He Must Be Here With His 13 Year Old Daughter...

...or else he's an undercover police nark.

I'm assuming this is what people thought when they saw me last night as I sat at the Pepsi Center in Denver watching...

...wait for it...

...the Taylor Swift concert.

I've never really been a country music fan and I'm obviously not a teenage girl who recently had her heart broken by a "mean boy" but as it turns out, my friend Amos is Ms. Swift's bass player. So, when the tour brought them to Denver for 2 nights, Amos got me a hook-up on some sweet tickets and carved out some time for dinner before the concert so Emilie and I channeled our inner 15-year-old girl and headed off to the show.

Let me back up briefly and tell you about my friend Amos - Amos was one of those people God brings into your life just when you need them. I met Amos back when I was living in Cincinnait and we quickly bonded over our mutual love of Monty Python. Amos was my dearest and closest friend at a time when I needed a close male confidant and some of the deepest and most meaningful conversations I've ever had about life, philosophy...you name it...have been with Amos...Thanks Buddy!

About the time I moved to Hawaii, Amos moved to Nashville to try to make it big as a musician. He had always been an EXTREMELY talented bass player and played with various bands around Cincy that were regionally famous. I always said that if there was anyone I knew who was talented enough to be a big time professional musician, it was Amos...and I was right! Now, he plays every night in front of 20,000 people with the biggest name in pop/country music today.

Back to our night...

When we started making plans, I knew immediately where we needed to go for dinner...the world famous (thanks to Southpark) Casa Bonita. It is kitsch, retro, short on sanitary measures and serves mediocre Mexican cuisine...but it is bursting with ambience...and I knew it would be right in Amos' wheel house. We always describe it as a Mexican version of Chuck E. Cheese but with more 1970's overtones and less class. If you've never been there or seen the Southpark episode, this clip very accurately portrays the experience, including the cliff divers, Black Bart's cave, the strolling Mariache band and the yummy sopapillas.



Me and Amos in front of Casa Bonita...
We totally lucked out and got a cool table overlooking the waterfall and cliff-diving pool...
Amos' face pretty much says it all...

Though I was concerned that my dinner suggestion might single-handedly shut down the Taylor Swift concert for all of Denver if Amos was suddenely struck by uncontrollable vomiting, we headed back to the Pepsi Center.

Outside the Pepsi Center just before the concert...

The opening number was the ubiquitous "You Belong With Me"...

...which meant Amos got to don his high school band uniform from the video. If you haven't seen the video, Amos is classic (and believable) as a trombone playing High School Band Nerd...

Our seats were sweet...

Amos' rad upright bass...loved when you played it with the bow dude!

What a rockstar!!

We were close enough to the stage for Amos to be able to pick me out of the crowd and give me this super-mug pose...I was easy to find...I was the guy aiming his camera at someone other than Taylor :)

Though Amos isn't one of my oldest friends, since I've only known him for like 8 years, or no longer one of my closest friends, since we live very far apart and I haven't seen him in person for several years, he is absolutely one of my dearest friends and I love him dearly...he worked his butt off in crappy gigs for years to get where he is now and I couldn't be happier for him. If you are a Taylor Swift fan, go check her out when she's in your area...they put on a really good show and sound great...especially that rhythm section!!

It was great to see you, man! Let's try to make it less than 4 years between visits this time!