Southern Vintage Color: Kansas City: Day One

For Valentine's Day, James and I headed to Kansas City to see one of his favorite bands perform. The concert was on Thursday night, so we took a couple of days off of work and drove up Thursday morning to Lawrence, KS. I had done some research on the town, so I knew that it would be a neat trip, but we really enjoyed the town even more than we expected to.

We got to town in time to check into our hotel and then head to dinner at the Free State Brewing Company, which opened in 1989 as the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years.

I asked our waitress for a recommendation, and as a hops-lover, I got the citrusy Winterfest IPA (below) and James got the Ad Astra Ale (described as "a full bodied ale that uses a hint of hops to balance the sweetness that comes from three different malt varieties). Both were really good.

We finished up with dinner just in time to head to the Granada right down the street in the old downtown.

I have to admit that I was a little worried about going to a show like this, but I knew James would love it and I'm a fan of nearly any live music, so I put my Lilly away, piled on the eyeliner, and really had a blast!

And there they are: Dark Tranquillity! (A Swedish melodic death metal band, if you're interested in looking them up.) Ominum Gatherum and Exmortus opened. Exmortus is a band from California, but we will definitely track them down and go see them if they get anywhere close again. SUPER impressive and fun to watch!

We were the only people with VIP tickets, so we got to hang out with the band for a little while before the show. The guys were all really, really cool and down-to-earth. We got photos and autographs and I swear I have never (and will probably never again!) seen James so. stinkin. excited. Unfortunately, we were both a little nervous and didn't get as much out of the experience as we wish we had. (From left to right below, that's guitarist Niklas Sundin, drummer Anders Jivarp, guitarist Martin Henrikkson, keyboarder Martin Brändström, James, and lead singer Mikael Stanne).