The Rock Island girl that rocked the house.

I'm still wearing my cloak of excitement from last night and it look it looks fabulous!

I cannot believe it happened. Did it? Yeah. There are pictures. No pinching necessary here.

My girl, Brooke, told me about a FREE Lissie show going down at Reggie's. Um...FREE? Hell, I paid for tickets to see her at Lincoln Hall back in January and didn't end up making it. I didn't really mind that I lost money on this one, I don't mind contributing to Lissie's music one bit. So I scooped up the offer for this gem, made the trek to her casa, and hopped in the car to go nice and early. We arrived to meet her friend, Dana, around 4:30 or so. The place was still pretty empty, so we were able to snag a huge booth right off the side of the stage. Appetizers are half off on Wednesdays and my Margarita was $5. I felt like the money-saving gods where whispering my name and pouring my drinks.

So I go out to snag a cigarette and of course Lissie was out front being her cool rock star self chatting nicely (ABOUT XRT! duh HUGE ear perk) with people. I genuinely wanted to smoke, but I genuinely wanted to tell her that I'd been waiting for her to be played on XRT since I've heard music escape her mouth sometime early last year. So I puff, puff, put that shit out, and made my way over. I stood behind friends she knew when she diverted the attention to me. Opps. So I said "Hey, I'm a huge fan, you'd be perfect on XRT, I tweet both of you guys all the time, so I hope you get played soon!" I'm telling you, this girl is so freaking adorable and genuine and totally tubular.

So back inside, the crowd and excitement were growing and my sobriety was somewhere in the mix when these three older women sat down at the table in front of us. My first thought was "Hell yeah! I knew I should have told my mom about this artist...teehee hipsters".

Sound check came and went. Why do they never say "Check Check Czechoslovakia"? or "Check Check Checkmate"? I've been wondering that for too many years now. This was an XRT show. I'm sure you know what that means to me. I knew there would be a DJ in the house somewhere. AH HA! I saw Marty Lennartz from a mile away. I wanted to go up to him so badly, ask him about what it was like to work there, ask him to get me a job and then just stick with that topic for 30 minutes, but I didn't. Why? I don't know at all ::kicking myself:: I am so revved that Lissie is trying to get her stuff out on such an amazing station. Lissie reminds me of a really early Melissa Etheridge (no...not that kind, Brooke). I love that. Some of her pictures even confirm that...

 

So Marty Lennartz announced her on stage and a wonderful hour and a half ensued. She played an 11 song show I believe; Wedding Bells, Worried About, When I'm Alone, Bully, Little Lovin', Record Collector, In Sleep, Cuckoo, Everywhere I Go, Oh Mississippi, and Kid Cudi's Pursuit Of Happiness. This was an amazing set. I love all of her songs, especially her Lady Gaga cover of Bad Romance.  I had never heard Kid Cudi's song or heard Lissie's cover of it somehow. I ABSOLUTELY fell in love with it and upon hearing it last night. You better believe I got it today. I've decided a skating routine needs to get choreographed to this song immediately. I just love the way she sings this. It's a perfect cover, especially because I feel like she would heavily relate to this song. I want to tell the world about this song. The way she went into it below is very similar to the clip below and that was thanks to Brooke. I want to tell the world about how awesome Lissie is. She gives off this exuberance.You can tell she loves what she does and that she worked her ass off to get where she is. She is so real and you can definitely tell she's from the Midwest. Poor girl's bus driver took off in Finland with her equipment, they had to rent her gear. She rocked it and there were no need for apologies, but I loved the guitar tuning session where she went into the end of "part of "Little Lovin" and I belted out the "WOAH OH OH OH OH OHHHH!" to go along with it. Sorry crowd, couldn't resist! And yeah, I'll consider that a duet!

I also thought it was vital to shout at the crowd for being stiff as boards. This was a dancing show, my friends. Start acting like it.

Listen to how rad this chick is live:

"Pursuit of Happiness"

Kid Cudi Cover

So back to those three older women that were seated in front of us. Well, before Lissie played Bully, I believe that is when she announced her mom was in the audience. Two of the women pointed at one of them and I was so stoked! I couldn't believe it. I (like a huge creep) put my hand on her back and said "You must be so proud!" and she was like "We are!" One of her two best girlfriends was dancing around with us and was so excited we were such big fans. Before Lissie performed Pursuit of Happiness, Brooke bought her a shot of tequila because that her thang.

I got a few pictures, but since I have a temp phone, they aren't really worth posting in the slightest. However, I did snag this-

Okay. So let it be noted that when I get excited, it tends to show in my gums.

She looks adorable here! I look frightening, but what are ya gonna do?

please please please go buy "Catching A Tiger" and then go on a long drive on a country road with your best girlfriend. You will not regret it!

I cannot even believe that all happened. Then after the concert they hosted karaoke. The cool part was that it featured a live band, the unfortunate part was that you had to read the lyrics off a sheet, but it's worth it to have the band behind you. I had never done karaoke before and their selection was really limited, but I ended up doing "Me and Bobby McGee". I really, really enjoyed myself! I love performing, but have never sang in front of people before. Hopefully there were no bleeding ears! Ew, that grosses me out. I don't know why I wrote that.

Gosh. What a fantastic night! Now Common XRT! Play her!

-Tessa