Jethro Tull Concert

Barb's September gift was Dinner at 42nd St. Oyster Bar & Grill and tickets to Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) concert. Which all happened this past Saturday in Durham, NC.
 

We left the house about 1pm for the 2.5 hour drive with the intentions of going to a Celtic Festival before dinner. It was pretty rainy outside all the way so we figured the festival would be a wash but we went anyway. Of course just as we got there it really started pouring...but we looked around for about 30 minutes and then left.
 

Since the restaurant didn't open till 5pm we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond...now anyone that knows me knows shopping is never included in any "game plan" that I do but since it was her day I went along with it and I knew we only had about 30 minutes. Unbelievably we left the store without a single purchase!
 

Off to 42nd St. which is our favorite restaurant in Raleigh and where some of you will remember that we celebrated Sean's NC State graduation. Barbara had a seafood platter of grouper, scallops and shrimp and I had my usual popcorn shrimp. My was excellent but Barbara said hers wasn't as good as normal. They give you huge portions so we both had left overs to bring home. It probably didn't help that I ate 32 hush-puppies while waiting for our meal!!
 

Next we were off to the concert which was held at the Durham Performing Arts Center. The DPAC as they like to call themselves was excellent with plenty of employees to help you. Barb got a t-shirt that you see in the picture and the back of the shirt also shows all his concert dates. If you are a Tull fan, the show was about one of his first albums called Thick as a Brick and if I understood it right it was the next segment of the story so there was some original Thick as a Brick songs and then some new ones. Since Ian Anderson is now 65 years old you could tell he struggled with his voice but he had a young guy there singing with him at different times and it really worked out ok. His flute playing was as good as always. The show had a 20 minute intermission and finished by playing my favorite Tull song "Locomotive Breath" for the encore.
 

We were going to spend the night but you know me...nothing like sleeping in your own bed...it was a tough trip but we made it back just after 1am. We fed Rita, let her outside and ended up in bed around 2am!! I think the last time I was up a 2am was probably the last time I saw Jethro Tull in concert back in the 80's.
 

Fun times!