No One's Gonna Love You More Than I Do

Just over four years ago, right before I turned 30, I was pouring over a printed flyer one of the bars/music clubs in my neighborhood prints out on a monthly basis.

"Ooh!" I exclaimed to the man who was sitting across the table from me, the one I was quasi-dating at the time.  "Band of Horses is coming to the Middle East!"  I looked up at him, grinning. 

He looked back at me like I'd just told him the sky is blue or that we live in Boston or some other trivial, obvious, and completely inconsequential fact. 

Ignoring the look I continue talking, my voice raised an octave or so higher with excitement.  "We should go!  Tickets are only $10!  I bet they would be so, so great live!"

He shrugged, non-committal.  "Meh," he murmured over his coffee. "I'm not that into them."

******

It will surprise exactly no one when I say I love a lot of bands.  Nor will it come as a shock when I mention that I've been to a lot of concerts.  There are some really, truly wonderful groups out there, ones I swoon over, ones I listen to on repeat, and ones I shell out hard-earned money to go see perform.  However.  If I was ever forced to short-list my favorite bands?  And say, narrow them down to a group of ten that I'd never want to stop listening to or something?  Band of Horses would make the cut, no question. I fell in love with this band immediately when their very first album came out in 2006.  A friend introduced me to the track "I Go to the Barn Because I Like The" and really there was never any turning back after that.

Why I didn't just buy myself a ticket years ago and tell Mr. I'm Not That Into Them to go spend the evening doing his own thing while I went to see BOH is a complete mystery to me.  (The old adage of being older and wiser rings true once again.) Needless to say though, I did not do that. I did not spend my $10 wisely.  I did not see this band as they passed through town. Shudder. Shudder. Shudder.

Believe me when I tell you that it has gnawed at me ever since.

You can imagine my delight then, last fall, when I read that BOH were coming back to Boston in early 2014.  You can likely also imagine my obsession with snagging tickets to what I knew would be a sold out show.  Literally the minute the tickets went on sale I was logged in, ready to pounce.  I snatched two tickets immediately (phew!) only to then have them disappear. from. my. cart. as I started to enter in my credit card information.  Insert a few colorful words here to get a sense of my reaction. Thankfully, they stayed in the cart on my second attempt.  While the ticket price wasn't quite as cheap as the $10 ones I passed by years ago, I honestly didn't care.  I was in possession of Band of Horses tickets.  Praise the Rock Gods and all things holy.  

Last night, after guarding the tickets with my life since they arrived in the mail in December, it was finally time to see them live.  So now the story of how I missed the opportunity to see BOH for $10 because of a boy suddenly becomes a story with a happy ending. Mr. I'm Not That Into Them and I didn't date much longer after my concert idea was rejected.  (Sometimes it's just time to read the writing on the wall, you know.)   And Band of Horses were as wonderful, charming, and talented as I'd always known they would be.  Those tickets were worth every penny.  Just as these last four + years were totally worth the wait.