The Matthew West and Josh Wilson Spring 11 Tour

So, originally, I had planned to go home last night and watch a ton of TV.  Thursday is my big TV night, and I didn't have choir last night.

Then I was reminded that the first stop in the Matthew West/Josh Wilson tour was last night.  It was an hour and a half away, but the only locations closer was already sold out.  I debate for a few minutes, but I decided to try to go.  I even called my roommate Chris to see if he'd want to go and to let him know we'd be leaving a little earlier than originally planned.

Then that afternoon, I jumped on Twitter briefly and saw that Matthew West was giving away two tickets to that night's concert.  I replied to him, but just after I did, he gave them to someone else.  Then he tweeted me that he was going to give them to me, too.

So as soon as Chris was done with class, we headed out to the concert.  As expected, it took a while to get through with the traffic, so it was actually more like two hours to get there.  We were actually included in an early meet and greet time, which was basically a chance to get Matthew's autograph before the show.  We got great seats, and waited for the show to start.

The first act was actually a guy from the church.  He did three songs, which were good.

Then came Josh Wislon.  I've been a fan since his first CD came out, so I was as excited to see him as I was to see Matthew West.  He sang 6 songs, mostly from his new CD.  It wasn't enough!  It was amazing to see him layer some stuff in since he was the only one up there for his set.

Finally, Matthew took the stage.  He started with his hit "The Motions" from his last CD.  He did another couple of his classic songs, then he gave us an intermission.

So far, he had done nothing from The Story of Your Life, his newest disc.  That changed with the second half of the show.  He started at song one and did all the songs back to back.  After the first couple of songs, he introduced every song with either the letter that had inspired it or a video of the people who had inspired it.  There were several times I was wiping away tears.  It was the first time I've ever seen an artist do all the songs from their new disc, but it made for an amazing concert.

After the concert, we hung around, and I was able to get Josh Wilson's autograph.

The downside is that, because of when we left, I didn't get a chance to run home.  So I went in my work clothes and didn't have my camera with me.  Plus I only had one Matthew West CD with me to get signed.  But I'd do it again this way if it were my only choice in a heartbeat.

We got home around 11:30 and went to bed.  We were both moving pretty slowly this morning.  Now I get to go home and work on those TV shows I didn't watch last night.  A lazy night at home watching TV sounds great.

But I'm so glad I went to the concert last night.