My night with Colin Hay.

February 22nd, 2015

  I'm up early on a Sunday, as usual! Even though my Saturday was quite uneventful, my weekend feels to be very exciting and life changing.
 Friday was the first day of the year that I was counting down the days for. In early January, I finally purchased tickets way ahead of time to see Colin Hay. He was finally in the same area I would be in for a show! I bought a ticket for my dad and I. He claims he was a fan before I was, which was in the 80s.. so of course he was a fan before me!

  We had a pretty nice afternoon together; we first went to an authentic Chicago pizza joint, Burt's Place. The pizza wasn't the best we ever had, but it was still good. The sausage was very, very good. I would definitely go back and get another pie but ask for more cheese. (I'm a cheese girl and should had made that clear!) The roof of my mouth is still in pain from chowing down too fast, haha. We also made a quick stop at a Kroger owned grocery store so I can finally have my fix of Kroger brand yogurt and ice cream. I am such a nerd, but it's honestly the best I have ever bought, and being in that bad neighborhood for 15 minutes was worth it!

  The show was a City Winery Chicago. I didn't realize it was a restaurant aside from the little concert hall the place has. Our seats weren't directly next to each other, but that was fine. We were close enough, but luckily, whoever was supposed to sit next to me never came, so he just came and joined me. For buying the tickets kinda late, we had a pretty good view. When Colin came out, I immediately stated cheering and crying like a little fan girl. I thought I would never be able to see my favorite artist live since he travels throughout the world and timing has always been bad, but my dream finally came true! Colin sounds just the same as his recording, maybe even better live. Even though he wasn't feeling well (he was in the hospital before the show!), I couldn't tell he wasn't on his A game.

  He played all my favorites, even though most of his songs are my favorite. He was delightful as a performer. He loves making the audience laugh. He did a good job of it, too. I started crying about five times that night. I was just feeling so happy and blessed to experience his craft live, and the seats we had made it even better. He is so talented and great at what he does. His band was awesome, too. They did a breath-taking version of "Maggie", which literally made my heart pound harder than normal. His work is powerful, and hearing him live has such a profound effect on me, emotionally and physically. Colin is pure talent and enjoyment. I should have bought tickets for the Saturday and Sunday show too, but this girl has money to spend in other places unfortunately. Seeing him live once, so far, has been a big blessing.

  So, after the show, I assumed he wasn't going to meet and greet with fans since he was feeling ill, but I still wanted to have a little bit of hope. Unfortunately he never did come out, but I went to his guitarist to get an autograph (who didn't speak English as a first language). I was asking him if Colin would pop out for a minute because I wanted to get his autograph for a tattoo. You know what he does? He goes backstage and gets Colin to sign my little rattled piece for paper! WHA?! I was trying to get this guitarist's signature and make small talk. I wasn't even trying to get an autograph since Colin obviously was sick, but he went back there anyways! I started to cry a little, of course, and my dad and I just smiled and hugged each other and proceeded to buy an expensive bottle of "Colin Hay" wine.

  I have another event checked off my bucket list. Now that I have Colin's signature, I will be getting another thing off that list by summer. I have to first plan where I am going to put his signature and how big. I'm not kidding. This is going to happen. Even though I wanted him to write "Overkill" to get tattooed, this is still awesome. (: