Concert at the Zoo

Well, Friday night, we went to an amazing show at the zoo, of all places. Apparently they have a lot of concerts there, but I’ve never been. The only drawback is that zoos make me feel really sad for the animals.

But alas, back to the awesome concert. We saw two of my favorite bands. The Be Good Tanyas opened the show with their amazing female harmonies and Old Crow Medicine Show rounded out the night. I’ve never seen the Tanyas, but I have all of their CDs and I love them. (And I finally understood some of the lyrics that have been eluding me for years!) This is the 3rd Old Crow show that I have seen and they never disappoint me. For the encore, both bands came on stage and played Bob Dylan’s “lay lady lay” in a way that I have never heard. It was amazing hearing 9 people harmonizing on the chorus. Definitely the highlight of the show. The first time I saw Old Crow, the did an amazing Bob Marley cover for their encore. They really know how to make the songs their own, as they sound completely different than the originals.

So, the zoo has a large outdoor amphitheater with a huge grassy lawn to sit on and people bring blankets and picnics. But, of course, I rarely sit at a bluegrass show and this one was no different. As soon as the music began, we were right down in front of the stage in the dancing area and we didn’t leave until it was over. I don’t know how people can listen to this music sitting down. It just makes me want to dance all night long. Anyway…..

Before the music started, the zoo was showing off some of their birds of prey that have been rescued in the wild. The way that they do this is they call the birds from a spot far away and they come flying across the audience and land on their perch on the stage. Now, I missed the announcement about the birds flying in and I was walking back to meet T. when I heard the lady on stage say “look up”. Just then on the walkway, a red tailed hawk flew head level about six inches in front of my face on its way to the stage. If I hadn’t looked up, my head would have been a hawk flying casualty! Luckily, it wasn’t the bald eagle, because I would have been taken out for sure!

Back to the show: I got a couple of picture on my phone, but they are not the greatest. My favorite picture is the trippy light show one when I didn’t hold the camera still enough. I’m not sure why I can’t get that one picture of Old Crow to be right side up. hmmm…Oh well, you’ll have to imagine it straight up:) I’m really sad that my phone died before the encore, so I couldn’t take a picture of all of them on stage together. So sad. I guess I’ll always have memories….:)