“If I had a $1,000,000” like “Brian Wilson” I wouldn’t have broken into “The Old Apartment” because “It’s All Been Done”

If you’ve rocked out to one of the most consistent bands of the last 20 years the Barenaked Ladies this blog title actually made sense.  Last night they were in town at White River State Park and we got tickets with our close friends Natalie and Bob months ago, so it was great to finally get a chance to get to use the tickets that had been on our fridge since April!  A great dinner before hand and an awesome evening all around with weather that held off for us.

It was an absolutely crazy nonstop weekend.  Nine13sports had a big program event on Saturday which put me on site from just after 9AM-9PM, both sets of parents were in town for the weekend, and we’ve had a whirlwind last few weeks.  A combo of the community challenge initiative, work (I’ve been in lots of meetings to say the least), planning a small fundraising event for September, getting ready to begin some remodeling, some odds and ends media stuff, STOP ON RED week last week, and finally feeling like we’ve got all feet forward has occupied every second of time for the last few weeks.  So if you’ve called and I’ve taken forever to get back to you–I sincerely apologize and am playing catch-up this week.

This week marks the beginning of something we’ve previously mentioned.  On Wednesday Lauren and I will be rolling out the first part of the full story of our last two years and the complete set of facts that goes with that.  The first three posts will be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday–will use the weekend to post about normal things–and will resume next week.

How did I know it was the right time to begin sharing our story?  Last night at the BNL concert they played a song I honestly never thought I would hear live from them, “Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel”.  An oddly paced song about a grisly car crash, death and all of the surrounding drama that goes along with it.  A song that has been a somewhat cathartic therapy for Lauren and I in the last two years.  Having followed the band for a long time (one of the first CD’s I ever bought was a BNL CD) I’ve always known some of the underlying themes in the songs penned by the lead singer Ed Robertson.  Wikipedia summed up the back story well:

Robertson’s brother Doug died after crashing his motorcycle in June 1993.  The experience had an impact on Ed, which came through in his songwriting. The song “Am I The Only One?” from the 1994 Barenaked Ladies album Maybe You Should Drive, which he had been writing about his then-future wife, ended up being about the loss of his brother; the song “Leave” from 1998’s Stunt is about the image of his brother haunting him in hotel rooms while on tour; and the song “Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel” from 2000’s Maroon was based on Robertson’s curiosity about what his brother was thinking about in his last moments.

There are things that deserve the written word–and the facts of our story deserve many written words. Stay tuned…

Cheers

-th