“Hey… you guys are a lot of fun. I don’t remember church being this much fun.”

iron and wine came to wheaton.

okay, i'll stop feeding off other's work soon, but this article will give a great background for the rest of this.

i worked security at this show last weekend. i was basically a body with a brain at strategic doors during the show to be sure only the appropriate bodies went through at the appropriate time. my assignment allowed me to be standing in the wing as sam beam (the main guy behind i&w, and only performer we had that evening) waited to be introduced. there were three or four of us standing there with him. beam was shuffling his feet and picking random chords on the guitar already around his shoulders, and occasionally asked casual questions of those standing around. i myself was trying to answer a question my fellow security worker and current roommie, anna, had asked me about chicago to keep from staring and probably engaging him in conversation and saying something silly.

i haven't been near too many famous people in my life, and so they're still kind of fascinating. not in a "omg i know a famous person!!!" kind of way, but in a human, "how do you deal with life when you live this way--or do you even think about it?" beam is a man not much taller than me, with long hair and a very dense beard. he wore jeans and a jacket and matte leather shoes out onstage. of that few number of famous people i've met, he's probably the nicest. i'm still bound to say something silly to him, though. his show was wonderful.

he's not a Christian, as the above article states, and he did have to pause for a half-dozen or so words that wheaton wouldn't let him say. but he made beautiful music and, also as the above article states, connected with wheaties when he censored himself the same way wheaton connected with him by inviting him, giggling at his honesty ("how can you know which song this is [from hearing the first few bars]? all the songs sound the same!" "you guys are a lot of fun. i don't remember church being this much fun."), and allowing ourselves to be awed by his art.

if you've got a few minutes to listen to a very sweet song, here's the one he opened our show with. this recording was not taken at our school: we did not have the man in the orange on the left. so, beam is the very hairy one with the guitar. enjoy.

the trapeze swinger, by iron and wine