We're Back!

TRIPPIN': So, apologies for the lack of posts this week. We've been a bit busy. Again. Where to start?

How about starting with Tuesday, when we got up at 5 and left at about 6 a.m., heading our car toward Boise, Idaho. That involved crossing what seemed like 14 mountain passes, but I think it was more like one or two.

We, mercifully, blew through Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades. Not so mercifully, once we reached La Grande, Ore., we hit a horrible diner (terrible food and service) and a freeway that was closed for over 100 miles due to an accident. Not to be deterred, we found a work around, and entered the freeway and had it to ourselves, literally for about 30 miles. (I swear, we didn't know it was still closed, as we were able to enter it unfettered. It was a little eerie driving as the ONLY car on the Interstate for about 20 minutes, though.)

The trip home was no easier (every cross-state mountain pass was closed), so we were forced to drive through the icy tunnel that was the Columbia River Gorge. Good times. Gosh, the massive semi-truck carnage  we saw was horrific.

But enough about the bad, for now. Let's let the kids tell you about the happy part of our trip - seeing twentyone pilots in concert!

Annabelle's review is up first. 

We drove 11 hours each way to Boise, Idaho for a concert by Twenty Øne Piløts. The show was in the Taco Bell Arena, which sadly did not contain Taco Bell concessions. The show itself, however, was amazing. The visual in the background were stunning and tied in really well with the concert. at one point, the drummer had a drum battle with a recording of himself, ending with the recorded version being literally mindblown. Twenty Øne Piløts also pulled of some pretty extreme stunts. You’ve seen crowd surfing, but have you ever seen a drummer crowd surfing while playing the drums? That happened.

Also, they even covered Josh (the lead singer) with a sheet on the stage, but it turned out that was a body double as that one disappeared and the real Josh appeared on a tower in the back of the arena! It was super fun to see one of my favorite bands live in concert, and it might have even been worth the 4 hours of sleep nights and icy highways.

And here's what CJ has to share ... 

On 2/7, my family skipped work and school that day to go on a road trip to Boise, Idaho. We went to see a concert in the Taco Bell Arena (sans Taco Bell), a basketball stadium on the campus of Boise State University. More specifically, we went to see a concert by Twenty One Pilots, a popular band from Columbus, Ohio.
At Taco Bell Arena, we spent at least one hour without any music whatsoever. Sitting in a very high seat, we were able to see some of the preparation for the show going on backstage. Eventually, the first warm-up act, Judah and the Lion, began playing.
Judah and the Lion is an obscure (to my knowledge) rock band, which played a few original songs at Taco Bell Arena. While their performance was mostly forgettable, at the end of their gig, they told us how "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers was their favorite song in 4th grade. After that, we were treated to an off-key version of the aforementioned song.
Shortly after Judah and the Lion, a different warmup act, Jon Bellion, began performing. Jon Bellion was composed of two men rapping on-stage, and they were much more memorable (and probably more entertaining) than Judah and the Lion.
Later in the evening, Twenty One Pilots themselves began, opening with "heavydirtysoul", a song of theirs which I did not recognize. Throughout the entire show, TOP made very good use of the screen behind them, and several stunts that are probably despised by their insurance company (such as letting the crowd carry the drumkit, with the drummer playing, and standing on top of a tall pole at the opposite end of the stadium from the stage.
Most of the hit songs by TOP were played near the beginning and end of the concert, such as "Heathens" near the beginning, and "Stressed Out" and "Tear in my Heart" near the end. In the second half of the concert, Juno and the Lion and Jon Bellion were both called up on stage for a bizarre... "skit", for lack of a better word. During the skit, there was a man in a Santa Claus costume, as well as a person in a lobster costume. The only song I recognized from the skit was Tubthumping by Chumbawumba, a band that has absolutely nothing to do with TOP (last time I checked, Twenty One Pilots weren't a group of British anarcho-punks).
We left Taco Bell Arena very late in the evening, and very satisfied with the show.

I have more photos, of course, but this will have to do for tonight, as I'm still recovering from the last three days' antics.