columbia: quietdrive

i was having a really shitty night on tuesday. the amount of homework was piling up and the reality of finals week quickly approaching was really stressing me out. not to mention i drove to campus and waited at the library for an hour for my debate partner who never showed... so i said "fuck it" and texted my friend tabitha who i knew was in town for the quietdrive show. fortunately, there was plenty of time for me to still make it in time. so i ran home, dropped off my stuff and drove on over to mojo's.

the crowd was sparse, which surprised me. you would think that i'd be used to the fact that no one goes to shows anymore, and no one really cares about bands anymore (i'm not bitter). but whatever. the small group of us that were there enjoyed ourselves, and i got the chance to talk to kevin, the lead singer, afterwards and we traded stories about our many mutual fan friends and band friends alike. the two other times i've seen quietdrive have been at large venues and festivals so it was nice being able to chat for a bit. i bought their newest ep and left a happy camper. it was a super last minute decision, but it was a good one.

setlist:

call me up
jessica
believe
motivation
take a drink
maybe misery
birthday
just my heart
let me go
it's a shame
time after time (cover)
rise from the ashes

it was neat seeing a band i've been a fan of since my early high school years, and even cooler to finally have a chance to talk with them. if you're into pretty basic pop rock, definitely check these guys out. they make some really solid and catchy tunes and it's great for summer drives with the windows down.

www.myspace.com/quietdrive
www.twitter.com/quietdrivemusic

st. louis: jarrod gorbel (of the honorary title)

i'm somewhat of a newbie to the whole realm that is the honorary title and jarrod gorbel, but that doesn't lessen the intensity of my love affair. when my friend matt suggests music to me, i take it to heart because our tastes are one and the same. so when he suggested a plethora of "titles" to me, (working and honorary respectively) i immediately hopped on to itunes and dropped a couple bucks. and was it worth it? you betcha. i have yet to be let down by any of his suggestions. much to dismay though, a mere two weeks after i purchased two honorary title albums, the band broke up. just my luck.

luckily though, i troll venue websites like a psycho and discovered jarrod would be heading out on a bit of a solo tour. so i bought his ep, bought a ticket to the show in st. louis, and that was that. i later blogged about my excitement for said show, to which my friend raul immediately texted me about asking "where is jarrod gorbel playing?!?!"  so after a brief exchange of conversation, we had an entire weekend trip to st. louis planned.

raul and i were two of four people in attendance when the doors opened and i couldn't believe it. i have a habit of thinking that the bands i like are bigger and more popular than they actually are, but this was just ridiculous! people eventually showed up though, and i'd say there was a crowd of about twenty or thirty by show time. nice and intimate, just the way i like it. especially because of the fact that it was just jarrod and his guitar, nothing more. and HOT DAMN does this man have a voice. i was absolutely floored by every song. musical and vocal perfection. literally. not a single mistake, not a single waver, absolutely nothing. it was gorgeous and it was breathtaking. his stage banter was pee-in-your-pants hysterical too. he had some real gems that i wish i could remember. he compared his newer songs to the birthing process... i'll spare you the details because it was disgusting. but he had the whole lot of us cracking up and i think i wiped a few tears from my eyes from laughing so hard. during the very last song, he unplugges his acoustic, came out in front of the monitors and sang completely unplugged to the small group of us gathered around. it was goosebump-inducing. raul came away with the set list, i bought a t-shirt, and we were headed back to columbia. great weekend.

setlist (taken straight from the paper -- decipher how you like):

snow crunk
optimism
thin
far
EXTRA
I'll do gtar

(Rulng?)
(Stuck?)

stay
FRAME
INDIFFERENCE
HOW-LONG
10 yrs
ONLY
CATS

check out jarrod's tweets here.
and his myspace here.
and his fantastic daytrotter session here.
and the honorary title daytrotter session here.

FREE music! go get it!

st. louis: the dead weather

if you're not worshipping the holy rock gods (and goddess) of the dead weather yet, shame on you. it's the musical brainchild of jack white, (the white stripes and the raconteurs) who brings together alison mosshart, (the kills) dean fertita, (queens of the stone age, the raconteurs) and jack lawrence (the raconteurs, the greenhornes) for one amazing eargasm. saturday night's show at the pageant really brought down the house, especially after a very disappointing friday night for st. louis music fans. thrice (with openers o'brother and manchester orchestra) had to cancel their st. louis date, as well as the entire rest of their tour which included close to thirty more dates, due to family emergency.

i had already made last minute plans to take my friend raul home with me for the weekend, and we were both pretty bummed about the cancellation. (we ate chinese food and watched a movie instead.) and he hadn't gotten a ticket for the dead weather show and by saturday it was sold out. so he explored vintage vinyl while i headed down to the pageant to meet up with my friend nora who'd flown in town from chicago for the show.

i got there pretty late, but the few songs i heard the ettes play sounded stellar. i definitely recommend checking them out. the dead weather finally came on amidst crazy smoke and strobe lights and holy smokes (literally) was it epic. alison mosshart commanded the entire room's attention with her amazing voice and crazy stage antics, and literally seemed "60 feet tall" when she hopped up on the monitor and bellowed out the lyrics to the crowd below her. it was an impressive spectacle, even being hundreds of feet away in the very back of the venue. every song sucked you and left you speechless. the crowd especially went wild when jack white joined mosshart on lead vocals and his guitar playing abilities were phenomenal. mosshart and white were sharing a microphone at one point and hot damn, it was SEXY. straight up rated r material right there, i tell ya. i'm sure they played for close to an hour, but the time flew by and even a three song encore left me wanting more. but not to fear my friends, their new album drops may 11th and you can already pre-order!

setlist:

1. 60 feet tall
2. hang you from the heavens
3. you just can't win (them cover)
4. so far from your weapon
5. i cut like a buffalo
6. no horse
7. jawbreaker
8. blue blood blues
9. gasoline
10. rocking horse
11. hustle and cuss
12. new pony
13. will there be enough water?

encore:

14. die by the drop
15. i can't hear you
16. treat me like your mother

www.myspace.com/thedeadweather
also check out a great review of the show by katie moulton of @rftmusic here. her tweets throughout the night were quite witty.

new and exciting things to come

change is in the air and for once in my life, i'm excited about it! i've made the decision to take this blog a little more seriously and go in a slightly new direction. i'm going to use it for strictly music-related things like my usual show reviews, and maybe some other cool stuff once things get going. with that being said, i'm even more excited for the little makeover that this page is going to receive. i'm not sure on the details yet, but in the near future, this page is gonna get pimped out and you're gonna LIKE it. trust me. i've coerced a friend of mine into helping me out and let me tell you, this friend is the bomb diggity when it comes to graphic design.

so with lyrical cacophonies focusing one hundred and ten percent on musical happenings, this means i've decided to take my personal entries elsewhere. so if you're also interested in that aspect of my life, be sure to head over to my new blog to read all about it. i've synced my twitter over there, and i've synced links to this blog over there as well, so you can get a little taste of everything if you feel so inclined. to all of my loyal followers here at blogger, and to those of you who read it anonymously, thank you. thank you for sticking with the site, and i hope you stick around to witness the cool stuff to come. and i also hope you check out my new blog as well! happy reading. love youuuu.

fear

fear of never being loved
fear of never finding my soulmate
fear of abandonment
fear of being made fun of
fear of being embarrassed
fear of being shot down
fear of rejection
fear of loneliness
fear of panic
fear of loss
fear of depression
fear of change
fear of mental breakdown
fear of being judged
fear of not being liked
fear of imperfection

but i'm working on it.

semi-charmed life

there have been so many shows lately, that my life has gotten a little lost in the shuffle. so this update is as much for me as it is for you, because i have a lot built up in my head and heart and sometimes you've just gotta get it out on the table.

the end of march was when concert and roadtrip life started to slow down a little, and i was looking forward to a relaxing spring break and month of april ahead of me. just enough concerts to keep me happy, but not so many that my sanity would suffer. but the last week in march brought a pretty big blow to my life. my best friend, we'll call her a, broke up with her boyfriend, we'll call him c, of three years. how does that effect me, you ask? well a is my best friend, has been for a good eight years. and i'm the one responsible for bringing a and c together. so naturally, over the years, and throughout lots of nervous date walk-throughs, c and i have become good friends. so between dealing with my best friend, who's not the most emotionally stable person, and trying to get the ex-boy to communicate with me, it's been draining. it's not a complaint, because i love them both and would do anything in a heartbeat to help them out, but it sucks watching your best friend go through a really shitty time [her first break up, too], and it sucks trying to find the right words to comfort both sides of it.

then there was spring break. the week was great, precisely because i didn't have shit to do and had my birthday to look to at the end of the week. so saturday rolled around, birthday eve, and i got to spend some quality time with some close friends. my actual birthday [easter as well]  was spent at my grandma's house with the whole family. we celebrated all three of the cousin's birthdays as well as easter, and had some amazing food and cake, and good times all around. i headed back to school late that night already stressing about the week to come, but content with the happenings of spring break. but monday morning brought some terrible and shocking news. my grandma, [dad's mom] whose house i was at less than twenty four hours before, and who had cooked the entire family a great easter meal, had died in her sleep. it may sound crass, but of the three grandparents i have living, she was the one i would have least expected to go first. so when i returned my dad's missed call at nine thirty that morning, it was quite the blow. i drove home to st. louis on wednesday for the visitation, and stayed through thursday morning for the funeral, and then promptly drove back to columbia in time for class. i don't deal well with death, because my problem is actually dealing with death in the first place. i'm fine right now, but only because i haven't really dealt with it yet. but it'll hit me sooner or later; it was the same way with my mom.

and now here i am, home in st. louis once again for the weekend, probably headed back to columbia sometime soon. when i'm at school all settled in my apartment, i'm fine and i'm happy. only a teeny longing for home. but when i actually get home and experience everything i love about this city, i realize just how much i miss it and love it. it's an overwhelming rush of emotion every single time i come home, and it makes me dread going back to school. and once again, after yesterday, i am so hungry for music life, band life, van life, tourng life, something or everything of that sort of life. seeing my band friends makes my world go round, more than any of them can begin to understand. and meeting new people who have that same passion makes it even better. especially when i connect so easily and so quickly, and especially when we end up texting back and forth all night long, and especially when we agree on a lot of things that i hold to be very important. i feel like yesterday was a huge "sort-of-missed" connection. yeah, we got to talk all day. and texting and the internet have their plus sides, but they have their downsides as well. i believe whole-heartedly that this would really be something if i didn't always connect with the ones who live life on the road. because real connections start face to face, and at least i have that much going for me. but real connections are built and upheld face to face as well, and i'm not sure if that part's gonna work out. there are only a handful of people that i've ever connected with so easily and who actually reciprocate exactly what i'm feeling. that's such a rarity these days. this could be nothing at all, but this could be something completely different, yet something i've been searching for all along. is this the opportunity that i've been waiting on for so long to fall in my lap or has my mind already taken things to far? we shall see, i guess.

st. louis: lindenwood's break music festival

featuring: the noise fm and state & madison
[as well as: we should whisper, the fundamental elements, me verse you, zack weber, stereo skyline, and murphy lee]

it was a glorious weekend with absolutely beautiful weather; what better way to enjoy it than at an outdoor music festival on a gorgeous college campus? i certainly can't think of anything better, especially when it includes my good friends in the noise fm and state & madison, as well as molly, one of my favorite chicagoans who was home for spring break. festivities started around two, and the guest list was once again my saving grace. i made my way down to the guys' merch tables and traded hugs with everyone, and immediately made friends with stero skyline's merch guy, kosub, [who's so cool that he goes by his last name] who was set up next to us. he saw me standing behind state & madison's merch and told me i'd better come hang out under stereo skyline's tent; "you're a ginger, you're gonna fry out here." so that's precisely what i did all day long, and it was a great decision. we really hit it off and saying that him and molly hit it off as well... is, well, the understatement of the year. ...and i'll leave it at that. there was also bret, who was stereo skyline's guitar tech; we immediately bonded as well. if adam krier and mike racanelli had a love child, it would be bret. all four of us geeked out over twitter and i somehow ended up with bret's number in my phone. and that was just the beginning...

the noise fm played second at three o clock, and man was it good to see them. it had been a long ass time! their set sounded really good too; so much new music! i absolutely can't wait until their album comes out in may. [mike, if you're reading this, i'm still waiting on that e-mail... just sayin.] it's always a little bit disappointing when i can't sing along though. but i guess that's all the more reason to get excited for may. state & madison played at six, and i swear to you, everytime i see them they just sound better and better. their new stuff is golden; can't wait for the next mini release of some singles in the future.

the rest of the night included lots of interesting little tidbits, including, but not limited to:
the amazing zack weber who's from st. louis and has a voice that i would like to marry - check him out!
murphy lee, shakin his tail featha - my first rap concert
nickolas made the above mentioned rap concert bearable with his delicious pepsi
jonah and i had in-depth discussions about naughty words
kosub entertained us ALL day long with his groovy dance moves
bret and i became best friends
spencer [my boss] called and needed someone to replace building rome at a show at midnight... a few phone calls later and state & madison had agreed to do it - WIN

so that was that. what a crazy saturday. i couldn't have asked for anything better. and now i'm left with the typical warm fuzzies of a post-band-friends-show, and well as warm fuzzies from the new friend[s] i made.

the big black thing on my arm

it's more than a band tattoo; it's more than fan appreciation. it symbolizes who i am. that's why it's important; that's why it's been made permanent on my skin. i believe that everyone experiences a handful of events in life that forever change them - events that have such a profound and eye opening impact, that a person is never the same after. meeting we the living, building a relationship with them, and learning from them more than i can tell you, has been one of those events for me. it's the event that has helped me discover my identity, what i hold to be true and important in life, and what my passion is. it's the event that has made me rediscover my thirst for knowledge, and discover what i want to do with my life. it's taken the grand scheme of things and helped me zoom in on what i need to hold in highest regard in my life. it's simple - it's the symbol of the law of identity. a is a, nothing more. everything is what it is. i am who i am. and it's also the symbol for we the living. think about that phrase for a minute - WE the LIVING. doesn't that just make you smile? i have so much appreciation to be a part of the LIVING, part of a group of people that have a fire inside them; a fire that drives them and makes them achieve great things and most of all, makes them see truth. that's what i'm after, and that's why i got inked.

"do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not quite, the not yet, the not at all. do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. check your road and the nature of your battle. the world you desired can be won. tt exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."