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With the announcement of all the Lilith Fair 2010 cities and artists and dates, I instantly knew that I wanted to go to the show in Nashville.

Sugarland
Indigo Girls
Loretta Lynn
Sarah McLachlan

And I knew that I wanted to go to the show in DC with Molly.

Missy Higgins
Sara Bareilles
Courtyard Hounds
Indigo Girls
Sarah McLachlan

The Nashville concert (for which I had already 4th row tickets) was canceled - and most of the money was refunded to my credit card. It was more clear how important the DC show would be to my year of saying yes to concert opportunities.

I flew to DC on Sunday to stretch my MOLLY time as much as reasonable (given my work trip last week and my work trip next week). We diddled on Sunday afternoon, chatting and my napping to make up for my day starting at 3 am. We ate pizza and ice cream while watching Mad Men.

On Monday, we did some shopping at Target (bottled water) and REI (low-backed lawn/camp chairs). We ate at Chipotle. We went to meet and greet potential kitty adoptees. We went to Molly's sister's place to play the new Lego Harry Potter Wii game. We traveled back to Molly's house to have dinner with her husband and her mom.

Tuesday morning, Molly and her mom let me sleep in while they did some family business. When I got up and ready, we went to Panera for breakfast. We went to meet and greet other potential kitty adoptees. We traveled back to Molly's house, and had lunch with Molly's sister's friend. We packed the vehicle and headed to the venue.

We arrived with plenty of time to find a nice spot on the lawn for our blankets and chairs, with a good view of the stage, and more importantly - the jumbo screen. We had packed water, snacks, card games, and sunscreen. Once camped, we were good for the several-hour wait until Main Stage performances.

I drove to Fayetteville mid-afternoon, and went to the box office to get my ticket at Will Call.  There were 20-30 people already hanging out around the venue, with a couple of hours to go before the concert.  I left the venue and drove around looking for the hotel.  The area around the mall has changed a lot since I lived in Fayetteville (and I realize that this is what cranky old people say - but it's totally true). It took a bit more driving than I expected to find the hotel that was only two blocks from the mall.  I found a Market Place Express restaurant and had a burger.  I drove back to the mall, timing my arrival toward the end of the opening act. I got to my seat on the 7th row, six seats right of center.

I caught the last two songs of the opening act (whose name escapes me at the moment), a lanky long-haired singer-songwriter. Her last song was a cover of Brandi Carlile's "Josephine" - knowing that the audience most likely attended Brandi's concert at George's Majestic Lounge just a few months ago.  I sat uncomfortably in my seat during the in-between, with a soft-spoken couple on my right, 5 empty seats to my left, a family of 5 in front of me. The heat of the evening sun and humidity just made me feel like a big unpopular sweaty blob.  I was delighted that the Indigo Girls took the stage 10 minutes early - jolting me out of the icks and right into my first solo concert experience.

Set List:
Love of Our Lives (Poseidon and the Bitter Bug)

at this point, I was truly disappointed - because I hate this song - and my brain just scattered across the floor, wondering if it was a big mistake to get the tickets, sweat over the fact that the ticket never arrived, call various people to assure my admission, drive 3 hours up, get a hotel room, and the eventual 3 hour drive back home - just because I hated the song

Become You (Become You) - and all at once all was forgiven
Fill It Up Again (All That We Let In)
Driver Education (Poseidon and the Bitter Bug)
What Are You Like (Poseidon and the Bitter Bug)
Dairy Queen (All That We Let In)
Power of Two (Swamp Ophelia)
Ghost of the Gang (Poseidon and the Bitter Bug)
Fleet of Hope (Poseidon and the Bitter Bug)
Joking (Rites of Passage)
Get Out the Map (Shaming of the Sun)
Three County Highway (Despite Our Differences)
-here, we got a story by Amy Ray of her missing dogs and her wonderful sheriff's office which helped find the dogs
It's Alright (Shaming of the Sun)
Yield (Become You)
Ghost (Rites of Passage)
Shame on You (Shaming of the Sun)
Southland in the Springtime (Nomads Indians Saints)
Devotion (Retrospective)
-here, I was really surprised - I thought this must have been a cover, since I _have_ all of their albums and had never heard this song. Thankfully I wrote down as many words as I could, and did frantic internet searching when I got back to the hotel room - only to find the song as one of two new songs on a greatest-hits-type album. Now I have a new temporary-favorite song, mostly because it was a complete surprise and it has a FABULOUS zydeco beat.
Closer to Fine (Indigo Girls) - they brought out the opening artist and allowed her the  third verse and at some point during the song I took a picture when they gestured for the crowd to do the lead singing



Land of Canaan (1200 Curfews style)

Encore:

Second Time Around (Poseidon and the Bitter Bug)
Galileo (Rites of Passage)

Overall impressions:
There's a strange dichotomy in my brain: trying to lower my expectations (this can't possibly be the BEST SHOW EVER because every show can't live up to that - so lower those silly expectations) and forgetting that it isn't about euphoria.. that it's about being a balm in Gilead.