Feel the Spirit

Last August, a few days less than a year ago, Ted Nugent was scheduled to play on the free stage at the State Fair. Eager to see the crazy man himself, we waited. And waited. And waited some more, and, oh! I forgot to mention that it had just stormed and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Even still, we waited. All that anticipation led not to a mind blowing show, no, we waited all that time to have a Security guy announce "The show's off Folks". To this day I'm impressed with the crowd. They remained civil, and by that I mean, verbalizing the anger in their hearts with much force but impressively restrained themselves enough so that no one lost a limb.

This is me.
Waiting.

If it was up to Ted, he would've carried on the show-rain, snow, tornado, mass-destruction, etc.

No exaggeration. He's that crazy guys. 

You know how I know that without seeing him that day? 

I happened to stumble upon some tickets for his show this past Wednesday, the morning of the event, and conveniently on Stubhub. 

And...guess how much they were (before vague and unnecessary processing fees of course)...$7. 

SEVEN DOLLARS.

Excuse the inability of every single photo editing program my
phone and desktop has available to rotate this image a
SIMPLE 90 degrees.

2 tickets were purchased. One for me and one for Alexx.

Now, you need to know something about me. I die for surprises-the good kind of course.

It could be a rock with a whale sketched on it with Crayola chalk and I would be absolutely ecstatic.

Well, since I bought the tickets it's not a surprise for me obviously, but for Alexx.

I really wanted to surprise him Wednesday night so that meant I had to keep my mouth shut about it. For 8+ hours. Consider me a mute basically! That's the only thing I wanted to talk about all day. And I couldn't. Because surprises don't work that way. I've tried.

A quarter 'til 7 rolls around and the shows close to starting so we head to the venue to "see if the Will Call booth had any tickets available for sale". And...I pull out my tickets and surprise the man. Needless to say he was indeed surprised!

Uncle Ted, you put on quite the show but the Egyptian room is WAY too small a venue for your performance and your "spirit", as you like to put it.

Spirit.

The Fandana Festival definitely welcomed His spirit. Abigail and I ventured on over there this past weekend mainly to see NEEDTOBREATHE. If my life depended on it (for some obscure reason), I would claim NTB as my favorite collective by far. This was the third concert of theirs I've been able to attend and it truly gets better every time!

[Bear. Kat. Bo. Abby.]
Bear and Bo (NTB band-mates and brothers)
were just casually walking by us when
 I made it a point to get them to take a quick pic with us!

Me and Abby were so close I cried at one point in the night from pure amazement and joy. 

I have never seen Bo dance the way he did on stage before Fandana! 

No zoom.
This is a shot from when Bo came out on the attached stage
and jammed out literally right in front of me.
I basically died.

This boy did not stop moving all night!

NTB won my heart by their humility and heart for God. Their music subtly introduces their faith but does so in a way that appeals to those who may not have faith in God. Also, a couple of their albums (The Heat and The Reckoning) take me back to when me and Alexx began seeing one another. Those albums in particular remind me of the confirmation God gave me and continues to give me in being with him. 

Bear walking out on the attached stage!

Bear leading us in a moment of a cappella.
Beautiful.

Other than NTB's angelic voices, impressive dance moves, and incredible musical talent, this show helped me in reconnecting with my Maker by providing a lively environment where I generally tend to loosen up and become receptive to what God wants to reveal to me.

I was able to examine my heart, think about various things happening in my life but ultimately realize that surrendering my burdens and worries to The One who knows best is what will bring a peace that surpasses all understanding. (Philippians 4:4-7)

  

Another week of amazing shows has gone by and my wallet's become much thinner, but hey, 

Experiences > Paper