The Nellie Spot

My friend Travis recently completed his doctorate in Logistics. That's right...he just now got out of college...at the ripe age of 28. But now we'll have to call him "Dr. Tokar", which is totally bogus. Travis is moving his family to Ohio State University where they are silly enough to call him "Dr. Tokar" daily. To celebrate his successful 23 years of schooling, Todd and I took him to see Toad the Wet Sprocket in Kansas City Sunday night. The trip was in danger of being canceled, since Trav contracted a nasty flu Thursday night (the day before defending his dissertation). Sunday morning, Trav was feeling better, so we hit the road around noon after watching Tiger win the Open.

We listened to some Toad on the way up, as well as the soundtrack to Team America: World Police (F Yeah! There's no way I can recommend the movie since it's vile, but it's easily one of the funniest movies I've ever seen) to get our juices going. We pulled into Country Club Plaza around 4:00 and immediately searched for bathrooms. We found one at Barnes & Noble. The stand up was broken, and so was the A/C. Bathrooms and warm temperatures are NOT good bedfellows. Feeling much better, we went down to Cheesecake Factory and ate dinner. Travis gets freaking fish tacos...after being sick for 3 days. But he didn't hurl, so all's good. We loaded back up and went to the Uptown Theater where the show was. At 6:15, we got to our seats and people-watched until the show began.

There's so much that happened, but I'll hit the high points. On the playbill, we saw that Sister Hazel was opening for Toad. Sadly, no one could remember any of the Sister Hazel songs. The first band started playing, and Travis and I STILL couldn't remember any of their songs. After about 5 songs, the band (Luce) let us know that Sister Hazel would be up next. Travis and I start laughing really hard, as we thought THAT band was SH the whole time and felt bad that we didn't know any of their songs. In retrospect, Luce was really great. The accoustics in that theater were pretty horrible...made more for true theater shows, not concerts. Sister Hazel took the stage and played a ton of songs. The band was really great, and they're great entertainers. After they were done, we moved to the back of the theater to more comfortable seats. And to help Todd get away from Sister Hazel's #1 fan who was sitting next to Todd. I swear, this dude was LAME! First giveaway: clapping over the head. I'm pretty sure that went out in the early 90's. Then at the end of their show, he RAN up there to shake hands with the band. He was in heaven...Todd was in hell. So we moved.

Finally, Toad took the stage around 10:00 PM. The place went nuts. After the first song, the lead singer from Sister Hazel came out and sat down right in front of me. Not knowing his name, but wanting to touch a man who used to be wildly popular, I leaned over and told him thanks for a great show. He said thanks back. We're pretty tight now. He immediately left his seat. But I touched him. Mission accomplished. Back to Toad: they were really great. Lots of songs. They did utilize the theater's disco ball (as seen in the picture to the right), which totally RULED! They finished up around 11:15, and we headed to the car. After gassing up and getting enough sugar/caffeine into us to make it home, we headed back here to God's Country. Pulled in around 2:30 AM. I really should have taken Monday off...but instead, I was an utter zombie at work.

Sorry for the long post...here are some more pictures. Hope you still have some time left on your lunch break to do something more fun than read this!