I woke up feeling surprisingly good, but I hit construction and got behind a school bus on my way to work at Vineland Memorial so I got there a little late. Luckily I was still very early for the meetings and I had a very easy day where I got a lot of file organization done on my hard drive. The worst part was when I was in for the gym teacher. The classes were huge and incredibly loud.
After being home for a bit and stopping at Becca's for a short time I headed to the Fillmore again for Frank Turner. He started the set with his new song "Sand in the Gears" which is about standing up for what you believe in and fighting back even more for the next four years under the new president who was inaugurated today. It was a perfect day to see Frank and hear that. "Let's be the sand in the gears for the next four years."
The rest of the set was perfect as The Sleeping Souls joined him. As always it was energetic, hilarious, and heartfelt. I was closer to the back of the crowd for the show and halfway through Staci found me so we got to hang out and dance with the one other person in that area that was dancing around having a good time. I always feel great after leaving a Frank Turner show.
I began the day waking up earlier than I planned thanks to loudness just on the other side of my wall (like too many days.) I felt pretty good anyway and got up to begin working on uploading the Frank Turner interview and writing the blog. I got into it and started posting links to the completed post which grew pretty quickly. I got retweeted by Frank himself and it started getting a good amount of views.
I was kind of beaming with excitement over finally posting the finished product and I grabbed my outdoor stuff and headed toward Delaware. On my way I stopped at Auburn Road Vineyard to pick up some Christmas presents. I continued on to Iron Hill disc golf course. My hands were freezing at first, but after about 5 holes I had warmed up. I forgot the feeling of a disc ripping into fingers in the cold. There were only a couple of other people playing so I felt like I was alone out there. I had a great time. I think it might be the best course around here.
I wanted to make the most of my time so I went to Brandywine for one more round. This one I really did have to myself. I played through the course pretty fast and it was getting colder as I went. Playing fast warmed me up again, but it was a little windy which made it more difficult sometimes. The dead trees that sparsely dotted the wide open fields were beautiful. It almost looked like they were placed there that way.
I headed up to Philly after the round to get some dinner at Whole Foods. I sat on the roof of the parking garage in the car and ate before I went to The Foodery to check out the beers and find more Christmas presents.
I decided to head to Union Transfer early to see the opening bands. Petal played first, and they were okay. Pinegrove played next. I've heard of them, but I have never listened to them. Their live set was incredible. They were energetic and their songs were unique and catchy. I definitely will be checking out their record.
Kevin Devine came up last and played a heavier, faster set than I've seen him play before. It was great and I loved the energy. He played a mash up of his song and a song from each of the openers so that was fun. He also did his signature freestyle rap, this time about a beautiful man named Sebastian who interns at a Boston venue they recently played at. Besides the music always being great, half the reason I love seeing him is because he's hilarious and just makes me smile every time. The set ended late after a lot of talking since it was the last night of the tour. I headed home to grab some stuff and then went to Becca's to stay since she just got back from the Grand Canyon.
