We caught
Marcia Ball's act last night at the Dakota Jazz club downtown.
Jay and I first heard Marcia play several years ago. It was a complete accident; we had never heard of her. She was the opening act for an old favorite of ours, Delbert McClinton, who was playing the amphitheater at the zoo.
The Minnesota Zoo has an amphitheater that is simply the best venue in town. It's a beautiful setting, in the middle of the heavily forested zoo, at the edge of a lake. There's plenty of room for dancing up top or off to the sides. We've seen several shows there but that particular show is memorable not only because it's the night we first heard Marcia.
We had had dinner with our kids then headed off for the zoo, telling them we'd be home around ten or eleven. It was a gorgeous, balmy summer night. Perfect for an out door concert.
We were blown away by the opening act, this tall, energetic southern woman who could sing your socks off. We were all enjoying the show so much that we didn't notice that the sky had changed dramatically, as it does sometimes around here. Marcia put in her show, wiped herself out and said her goodbyes and then Delbert, the headliner came on.
Three songs into his set, the skies opened up and drenched everyone. The band waited about fifteen minutes but when the lightening started, they apologized and canceled the show. Jay and I had already had such a great time we didn't even mind getting such a short set out of Delbert (no one else in the crowd seemed disappointed, either. Just wet.) We began the long hike back to the parking lot.
The zoo's amphitheater is not real close to the main entrance. I felt kind of like Nedry, trying to make it to the East dock in Jurassic Park. By the time we finally reached the car, we were soaked to the skin. Jay remembered his gym bag was in the trunk so he pulled it out and we rifled through it for dry clothes, which we changed into in the car.
The kids were surprised that we were home two hours early but they were really disturbed by the fact that we'd left the house in relatively nice clothes and when we returned, Jay was in a pair of gym shorts and a wife beater and I was wearing compression shorts and a dirty t-shirt.
"What in the world have you been doing?" Katie demanded as Zack and Josie stared dumbfounded.
"Hey!" I pointed at her as I ran after Jay to the bedroom "We're married and can do whatever we like when we go on a date!"
"Eeeeewwww!" they cried in perfect unison.
There was no rain, no lake and no wardrobe malfunctions last night, but we had a blast anyway.
