My Favorite Answer

Those bastards. Those selfish, reprehensible bastards. Five years I’d awaited an opportunity to catch an Okkervil River show, and then a further three months have passed since that concert was originally scheduled, and then, after all that postponement and agonizing over what to wear to the show, when I finally saw them they neglected to play ‘Red.’ That’s right. The song responsible for my favorite color, season, and answer, as well as an irrefutable source of inspiration in my life, still remains just outside my reach to see played live. Oh those heartless bastards. And, to make it all worse, they just had to dazzle with one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Standing on their own, Okkervil River produced a quite captivating spectacle. Standing in front of a ten piece orchestra and a complementing horn section and our collective breath vanished, just like that, stolen away. Folk rocked the casbah, would be the clichéd way to phrase it, instead I’ll just say they brought the house down. Standing ovation from a near capacity theatre crowd, and in response they gave us a worthy encore. Except of course for the tragic omission of ‘Red.’ And no, I’m not one of those hideously faux fans who attend concerts knowing only one song and scream out for the band to play it the entire evening. It’s just this one song has such a hold on me. I mean, this is Top 5 all time favorites kinda love. Right up there with ‘Hey Jude.’ It’s that level of greatness. Trust me.

And now my familiar digression into tangents has occurred. The point of this was to praise the wholesome goodness of Okkervil River. So consider it praised. I heard that some guy drove 19 hours from California to catch the show. Fanatical, perhaps, but wait a minute. Come with me here, for I love this part. I’m going to ask myself a question, and, this time, this time, I know exactly what my response is gonna be. Ready? Now... would it have been worth it?

Yes.