I’ve been on vacation the past couple days. It’s been nice, a vacation in the middle of the work week. It worked out to be a great time for a vacation, since I got the rare opportunity (as in I’ve never done this before) to be a VIP at a concert. My friend “Kent” won tickets to see Darius Rucker, and called me last minute to see if I wanted to go. I am never one to turn down a free concert, unless it’s Celine Dion, so of course I jumped at the chance to go.

As it was, I had been sitting in Starbucks, and in order to (barely) make my train I’d have to leave right then, with no chance to change clothes or throw on some makeup. Which actually, in the end kinda sucked for me because there were so many things I didn’t know about.

For instance, I didn’t know that we’d actually get to meet Darius (yes, we’re on first name basis now…) and take photos with him. Oddly enough, as I was about to go in and say hey to Darius Rucker, I got a text telling me that a member of David Crowder Band had answered my tweet. For like two seconds I felt like I was living the life. Rock n roll fantasy. Then I realized that neither Darius nor Mike D would remember my name by tomorrow, so that brought me back to earth. Reality is a downer.

I also didn’t know that we’d be interviewed by MasterCard. Which was kinda cool, but here’s the problem… All the songs I know that Darius Rucker has sung are off the one Hootie and the Blowfish album that actually got famous. I don’t know much about what he’s done since (apparently he went country — who knew??) So I listened to the interview with Kent, who got put in the hot seat before I did, and realized they’d ask me what songs I knew and wanted to hear. Panic!

Fortunately I had my phone with me, and I googled a song. I think I faked my way through pretty well. I wasn’t going to sit there and say, “Yeah, all I wanna hear are Hootie songs, because they remind me of high school!” As it was, he played all his Hootie hits. Aw, crap, I could have said that after all.

I have to say, as the biggest non-fan of country music, the concert was really enjoyable. First of all, he talked about all his songs, which was cool. So hearing the stories behind them was interesting to me. And his flavor of country was actually pretty tolerable. It was kinda like Hootie songs with slide guitar. I mean that in a good way. He’s also got a fabulous voice, so I really enjoyed the entire experience

Aside from the great view of the concert (we were in the balcony of the Highline Ballroom), we also got all the free food and drinks we wanted (open bar — SCORE!) and we got signed copies of Darius Rucker’s latest CD. So that was kinda awesome too!

All told, it was a great night, I really enjoyed my time, and I owe my buddy Kent a HUGE debt of gratitude for inviting me to come along!