Concert Nite!

Miles today: 2 on foot

Steps: 8,366

Soundtrack: Apocalyptica, Lindsey Stirling, and Halestorm LIVE!!!

After that long and late day, we were pretty bleary-eyed this morning when we awoke to Sarah Brightman's dulcet tones at 7. We kept putting off deciding what to do with our day in Syracuse. After breakfast we went back up to the room and Julie laid down to read. After a bit Jaron started closing the blinds and turning off lights and got in to bed. Julie gave up the fight and set a nap alarm for 10:30. It went off and I just went back to bed and woke up at noon.

We went back to the ramen/sushi/poke place and both got poke bowls for lunch bc it was close and easy. Then Julie said ok, we really have to decide what we are doing today. We walked the logistics backwards from the concert and dinner and determined that we had about 2.5 hours. Jaron said it's going to be a late night and we're going to be walking everywhere, let's just chill. So now Julie has only 20 pages left in the book I got in the Adirondacks. I had some time to paint my nails finally.

For dinner we went to a market type thing and there was a lot of really cool international food. We went to the Iraqi stand and Jaron got falafel and Julie got baba ganough and spanakopita. Sadly they were out of baklava and ice cream.

The concert venue didn't allow any bags so Julie stuffed her pockets and got an extra motorcycle luggage strap to use as a belt. We found the shorter line for merch and then put it all in a packable bag that Julie brought in her pocket. Jaron got 2 hoodies! Who's the hoodie slut now? (And where is he going to pack those??)

While in line for merch, there was a gentleman selling beer and water with a great announcer voice so Julie figured she may as well get water now while we were standing there to save time. I go and ask for 2 waters. He takes the caps off and seeing my face says that he has to take off the caps. That's inconvenient while we're waiting in line, but I shrug. He asks where we're sitting and I say on the top floor. He hands me the waters plus a crumpled and wet napkin. I look at him with confusion and I get the "be cool, dude" vibe from him. Both caps were in the crumpled up napkin. What a sweetheart. 

Then it was time! The concert actually started on time. Apocalyptica played a 45 min set and then we got to see Lindsey Stirling for the first time. She was amazing! Dancing while playing the violin like that?? And then did a little singing!? Good lawd, what a talented woman. She had backup dancers, props, and great effects with the lights. Apparently America's Got Talent told her to ditch the dancing. And she sure showed them. 

Now on to the headliner, Halestorm. Apparently several people were there for the non-vocal artists bc 4 people in our row left during Halestorm's opening number. Jaron noticed more empty seats despite it being an awesome show. They started at 9 and didn't jerk us around with the timing like is becoming standard at concerts. I will say at first it was quite a contrast to Lindsey's colorful and active performance. The Halestorm crew just stood in place rocking out and it was a different kind of energy. Damn, she has quite the voice. In the encore, Lindsey Stirling came out and played Shatter Me with Lzzy Hale providing vocals. It was great! 

People were leaving during the last song. I will never understand. I mean...that Syracuse traffic is legend. ? I paid good money and went to a show and I always stay until the bitter end. You never know what you'll miss, like a Shatter Me collaboration. 

Jaron said “that was a hellova fucking show.” Yes. Yes, it was. 

On our walk back to our hotel, there were 2 middle aged women walking behind us. (Ok ok, I know we are technically middle aged, but they were more middle aged than we are) Eventually Jaron asked them something, and they said "are you staying at the Parkview hotel?" Since it was 2 women and I was with Jaron, I said yes and started laughing. They asked if we knew where we were going and could they put their phone away. Jaron said sure, trust me, you just met me. One of them had Nothing Else Matters played as her wedding march, which Apocalytpica played. We had a good time talking to them and then we got to the hotel. Jaron swiped us in and made a joke to the receptionist that supposedly they were staying here, he just met them 5 minutes ago. The receptionist goes "oh, they're staying here" with a little bit of an eyeroll and annoyed tone. We all burst out laughing. One of them made reference to an incident and Jaron started making jokes about it. Then we got in to the one working elevator and were both going to the 5th floor. We said uh oh. They weren't actually staying next door to us but it was all pretty funny. Jaron ran in to them again later, they were at the bar asking what time breakfast closed. I want to have that much fun when I'm that middle aged.