The MOE Tour did a decent job of breaking my new tradition of crying every time I hear "With You In Your Dreams." Most nights, I didn't. There's definitely some desensitization that comes from being exposed to the same song night after night, and I guess it was bound to happen naturally over time anyway. It makes me a different kind of sad to think that I might be getting over the effects of WYIYD, but rest assured, it hit me as hard as ever in Raleigh.
This is probably an overshare and hopefully not too sad for anyone reading, but it's what I'll remember when I look back on this show whether I write about it or not. I rarely have bad dreams. Crazy, illogical, saga-length WTF dreams? Absolutely. Regularly, even. But bad dreams? Almost never. I woke up from one of the few nightmares I've had in my life in the middle of the night before the Raleigh show. In the dream, my dad was back and everyone around me was acting like everything was fine and normal, but deep down, dream me knew it wasn't really him. I spent the whole dream being so frustrated that I was the only person that knew the truth, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make anyone understand that it wasn't really my dad. I woke up angry and upset that I couldn't even have a moment back with him in a dream, even for just a minute of fake happiness.
As you can imagine, when they played "With You In Your Dreams" later that night, I lost it. I spent the whole song sobbing in the front row in front of Isaac with my head tucked down into the barricade a lot of the time. I was glad to have my friends next to me, even if one of them was crying too and my poor other friend was stuck in the middle trying to console us both. It wasn't a pretty moment, but it serves as a decent testament to the power of music. Thank God for tissues, friends, and the restorative power of a good drum beat during "I Was Born" a few minutes later. Life goes on, and thankfully so do setlists.
Despite that moment, I really did enjoy the show. Raleigh had one of the higher energy crowds from that string of shows in my opinion, and every fan I encountered all day long was really nice and excited to be there. It was a good crowd with no pushing and plenty of jumping and clapping--all the right chemistry for a great night. Thanks, Raleigh show fans. You guys were awesome. Let's do it again some time.
It got even better when we went outside after the show to wait for the afterparty and found a taco truck parked right there in the parking lot. I threw caution to the wind and ignored the relatively shady appearance of the fading hand-painted letters and the man riding a giant angry jalapeƱo in favor of filling my empty stomach. Those street tacos were a delicious surprise, and when I ran into Zac later I started excitedly rambling about how they need to hire a taco truck to follow them on tour. Dear Hanson, if you're going to use any more of my suggestions in the future, please make it this one. #tacotrucktour