio and cheered when the guards dragged the three of them away. And two minutes later, Coheed & Cambria came on.

I have loved this band since I was a sophomore in high school, and the same goes for Zak. Zak went to concerts a lot when he was in CT, and I have been to one concert that I really wanted to go to, the others, eh. But despite all of his concert guru-ness, he has never seen COCA in concert before, so he was so pumped for this. I was a bit nervous that I would lose my hearing or just not have that much fun, but I was really wrong. Before we started dating, I remember Zak came over for one of my apartment's 'dance parties', wearing a Coheed & Cambria shirt. When I expressed my love for them, he snootily asked if I had liked them before they 'got big', and I fired back that I was listening to them for 'x' amount of years, so yes. Of course, he fell in love with me on the spot and the rest is history. ;)

Anyways, the concert was truly awesome. We sang and screamed along and had a huge amount of fun. What is cool about COCA is that they are so technically proficient, but you can tell that they love to play, and aren't just showing off their skills. They played a great selection of songs from all of their albums, including some of our personal favorites. It was 90 minutes of bliss, basically. And for the second encore, the main singer/lead guitar pulled out the double-necked guitar and blew us all away. I was so impressed with how fast everyone's hands moved up and down the guitars, and the drums. It was just awesome. We made a quick exit once the house lights came on, and I discovered my hearing was mostly out and my throat was very sore. We headed for a gas station to get an energy drink for Zak, and some water for me, and headed home, hyped up from the concert.

All in all, a really fun day spent together in Spokane. It was really nice to be able to do something that we both had a vested interest in. And now Zak can check Coheed & Cambria off his concert list. As for me, I may go to one here and there, but I do want to have most of my hearing intact when I'm 30, hahaha. And sadly, I have no pictures of the venue or the show, because we only took our IDs and keys, but it's ok. Without the camera, we were both really able to enjoy the show. But here are some awesome snake pictures!