Good Times, Good Music, Good Concert

I know TJ is jealous. I went to the Lauren O'Connell / Julia Nunes concert on Saturday, which was very, very good. I dragged 3 friends along who had never heard either of their music. To be honest, I had not listened to more than a minute of Lauren's stuff either, despite listening to most everything on Julia's YouTube page multiple times (and having a copy of her album from iTunes...). At left you can see me (on the right) and two of my friends waiting for the concert to start.

Both of them had great senses of humor, played very well, and there was even audience participation in a few of Julia's songs. Lauren managed to break one of the strings on her guitar early in her set, though, as she rocked out a bit too hard. Which is impressive, since she plays solo acoustic guitar. She then went on to reveal that it wasn't even her guitar (it was Julia's), and one of her friend's in the audience of about 50-75 at the venue took a pitcher from the bar after the set and started collecting for the "buy Lauren her own guitar so she doesn't have to borrow Julia's" fund. She also told the audience that she works at Blockbuster and was probably being fired for not showing up to work and playing this show instead. All very funny, even though a bit tragic if she really does lose her job. Later on, during Julia's set, some of her friends from [her college] (name withheld to protect to the popular) brought the noise for Julia.

Lauren was great, which I'm afraid got overshadowed by Julia's e-stardom. I especially liked one of her songs called "1988,"

It's not on her CD (which I bought), but I can forgive her.

The whole experience was very... what's the word I'm looking for... I want to say intimate, as in close and friendly and warm, but that's not the right term. Julia and Lauren even hung out near the merchandise table after the show to sign stuff/take pictures/talk with fans. I wanted to ask Julia if Regrets, First Impressions, or Roles Reversed are on her next album (which will be coming out at the end of the summer, for those interested), but I totally got deer-in-headlights syndrome when I got up to her. I did manage to get a friend to take a picture of me an' her though.
That's me, holding up the t-shirt I bought for TJ (which says "TJ <3, Julia Nunes" on it but I didn't spread it out correctly for the pic) with Julia. And I keep mentioning TJ because she's the one who introduced to Julia through a link on her blog. So you could say I owe her for linking me over to awesome music.

I did feel very old being at the concert though. Both Lauren and Julia are 19 and just finished their first semester of college at [name removed]. They kept talking about dorm life, and college this, and coffee house that... I miss that time in my life now. Being [number removed] years out of college, I sort of wish I could do it over now. Cliché, I know.

After seeing them one after another, I think Lauren is a great talent on guitar and as a songwriter, and has a beautiful yet familiar voice, while Julia is a personality who is creative and charismatic. I loved the concert, and I hope my friends did too.

I know this is a long shot, but if anyone knows whether those 3 songs of Julia's that I linked are on her next album, I'd love to know. I want them on my iPod. Like, now.

I hope the t-shirt I bought for me isn't too small. The large seems smaller than I need, now that I look at it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find an envelope large enough to send TJ her t-shirt.

EDIT: And, funny side note, this post has generated links to my blog from Google searches entitled "julia nunes in concert." Apparently E4AE shows up on page 3 of said Google searches. I bet anyone wandering here from a Nunes Google search who checks out the rest of the content is asking themselves what the bork I'm babbling about.