You Can't Be in Two Places at Once...

We bought tickets to see O.A.R. again at the Vanderbilt Memorial Gym quite a while back when they first went on sale. So it's understandable that Ashlee mistakenly bought tickets to see up-and-coming singer/ songwriter, Mat Kearney, on the same night at a different venue. She was kicking herself pretty hard for not checking our always-busy calendar before purchasing the conflicting tickets. But what's done is done. We mapped out a plan that sounded like it would work pretty well: We would go to The Cannery at 8 PM and see Kearney's opening act and hopefully half a set from Mat. Then we would take a cab over to the Vandy Gym and catch O.A.R. around 10 PM as they closed the "Commodore Quake" Homecoming concert.

We arrived at The Cannery a few minutes before 8 PM after a carb-free dinner at Outback Steakhouse. We've been on the South Beach Diet for a few weeks now and it's working pretty well in terms of weight loss. Opening for Mat Kearny was the young, lovely and smokey-voiced Diane Birch and her band. She announced this was their last show opening for Mat, who has lived in Nashville for several years now since moving from Oregon where he grew up. Her original songs were catchy and well done. Her band was talented including a great trumpet player, Eric Bloom - horns are always a great addition to a rock band. During her set we got an unexpected text from our friend, Brandon, wanting to know where we were. He told us he was at the Vandy Gym watching O.A.R.?!?! Well, nuts!! It seems that O.A.R. was not the headliner as we had assumed at the Commodore Quake. Instead it was some goofy Latino rapper who calls himself Pitbull [insert eye-roll here]. That's the crap we thought we were missing while checking out some of the show at The Cannery.

Oh, well, "the best laid plans of mice and men" right? There was simply no way to catch enough of O.A.R.'s hour-long set and get back to The Cannery to see the end of Mat's set, so we excepted our fate and settled in to enjoy the full show. Ashlee really felt bad and apologized over and over for the mix-up. Luckily Mat bailed her out BIG TIME! Man, what a voice! Man, what a great backing band! Man, what a great show! This was our first time seeing Kearney live and he was simply amazing. Great stage presence and great energy as he played before a packed crowd back in his current hometown. This was one of the best sounding concerts we have seen/heard at The Cannery and also one of the liveliest as Mat enthusiasm of a packed house in his home town was very evident. He even waded into the crowd during his song "Top of the World" and then climbed atop the long bar to perform part of the song. Very cool. He included his hits (mostly heard on independent radio and as TV show background music) of "Breathe In, Breathe Out" - "Nothing Left to Lose" and his new hit, "Closer to Love" from his new album, "City of Black and White." He closed the show by inviting Diane and her band back on stage and they performed an ensemble cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" and there was that great trumpet again covering the saxaophone parts in the song. Very, very cool. In hindsight, the night really could not have went any better. If not for the lucky text by Brandon our plan would have pretty much been a bust as we would have missed most of Mat's set (he did not go on until 9:30) and all of O.A.R.'s (they were off the stage by 10 PM). Plus, Mat's headlining set in his hometown was longer and probably better than O.A.R.'s sandwich set - yes, another rapper opened for them...ugghh! We hated to miss seeing O.A.R. live again (Brandon did say they were great) since they put on such a great show that we saw in Atlanta a little over a month ago, but we know we will catch them again (hopefully as the headliners they deserve to be).