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.

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

Chicks with blonde hair and peices of paper

What do these two things have in common? They are what have been the main topics of my past couple of days.

Topic 1: Paramore Concert

Last night, a friend and I went to see Paramore at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. Sidenote: The Tabernacle is a wonderful venue. If you live near the area, you must go there. It is an old church that has been turned into a concert spot and it looks amazing with a very intimate setting. So here is the play-by-play.

It was kinda crappy weather yesterday. But when we got near the place, we saw the long line of kids standing there waiting to get in. Respect to them, but we parked and got something to eat. It was kinda cool though, as we were walking past the kids, Hayley Williams (the lead singer of Paramore for the uninformed) leaned out of a window and was waving to everybody. Respect to her as well. The opening band was The Swellers, who I think I could get into. The lead singer was sick, but still put on a good performance. Hayley came out to help him with one song and got a huge reaction from the crowd. The second band was called Paper Route and, in my opinion, gave an amazing performance. There were like six people on stage and more than that number of instruments (i swear I saw an accordion at one point). They were the kind of band that I didn't mind that they kept going, I was actually interested in their songs. But when they ended and we waited for a set change, the lights went off and Paramore took the stage. For the better part of her career, Hayley has always had some crazy looking hair. But last night it was dyed blonde. I don't know how long that has been going on, but it still looked good on her. I have to say this. Some people are born to do certain things. That chick was put on this earth to be in a rock band. I had an amazing time and strangely didn't feel weird for being a near 23-year-old male standing amongst teenagers and singing along to her songs. At one point, they did a song called "Misguided Ghosts" and pretty much the entire crowd was right there with her, and you could see the smile on her face. It was, overall, a great experience.

Topic 2: Diploma Application

I (finally) registered for my final semester of classes, and in doing so, filled out a diploma application. Now, I know many of you have already done this and now that it has come and gone may not be that big of a deal. But for me, this was huge. I am one of those stories where neither of my parents finished college. I also have two younger brothers and numerous younger cousins who, without filling my head too much, I know look up to me. So for me to be doing this felt like a great accomplishment. I feel like, for all the advice and know all my dad has, I will finally do something he didn't. And that's not an in your face statement, more like a "i'm sure he will be proud of that" kind of statement. And to my younger relatives, I feel it sends a statement of "you can do this too." And for me personally, it just felt good. I have hit some road blocks while I have been here (having to drop classes, failing a couple classes, taking summers off) that has caused me to be on the five year plan. But it's finally coming to a close and I feel I can see light at the end of the tunnel. All this is why the whole time I was filling out the information, I couldn't stop smiling. My advisor said "now you have good news to share with your family over the holidays" and my response was "shoot, i'm gonna call somebody right now" (I called my sister but she was sleeping, so my excitement had to wait). Now I know that a diploma is basically a peice of paper, and it's what you do afterward that matters. And I think that's what excites me the most. I know I'm not going to get it and put it on a wall and smile at it, then go back to my job in high school. (if any of you have done that, no offense... it's just not for me). That's why I had one glitch. It asked for my hometown, and I literally hesitated writing "Daleville" down, becuase I have grown such a distain for my small-town hometown. But then I went on and wrote it down so I can look at it and be like "I came from there" and have it to remind me that I did this so I don't have to go back. I won't go into detail now, but my hometown is the major reason why Thanksgiving has become a holiday I really don't look forward too. But more on that later. For now, I am just basking in the fact that finally my college days are coming to a close. And another smile comes to my face while typing that.

Speaking of school, I will end this post for saying a big my bad on sudden dissapearance from posting and commenting. Things have gotten kinda hectic and I didn't really plan this kind of absence. Not sure how many of you were into the video series, but those should be back up and running soon so we can finish it out with Arizona and California. But I have been busy on other parts of the blogosphere, guest posting on Natalie's blog. Please check that out and tell me what you think.

For now, I'm going to try and get some sleep... at two in the morning. I need to start going to bed earlier.

Random lyric of the day:

But I'm still around. And you would build a ship or pack my parachute in time for the fall.
Yeah, this is love by all means. And I'll continue building with you.
Don't stop, now. Just carry on, carry on, carry on.