Saturday, May 09, 2015

The Replacements

Kelly's Visit

Kelly is one of our few non-econ friends from Austin. A photographer/book-keeper, mother of three and wife to the lead singer or one of our favorite Austin bands, Grand Champeen, Kelly is a really cool lady that we haven't had the pleasure of seeing since our last trip to Austin back in 2011.

Kelly had decided to celebrate her 40th birthday with her husband Channing in her beloved Pittsburg listening to her beloved Replacements. All was well until Paul Westerberg's throat started hurting on Tuesday, at which point her best laid plans went to hell.

After importing grandparents to watch her three sons, taking off work and flying cross-country, Kelly wasn't quite ready to let the dream die. She remembered that we lived in DC where coincidently the Replacements were scheduled to play on Friday, that Channing knew a guy who knew a guy who had an extra ticket to the show, and that three nights should be enough for even the hardest of rockers to re-cooperate. It seemed like a sign.

So Channing flew back to Austin and Kelly took the bus to DC to hang with us for a few days. She took in the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, several cello tunes from Owen and even the "Arsenal of Democracy" flyover. Things got a little dicey on Friday -- the metro we put Kelly on to go to the concert broke down for 20 minutes and it wasn't until after she'd hung out for several hours in the neighborhood that Kelly discovered the concert wasn't at the 9:30 Club like we thought, but rather Echostage which is across town and next to nothing. Kelly is now a huge fan of Uber.

In the end, Kelly said it was a great show. And while we're sorry that Channing missed it and that she had to be without her boys for three extra days, we're really glad we got to hang out with her. Hopefully, our next meet-up will be a bit less stressful.

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