Just a quiet Tuesday evening...

So in my last post, I told you what I did for most of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend – Saturday through Monday. But I'm sure you asked yourself "now what did those crazy kids get up to on Friday?!" Well, to answer that, I have to tell you what we did on Thursday after work: basically, we went on a bender.

Because The Irishman works from home, often he gets a bit cooped up and stir crazy. Last Thursday he specifically asked if we could go out that night since he'd been in the house working from home all week. So we celebrated the bank holiday weekend with a little pub crawl, ending up at a pizzeria near us. Then we went on for a few cocktails. Then we had a night cap at home, watching Adele at Royal Albert Hall. And I said to The Irishman "I've never been to Royal Albert Hall, and I really want to! Let's see who is playing soon." So we go online around midnight and find out that Orbital is playing on Tuesday after Easter. So in our joyously drunken state, we bought tickets to Orbital. On a Tuesday night.

Now. Orbital is not exactly my favorite band. In fact, electronic music was last seriously on my radar in around 1999. But for The Irishman, it was the music of his uni and young adult years. He loves Daft Punk, Orbital, all of the big electronic festival bands of the mid-to-late-90s. So when we woke up with hangovers on Friday, he moaned about his headache while I was slightly nauseous about the fact we now had tickets to a rave in Royal Albert Hall.

Part of me didn't really want to go; I was stressed about the mountain of work I knew I'd have to get through this short week, and the idea of having to get out of work early and home late for a band I didn't really know wasn't exactly appealing. But The Irishman was so pumped and I was so curious about what an electronic band would be like in such an amazing setting that I was finally like, whatever, f**k it. 

So Tuesday night The Irishman and I skipped off to South Ken and went to the amazing venue that is Royal Albert Hall; I feel so honored to have been able to go into that building. Amazing - if you ever have an opportunity to see a band play there, I sincerely hope you take it. We got there around 8:30 as the opener was wrapping up and Orbital took the stage promptly at 9pm. We were slightly concerned about the turnout as we were up in the gallery and could look at the entire venue and it wasn't all that full – but just before Orbital took the stage the entire venue was absolutely packed. The Irishman and I giggled because the crowd was definitely characterized by aging ravers – balding, potbellied, pregnant – but all the more excited for it, I think. And then, the music started. I was really surprised how much fun I had at a show of a band I didn't exactly know much about. It was really fun being around all of these people reliving their glory years of festivals, raves, and love. So I leave you with my favorite Orbital track so you can share a little bit of my Tuesday evening education.