get barenaked

Have I talked to you yet about Barenaked Ladies?

The band, not the dancing girls.

Over the years I seem to have become more and more of a fan of this crazy, quirky Canadian band. I won't lie and say I've loved them from the beginning of time (The Yellow Tape), but after falling in love with "The Old Apartment" I have been chasing them around ever since. The first thing I did when I got my IPod was to upload about 300 of their songs into my playlist. I love their range, their lyrics are smart and funny, and they never fail to entertain me. (I mean come on ~ Chickity China the Chinese Chicken is just FUN to say!)

If you look around this site you'll notice that all of the headings are BNL song titles (life in a nutshell, Leave, Testing, 1, 2, 3, Everything Old is New Again and It's All Been Done). The quote at the bottom of the page is from our family's favorite car tune "Million Dollars." (Yes, my kids know the words to more BNL songs than is probably necessary!)

My first BNL concert was a giant leap outside of my comfort zone. DH was away for military duty, but his new friends had an extra ticket to the show. I hadn't even met them yet. I remember after agreeing to meet them out for dinner before the show that I had to email one of the girls to find out what she looked like so that I knew who to look for at the restaurant. This was crazy to DH since I was not usually one for talking to people I don't know or getting outside of my little circle and making new friends. Also, did I mention that I was seven months pregnant at the time? Yep, this pretty much cemented that fact that I was going to be a dedicated fan for life.

I will say this, it is totally worthwhile to do what you can to make it to a BNL live show. No album will ever do justice to the experience you get when seeing these wacky guys live. They laugh, make jokes, talk a lot, make up raps, break into random miscellaneous medleys of other artists' music, they mess up, they choreograph zany routines, they play a lot of different instruments, they sing their hearts out. They don't take themselves too seriously, but their talent shines for itself. I have never felt like I didn't get my money's worth at one of their shows.

One year they were doing a holiday show and the tickets were giveaways only from our local radio station. It was driving me crazy that they weren't for sale! But my faithful friend won tickets for us, and then I won an Ovation guitar signed by the band at the show! I have since started calling her my good luck charm, because at the next show we met some of the band members (where I made a complete idiot of myself asking them to sign my ticket *DOH!*) and at the most recent concert we caught a drumstick. Next week we are seeing them again - wonder what I will come home with this time?

I LOVE the Ladies!!!



My boy Ed: