the verve pipe concert

my favorite band is joy electric. i have been obsessed with them for a while now. but there once was a time before i had ever heard of joy electric. shocking, i know. at that time my favorite band was a little local west michigan band that soon hit it big.
it was the verve pipe. that name might sound vaguely familiar to you because about 9 years ago they had one hit. and that was all. it was the song 'freshman'. when it came out in '97 many people got sick of it quickly because they overplayed it on the radio. well, imagine my situation: they band was really big in grand rapids when i was growing up because to us they were 'the hometown boys' and were local favorites even before they had the record label deal. so the local radio stations would play their songs all the time. and of couse they would typically play 'freshman'. lucky me, i got to hear it over played twice! the thing is though, i never got sick of it. im still not sick of it. i totally love it. unfortuantely the band broke up a few years ago and the the lead singer (brian vander ark) has since been making a go of his solo career. ive seen verve pipe many times over the years, once when i had no idea who they were but was told 'check em out, youll like em...', and a few times since. i also was able to see brian solo a few times in chicago at the house of blues. i had figured there wasnt a chance to ever see verve pipe live again.
imagine my excitement when i had come to learn that the verve pipe was going to be playing a one-time-only reunion show in grand rapids- and i was actually going to be around for it!!! so i called up my buddies, some were fans as well, some wernt, and we made plans.
the show was on december 23 and it was amazing!!! the boys played their hearts out and proved that they still got it. it was great fun, they played quite a varied assortment of music. they pulled out some of their hits, some of their new stuff, and some of the classics that needed a bit of dusting off, they even threw in some great cover songs. certainly a solid show, one of the best ive seen in a long time. i was easily reminded of what i loved about them so much.