railroad revival tour!

dannon and i have been mumford & sons fans for a few years now, ever since they were a little unknown band in the UK.  so when we saw that they were doing a tour-by-train with edward sharpe & the magnetic zeros and old crow medicine show a mere two weeks before the mister's birthday, we knew we had to go.

so friday we drove over to the ship yards of san pedro and wandered around the docks for a bit before making our way into the giant parking lot... er,... concert venue.

since we were there early, we found a spot right up front.  this was fine for the first two acts - not too crowded, fun people surrounding us, plenty of room to dance - but come mumford & sons and we found ourselves packed in like a japanese commuter train.  after a few songs up close {with dreamy stairs at the
keyboardist - swoon!}, we made our way farther back where we
could once again dance the concert away!

{*}

all the bands were completely amazing. we had heard old crow medicine show and edward sharpe in concert before, and once again they did not disappoint with a foot-stomping good time!  but mumford & sons completely blew them all away.  they were just perfect, and all of that big soul-thrilling sound they
produce on records was infinitely more amazing live.

the best part was probably at the very end, when everyone from all of the bands came out and
performed the encore together - woody guthrie's "this train is bound for glory."
it was epic!

{*}

today they are in new orleans for their final show of the tour.
can you imagine being on this train?  non stop jamming with all sorts of amazing musicians.
what a dream!!

{**}

i was a no good, very bad blogger and didn't take any pictures.  actually that's not true, we
took a couple photos but they were just a few colored blurs amongst a whole lot of black,
so i had to borrow photos from those who are much better at photography than me:
* these photos were borrowed from the railroad revival tour flickr photos.
** these photos were borrowed from the railroad revival tour travel diary.


you definitely need to catch a show if you get the chance to see any of these bands!