... because they are Erica's favorite band of all time and they were touring to perform Erica's favorite album of all time (
Dizzy Up The Girl) which contains Erica's favorite song of all time,
Slide. Wes, on the other hand, does not like the Goo Goo Dolls at all, which makes him the best husband of all time for making this pilgrimage with me. The Goo Goo Dolls are celebrating the 20th anniversary of
Dizzy Up The Girl's release this year with a special tour in which they perform the album in its entirety. The tour wasn't coming to Oklahoma but the next closest location with a convenient date was Kansas City, MO. So it was another road trip for us! (Original trip date was Sunday, October 28, 2018)
The Kansas Tollway has the best (cleanest) rest stops. Also, I got a new phone and the portrait mode is amazing.
I think one of our absolute favorite things to do is to take road trips. The concert didn't start until 8pm so we took our time driving into town. The drive from Oklahoma City to Kansas City is about 85% tollway so that was a plus. Their tollway is also much smoother than ours, or maybe it just seemed nicer because there was much less construction. There was a ton of roadkill, though... opossums, deer, raccoons, you name it, we saw it. Besides that, the drive was really pretty. The majority of the countryside was trees that had changed to their autumn colors.
Dinner at Artego: those were the messiest wings I have ever eaten...ever. Wes said the calzone was a ripoff because it was mostly dough with only four tiny pepperonis in the center.
Wes booked us a room in the very stylish Fontaine hotel. Super sleek and modern place! It was early evening and I assumed we had plenty of time to grab dinner and arrive fairly early to the concert. We decided to go to Q39, a hip barbecue restaurant with good reviews online.What I did not anticipate was that Sunday night football was going on and the Kansas City Chiefs were playing. We got to the restaurant and were faced with a one hour wait because we didn't have reservations. Who makes reservations to a casual barbecue restaurant? On a Sunday? Apparently, football fans do. LOL The next closest eatery without a wait was Artego. It's a pizza place but I got buffalo wings and Wes got a calzone. Maybe we should have gotten pizza because the food we ordered was not very good.
We sat in the balcony so my pictures are a bit small.
We arrived safely to Missouri, checked into the hotel, had our dinner and now it was time for the main event - GOO GOO DOLLS!!!! 😍 The concert was at the Uptown Theater. It is an old theater turned into a concert venue. The renovations left most of the original decor and style of the theater in tact, which I liked. Wes noted that it was very similar to the House of Blues in Dallas, TX. This was my second time seeing the Goo Goo Dolls perform live. The first was several years ago with my friend, Lacey. They came to Lucky Star Casino in some small town in Oklahoma. The show was amazing and I loved every minute of it but I think this show was a hundred times better. The band was much more personable and interacted with the audience a lot. I asked Lacey if they told any personal stories or jokes at the concert we went to and she said they didn't. I didn't remember any either. This time around, their set was peppered with anecdotes about the origins of each song and observations from the band.
As promised, they performed each song from
Dizzy Up The Girl. It was
so good. I could probably rant & rave for several paragraphs and use way too many adjectives to describe it but I won't. After a short set change, they performed a bunch of other songs from their catalog. It seemed like a bonus for me since I thought the concert would be over after
Dizzy Up The Girl. Then after the second half of the show, they came out for an encore. Extra bonus! 😁 It was such a fantastic, extraordinary, rad concert. Probably tied in first place for the best concert I've ever attended (tied with The Darkness at House of Blues in Dallas
https://ragsreborn.blogspot.com/2016/05/wes-erica-celebrated-their-first.html). For most of my childhood, music was just something in the background as I rode in the car or did my homework. But then in middle school, I heard
Slide, and it was a song. I stopped to listen to the chords and pay attention to the lyrics. I know most people discover music much earlier in their lives but I never really cared until then. I don't follow celebrities in their personal lives so I have no idea if the Goo Goo Dolls are outstanding role models or not, but I absolutely delight in their music, song writing, and singing ability.
After the concert, we made our way back to the hotel. Wes said he enjoyed the concert even though it wasn't his favorite genre of music. I remained a giddy adoring fan for the remainder of the night. LOL The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant (no reservations needed, haha!) With full bellies, we headed back on the road for home. I usually do a fairly good job in researching eating establishments for our road trips but I totally sucked this time around. For lunch we stopped at Chiang Mai, a Thai restaurant in Wichita. It was presented as a unique and authentic hole-in-the-wall place but neither of us really enjoyed our meal. Wes's was too Americanized (chicken breast with a side of barbecue sauce) and my noodles were mostly onions and cabbage. 😒 I'll have to work extra hard in finding good places to eat on our next trip.
At least the restaurant was decorated with cool eclectic stuff.
Wes got coffee flavored sparking water. Barf!
Chiang Mai was next to an Asian grocery store so we went exploring after lunch. It was also pretty disappointing. None of the snacks we got for the drive home were all that yummy. So I guess everything was sort of a let down except for the concert, WHICH WAS AMAZING! Oh and the drive was also really nice. And that's the last of the travel log for 2018. I'm working on planning two big trips for 2019. I guess we'll resume my journal entries then. See ya!
