On Saturday afternoon, I was knee-deep in pink baby clothes, fancy finger food and giggling women at my baby shower.

A few hours later, I had ditched the pretty dress and heels in favor of some more comfortable attire, and was knee-deep in headbangers and Heavy Metal at the Anvil show.

You’re darn right I had my baby shower and went to Anvil in the same day!

If you’re not familiar with Anvil, then click here and get familiar.

But to summarize, they’re a Heavy Metal band (and a good one!) that’s been around for ages. Their never-ending quest to keep on rockin’ was documented in a movie released last year. It is by far my number one movie of 2009, yet it’s still getting snubbed by major awards shows. Oh Anvil, the saga continues.

So it’s no surprise that when the husband and I showed up at the Riot Room in KC, the crowd was divided into two distinct groups: Old-school Metal Heads, and Film Geeks. How interesting, since the husband is a die-hard metal fan, and I’m more of a film geek.

But it doesn’t matter. That night we were all Anvil fans.

The show started with Steve “Lips” Kudlow planting himself in the middle of the crowd for a wicked solo.

This wasn’t your typical show. They didn’t go up there and just play songs. They interacted with the audience, pulled out fancy little tricks (Kudlow played the guitar with his mouth, and another “accessory” that is too…uh…”naughty” to mention in this blog) and constantly made us feel at home. Also, Robb Reiner is a really fun drummer to watch. And you know how I feel about drummers.

I hadn’t been in the Riot Room before, but what a neat venue! There was such good comradery amongst the concert-goers. There were the head-bangers of yesteryear (who pretty much looked like 50 year-old versions of my husband, tiny black t-shirt, facial hair galore, etc.), short girls with cameras, and businessmen recording the show on their blackberries. I totally pictured them heading back to work on Monday thinking “I can’t WAIT to show this to the guys in the office!”

At one point in the show my husband pointed out something to me and said “You know you’re at an old school metal show when you see someone in denim shorts.” That was the typical uniform for most of the crowd, denim shorts and an Iron Maiden shirt.

The crowd constantly broke out in chants of “Anvil! Anvil!” every other song. That’s not even an exaggeration. We were all just so happy to be there, and the interaction was darn near romantic. Kudlow noted that because we all saw the movie, we were “all his (expletive) friends, and I’m going to come down and shake everyone’s hand!” And he did.

Kudlow was actually quite charming, and constantly flashed a grin reminiscent of Wayne from “Wayne’s World” between every song. I wanted to “rock out,” but he also made me giggle like a little girl quite a bit.

I loved this show. Not just because I’m on a constant quest to dissect the metal head (they act tough, but most are generally polite kids, so this confuses me), but because I hadn’t been to a single show from the middle of December through the end of January (I blame being snowed in, and the third trimester of my pregnancy). Thank goodness this was my first show of 2010.

Rock on, Anvil!