What’s been happenin…

Hey Guys! I have been busy and I have been doing other things that are not running related, GASP!!!

I think when I last left you I had just completed my August marathon. Then there were a couple product reviews… I have been busy trying all the things.

What have I been doing? Well the last weekend in August (the 27th to be exact) was the first ever concert in Kinnick Stadium ( this is where the Hawkeyes play football) the Back Porch Revival. It was a huge event, drawing over 40,000 people. It was also a fundraiser for the Native Fund.

I was able to attend a kick off reception where Dallas Clark, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis were in attendance, WOOHOO! I really tried to get in on a selfie, but I didn’t succeed–well see below. I was going to ask for an actual photo, but they left early.

They did make some announcements about why they created the fund and shook some hands, said some thank yous and even Josh got in on the group photo. It took a lot of people to pull off the event.

The concert was the next day and started at 3pm. The lineup was country themed. While I am not a country fan, I couldn’t pass up a concert at Kinnick. David Ray, Morgan Frazier, the Hunter Smith Band, Tucker Beathard (brother to our QB) Big and Rich with Cowboy Troy, Thomas Rhett and Blake Shelton were all there.

The night before I learned I had a parking pass immediately behind the press box, so we were close. I also figured we could do some pre-concert tailgating. We came up with a plan, which was based on which act we would want to make sure to see. We decided we wanted to be in the stadium around 5pm. Once you were in, you could not come back out.

We (Shannon, Tereasa and I) started our concert day by heading to the Backpocket Brewery. They had a sour tap takeover, There were 7 choices! While it was hard to narrow it down, I managed to pick the fruit ones. I was really excited to try these, sour beer is my new thing!

I was disappointed…even Shannon agreed. They really didn’t wow us. I think the Pineapple was my fave, it had the most flavor. T had their cider and said it was pretty good. We needed some food, so we made plans….we put in an order at Monica’s and traveled across Coralville to pick it up.

I dropped the ladies off to grab the pizzas while I stopped at the Kum N Go (convenience store) to grab more ice and some brewskis. We were then headed to Kinnick for some tailgating.

We got to the lot and pulled out our parking pass, the pass even had the specific space we would be parked in, pretty cool. However we watched a lot of confused people come in and out of the parking lot looking for their space, even the attendants were confused at times.

As we enjoyed our pizzas and brews, we thought maybe we would be able to hear the music from inside the stadium, but we couldn’t. It was fun to people watch, not your typical college football stadium crowd. It was a nice day to be outdoors. We even had a visit from McKenzie, which was a good thing as we told her the size restrictions on her expensive purse, so she ditched it with us.

The time came to make our way inside the stadium. We had tickets in the outdoor club level of the press box. We were also sold these knowing they were “obstructed view.”  We took the elevator up, and wondered through the press box.

There weren’t too many people inside yet, so we found some seats near the center of the outdoor club – yep we were squatters, and plopped down to listen to Tucker Beathard.

It was about 5pm and Tucker hit the stage promptly. I am not hugely familiar with country, so the weeks before the concert, I made sure to do some listening. To me Tucker is more soul and bluesy than country. I thought he was good. His brother, you know Iowa’s QB also made an appearance on stage with some of the team.

Up next was Big N Rich, I had actually heard of this duo, mostly for their song that was with Monday Night Football a few years back. Also at this time, people were moving into the seats, so we made it to the seats we paid for.

Welp, the view was slightly obstructed, but we could still see when the singers would pop out of the stage shell. However, the worst part of this was the sound. It must have been set up so the best place to hear everything was directly in front on the stage, not on the sides. It was soo muffled sounding, no wonder we couldn’t hear anything outside the stadium when we were tailgating.

Big N Rich were very patriotic, even brought a veteran up on stage. There was also an appearance by Cowboy Troy. You could tell these guys weren’t afraid to put on a fun show.

During sets there were announcements hosted by Beth Malicki, one of the local news anchors. Before the big acts, Dallas and Ashton would come out and remind people to check out the native fund.

Thomas Rhett was the next act. Tereasa had went to the other end of the outdoor club to see if there were better seats available…and there were some at the very end, so we made our move. We could see the stage! The sound was a little better too.

Thomas’ music is a little more catchy, a little more pop than country, but that could be said for a lot of today’s country music. He is also easy on the eyes (sorry Josh.) He had a good time entertaining the crowd, he even called Ashton up on stage to sing the 3rd verse of Garth Brook’s “Friends in Low Places” or whatever that song is called.

Next up was Blake Shelton. Now I am not a huge Blake fan, but I feel that most people came to see him. Blake had lots of songs in his short time on stage. He also seemed to get really sweaty and confused to how many people were in the crowd, but his estimation of over 100,000 people was just his “schtick.”

When it was over we made our way back to the parking lot, we had to wait for Josh as he worked the event. We discussed the evening and thought it was a nice concert. When Josh showed up, he voiced his opinion and thought he never wanted to have another one – rough day if you had to work the event I guess. So we’ll see if this happens again.

See I do other things than running…I am always up for an adventure…what’s up next? Ok, maybe it’s another race filled weekend. 🙂 Hey, those are still an adventure.