I wanted to include video I shot with this post, but that will have to wait until later. I did include someone else’s file at the bottom and will add my own to a new post when I get it edited.

An amazing thing happened earlier this week – I went to a rock concert. I love music, but don’t get to see live shows very often. This is for a variety of reasons, but one of them became very clear after I saw the Old 97s at the Recher Theatre in Baltimore earlier this week – I’m old.

Rhett Miller and the rest of his bandmates managed to play an incredible show and got up early the next morning for a TV appearance in New York. I needed to go to sleep early the next two nights. That’s how much fun I had.

I first saw the band play last summer, also at the Recher. I have no idea why such a successful band plays shows for $20 in a room which advertises itself as having a capacity of just 700. I just know that I like the intimacy and energy you get from the experience.

The band certainly had some hiccups – guitarist Ken Bethea started a song in the wrong key and an impromptu band meeting had to solve the problem – but they still ripped the paint off the wall. The new offerings from Grand Theatre, Vol. 1 meshed well with hits like “Murder or a Heart Attack,” “Question,” “Rollerskate Skinny” and the always blistering acoustic version of “Our Love.”

All of this was topped off by an incredible version of R.E.M.’s ‘Driver 8″ to kick off the final encore. Rhett Miller playing R.E.M. I was in heaven. They followed it up with “Dance With Me,” which I have posted below. What a night – stay tuned for some of my videos sometime over the weekend if they turn out.