Lovin' Phil Joel

Last night Gilbert and I had the chance to go to a Christian coffee house in town and see Phil Joel perform. To tell the truth, I really didn't care to go. I mean, I don't have anything against Phil Joel. We have a CD of his that I'm crazy about (and now, with my fancy new CD-playin' van, I can actually listen to it), but I almost sent Gilbert on his own. Most of my lack of enthusiasm was due to the fact that I didn't want to hunt down a babysitter. Okay. That was the entire reason I didn't want to go. But I sucked it up, asked a sweet family at church for a favor (which I hate to do), and they were glad to keep him. So off we went to see Phil Joel, and I am so glad we did.

I would say that I appreciate music. I like it, I enjoy it, but I don't love it in the same way that some people do. I understand that there is great power in music; that it has the ability to speak directly to a person and meet you where you are, but it isn't a hobby of mine. I'm not a music connoisseur, if you will. This, however, was my kind of concert. Not the get up and yell kind of concert but the sit, listen, and soak-it-up kind of concert. The entire building only legally held about 250 people, and I wouldn't guess there were even half that many there. We sat in the perfect spot, close enough to the stage to feel the intimacy of the place. To be honest, and at the risk of sounding ridiculous, it was a strange sort of emotional experience for a music-liker such as myself. Each song was so heart-felt, personal, and easy to relate to. I guess that's one of the great things about Christian music, but being in that type of setting made me feel so connected to each line that was sung.

Anyway, my point is that not only did last night make me appreciate music a little more, it made me appreciate Phil Joel a little more too. He was funny, personal, and down-to-earth. I even grew to appreciate his hair in the hour that we spent with him. We begrudgingly left at ten because we promised the Tilleys we'd pick up Cole by ten, but we didn't want to. I had to scold Gilbert this morning for imagining what songs we'd missed after we left, and we both woke up with Entertaining Angels stuck in our heads. It was quite a night.