Work is Awesome, Especially When Matchbox Twenty Shows Up

I normally make it a point not to speak about work in my blog, out of respect for Google, our partners and our competitors. Today, however, Rob Thomas specifically asked me (well, me and a few hundred coworkers) to do so, so I am. You've probably already heard that Google is an awesome place to work, from me, Fortune, or whoever. But today was one of those days that really nailed it home.

This weekend I went back to Philly for Penn homecoming, my frat(DSP)'s centennial anniversary and, of course, an excuse to see my girlfriend Megan who's back in New York. It was a great weekend, but my flight back was delayed and by the time I got home it was about 1:30am in San Francisco. Needless to say, I wasn't happy with my 5:45 alarm this morning.

If I worked anywhere else, today would have been terrible. But I don't; I'm lucky enough to work for Google. That doesn't mean I didn't need an absurd amount of caffeine to stay awake today, because I did, but luckily it also meant that after a long day, I got to sit back and watch Matchbox Twenty play a Googlers-only concert on our campus. Why? Just because they felt like it.

I honestly had kind of forgotten about Matchbox Twenty. Loved them back in middle school and high school, but soon after my sister went to FSU, our family converted to country fans. Today's concert alone probably made me a fan again. The band was hilarious and awesome in acoustic, despite their disbelief in rehearsing before shows, and the room was filled with an amazing energy.

The best part, though, was when one of my coworkers stood up during Q&A and, in front of hundreds of people, explained that she was a big fan and had a hard day and just needed a hug and a kiss. So Rob Thomas invited her up to collect. So, yeah, her day was even better than mine. At so many other companies, HR probably would've been drafting her "resignation" on the spot, but here that sort of thing just flies - just like when Googler Brian Bautista asked John Legend if he could come sing on stage with him...and did! (check it out on YouTube)

Anyhow, I'll stop sounding like too much of a Googley-eyed little boy, but this was a great day and I thought I'd share.

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As an aside: Additional props to M20 for releasing their new album, Exile on Mainstream, on a USB drive to allow fans more freedom to decide when and how they use their music. It's about time artists realize that technology is their friend, not a foe. I'm going to buy the album for the premium price of $35 just to support the notion of what they're doing. And that's roughly $35 more than I've spent on albums in the last decade.

I was also happy to see other artists trying out new models, like Radiohead's "It's Up to You" pricing scheme for In Rainbows and Prince giving away 2.8 million copies of his album Planet Earth with the Sunday paper back in July.