Music Monday: ZBB

Friday night my lovely friends and I went to go see Zac Brown Band (and Blackberry, who we were too busy chatting and drinking ridiculously expensive slushee drinks to actually listen to) at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. These guys know how to jam. Seriously. Fun fact, my friends, I used to hate county music. In fact, it’s still not my favorite genre (there’s a very fine line between “Chicken Fried” and “There’s a tear in my beer”) but I have, over the years, become quite fond of some feel-good-beer-drinkin’-tailgatin’-kinda country jams! I still have pretty low expectations when it comes to meaningful lyrics or open-mindedness as far as the genre is concerned, but ZBB whaled on their banjos, guitars and fiddles. I was very impressed. At one point, I got up to pee five minutes into one of their jam seshes and they were still at it by the time I got back. I was also a little nervous that I was going to hear the only three songs I know by them (the chart-toppers) and the rest of the time I’d be tapping my foot waiting for “Chicken Fried” to play, but these guys know their audience. They didn’t bother playing a ton of obscure songs that only true fans would know, instead they rocked the shit out of some covers. They played “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith, “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison (I freakin’ love Van Morrison), “Can’t You See?” by CCR, “All Apologies” by Nirvana and lastly, “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which was ahhh-mazing. Serious fiddle playing right there. I was also pretty stoked to hear a not-yet recorded song called “One Day,” so I took a crappy iPhone recording of it, which maybe I’ll learn how to upload one day.

Also, let’s talk about one of the most exciting moments of the concert (and maybe my life, idk, I’m not that exciting). See this chick who’s all “Ithrowmyhandsupintheairsometimes”?