Have I mentioned how much I LOVE our weekends? I feel like every Monday rolls around lately and I am telling everyone that we had THE BEST WEEKEND EVER.. but they all are, in completely different ways. I am still in love with our weekend in Pennsylvania, kayaking and all but this weekend was completely different and equally as fantastic in a completely different way!
For years (since before we went to Alaska) I have loved Brantley Gilbert and basically worn his CD out, for the most part if I have been out in the truck alone Jason can bet when he gets in it the next time that will be what is on the radio so when Jason mentioned last week that he would be in town this weekend we jumped on the chance to go. God love Jason, he had to work 12 hours the next day but loves me and does things that make me happy got tickets knowing we would be out really late. I suppose he wanted to see him too but I swear if it wasn't for my dying to see him I doubt he would have went.. how lucky am I?
So we had a really lazy early Saturday morning and then Jason went to the gym while I laid around and read and got ready. We didn't head into New York until later on in the day, we caught the PATH station outside the apartment to 23rd Street and just decided to walk around. We have only been into the city once since we have been here and I know that seems weird seeings how when we lived there I loved it more than anything but now I honestly cant be bothered. Anyways we got into the city grabbed a Starbucks and toured around for awhile before heading to Blue Smoke for lunch. The guys at work had raved to Jason about this place being the best BBQ and I'm not going to lie I was skeptical but thought we would try it anyways. Let me tell you I think those guys have been in South America too long because honestly it sucked!! Maybe the other location is better, we went to the one on East 27th Street in the Flatiron district and it wasn't good, the portions were SO SMALL and it was WAY over priced, but I expect that in the city. My pulled pork was dry and had no smoke flavor at all, I felt like fries for a change and only 5 came.. I kid you not. Jason said his sandwich wasn't bad but for 2 sandwiches with barely a side and a beer each I almost died when the check came.. I miss the south, oh how I miss the south. I was honestly disappointed that we had wasted out lunch outing on that place.. because it truly was a waste.
However they did have cool coasters, that's something right?
So we left there ready to tour around before heading to the Pier for the concert.
The Flatiron Building.
Art work in Bryant Park.
The Empire State Building.
This guy was at Rockefeller Center put on my Jeff Koons referred to as the Split Rock. Jeff Koons also has an exhibit opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This piece is over 37 feet high and has over 50,000 flower plantings, it has previously been on display in Paris as well as Maryland. It was really beautiful and naturally getting lots of attention from tourist.
Believe it or not the entire time we lived in New York I never got one picture of this sign that I can remember. Its nearly impossible to get a picture without someone posing with it, there was a line up of people waiting which I didn't care to do, so you got this girl!
After touring around the city we had some time to kill before we needed to get in line for the concert, the city was super busy with some kind of cultural fair going on, I mean busier than usual so we were anxious to find a quiet spot. What are the odds that the first place we would land on would be PJ Clarks! This is one place in the city I actually LOVED and had really wanted to go back to if we had the chance, so I was glad we stumbled upon it. We weren't thrilled with the $9.00 beers (quite a jump from the $3.00 ones we get at home) so we had one and made our way down to the pier.
The concert was all general admission and for some reason when we arrived I wasn't expecting a line but there was one, we still managed to get an AMAZING spot though. We waited in line for 45 minutes to an hour and then went in. Beers were even more expensive there, $13.00 a pop so I opted out but Jason later found $16.00 on the ground so got one.. haha!
We met some people in the crowd who were up from Georgia and chatted with them, no one was really away whether or not there would be an opening act as it didn't say when we purchased the tickets. Turns out there was and her name was Sonia Leigh! I had never heard of her before but apparently she is something to see down in Nashville. I thought she was really great, her band was fun and she had a really raspy voice that reminded me a lot of Janis Joplin. If you get a chance check her out on iTunes or Youtube, her song 'Put it in your pocket' is really good.
Sonia Leigh
Seriously perfect night.
After her it was time.. it was time for BRANTLEY GILBERT!! Seriously I was so excited, I was excited to see him to begin with but then we were so close to the stage and it was a GORGEOUS night that I was practically over the moon before he even came out! Guys I am warning your right now, I am going to over share pictures.. I took like 300, I couldn't help myself I knew they wouldn't all come out anyways.
We go to a decent amount of concerts and honestly as much as you may like someone it doesn't mean they are going to be all that great live, some just aren't, you get a bad seat, sound sucks, venue sucks.. you never know! Jason had read that the sound at BG concerts weren't always that great but let me tell you whoever said that was so wrong! He put on an awesome show, his band was absolutely amazing.. we had a blast!!
The crowd here was super interesting, I didn't really know what to expect because he is country with a rock edge which can draw a variety. The crowd beside us was young and from Virginia they smoked pot and spit on each other (far enough away that I didn't want to yell at them but close enough them I could see what was going on), the group on the other side of us was older ladies in shirts that said "workin, spittin, huntin' & fishin... stone cold country but the grace of god" haha song lyrics, did I mention the shirts were camo? Then the group a little ways behind us were all significantly older, extremely intoxicated and yelling the F word while asking everyone around them to join them in selfies which they proceeded to take with a disposable camera! HA! There were a lot of people are age as well, a ton of single women as BG is single and well nice to look at!
Sorry for the grainy iPhone pictures but I truly think in this case something is better than nothing.
This guy with him was AMAZING! He put on an awesome show as well!
I hated to see the show end but due to people complaining about noise from the Pier concerts everything has to be shut down by 10pm.. SUCKS! Getting out of there wasn't bad, there were only 6,000 people there which is a lot but not really if you consider how much more a lot of venues can hold. We headed out of there and straight for a pizza place as we hadn't eaten anything since lunch and Jason was about ready to faint! The good thing about NYC is there is pizza joints on every corner so we found the first one and grabbed a slice (or in Jason's case two slices a pop and a cannoli). After that we headed to the subway at 57th & 7th... it was too late to hit up Argo tea but man do I love that place! We switched to a PATH train at 33rd St. which I get you have to take a different train back to New Jersey but the fact that you have to pay again is crap! (Oh and did I mention the first time we went into the city we got new Metro cards and put $20.00 on each, I used my to go there and back and haven't used it since and now it wont work?) So we got on the PATH train which on the weekend is extra long because it goes through Hoboken (pain in the ass) by the time we got home we were tired and poor Jason's feet were so sore. He had a super busy and long week at work where he spends most of his time on his feet and then we walked around the city all day and stood for the entire concert and then all the way back!
Jason was up and out before 6:00am Sunday morning which I felt really bad about but honestly I think he thinks it was worth it! He agreed that the concert was AWESOME!
If you get the chance get tickets and see Brantley Gilbert, he is AWESOME and like I said.. nice to look at!
I hope you all had a great weekend, I certainly did!
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