Over winter break I drove down to Vermont to visit my room mate. She lives in Brandon which is the cutest, coziest town I've ever been in.
We both got tickets to a show in Killington, which is about 45 minutes away from her home. So we decided to make a week of it. I got to her place on a Monday, we went shopping in Burlington on a Tuesday (Burlington is so cool, by the way) and Wednesday night was the show.
The band was Yukon Kornelius and the place was the Pickle Barrel Night Club right there in Killington. The club was also a restaurant, but that night no one was sitting down to a meal; there was hardly even any room to sit. It was completely packed.
The atmosphere of the place was very rustic; it felt like an old barn. Everyone was having a great time. The opening act was Pete Kilpatrick, which was a little ironic for me being a Mainer at a show in Vermont; I just wasn't expecting that I guess. He played about 5 or 6 songs and he definitely rocked the place. Then Yukon came out.
First of all, I forgot to mention that the entire evening was hosted by actor Jason Biggs, the guy from American Pie that gets caught doing something other than eating it. Anyway, after Pete got done his set, Jason introduced the act of the night.
Yukon Kornelius consists of Ed Robertson from the Barenaked Ladies, Eric Fawcett from N.E.R.D., Adam Gardner of Guster and Stefan Lessard, the bassist from the Dave Matthews Band. I stumbled upon a news headline on the DMB website that said "Stefan to play benefit concert with members of..." and you get the drift.
So Julia and bought tickets and that was that.
The show was insane. They played for almost two hours but I don't think anyone in the place would have minded if they had played longer. They did some of Barenaked Ladies' material as well as some Guster. They did everything from funk/soul to 80's hairband music. Jason Biggs even came out on stage for a song to play the cowbell on "Don't fear the reaper" (there should have been "more cowbell" though). Then, towards the end of the show, I look over my left shoulder and there's this guy standing there with a funny look on his face. For lack of inhibitions I ask him "What?" and he says, "Just wait. Just wait. Look and see who's going to be coming on the stage." Sure enough, Dee Snider from the 80s band Twisted Sister comes running out for the last song, which appropriately enough was "We're not gonna take it." It was amazing. That whole night was amazing. Definitely one of my favorite memories of all time.