Sugarland Atlanta-Hope and Shenanigans

Atlanta. Sugarland. The last planned concert of the season. It was finally here. My daughter, Heather, and I were going. It was reality.

The adventure started about a week before. There was so much going on regarding the concert. We weren’t in the pit, we had seats on the floor, but we still wanted to take part in all the activities. The first was that we were all to wear Converse shoes, if we had them. Erica wanted to do a train with them while waiting in the pit line. We didn’t have any, but maybe we wanted to get some. A pair of sparkly purple ones had caught my daughter’s eye.

I planned to surprise her with shoes, and go shopping for them Monday after work. But Monday was a horrible day, and shopping did not sound fun. Thankfully, Tuesday was much better, so I headed to the shoe store after work.

There wasn’t a big selection, and there were no sparkly purple Converse shoes. I picked out a pair of gray high tops for me, and some shiny black ones for my daughter. A salesperson walked by, and I asked if those were all the Converse shoes they had. She remarked that those were all the adult ones they had. Something inspired me to head to the kids’ section. And there were the sparkly purple ones. Then I started looking at the sizes and decided to pull out a box to see what they looked like. Gee, a size 4 in the kids’ size was the same as a 4 in adults. I grabbed the purple shoes for my daughter, and a pair of grey shiny satin ones for me. They were $15 less than the adult shoes, I got $5 off each pair, and then it was buy one, get one half off. Good deal.

I didn’t discover the best part about my Converse shoes until I was packing for Atlanta. The fabric lining has winged hearts on it.

Our Converse Shoes

We also needed pajama tops to don when Sara Bereilles sang “Uncharted”, and glow sticks…I had my L.L. Bean hunting dog pj’s, and Heather picked up some cute pj’s at Target. Heather’s friend had given her a bag of glow sticks, glow wands, glow bracelets and necklaces, so we were all set with that.

Our crazy pj's!

Finally Friday arrived, and I headed to Heather’s after work. Of course, there was a big accident on the route I planned to take, which caused me, and everyone else, to take back roads. So many cars! And lots of seconds at the Sun Stare, as well. That is NOT a good activity!

Heather, her hubby, and I went to dinner, then we got organized for the next morning and went to bed. We got up before early, so we could leave early. We had an uneventful drive to Atlanta, highlighted by realizing we could have stayed the night before at Heather’s friend’s in South Carolina, a very bad breakfast from McDonald’s, and lots of Sugarland, JNB, and SMD music on my “All Jennifer All The Time” playlist.

We arrived in Atlanta and headed to the Hard Rock Café for the pre-party. I got to see my Texas concert buddy, SugarTaz, and Terri & Rich, who I met in Nashville. I also got to finally meet Kathie, Karen, Katherine and Yvonne & Keith. We had appetizers and Sugartinis and visited and played Sugarland trivia. BTW, many of us disagreed with some of the trivia answers!

We checked into our hotel, which was just a short walk from the venue. We decided to walk up and see what was happening on the Fan Club Pit Line. We got up there, and there was a film crew taking video of everyone’s Sugarland-themed tattoos. I don’t have one. Yet. Erica saw me, waved hello, and came over and gave me a big hug. I also met Krista, and we got to visit for a few minutes. We picked up our very cool, designed by Katherine, Little Miss signs, and headed off for a bite to eat before the show. We found this great place around the corner from the hotel, Peasant Bistro. We had appetizers, salads and dessert, and they were all fantastic. They used a lot of local foods, so the place really appealed to me-I highly recommend it.

We headed off to the concert and got settled in our seats-we were four rows back from the pit. We handed out glow bracelets and the like to anyone who wanted them. There was a young girl sitting in front of us-Heather gave her the glow wand.

Heather found out, via Twitter, that one of her favorite gymnasts, Shayla Worley, was sitting in the section behind us. So exciting!

It was time for the concert to begin! Sara Bereilles came out and opened with “Uncharted”. Even though no one could see us, we put on our pajama tops. After the song ended, the people in the front of the pit gave Sara a memento regarding the Sugarpit Pajama Party.  Sara sang another song, and Jenn tweeted something about it being time for shenanigans. Sara was about to sing “Love Song”, when the entire Sugarland band, including J&K, came out wearing black track suits, wigs, hats, make-up…and sang an a cappella version of “Love Song” complete with choreography, led by Annie and Thad. It took a few moments to figure out who everyone was…and it was fantastic!

Sara is very talented. She has a beautiful voice, is great on piano and guitar, and engages the audience well. I really enjoyed her set.

Then, it was time for Sugarland! Yay! There’s no more Incredible Machine set, just the geared heart with wings projected onto the curtain. But, you know, that was ok. This time, it wasn’t about the set, or the staging, or the costumes or hats. It was about the band, Jennifer and Kristian, and the music. It seemed without the distractions, one could really focus on the music and the message, and the musicians were freer to express themselves.

The concert was amazing, with lots of special moments. During “Little Miss”, we all held up our signs. “Look around,” my daughter whispered…the ENTIRE venue was white with Little Miss signs of hope and healing. And there were more shenanigans. Sara’s band running across the stage in their underwear, while Sugarland “froze”…Darth Vader in tighty whiteys…Sara’s band dressing as Cee-Lo, Britney, Dolly, Beonce, and Sara herself as MKB during the “Everyday America” remix…It was all fantastic.

And then, in the middle of it all, as we were singing and dancing and having a great time, something amazing happened. I felt… hopeful. It was as if singing the words made everything possible. Maybe my heart could beat again, maybe I was worth it, maybe I really could change the world, maybe things were looking better now, and most of all, maybe I’d be alright again. Maybe everyone in the room, heck, maybe everyone in the world feels awkward and like they don’t fit, like me, and yet, we still can make the world a better place.  We laughed, we cried, we hugged-“Baby Girl” takes on new meaning when you’re standing next to your baby girl!

This time, I was ready…as the bass drum thumped at the beginning of “Find the Beat Again” (AKA “Hey, Hey”), I let the wave pick me up and carry me through to the end of the concert. It didn’t knock me over, like last time, like an unexpected wave at the ocean that wasn’t caught quite right, but it was still fabulous.

Such a fun, but exhausting night. We walked back to the hotel, and got ginger ales out of the vending machines. I watched a little college football and Heather studied. Then we went to sleep. We are so lame.

Before heading back to VA the next morning, we stopped in Decatur. (Yes, I am THAT kind of fan-and my poor daughter gets dragged along!) We wandered around the town and took photos at Eddie’s Attic. I would like to point out that we were not the only Sugarland fans doing so.  My daughter was so cute…pointing out that Jennifer had probably climbed up the steps at Eddie’s Attic-just like we were doing. We went to Dancing Goat for coffee, not to be confused with Laughing Goat in Boulder. (I have been there, too, thinking it was Kristian’s favorite place. How many coffee shops can there be with the word “goat” in their name?) The coffee and baked goods were so good. Heather had a seasonal coffee, I think it was called the Autunna, and she said it was the best latte she’d ever had. My chilly mocha was pretty darn good, too.

We got in the car and headed back to reality-with a stop along the way at Panera for lunch.

Sugarland in Atlanta. Definitely a do-over.