A Reign of Love: "Daisy Duke? Alright. We'll play Daisy Duke for ya." Robert Schwartzman [Rooney Holdin' On Tour '11]

Wow. What a day today was! I had adventures with friends, good food, AND my life has become complete. All in a 24 hour period. Talk about eventful.

I finally saw Rooney in concert. In order to understand that magnitude of this event for me you've gotta realize that I've been in love with this band since I was like 12 or 13 (ever since The Princess Diaries came out and I fell in love with Michael [who is the lead singer of Rooney for those of you who don't know who the heck this band is] and his on-screen band flypaper) and have been trying to see them in concert ever since. For the past 2 tours, every time they were in SLC I was in Houston, and vice versa. I'd become convinced that it was my lot in life to never get to see them live, and since they're in my list of top 5 bands I need to see live before I die it was quite a depressing thought.

But then, last week I got a fateful phonecall/text (I can't remember which one) from my dear, DEAR friend Kelsey Moss who asked me if I was going to the Rooney concert. My jaw hit the floor! Was there really going to be a chance that Rooney and I would be in the same city at the same time?! After much texting back and forth I found out that the concert was on Saturday and I quickly ran to my schedule to make sure it was clear...

I had to work.

It was like someone hit me with a lead pipe and crushed all my hopes and dreams! Thus began the search for someone - ANYONE to cover my shift. At the beginning of the week I was sort of picky (I wanted to swap so that I could still get some hours) but Wednesday came and still. Nobody. BUT that night luckily I had a savior who was a dear and said she'd work for me. I did a dance of joy and bought my ticket on Thursday. I was ready to go.

Then, in my advanced makeup class, Janet (my professor) needed to buy some supplies from the University pharmacy that's up by the University of Utah. Since Janell and Kelsey Johansen (my makeup buds) were going to the concert with me we anyway, we volunteered to go and get the supplies since we'd be in SLC anyway. It was going to be an adventure.

So, we left around 1:00 and drove up to the University Pharmacy where we promptly made sure we weren't wearing any BYU paraphenelia so that we wouldn't get beaten up ;) We acquired that needed material and went in search of somewhere to eat. We were SUPER hungry.

By some fortunate accident/exploring we ended up on South Temple street and found an OH SO DELICIOUS Thai restaurant where we each had a lunch special (salad, spring roll, rice and our choice of 2 entrees) and then explored around downtown.

First we went to an antique clothing store that Janell wanted to look around in, then we went to Target and looked around, read books, and got some hot chocolate (which, in retrospect, was probably not the greatest decision). After a very stressful and anxiety-inducing search for the venue where they were playing, the night was ready to start!

For those of you who have never been to Kilby Courty - it's a shack. Literally. I think it might actually used to have been a garage but still. Very sketchy looking yet inside it was a great atmosphere. There's such a clothing dilemma to think about whenever you go to a concert during the winter in Utah. On the one hand, you don't want to dress super warm because you're going to be crammed into a small space will lots of other humans and it's gonna get toasty. On the other hand, in order to get close to the stage you need to get there early which more than likely means you'll have to stand outside.

Let's just say I didn't dress accordingly.

After freezing for 45 minutes outside in the dark outside the venue, we were let in. We then stood for another hour because the band that opened for Rooney, Eisley, got stuck in some bad weather in Denver and were late getting to the venue. They literally walked off of their tour bus and put on a show! It was pretty much awesome and they were so nice for putting on this show for us despite everything. The bassist and the drummer were both missing (I'm assuming because they were still stuck on the road) so they sounded a little different, but it was pretty cool anyway. It was a more acoustic, laid back feel. Their voices are beautiful but their songs all kind of sounded similar to me.