Music Sunday: 2009 Concerts I Attended

The Sounds/Paramore/No Doubt
June 5, Atlanta

On our way to the concert
The Sounds and their awesome performance

Paramore (fun fact: heard "Ignorance" before it was released and thought "I really like this song")

With the lead singer of The Sounds, missing the beginning of No Doubt but it was worth it...

Because I asked her to sign the ticket like that (that's what she kept saying on stage) and she laughed and actually did it

No Doubt doing their thing

And this is apparently me rocking out to No Doubt doing their thing

Not to overstate, but they were amazing

And when we got home, we could NOT stop laughing about this:




Envy On The Coast/Anberlin/Taking Back Sunday
June 17, Atlanta

Envy On The Coast opening up (and doing a damn good job of it)

Anberlin getting us to the main event

The band we all came to see

And the man we all came to see (Adam Lazarra)

The following is a video I didn't take, just found it on youtube. I was probably in the back trying to catch my breath:




Warped Tour 2009
July 28, Atlanta

Warped Tour is always so much fun

Underoath

Me w/ Saosin

Bayside

Senses Fail

The Devil Wears Prada

A Day To Remember and their insanely huge crowd for not being on a main stage

w/ the lead singer of Senses Fail

Chiodos closing out the day

The following is the craziness of seeing Underoath live:

Incubus
August 14, Atlanta

I only got two good pics, which is a shame really

because that concert was absolutely amazing

And the following is one of the sickest intros to a concert I have ever seen:

Carolina Liar/Taking Back Sunday
September 18, Tuscaloosa

Now this one hurt, because I had to attend my rival school's campus in order to watch this show. And when we were there, the coliseum was not even half full so that was disappointing. But what wasn't disappointing was their performance. However, there was one more thing that was disappointing: no pictures. But I did a quick youtube search and found the following video from that concert that displays just why I love this band so much:

The Swellers/Paper Route/Paramore
October 27, Atlanta

The Swellers

A cool collage my friend made of Paper Route and their 27 instruments

Paramore owning the place

And Hayley owning my heart

These pics were taken from a friend's camera, and I had to search youtube once again for a video from that show. Everybody's (and my) favorite song from the new album seems to be Misguided Ghosts, and this their performance, complete with the crowd (that would include myself) joining in



Minus the Bear
November 10, Birmingham

A show we bought tickets for at the last minute, I also did not have a camera for this one and relied on the tube to bring the greatness to this blog post. It turned out to be our last show of the year after failing to see Anberlin/All American Rejects/Taking Back Sunday at the end of November and Saosin at the beginning of December (I also missed Blink-182 in September and still kick myself for it). But if this is a band you haven't heard of, you need to know. Show was epic.



So ends the look back at 2009. I already have Muse in February and Warped Tour (possibly in Chicago -- WHAT) to look forward to, but here's hoping that some of my favorite bands hit the road and here's really hoping I have my own camera this time.

Chaos and Giveaways

*I feel like I am getting sick. That's never good.

*In the span of two weeks, my car that I have been rockin for a month shy of 7 years finally died on me and I FINALLY got a new car. Expect a post dedicated to that soon.

*If you read my guest post I had, you can see Thanksgiving isn't a really great time for me. Too many memories. Amount of time I plan to spend at "home" this year? 4 hours max.

*One reason for the shortened time is the Iron Bowl coming up. Expect a post dedicated to that as well.

*And now the main reason for a post, if you haven't followed my friend's blog at this is me; consequently, head over there now. I mean, RIGHT NOW. She is doing a giveaway and the more that enter the merrier. I mean, it's free stuff. How awesome is that.

I will even make it easy for you, just click HERE

Random lyric of the day:

Symbolic gesture for a card in your hand
Shake it up with the cake in the sand
I want more money than a bank can hold
And all the things I've already sold
Need some time to wake up
Time to clear your mind
Time before you erupt
Need someone before you screw up

Music Sunday: Opening Bands

It's pretty obvious that one of the greatest things about going to concerts is seeing your favorite band perform live. The added bonus though is the show's opener, sometimes hand-picked by the headliners themselves or they are on the same label and trying to get some promotion. This post is going to be about opening bands I have seen that have made the show even more enjoyable, and I have enjoyed far after the night was over.

Honorable mention: Carolina Liar, Armor For Sleep, Underoath, Anberlin, Envy On The Coast

These were great opening bands that I was lucky enough to catch for three different Taking Back Sunday shows. However, I knew of the bands before hand and this post is focusing on bands that I saw for the first time, or was just beginning to get into.

The first two bands were names that I heard in magazines and such and knew maybe one song, but after seeing them live, started getting into them heavily.

Manchester Orchestra (opened for Say Anything)


Shake It Out

Manchester Orchestra | MySpace Music Videos


Wolves At Night

Manchester Orchestra | MySpace Video

The Sounds (opened for No Doubt)





The next two are the bands that opened up for Paramore, The Swellers and Paper Route. I dug both bands, and was hooked up with their music by jeanette afterward. However, I'm all about different opinions and one person who definitely didn't like Paper Route was Smart Ass Sara. But here are some songs from those two

The Swellers





Paper Route





And last, this is the band that kind of inspired this post, Pierce The Veil. This is a true example of my story of opening bands. I went to a small show in Stockton, California with my brothers where a band called Dance Gavin Dance was playing. Pierce The Veil were the second band to play and I have never heard these guys names or anything before. But after I few songs, I was hooked. I bought their cd a few weeks later and instantly added it to my top ten list. I think what keeps me coming back (I have since seen them two more times, once when they opened for Emery and again at Warped Tour 08) is thier live performances and dedication to thier fans. They truly put on a show, fading tracks, keeping tracks going, getting the crowd involved. They are writing for a new record and they have said that they are going to include some tracks that will get the crowd involved. They have a line that if I ever get a tattoo, I would consider getting this lyric "So I'll toast every beat of my heart like a miracle." His voice is something you are either going to love or hate, but the band keeps it going. The added bonus is that they are really cool, really approachable guys.

Pierce The Veil



This is the song with line mentioned above


This is the same song from above, but live, with a bonus song added in. They often do these tricks at shows.


And one of the most awesome covers I have ever heard

Just like old times

Tonight was a good night. Well, come to think of it, last night was good too. I just don't have the pictures so I can't show it off. Oh well, i will try my best to give a visual. For chronological sake, let's start with yesterday.

It was my roommate's birthday. Little trivia about my roommate... he's basically my p.i.c. We have been friends since 4th or 5th grade, but we tell everybody it's been about 27 years. If you have ever seen the show Scrubs, look at Turk and JD and that is pretty much us. I am JD, the more emotional one. He just kinda goes along with most stuff. We have been roommates since our first year in college (August will start year 5) and the thought of the day we separate (he will graduate in the spring, myself in the summer) is a sad thought to say the least. If you saw the FINAL episode of Scrubs, it basically revolved around JD leaving the hospital. I told him how it was going to suck when that day came for us. Well, enough of the background. We both have a pretty random sense of humor, so here is how his birthday went down. We put up a banner in the hallway that had "16" dangling from it (signaling a sweet 16, even though he turned 22) and we got him a pinata. The pinata was a 100 dollar bill that we filled with paper money, fake coins, and skittles. So when he finally busted it (edit: we tore it open) it literally rained skittles. Pretty awesome. Add in the fact our friend from Troy came up and our other friend from down the street made him a cake, THEN toss in a dinner at CiCi's and a good Rock Band session, and you had a good night.

Now, on to tonight. For all these people coming into my little corner of the blogosphere (especially those in the music group), one thing to know about me is that I am a dj at a campus radio station. That is not me saying "know this about me because I am cooler than you," rather "know this about me because I will probably talk about it -- a lot." But tonight was my first trip in the studio since April, and it felt good. I mostly played the new Taking Back Sunday cd, but I threw in some other bands like Incubus, Anberlin and The Sounds. No one could call in cuz the phones were down so I don't know if anybody was listening, but an old friend from high school named Leah (for you jme, cuz i know you would ask who it was if I left it vague) tuned in after we got to chatting on myspace's new chat feature. After I gave her a shoutout, she referred to me in her status as "THE COOLEST PERSON ALIVE!!!" I think I will end this post on that note...

Random lyric of the day:

Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked,
Money don't grow on trees.
I got bills to pay,
I got mouths to feed,
There ain't nothing in this world for free.
I know I can't slow down,
I can't hold back,
Though you know, I wish I could.
No there ain't no rest for the wicked,
Until we close our eyes for good