Seven Days

I just realized today that the Mumford & Sons concert is in a mere week.



This video leads me to believe that it will be epic.

I can't wait.

I Will Wait

Listen to this song, friends. Don't ask questions. Just listen.



Ah, Mumford & Sons, how I love thee. There are a mere 15 days until I see them live, and 48 days until their new album Babel is released. This girl is a happy girl.

The Summer of Concerts

This summer has officially become a celebration of ridiculously awesome bands that I am more than willing to drop some cash on to see live. We all know I'm a giant fan of concerts, and this summer has only solidified that fandom. For the reals, people, there's nothing like seeing a good band live.

Concert #1: The Black Keys. May 3.

I didn't know all of the Black Keys' music, but I loved what I did know, so I thought, hey? Why not go to their concert? Cora and I had a blast. This was some serious dance music that got me movin' and groovin', despite my obvious lack of rhythm.

And here is a video (I apologize for poor quality—I had no wi-fi when I uploaded this from my phone):



Concert #2: The Civil Wars. May 24.

One of my favorite. bands. ever. And they did not disappoint live. They were incredible. Who knew that two people and a guitar could be so bloody awesome? But they were. I loved every second of that concert, and was quite sad that it didn't last longer. I sang myself hoarse and had a grand time with Cora, Aaron, and Roxanne.

And another video (one of five that I took, and I would have taken more if my arms hadn't gotten tired):



Concert #3: The Avett Brothers. June 28.

My sister and brother-in-law introduced me to the Avett Brothers, so it was only fitting that Cora and I attended the concert with them. It was outside, and it was a beautiful night in downtown Salt Lake with the sunset reflecting off the glass in the buildings surrounding us. And boy, do the Avett Brothers put on a show! It was so upbeat and fun, and they did a lot to get the crowd involved, which is always fun. They played for nearly two hours, and I loved every second of it.

No video here. I was enjoying myself too much to hold my phone up for an entire song. Kind of regretting that now, but oh well.

And there is more exciting news on the concert front. On Friday, tickets went on sale for a band that I very much enjoy listening to. And I just went ahead bought me some tickets.

Concert #4: Mumford & Sons. August 22.

Here's the thing: Mumford & Sons is a British band. They don't make it to the US very often, so when I saw that they had a tour coming up, I had little hope that they would play in Utah. Sure enough, the closest concert was in California. So I resigned myself to my fate of not seeing them live anytime soon.

And then I got an email from a website I belong to that tracks your favorite bands and lets you know when bands are playing near you. When I saw "Mumford & Sons" in the subject line, I assumed it would be a Nevada or another California show. Imagine my shock when I opened it up and saw Magna, Utah, listed there. That's right, folks—not only is Mumford & Sons playing in Utah, but they are playing IN MY HOMETOWN. In little ol' Magna, out in the middle of nowhere. At the Great Saltair, right on the lake. Could this get any cooler?! I submit that it could not.

So on August 22, I will be jumping up and down like a maniac to Mumford & Sons and relishing summer concert #4. And this time, I will actually take my boyfriend with me, instead of leaving him at home while I go off and do my thing.

Basically, this has already been the best. summer. ever., and the awesome just keeps on giving.

Life Is Funny

This will be a short post, but I have a couple of updates. And while I'm sure barely anybody ever reads my blog, I still feel obligated to keep it at least marginally up to date.

First of all, the Civil Wars concert was INCREDIBLE. I am two for two for awesome concerts this summer (the first being the Black Keys). I love Joy Williams and John Paul White. They were so awesome, and so cute and funny on stage. They sound just as good live as they do recorded. I was completely entranced by their music the whole night. I have pictures and video that will hopefully one day make it onto the interwebs, but that probably won't be for a while, seeing as how crazy busy I am right now. They will come, though, I swear.

Second, I leave for California at the butt crack of dawn the day after tomorrow. Woo hoo! I still have a zillion and a half things to do before then, but then I will be off for ten straight days of vacation. I am so excited, and I need this so badly. A break from life will be wonderful.

And third, but certainly not last or least or whatever else it may be, I started dating someone*. That's right, folks, the five-year drought is over! His name is Andrew. I kind of like him.

*No, he is not the guy I've written about on the blog before. That guy is a doofus and never made a move. Andrew made all the right moves and didn't play any games. Therefore, he wins.

Counting Down

Some reasons this summer will be awesome:

1. Two days until the Black Keys concert.
2. Twenty-four days until the Civil Wars concert.
3. Thirty-three days until I go to California for ten whole days.
4. Fifty-nine days until the Avett Brothers concert.
5. Seventy-nine days until I turn twenty-five. (I'm not quite sure yet if that's awesome, but I'll pretend it is.)

And that's just what I have planned right now. I'm sure there will be more countdowns in my near future.

p.s. Can anyone tell me why I've had an alarming number of page views from Russia lately? Even more than from the United States. I'm not sure what to think of that.

Concerts!

Day Thirty-One: The best things to happen to you this week.

This week has been a little blah. Even going back to last week. I just haven't really done anything, and I managed to get myself sick somehow. Well, for Valentine's, I did go to Cora's aunt's house and eat lots of pizza and watch the Grammys, since I hadn't seen the performances yet. That was pretty fun. And on Sunday, I got some one-on-one time with Der Junge. It wasn't for long, but it was something. He was acting more normal, which was good.

But the thing that I really want to write about, even though it didn't technically happen in the last week, was that I found out that the Civil Wars is coming to Salt Lake in May. And oh my freaking goodness, I am so bloody excited. I can't even express how excited I am. I bought tickets last Tuesday. I haven't been this excited about something in a really long time. I honestly just love this band so, so much, and I cannot wait to see them live. They're amazing and I just know it's going to be an awesome night. Concerts are my favorite, and I haven't been to one in a really long time. It will have been a year by then. That may not seem like a very long time to some, but I go to concerts frequently, especially when Sherwood is touring. I forgot how much I miss seeing bands live until I found out about the Civil Wars show.

And to remind you of why I am so extremely excited, here's another taste of the awesomeness of the Civil Wars.

p.s. They sound exactly the same live as they do on their album. Hence my excitement.

p.p.s. I'm in love with John Paul White.

Super Awesome Story of Today

I must start by saying that I have the awesomest cousin/roommate/best friend in the whole wide world. Here's why.

Cora and I were listening to the radio the other day and heard them advertise free tickets for the upcoming Adele concert in Salt Lake (that we didn't even know about until that point). Seeing as how Cora loves Adele, she decided to get online and enter for tickets. In the process of submitting 49 million entries for Adele, Cora also submitted a couple of entries for Bruno Mars, because he is also rather cool.

Guess which tickets she won?

And guess who she's giving her second ticket to? Yeah, I told you she was the awesomest.

Oh, and guess what else is included with the tickets? A meet and greet. So in addition to watching Bruno Mars perform (for free), we get to meet him. Awesome much? I think so.

Monday is going to be a very, very good day.

Concert Number Six

On Wednesday, Faith, Cora, and I drove up to Salt Lake to see Sherwood. Yes, again. I will see them every time they're in northern Utah because they're just that awesome.

The first thing we noticed when the band got up to set up was that they were one member short: Dave was missing! I was so sad. It was still a pretty awesome show, but it just wasn't the same without the three-part harmonies and the extra guitar. I really missed Dave. Luckily, both Nate and Mikey informed us after the show that Dave just couldn't make this tour—he hasn't left the band or anything. Hopefully he'll be bouncing around the stage next time I see them.

As much as I love Sherwood, this wasn't their best show. Though that was partially because the Avalon kind of sucks. They were having sound issues all night, which was annoying. Plus, there really wasn't any dance area, so there were a bunch of people jammed up in the three feet of open space between the stage and the first bench. It was annoying.

Mikey was hilarious, though. He usually runs all over the stage, jumps around, and throws the tambourine, but he was having some trouble. He knocked over some amps, dropped the tambourine multiple times (once it ended up in the audience), and he stood on his keyboard and almost knocked the whole stand over. It was great fun.

The best part of the night, though, was when Nate announced that they were going to sing "Make It Through." He then asked, "Who knows this song well enough to come up and sing it with us?" Obviously, my hand shot in the air ASAP. Nate saw me and pointed right at me, so I got to go on stage and sing backup for one of my favorite bands. It was pretty awesome just to be on stage with them. I highly enjoyed myself. It made me wish I could sing with a band all the time. Being in front of an audience is so much fun, I love it.

All in all, it was a great night. We got to sit and chat with Mikey and Nate afterward, which is always fun. I think I've been to enough concerts now that they're starting to recognize me, which is pretty cool. And they announced that they're making a new album, which is great. That means they'll probably take a break from touring for a while to write and record it, but once they're touring to promote the new album, you better believe I'll be buying tickets.

Bloody Brilliant

I'm not going to even try to write about the concert and do it justice. I tried that last night while writing in my journal, and I ended up writing for two hours. I'm not spending two hours chronicling the awesomeness that was Tuesday night because a) I don't want to spend that much time on a blog post and b) no one wants to read that.

Suffice it to say, the concert was absolutely AMAZING. Paul McCartney is bloody brilliant. I teared up a few times, as did my parents, but it wasn't some adolescent screaming for some celebrity I'm in love with. I was listening to music that is so familiar that it feels like it's a part of me, and I was listening to it being performed by the man who created it. It was overwhelming. Even as I was staring at the man himself, I still couldn't believe I was there hearing Paul McCartney live. He played "I've Just Seen a Face," which is a song I remember making up dances to when I was four. It was so cool.

The Beatles' music is like the soundtrack to my life. I've liked different sections of their career at different points in my life, and some songs have significant meaning and hold significant memories for me. So when I heard Paul McCartney play songs like "Blackbird," "Hey, Jude," and "Let It Be," you better believe I teared up. He also played "Paperback Writer," which is the very first Beatles song my dad heard on his very first transistor radio on his eighth birthday, which started his love of the Beatles and therefore mine, and I heard it straight from the man who started it all. I'm still in awe. I just want to go back to Tuesday night and relive it over and over and over.

Thank you, Paul, for coming to Utah and giving me such a ridiculously awesome opportunity to see you live. And thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me the best birthday present ever and for letting me go with you so I had someone to experience it with. It was the most amazing night ever.

Everybody's gonna dance around tonight

It is here. The day has arrived. I am seeing this man live, in person, tonight.

I can't believe I'm actually going. Even though I've had 49 days to digest the idea. I never thought I would see any of the Beatles live. It just didn't seem like it would ever happen. I didn't even think to wish for it. And yet it's happening. The day has arrived. In seven hours I will be anxiously waiting for Sir Paul McCartney to step on stage and play his ridiculously awesome songs that I have been listening to my whole life.

Tonight is going to be bloody awesome.

Holy Awesome Sauce, Batman

There are three concerts I want to go to this summer. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go to two of them, which is very sad.

The Barenaked Ladies are coming in July. I've always wanted to see them live because they're pretty dang hilarious (not to mention the fact that their music rocks), but unfortunately the show is sold out. Not to mention the fact that I don't have anyone to go to the show with anyway. So no BNL for me. Sad day.

The Swell Season, a new favorite group of mine, is also coming to Salt Lake, in August. But unfortunately, they're coming on a Sunday. I can't go to a concert on a Sunday. The guilt would eat me alive. Plus, I don't have anyone to go to this show with, either. So no Swell Season, either, which is doubly sad.

But there is one last concert that I will be going to this summer. It is literally a once-in-a-lifetime event. I will most likely never get this opportunity again. This is a musician that I have literally been listening to my entire life, and that is not an exaggeration. He is a rock and roll genius, and he has never played in Utah before. His name is Sir Paul McCartney. I just got tickets today. I'm going with my mom and dad, and it is going to be AWESOME!! Especially because my dad has been listening to the Beatles for over 40 years now, and he's finally getting the chance to see one of them live. I'm so excited for him. And for me. Holy crap it's going to be awesome. The best part is that the show is five days before my birthday. It's going to be a ridiculously awesome birthday, that's for sure.

He might be an old man now, but I've heard he still puts on a great show. The thought of hearing songs like "Let It Be" and "Hey, Jude" live makes my heart flutter. Seriously. The music Paul McCartney wrote and helped write is still some of the absolute best music I've ever heard. The Beatles will always and forever be the best band ever in my mind, and seeing one of the geniuses behind the best band ever excites me to no end.

Concerts

I have a lot to catch up on. My blogging skills have definitely been lacking lately. This is my attempt to catch up on at least a couple of the cool things I have done in the past month.

At the end of March, I went to see Sherwood at the Velour. Cora and I started the night by meeting Matt, Mandy, and Ethan at J Dawgs in Provo. Matt had heard that the guys in Sherwood really like J Dawgs and go there every time they play in Provo, so we thought we'd see if we could run into them. We did. The whole band was there with everybody else that they travel with. My nephew Ethan was running around like a crazy person, and everyone thought he was pretty cute. Which he is.

We headed to the venue for the show, and there were three bands before Sherwood. Three! It was crazy. Sherwood didn't come on until after 10:00. But it was so worth it! It was hands down the best Sherwood concert (heck, the best concert period) I've ever been to. It was a. maze. ing. Really and truly amazing. The crowd was so into the show, but they weren't being crazy and stupid. Everyone was just having fun, and it was great.

I didn't take a ton of pictures since it was concert number five for me.

There were so many good things about this show! I'll try not to gush since I still have another concert to talk about in this post, but there was one point where they broke into amazing a capella three-part harmony. They didn't even play a starting note. It was crazy cool. They also played a couple of songs that I have never heard live, which is always awesome after going to so many shows. Their last song of the night (well, before the encore) was "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus. Dave (the one in the first picture) sang lead and crowd surfed. It was probably the funniest thing ever, though I still hate that song.

After the show, we talked to all of the band members and I got a t-shirt signed. I also got a drumstick from Joe, which was awesome. I've wanted one since the first show I went to. It still makes me happy to see it sitting on my bookshelf.

This past Tuesday, Faith and I went to see OK Go in Salt Lake. We were both a little nervous because it was at a 21 and over venue, and neither of us had been to one before, but everything was fine. Though there was a guy right behind us who was completely smashed. It was kind of funny.

We managed to get so close to the stage. We could have reached out and touched the lead guitarist. It was awesome. I have to get that close at the next Sherwood show. I just have to. 

It took forever for OK Go to come onstage, and the opening two bands   . . . well . . . sucked. Kind of a lot. And they were really loud, so that wasn't fun. Plus, there was this middle-aged man with this really impressive beer belly who was staking out a close place with his wife, and all through the opening acts, he kept looking at me and Faith. Creepy. I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.

Then OK Go came on, and it was pretty dang awesome. (Warning: picture overload ahead.)

The show was complete with a confetti cannon, light-up jackets, lasers, and light-up instruments. It was pretty ridiculous. If they hadn't actually been really good musicians (they sound just as good live as they do recorded), the gimmicks would have really bugged me, but instead, they were just fun. Damian, the lead singer, actually jumped down into the audience a couple of times. It was awesome.

At the end of the absolutely ridiculous four-song encore, the drummer came to the front of the stage and chucked his drum sticks out at the audience. I thought we would be too close to catch one, but one soared right over my head, and I caught it. But as I was bringing it in, this super awesome (feel the sarcasm) girl behind me grabbed the handle with both hands and wrenched it away from me. I was so mad, but I think I got something even better than a drumstick.

After the show, Faith and I bought posters and stuck around to see if the band would come out. They never did, so after a few minutes, we decided to go out to my car, which was parked behind the venue. Little did we know that the tour van was there too. Damian was outside talking to a couple of people, so we went over there and chatted for a second. Tim, the bassist, came out too, so we got their autographs. The other members of the band had disappeared somewhere, apparently, but at least I got a couple of autographs. It was pretty sweet. I wanted to take pictures, but a little bit after we got out there, a bunch of people came and completely monopolized the guys' attention, and it was really late, so Faith and I decided to take off.

All in all, it was a really good show. I had tons of fun, though there were a couple of things that bugged me. The lead singer loved the F-bomb. It was only in maybe two songs, but he said it over and over in chatting with the audience. And then he decided to crack religion/polygamy jokes. Because we've never heard those before. It just got a little old. I was really glad their actual music was awesome, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have had any fun at all.

So to sum up, even though OK Go had more money to do more gimmicky things, I still liked Sherwood better. They're not foul mouthed (at least not on stage, and not in person as far as I can tell), they don't make fun of Utah's religion, and their music has no swearing in it at all. Plus, the atmosphere at the two venues was completely different. I much prefer the all-ages venues to the 21-and-over venues.

Heck to the Yes

So, I recently found out that a band that I quite enjoy just might be heading back Utah way next month.

 

This time, I'm totally getting my QU shirt signed. Concert #5 here I come!

Thanks Day Fourteen

Today I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunities I have had to do some really cool things that make for amazing memories. I've traveled all over the country (though not ouside of it, yet . . . that's still to come), seen some awesome theatrical productions (like Wicked and Shakespeare Abridged), and I just got back from seeing my favorite band for the fourth time in 13 months (which is pretty impressive, if I do say so myself). The show was AMAZING! It was definitely the best concert I have ever been to (including the 'NSYNC one I went to when I was 12). I had so much fun. I got QU signed, and I talked to the band members more than I did at any of the other shows I went to. They are such incredibly nice guys! They're really awesome. I'm so thankful that I can go see my favorite band, that they aren't crazy psycho people, and that they're still small enough that I can talk to them. It's awesome.

 

Awww Yeah

I found out today that Sherwood's coming to Utah next month. They're playing in St. George and Salt Lake, and I'm seriously considering seeing both shows. I'm crazy, I know, but I can't wait to see this again:

Yeah, I'm just a little excited.