Brooke Herren: Surprise!

Friday evening after I got off work Quinn and I headed to Breckenridge, CO to surprise an old friend of ours. The friend we surprised was Matt Seidel. He grew up in Crawford, NE, which is only 30 miles or so from Harrison (the town I grew up in). We've been friends for 10+ years and he is just an all-around awesome guy (super nice, hilarious, etc). He moved to Sacramento, CA a few years ago or so and ended up joining a band. Arden Park Roots. They released their first album last year and this year they went on their first tour. They also have another band, The Livin's Easy, which is a Sublime Tribute Band. They do awesome with their own music and with Sublime's. Anyway, I've been wanting to see them play for quite some time and when I found out they were going to be in Colorado I was stoked! Many of their shows were on weeknights and the shows that were fairly close to where I live were taking place while I was in The Bahamas. Luckily their final Colorado show was in Breckenridge on a Friday night.

After 5 1/2 hours of driving (and giving my sister a major panic attack with my driving skills) we made it to the Three20South bar where the band was playing for the night. We got there at just the right time. The band was just getting ready to play so we got to say hi to Matt before they started. Unfortunately, our surprise was ruined. Matt had heard we were coming just a couple hours before we got there. By some odd coincidence Matt's mom and our dad ran into each other and dad told her about Quinn and I driving down to see Matt. Apparently neither knew it was a surprise so she called Matt and let him know. :) Oh, well. He was still happy to see us.

The band(s) did great and it was so awesome to see Matt in action (he plays the guitar)! The only downfalls of the trip were the fact that it was a very fast trip (we had to be in Harrison by 7:00 Saturday night for Pacen's 1st Communion) and we ended up staying in a creepy Motel. The Motel looked nice online when I made the reservations, but it turned out to be pretty trashy. I slept with a can of pepper spray next to me and Quinn slept with my softball bat, aka Baby Blue, next to her. We also had my self-defense class moves to protect us. :) Nothing happened, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry, right.

So, everyone, be sure to check out Matt's bands. You can find Arden Park Roots here and The Livin's Easy here.

Quinn, Matt, and I