I treated myself to a little day-after-my-birthday adventure on Friday: I saw The Innocence Mission in concert!
If you have an interest in the playlists I share, you’ll know that The Innocence Mission (which I am going to abbreviate TIM so I don’t have to keep typing that) are a staple of my mixes, and have been for many years. They’re a Lancaster, Pennsylvania band, and they rarely tour. So when I saw that they were going to perform in their first concert in over nine years, and it was within driving distance, I jumped at the opportunity to see them.
Noonish on Friday found me in my new green dress, driving the two hours to Ardmore, PA, with a salt bagel, a peppermint mocha Frappuccino, and a 100% TIM playlist for company. There was a Vrbo room with my name on it near the venue.
I arrived around 2pm, with plenty of time to kill before the concert. I sat down in that comfy chair and took a nice, unplanned nap. What a luxury it is to be able to doze off on a Friday afternoon without a care in the world! Such a simple but rare pleasure.
After my snooze, I set off for Ardmore, a mere six minute drive. I walked around Lancaster Avenue for a while, and then got myself a delicious hamburger at McCloskey’s Tavern. By the time I was done, a line was forming outside of the Ardmore Music Hall.
I’m a huge introvert, and I probably could have spent the entire few hours before the concert saying nothing to anyone. But I somehow found myself surrounded by people who like to talk, and so I had an unexpectedly chatty time. I met someone who flew in from Portland, Maine, someone from Virginia, someone from Bucks County, PA and someone from Pittsburgh, and we talked about TIM and plenty of other things. It was nice. (Is this how extroverts feel all of the time? LOL!)
Being there plenty early, I (and everyone I met) managed to snag a spot in the front row, and it was wonderful.
I will admit, for the last few weeks I was a tiny bit concerned about whether I was going to enjoy myself. I had watched a YouTube video of their previous concert. It was filmed in 2016, and it was just the three current members of the band, no drummer. It was a 45-minute event, and I felt like it lacked energy. I know TIM is a mellow band. I like their mellow sound a lot. But that YouTube video was beyond mellow. I hate to say this, but I found it kinda boring. And it was really short. Maybe that experience was better in person, but on video, it was lacking. So, I was somewhat afraid that my ticket and my travels, and my incredibly sore feet were not going to be worth it.
Oh, but it was so worth it. It was worth the sticky floor and the sore feet. It was worth the 2-hour drive, and the cost of a place to crash for the night. From the first song (On Your Side) there was an energy in the room. The original four-piece band was back together for this event, and what a big difference the drums made!
There was some nice banter (Karen is funnier than I expected!) and some audience sing-along, complete with harmonizing (Lakes of Canada). You could tell the band was enjoying themselves as much as the audience was. Such a lovely time, and I’m so glad I went.
I literally hobbled back to my car after the show. When I said earlier that my feet were sore, that was the world’s biggest understatement. I could barely walk. (Still think it was worth it, though.) I drove back to my room, put my feet up, and immediately made a playlist from the evening’s set list.
If you’re interested in that set list, here it is.
I woke up the next morning to find that someone posted the entire concert on YouTube. (Don’t you just love living in the future?)
Before I checked out, I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and some Wordle at my Vrbo, with my feet up before heading home. Major thumbs up to the Vrbo host for the peonies in the room. I’m sure she didn’t know that I am kind of a peony freak, but it made the room feel personalized just for me. What a great start to the holiday weekend this was!
When I saw Crowded House in 2023, I decided to make it a priority to treat myself to more live music by bands I love. In March 2024, I kept that promise and saw Guster. I didn’t tell you about this one at the time, but I saw Guster again in January of this year. (And I may or may not have tickets to see Guster with the Mountain Goats in August. I’m a bit Guster obsessed at the moment 🤭) And now this. The Innocence Mission has been a long-time favorite of mine, consistently showing up in my top-five most months, and I feel so lucky to have been one of the 600 people in that room this weekend.
If you’re new to TIM and would like some song recommendations to get yourself started, you can check out my “In Reverse” playlist, which is a reverse-chronological (new stuff first) collection of all of the songs I would pick, if I only had a 90-minute cassette tape to put them on. That’s a tough restriction, and I do change it up now and then, because it’s so hard to just pick 25 songs, but it should be good enough for you to get the gist. Enjoy!
