I have been sick for the past almost week now. At the first sign of relief tonight I finally decided that I would try and blog. So with a box of Kleenex by my side and my hood up, here goes something.

Originally, when I began this blog I had thoughts of gearing it towards writing reviews of albums or concerts that I went to (fun fact: anyone who knows me might call me a concert junkie, or more specifically a country concert junkie). Thinking this is something that I would love to write about – I realize that thus far I have yet to do so. Tonight that changes. This past weekend we saw Kip Moore at The Dallas Bull; this being the third time seeing him, it’s time to write my first concert post.

For anyone who doesn’t love a backstory you can skip this paragraph, for anyone who does well: about a year and a half ago my boyfriend and I had decided to see Kip at this same venue. It was actually our first (of many, many) concerts together. When we walked in the doors of the Dallas Bull that night we each only knew one or two songs, enough to decide that we would enjoy it enough to go and see him play them live. When we walked out of the doors at the Dallas Bull that night we couldn’t wait to get in the car and begin downloading every song Kip played because they were all somehow that good.

Fast forward to this year when Kip returned to the Dallas Bull and we decided that we absolutely couldn’t miss it. Saturday night and the club was packed. More packed than I had ever seen it, and far beyond what it had been the last time. As we grabbed our drinks and shuffled to where we would be standing for the next 2 hours, the lights began to come down and the band walked out followed by Kip himself. Crazy One More Time (from his first album, Up All Night) was the opening song. As expected, the crowd amped up more for his radio singles (Truck, Beer Money, Hey Pretty Girl), but the high energy stayed pretty consistent for the entire concert. Kip played quite a few songs from his upcoming sophomore album due out next year, with a single coming out next week called Young Love (which he describes as an “us against the world” type of love song). New song after new song my boyfriend and I sang along and cheered for ones that we had found on Youtube months before. This had been a long time coming for us. We were ready to see these songs live and at our own concert outside of a computer screen. When Kip closed out the show with Somethin’ Bout a Truck, you could hear the crowd cheer as soon as the opening chord intro to the song began playing. Almost all of the Dallas Bull was singing and chanting along to the song with hands in the air and boots dancing on the floor. By the song’s end, Kip thanked everyone for coming, the lights cut, and he and the band exited the stage. Knowing he would more than likely come back out for one more song, boyfriend and I decided to scoot up as close as we could when people started shuffling to the sides and on their way out. Sure enough, Kip came back out and played his mix of Faith When I Fall / Free Fallin’ (Youtube it, you’ll love it). He may or may not have pointed at me during the performance, and I may or may not (definitely did) have fangirled a little (a lot) a bit. I can’t help it.

I absolutely recommend looking up all of his new songs coming out, specifically Unless Heaven’s Got a Dirt Road, Baby Break My Heart, OK JUST ALL OF THEM. Better yet, do your ears a favor and download (or Spotify) his first album. It’s truly been something to watch him grow and shape as an artist, and it’ll be exciting to see where he goes next with the release of next year’s album.

Yes. Somehow, someway the day of the concert I was chosen (along with 7 others) to win a Meet & Greet for Kip from Twitter. You had to tweet a certain hashtag and then refresh your twitter feed every 8 seconds to see if you won or not. Oh, wait that second part wasn’t required? Needless to say, when my name was tweeted I could not stop freaking out, even happy-cried a little bit which added to the sniffles that I already had from my cold. JUST SO MANY EMOTIONS. What a feeling to meet (even if only for a minute or two) one of your favorite artists.