November 29, 2023
In the Summer of 2023, Blue October announced the dates for their Spinning the Truth Around Part II fall tour. The closest they got to us on this leg would be on November 29 at the Vibrant Music Hall in Waukee, just outside of West Des Moines.
So we went.
The Waiting is the Hardest Part
Presale tickets went on sale in July so I immediately hopped on and bought the best seats I could find. They just so happened to be in the front row.
*sigh*
I guess.
Two tickets, after taxes and fees, wound up being just over $200, which really isn’t that bad. Now came the waiting. Three and a half months of it, to be more precise.
In that time, we went to Maquoketa Caves State Park, we went on our annual Albuquerque/Walsenburg trip, we visited the Bridges of Madison County in and around Winterset, IA, and, of course, I got hit by a car on October 11 and have been convalescing since.
Waukee is on the other side of West Des Moines, so about an hour and 45 minutes from home. We knew that the concert would be over late and we wouldn’t want to make that drive back home that night, so I booked us a room at the Sleep Inn right across the street from the venue.
The Day Has Finally Arrived!
Finally, after three and a half months of waiting, the day finally arrived. I had just driven the hour and a half to Iowa City the day before for a cystoscopy following my surgery, so a nice three hours in the car one day, followed by an hour and 45 minute drive to Waukee the next day made for quite a bit of time in the car.
(spoiler alert: it only got worse from there.)
During work, I would take brief breaks to pack an overnight bag, pack up my CPAP, kind of get things ready for an overnight stay. Once Brandy was done working, we packed Ash away in his kennel and we headed out.
The drive to Waukee was uneventful, we stopped for gas on the way out of town and when we got to the venue, we circled it to scope out the parking situation. We saw that there was a small lot just outside the front doors, and there were large auxiliary lots across a small side road. Either way, parking was $15, per the signs posted at the entrances of all the lots. After we looped around, we crossed the main road and were at the hotel to check in at 5:45 or so.
Knowing the doors didn’t open until 7:00, the opening band (that we weren’t really all that interested in seeing anyway) would not go on until 8:00 and Blue October would not go on until 9:00, we knew we had some time to kill before we would head over to the venue. We checked in with Isaac, asking for a late checkout, which was given, and we headed up to room 330.
The room was nice enough, typical newer two star hotel. King sized bed, chair, desk, TV on dresser set up, it’s the layout we’ve seen hundreds of times already.
I went and got ice and we started pre-gaming in the hotel room as Brandy started getting ready. By the time we left the hotel room at about 8:15, Brandy had a pretty good buzz going. I, by contrast, had to stay sober as, even as short a distance as it was, I still had to drive to the venue.
We crossed the street and, naturally, the entrance to that small lot was blocked off with a sign saying the lot was full. I turned the corner, fully expecting to have to park in one of those remote lots and trek to the venue from there, but we happened upon another entrance to that small lot that we were directed into. I rolled my window down to ask the attendant if this was supposed to be where we parked. He said there were a few spots left in the lot, and if not to come back to him. Sure enough, we found a spot about 15 parking spaces from the front door, and we didn’t even pay for it!
Vibrant Music Hall
Vibrant Music Hall is a brand new venue who held its first show on November 5. Blue October was only the fifth show there. As such, it is a very clean and modern facility. The exterior is a concrete and glass style but is lined with RGB LEDs around the building. As we approached, they were lit in red creating red vertical stripes on the dark wall.
The doors into the venue are on the south east corner of the building but I had to pick up physical tickets (can’t tell you the last time I went to a concert where we were given actual, collectible, physical tickets) before heading in. The Will Call window was around the corner on the south side of the building. We headed over, got out tickets, and pretty much walked right in. There was no frisking, pat-downs, or metal detectors, and they only asked Brandy to briefly open her small bag for them. Quite a different experience from the last time we saw Blue in Albuquerque.
Once inside, we were greeted to the sonic blast from the opening act, Veers, who were already most of the way through their set. The floor was to our left as we walked in, behind three sets of closed double doors. On our side of the doors, though, was a large, U-shaped cashless bar. We stopped there where we each ordered a drink, Brandy with a double vodka and Red Bull and me with a double Bacardi and Coke. The two drink plus tip totaled fifty dollars.
This is why we don’t go out to drink.
Once we had our drinks, we headed through the doors onto the floor. Just inside the door was another cashless bar and the floor on the other side of that. We made our way up the aisle to the very front row and shuffled over to our seats, 11 and 12.
We got there just in time to see Veers play their last song of their set, then we watched the set change. During the set change, we finished our drinks, headed out to the still-immaculate restrooms then stopped for another round of drinks at the bar on the floor. We also added a can of Liquid Death water ($8) and returned to our seats.
Blue October Takes the Stage
Before long, the house lights darkened and the opening strains of The Kitchen Drawer echoed through the hall. Blue October took the stage and we were off.
Bassist Matt Noveskey was posted up in front of us for pretty much the entire show. He would be joined from time to time by violinist-keyboardist-mandolinist Ryan DeLahoussaye, and of course, Justin himself would frequently make his way over to our side of the stage and sing directly over us:
As the show went on, I was becoming more and more animated. No matter how many times I told myself to take it easy so I don’t hurt my still-healing arm, I still found myself clapping and trying to pump my fist. The emotion was too high and I just couldn’t help myself.
The band played through their setlist with regular but infrequent interludes, one of which was telling a hilarious story about how he used a public restroom and had an interaction with a fan that apparently didn’t know urinal etiquette.
The show went on for well over an hour before they left the stage and prepared for their encore. During this brief intermission, I had to sit down. I was starting to notice the pain in my arm and I was wearing Vans, not the best shoes to be wearing when standing for long periods of time (at least, not when you’re as heavy as I am.)
After the short rest, the boys returned to the stage and they performed their shortened encore, Better Man, Fear, and I Hope You’re Happy. They have played a few shows where their encores also include Big Love and Italian Radio but this was not to be one of those shows.
Justin announced that he and some others from the band would be signing autographs in the back of the floor, I thought it was supposed to be at the merch booth, so we headed that way. We bought Brandy a long sleeved t-shirt and looked around, but there was nobody waiting for the band to show up, so we asked. Turns out, they were at a table on the other side of the floor. The entire crowd was already in line waiting, we didn’t feel like waiting so we decided to head out.
We quickly found ourselves back at the car and in minutes, we were back in our hotel room. We continued drinking, Brandy got nice and drunk but I was barely catching a buzz before we decided to call it a night and turn in at about 1:30 or so.
During our private after party, Brandy confessed that this was an absolutely perfect evening for her. She was totally at peace and her heart was full. Hearing this made me so happy. In the nearly four years that we have been together, never have I seen her so happy and full of life as I did that night.
I, too, was basking in the happiness I found during the show. Justin is such an incredible songwriter. He pours every ounce of his soul into every song that he writes and performs, and it shows. The last time we saw him, in Albuquerque in November of 2021, was, at least according to our speculation, during a rough patch in his relationship with his then wife. His performance then showed that. He seemed more reflective, maybe even a little sad and perhaps a little hopeful that the relationship could be saved.
This time, since the divorce, we felt more anger, more angst at the situation. As the songs played on though, there was a “coming to peace” that I felt and it was punctuated with closing the set with I Hope You’re Happy.
Of course, this is just my own personal analysis of what I saw. I may be wildly off the mark, but Justin is a story teller and that’s how I interpreted the story he told that night.
Aftermath
The plan for Thursday was to hang out in Des Moines, eat, do some shopping, then I was to drop Brandy at the airport for a flight to Phoenix, then for her to return Friday, when I would return to pick her up from the airport at 11:59 pm Friday night/Saturday morning.
I woke up at about 7:00, got in the shower, got dressed and made my way to the lobby of the hotel to eat. I had typical hotel breakfast fare, scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuit and gravy, and shitty hotel coffee. Once I was done eating, I made a plate for Brandy and took it up, leaving it on the dresser until she woke up. I sat in the lobby drinking more of that shitty hotel coffee until she messaged me at around 9:00 saying that she was up. I took her some water and ginger ale and we just reflected on our night while she got up, took off her makeup, showered, did some work and we packed up and got ready for our noon checkout.
We left at noon and headed straight to a Chinese buffet in nearby Clive, IA. It was a fine buffet, maybe one of the better ones I’ve had. We stuffed ourselves silly then headed out to Hobby Lobby to start getting some Christmas decorations that match the decor at home. We found what Brandy thought was a perfect set of ornaments, but there were only about a dozen in the set. She was certain we’d need more and they only had the one set. We picked up some more stuff, checked out then found the next closest Hobby Lobby to see if they had the same set. They did not, so we ordered them from the Hobby Lobby website, picked up a couple more things and headed across the street to Target, found a few more things and we headed to Des Moines International Airport where I dropped Brandy off at around 3:00.
I made the hour and a half drive back home without incident, pulling in just after 4:30. Ash’s Chewy order was on the porch so I wrangled it in to the house, gimpy arm and all, I unloaded the car, unpacked what I could and warmed up some leftovers from the other night. I was sitting there just getting ready to watch a little TV before calling it an early night when Brandy messaged me at 6:15 saying that her flight, that was supposed to depart at 6:30, was now delayed until 8:00 while they cleaned bird remains out of one of the engines on the plane. They disembarked from the plane and they were in the terminal when it was announced that if the plane was going to leave that night, it was going to be very late. Seeing as how she was only supposed to be in Phoenix for Friday, she decided to cancel her reservation. Ash and I left the house at 7:30 to make the drive back to Des Moines to pick her up. After stopping for gas on the way back, we pulled back into the driveway at 10:40. We brought in the couple of bags that she had with her and we immediately dropped into bed, both of us falling asleep by 11:00.
Yeah, it sucked driving an hour and a half home then turning right back around for another 3 hours of driving, but selfishly, I was OK with it. It meant that both of us slept better with each other in bed with us. After Wednesday night, we needed that.
Conclusion
As I have often said, Blue October quickly became my favorite band. The emotion with which Justin sings is powerful and most people can relate to just about any struggle that he sings about, whether it’s addiction, depression, relationships, custody, self-worth, whatever your issues in life, Blue October has a song that you can relate to.
I felt that Wednesday. Yes, I was brought to tears at one point (during Home), don’t judge me.
That said, the combination of just seeing Blue October, and seeing them from the front row in a brand new venue and having pretty much the entirety of the next day off, I’m inclined to say this was the best concert I’ve ever been to.
As always, I’ve added a TON of pictures to my Photo Diary, and I’ve shared a link to a Spotify playlist of the setlist from that night below:
As of right now, we don’t have anything else concrete planned. We were thinking about trying to go to Alaska for Brandy’s birthday, but I don’t think that will happen. Instead, we’re going to try to get back to Crested Butte, which will still be expensive, but, it will be a little cheaper, and because I can (and am willing to) work from there, I won’t burn through PTO there like I would in AK.
This is just a brief conversation we’ve had over the last couple of days. No official plans are made, no reservations or anything, we’re just talking about it. We of course have the holidays coming up, but we’re going to be homebound for those.
I can’t remember the last time we didn’t have something, even a business trip for Brandy, planned. It’s weird, having nothing going on. Who knows, maybe the rest will do us some good?
Who am I kidding, we’re going to hate it.
Anyway, I suppose the next time I post anything, it’ll be one of my Year in Review posts. As always, thank you for stopping by.
-Phil