Too Many Options

Hear me out, I realize this complaint is fickle, or rather it may be more braggadocious, but sometimes I think we have too many options in Auburn. We live in a small town, and intentionally chose one that is quieter because Caitlin and I both had plenty of time in major cities where any type of cuisine and any type of entertainment was available. I, personally, was looking forward to living in a community where a highlight would be an older cover band playing at the downtown street fest, which actually does occur here each year! Limited traffic and limited crime seemed like a reasonable trade off for fewer entertainment options.

Yet, Auburn has come to spoil us. The events coming to town (and born here in town) are more exciting than local cover bands, but they are also quite "manageable". If stadium-tour artists came here, Auburn might be a bit overwhelmed. Heck, Ella Langley played two nights at Neville Arena and people about lost their mind. All that to say, I so appreciate that it's difficult to get bored here, and at times Caitlin and I even have difficulty deciding between multiple fun options.

Take this past Friday for example. The Alabama women's soccer team was coming to town to play Auburn in the Iron Bowl of soccer. If you've never been to an Auburn soccer match, they are quite fun. They have garnered a squad of loyal fans that even leave at halftime to go tailgate some more. And like all sports, when Bama comes to town, the intensity is ramped up. (My wife is an Alabama alum, so we're usually cheering for the road team in our hometown, but that's a matter for another post.) When I saw that match on the calendar, I was excited to take our kids to the game. However, that same night, the Gogue Performing Arts Center booked two bands that hit their prime in the 90's - Vertical Horizon & Better Than Ezra. Honestly, if it was up to me, I probably would've chosen the soccer match, but Caitlin wanted to see the concert, so we opted for that. And we did not regret it!

The Gogue is a rather impressive venue that hosts everything from ballet recitals to symphonies, to Weird Al Yankovic. It's beautiful but not ostentatious, the acoustics are great and you'll inevitably run into folks you know. However, the Gogue recently renovated their outdoor amphitheatre and we hadn't seen it yet. Despite questionable weather, we were excited for the show. So after grabbing a quick drink at the lobby of the AC Hotel--Olivine's bar was too packed with parents in town for the first football game--we made our way to amphitheatre. As always, parking was easy and there was no line to get into the venue. They even let us bring our umbrella. And right at 7p, Vertical Horizon took the stage to a crowd that was maybe 25% capacity for the assigned seating, and 1% capacity of the GA lawn seats. Nervous both bands would be embarrassed or discouraged by the turnout, I waited to see how they'd react. And during both sets, the respective lead singers couldn't have been more gracious for the support and crowd participation. (The lead singer for VH even raved about the venue and joked than he wishes he live in Auburn.) Despite only knowing about six of the originals on the night, Caitlin and I had a blast! And so did the rest of the crowd! Both lead men were funny and told great stories. At one point during the show we learned that Better Than Ezra got their start playing frat parties at LSU and made their way to several SEC towns, joking that the one thing everyone has in common is a disdain for the University of Alabama. The nugget about LSU got even better when the singer went on to share that he and the keyboardist are best friends from their days at River Oaks School in Monroe, LA. That's the neighboring town to Caitlin's hometown of West Monroe, so she turned to me with bewilderment and said "I used to play basketball at the River Oaks gym all the time!"

Both bands did a great job and brought us back to the Nineteen Hundreds, as they joked, and it made for a wonderfully fun, yet low-key evening. We heard great music and got in and out without any issues. Of course we had to make one stop on the way home since my wife hadn't had dinner. It's a running joke that she is a closet Taco Bell lover, so that's what I proposed! Ha.

One last thing to note about the show is that family members of the keyboardist were in the crowd, so we followed them to meet the keyboardist after the show so that we could share that CJ (Caitlin) is from West Monroe. The world got even smaller then, as the two of them chatted about commonalities, with the biggest one being that Caitlin's fourth grade teacher, Boo Payne, was his mother! Apparently everyone in town loved Boo during her time on Earth.

While we had a terrific time on Friday night, and would've had a wonderful time had we taken the kids to the soccer game, we're now forced with a few other "small town choices" in the coming months. Do we go see Jamey Johnson or attend a meet & greet with author and food critic John T. Edge? Do we go listen to Clint Black or attend a Nate Bargatze show? Do we head to the Auburn High football game of the Auburn University volleyball match?

So many questions, and clearly so much to be grateful for!! We're certainly not bored but also enjoying the ease with which we can attend said events, which can only really happen in a small town.