Marty’s photo of the day #3603: In the marriage advice chapter of my latest book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, I talk about how Deb and I have kept our 36-year marriage fresh by doing spontaneous things. Examples include suddenly deciding to travel to all seven-continents, moving to Montana on a whim, and flying to Italy to see a Within Temptation concert. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on our spontaneous activities, but yesterday when I got an email from Halestorm offering a special code for pre-sale tickets to the upcoming Halestorm / Evanescence tour that begins in November, I showed the email to my wife.

Deb’s first response was, “I don’t know if I want to get on an airplane again that soon,” but later that day (without any prodding from me) she started talking about how she had looked up airline tickets to Portland, Oregon, and that we could take the train directly from the airport to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

An hour later we had great tickets for the November 5th show! Yeah, we have our fingers crossed that COVID-19 will be well under control by that time. It’s also why we chose a liberal city rather than other options that included St. Louis, Missouri or Fort Worth, Texas. But talk about an amazing double bill! Deb and I saw Halestorm in 2019 (that’s when I took this picture), and Evanescence is one of the last bands on my bucket list to see. At this moment in time, both are among the very best active American rock bands. The concert should be awesome.