Last year, we were finishing the house and getting ready to move and moving, and we missed a lot of the summer. This year, we are making up for lost time!

Last weekend, we went to see Mumford & Sons at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, WA. 2 hours west of Spokane, 2.5 hours east of Seattle, it's in the middle of absolute nowhere - that happens to be on a ridge above the beautiful Columbia River.

The comparison to Red Rocks Park (in Colorado) is immediate and deserved. Is it a better or worse venue than Red Rocks? Oh, why judge! The important thing is, I used to get to go to concerts at Red Rocks, and now I get to go to concerts at The Gorge!

It bills itself as having the most beautiful sunsets of any concert venue in the world, and THAT may well be true, for the sunset was indeed breathtaking (the clouds cleared enough in time to be an accent rather than a hindrance).

Oh, right, the concert itself. Incredible. Easily Top 5 of shows I've seen, and I've seen *a lot* of shows. 9 band members, with a full horn section, an upright bass, and of course the omnipresent fiddle, and their sound was as crisp, clear and in sync as a studio recording. In person, they sounded better than their released live albums.

But let's be honest. While the show would've been a shadow of itself without the ensemble, Marcus Mumford is the indisputable star. He has a strongly charismatic stage presence that I wasn't expecting, and a perfect voice.

10/10, would recommend.*

*Except the exfiltration system. It was a disaster. Never build a venue that can hold 30,000 people at the end of a 3-mile 2-lane road.