I’m still thinking about this concert, so you’re going to get one more post about it.
- Does anyone in Missouri actually know why they’re driving on the left side of the interstate? I don’t think they do. It’s like a NASCAR race. Everyone is drafting in the same lane, no one can pass each other, and if you pop over to the other lane, you’re screwed.
- Was that a pothole that I hit at 85 mph, or an asteroid crater? No one really knows.
- This year, which is only three months old, I’ve heard country singers perform Whitney Houston, Eminem and Nelly in person. I wish I could go back in time and tell 2020 Monica this.
- 2020 Monica: Hang on. Life gets better.
- St. Louis was the perfect way to end my 2021-2022 Eric Church concert experience. In 2017, I was introduced to his fan club when my Mom and I went to the pop-up store at his concert in St. Louis, at the same venue. I asked some fans why there was a group of people waiting outside. The fans told me that was the pit line and explained the Church Choir to me: “Most of them know each other. They follow Eric Church around, get front row in the pit, and drink.” 2017 Monica thought that sounded like a little bit of fun. 2022 me became everything that 2017 me wanted.
- I held a record up during Record Year, which is the first time I’ve done so. I did not get it autographed, but that’s all right. That song saved my life.
- Someone I know on the guy that broke my heart in the above story, which led me to the song Record Year: “That guy was the best thing that never happened to you.”
- 2016 and 2017 me was heartbroken and in need of some musical direction. I found it.
- I’ve lived through stuff in the past two years that 2016-17 me couldn’t even comprehend at the time.
- And I’m still here. That’s worth something.
- During the opening song in St. Louis, which was like 11 minutes long, someone behind me shouted that we were on the big screen. I found a video online that someone took in the nosebleeds. My eyesight is terrible and I can’t see myself on the big screen, but I promise you, I am right there, front row in the pit, singing Nelly back to Eric Church. (See pic above.)
- I did not have that on my 2022 Bingo Card.
- This tour was called The Gather Again Tour. To paraphrase EC: We are meant to gather for fellowship, for drinking. We are meant to be together.
- I held hands with the girl beside me in Denver and cried to the song Record Year.
- I hugged strangers in DC, and still keep in touch with them.
- I smiled and laughed more in the past few months than I have in the last two years.
- Thank you, kind strangers at concerts, for being open-minded enough to be willing to take some new introvert in.
- At the start of this tour, I was down. I kept thinking to myself that there must be something wrong with me because I still don’t have anyone to share this with.
- I have people to share this with now. And for that, I’m forever grateful.
