Present Joys

I mostly like singing songs that are to God, about God. He likes it too.

After school yesterday I drove the 200 mi to Louisville, Ky. to see Danielson and the Welcome Wagon play! The drive was grueling but completely worth it. I was very impressed with the venue, a place called the 930 Art Center in downtown Louisville. The room with the stage was comfortably intimate, and there were probably only 50 people in the audience. I had a spot in the front row.

The Welcome Wagon—who were in superb form, especially for a band that rarely tours—played a fantastic but too-short set, including a bunch of songs from their fantastic album Welcome to the Welcome Wagon, including my personal favorite, “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”, and a handful of songs from the new album they are currently working on (!). All of the new songs they played were great, especially the finale, which I think was called “Until We Meet Again”.

But the best part of the whole thing was the LP that I was given! Halfway through their set, Vito said they were going to give away an album to the person who traveled the longest distance to come to the show. And that person was me! They gave me one of the limited-edition red vinyl albums that aren’t being sold anymore, and they were kind enough to autograph it for me. Really cute and wonderful people.

And then there was Danielson, who exceeded my expectations. I like Danielson’s recorded music a whole lot, but I never imagined how fun they would be to see in person. It was very loud. The majority of the band’s set was songs from their new album, Best of Gloucester County. It was surprising to me how many of the people in the audience knew the lyrics and were singing along. I very much enjoyed being in the midst of fellow Danielson fans! I even took part in a conga line when the band played “People’s Partay”. It was a really enjoyable experience! Definitely worth the gross 6.5-hours of round trip drive-time.