Magical Musical Road Trip Extravaganza pt. 2

Cue 6+ hour-long discussion about sex, drugs, and rock and roll (you think I'm kidding but I'm not). Many, many moments of wisdom were shared in our total sixteen hours of driving (which is more than double the number of hours we slept). We decreed that neither hot dogs nor condoms should ever be purchased at a gas station. We discussed the possibility of me being the second virgin mother in recorded history. And we found this, which simply should not exist:

It was past one when we arrived in Joanna's tiny PA hometown. Now it may have been tiny, but it owns my town in two important ways. One, it has a Wal*Mart. The fact that it's a Wal*Mart is not so exciting. The fact that it's open 24 hours a day is. Two, it's got a movie theater. A DRIVE-IN movie theater. And a stop light, which Joanna was very excited to point out. Joanna's house made me giggle because it tried to be compact in silly ways, like having really steep and tiny stairs. There was a pretty fish tank in the living room, where I slept (a grand total of ten hours across the weekend). The sofa was far more comfortable than my bed at school. I wished I could've spent more time on it.

We left for Jersey bright and early Saturday. After I told Joanna she wouldn't need to brush her teeth because it's not like we'd be eating any onions before the show, we both got breakfast sandwiches with onions in them. No making out with bands for us. JUST KIDDING, PAUL.

If you haven't laughed with me over the road signs in PA and Jersey, I strongly encourage you to take a detour to A Silvertongued Serenade. It was good times, made even better by the fact that we somehow managed not to hit any traffic until the last 500 yards from the road to the parking lot. Sweet deal.

We caught the tail end of And Then There Were None's set. I wish they'd change their name to something that takes less time to type. Anyway, they were fun and I joined what the singer called an "awesome pit" (because it was far from being a mosh pit; it was more of a ... dance pit). He also kept talking about fried Oreos that were apparently being sold nearby. Ugh. That's almost as repulsive as a gas station hot dog.

We sat in on part of Corey Crowder's set, which I had really wanted to see because I love this song by him. But most of his music had a slightly different flavor to it. Suffice to say that he was scheduled to play the Nashville Stage for a reason.

So we left to browse the merch. We returned for Paul Coleman's set and there were NO good seats left. Paul saw right through all of us who were just trying to claim good seats for Jon Foreman's set, which was coming up next, but he proved himself more than worthy of the large crowd with great music, audience participation (he pulled people up on stage and made them play instruments, even if they didn't know how), and sheer hilariosity. He made fun of everyone present, including himself, which was why we knew it was fake when he acted like a big-headed rock star. Oh, AND he had an Australian accent. I normally get annoyed when artists talk too much on stage, but I could've listened to this guy all day.

After Paul's set, Joanna's friend Steve joined us. He was one of those instantly likable people and I stole his hat to show that I approved of him. The tent filled up even more as fans kept pouring in to watch the lead singer of Switchfoot play his solo set. It was a good set and made up for the fact that he didn't play an acoustic after-show show when I saw them last week.

If anyone ever wrote a love song, it was Jon Foreman. One I had never heard was "Rob Me Instead," which was about outlaws. The chorus said "Honey, keep the gun and rob me instead." Silly, yes; sappy, maybe, but I'm a sucker for that. Then Jon pulled out this crazy harp and said, "my friend just gave me this this morning... I don't even think it's in tune, but I'm gonna play a song on it anyway." Only Jon. And only Jon could tame a brand new, untuned instrument into making beautiful music.

I can't say much more about Relient K than I have before. Oh, my first and forever love! They never get old.

But the crowd that night totally sucked. I was the ONLY one dancing. Steve and I attempted to start a mosh pit, with halfhearted assistance from Joanna since we caught her off guard, and everyone around us just got annoyed. Wtf guys. It's Relient K.

I was really happy they played "The Lining is Silver," which is my favorite off their last EP, but overall I was disappointed. I look forward to seeing them in October AND THERE HAD BETTER BE MOSHING.

Switchfoot played last, and there was more than an hour between sets but we didn't dare move. People around us were sitting on the ground to rest because they were afraid of losing their spots. I kept saying loudly MAN UP AND STAND UP, but nobody cares what I say.

The band finally came out. The show was every bit as genius as the last and more. The lighting was everything it had been indoors, but Jon was far more entertaining since there was scaffolding for him to climb and space to swing Chad's cymbals around the stage without taking out any fans.

Of course Jon had a deep quote for us. He said, "we don't know why the dry times come, but we know those are the times that force us to dig down deeper." In search of the wellspring of hope or inspiration. In search of God, who is the wellspring of those things and everything else that is good.

Then he stopped everything in the middle of "Stars" and asked the crowd to look up for a minute. There were spotlights in all directions so it was hard to see, but the stars were there and the lyrics rang true. When I look at the stars, I feel like myself.