Phenomenal.

Travis. By far, hands down one of my all-time favorite bands. I'd say even a smidge more favorite than radiohead. I've been a fan of Travis since my junior year of high school (Fall of 1999 to be precise). Travis' tour dates in the states have been very few.. years since the last tour. With the release of their latest album a few months ago (which is most fabulous by the way) they decided to come back to the states and I was all over tickets like a dog on a soggy tennis ball. Luckily, my friend Jenn is just as excited about Travis as I am and we both bought tickets to the show in Atlanta which was this past weekend. WHAT a Sunday!! Let me tell ya..

Jenn and I made all sorts of plans to meet at her parents' house in Chattanooga for some dinner then head out to Atlanta early to get a good spot for the show (doors opened at 7). Well, we left early enough, around 1-ish in the afternoon. At 3:45 (EST) we hit traffic, right before Chattanooga. Turns out there was an accident and about 20 miles ahead of the accident there was a sinkhole. We sat in traffic, in a dead stand still for over 2 hours. We thought for sure we wouldn't make the show, we were angry, sad, depressed.. of ALL the shows, why Travis? Who knows when they'll be back? With their last show dates being in Mexico City and Japan, we were crushed. We had decided if the trafic didn't move by 7 we'd have to go home. (Chattanooga's about 2 hours from Atlanta, and with the show starting at 8, we were quite down-trodden). But to our surprise and sheer glee, the traffic started moving around 6:40 only to hit traffic from the sinkhole. Needless to say, I rode up on the burm, got off on the next exit and we high-tailed it to Atlanta.

We made it to the show 20 minutes before Travis went onstage. I about pissed myself with excitement. (Jenn was equally ecstatic). I have to say, the Travis show was the best concert I've ever been to. The crowd ranged from 20s to 40s age-range and everyone knew the words to every song (including myself). It was fantastic. Travis themselves seemed pretty surprised at the level of fandom. They were shocked the crowd knew the words to so many songs, especially the new stuff.. and the cheering.. we (the crowd) screamed so loud at some points it was hard for them to continue. I really don't think they expected the reaction. They even said they plan on coming back within the year. My heart melted. I love them.

Here's the thing with Travis. You either love them or don't know them. The lyrics sink in and they just hit you. Granted, a good bit of the music is mellow, so I was half expecting a boring show.. BUT the parts of the song where you feel the angriest or saddest or happiest upon listening, they REALLY put all of that feeling into the performance. It was spectacular beyond words. Truly. They played songs from ALL of their albums: Good Feeling, The Man Who, Invisible Band, 12 Memories and their newest, The Boy With No Name. I was (and still am) on cloud 9. It way exceeded my expectations and from their reactions, we exceeded their expectations.

I CAN'T WAIT for the next show. I'm swooning just thinking about it. But next time, we're going to go a day early. Traffic be damned!

p.s. I found out "Flowers in the Window" -The Invisible Band, is about his wife being pregnant. I think that makes the song 10 times more beautiful than it already is.