NorCal Musical Trip

DAY 1: Friday, San Jose

After the long long drive up to San Jose, we made it to our hotel and checked in. And after getting settled and freshened up, we headed back out for downtown San Jose for dinner and and the first musical of the trip, the much acclaimed and beloved show, Spring Awakening.

We ate dinner at the Firehouse, a small local hot spot in the rustic downtown area. The restaurant was small, with old brick walls, painted bright red floors, and projected fire on any blank walls that were not covered in fireman garb. We had some great burgers and beers, and headed to the theater for the show.

Spring Awakening was good, but not great for me (Jordan/Ryan…sorry, but I can’t say I can join you in your fanaticism). The singing was strong, and the set was very beautiful. I loved all the movement on stage and the choreography, but the overall storyline didn’t move me. I wasn’t wowed by it, and it felt a little bit predictable…like I have seen this formula before. The parts were good, but as a whole it didn’t do it for me.

DAY 2: Saturday, Berkley/San Fran

We made it up to Berkley for our afternoon matinee showing of American Idiot. Which is this new musical they made by taking Green Day’s American Idiot album and a few other from the 21st Century Breakdown album and using it as the soundtrack and the storyline for the show.

The show was at the Berkley Rep, this pretty modern and industrial theater. We had front row seats (which somehow turned out to be 2nd row seats) and Jordan and I were in the “Lodge” which we also thought we had front row, but alas it was 2nd row as well.

I was super impressed with the set design. They backed the stage with a huge wall plastered with Obey style newspaper prints and cut outs for TVs that they controlled and showed graphics and videos on. The show was just all rock and all energy. I thought it was an amazing production, the music was on, and the singing was strong.

After the show we made our way to San Francisco, checked into our hotel and set out for dinner at Pier 39 and Bubba Gumps.

Oh and I might have forgotten to mention that it was halloween night and all the shops on the pier were having kids come by and trick-or-treat at their stores…but some stores were not as prepared as others.

They had great service and these cool flip license plate style signs that when you needed something you just flipped and they came running. The shrimp was good, especially the coconut battered fried shrimp, and because it was my birthday a few days before…my friends told the service peoples who made me stand on the booth as they sang their birthday song to me.

After the night, we grabbed breakfast at Panera. Jordan was acting a little rambunctious and attention deprived before we started out 9hour journey back to to SoCal.

See all the shots from the trip HERE